UK-based, 25yr IT pro, planning TESU BS Cybersecurity — plan sanity check

[smilingbuddha]

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, first post — hoping to tap into the collective wisdom here before I pull the trigger on this.

**My background**
I'm based in the UK, working full-time in IT with 25+ years of experience across cloud architecture, infrastructure, and security. I hold the Google Professional Cloud Architect, Google Professional DevOps Engineer, and Certified Kubernetes Administrator certifications. No formal bachelor's degree, which is starting to matter as I look at senior and leadership roles — and potentially a master's down the line.

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**What I'm targeting**
After a lot of research (including deep dives on this forum — thank you all), I've landed on the **TESU BS Cybersecurity** as my top candidate. My reasons:

- It's 100% online and accessible to international students
- TESU explicitly states that professional cybersecurity certifications can be evaluated for PLA credit — my GCP certs feel directly relevant to CYB-4500 and CYB-4510 - needs validation
- The maths requirement stops at College Algebra + Statistics (no calculus, no physics)
- The programming requirement is minimal — Computer Programming I and Database Programming, not algorithms or data structures
- The content (networking, firewalls, Linux, risk management, compliance, ethical hacking) maps well to my actual day-to-day experience
- Only a 15-credit residency requirement at TESU

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**My transfer credit plan (as I currently understand it)**

I'm planning to front-load as much as possible via Sophia and Study.com before enrolling:

*Sophia Learning (~30 credits):*
- English Composition I & II
- College Algebra
- Introduction to Statistics
- Introduction to Sociology, Introduction to Ethics, U.S. Government
- Microeconomics, U.S. History I & II, Criminology
- Introduction to Networking
- Introduction to Relational Databases
- Introduction to Python Programming (for Computer Programming I)
- Computer Applications

*Study.com (~18 credits):*
- Operating Systems
- Routing & Switching Fundamentals
- Linux Fundamentals
- Windows Server Configuration
- Wireless Networking
- Database Programming / SQL

*GCP Cert (PLA):*
- Hoping to get CYB-4500 (Cloud Computing) and/or CYB-4510 (Cloud Security and Privacy) evaluated for credit. Will contact TESU admissions before enrolling to understand the process.

That leaves me with roughly the 9 core CYB-prefix courses + capstone to complete at TESU — which I'm happy to do properly.

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**My questions for the community:**

1. **Has anyone done the TESU BS Cybersecurity from outside the US?** Any friction or specific gotchas for international students I should know about?

2. **Sophia to TESU transcript process** — I've read that Sophia must go via Credly (NOT Parchment) to TESU. Is this still accurate as of 2025/2026? Any recent experiences?

3. **Study.com to TESU** — I understand Study.com sends directly to TESU and the ACE transcript is NOT accepted. Can anyone confirm this is still the case?

4. **PLA for GCP certs at TESU** — Has anyone successfully had a vendor cloud certification evaluated for PLA credit at TESU (or another institution)? What did the submission look like? How long did the eval take?

5. **Sophia course order / sequencing** — Is there an optimal order to tackle the Sophia courses? I've heard some have Touchstones (written assignments) that introduce delays — should I pair a Touchstone course with a non-Touchstone one to keep moving?

6. **TECEP exams** — Are there any TECEP options for the ITS-level courses (operating systems, Linux, networking) that might be faster/cheaper than Study.com?

7. **Anything I've missed or gotten wrong in my plan?** Would really appreciate a sanity check from anyone who has done this degree or a similar TESU tech degree.

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**My constraints in a nutshell:**
- UK-based, working full-time
- Want to minimise cost and time
- Comfortable with cloud/security/networking content, not looking for a heavy maths or programming-intensive degree
- Experienced professional — need the credential, not an education in things I already know
- Happy to put in the effort on gen ed to save tuition money

Any advice, war stories, or tips from people who've been through this (especially internationally) would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, you're getting the first trifecta of certs, degree, experience done! Awesome, you're also looking at the second trifecta of cheap, easy, fast... I would get all the Coursera, Sophia.org, Study.com, and ACE/NCCRS credits to max the transfer, you then need to decide on the Edison Accelerate fee or completing 15 residency credits. It's best to get the bulk of this done and have everything looked at by TESU to see what you have remaining...