WGU with little relevant experience?

[breadloaf]

I'm considering pursuing a BS in Computer Science or Software Engineering at WGU. I took a couple CS classes at uni 12 years ago but ultimately left with only about 14 credits. I don't have a lot of other programming experience outside of messing around on my own, so I'd likely need to actually study all the material. I've read that WGU is great for people who already have a lot of experience and it has me a bit worried I'm signing up for failure. For someone who actually needs to learn the material mostly from the beginning, would WGU be a bad choice? Should I just wait til fall and hit up the local brick and mortar university?

[rachel83az]

WGU would probably be a bad choice, yes. But that doesn't mean you need to hit up the local B&M university. Both TESU and SNHU have Comp Sci degrees that you could get. IIRC, SNHU also has either a Software Engineering degree or concentration. SNHU and WGU probably won't take your old credits, but TESU might take some of them. At least as electives. Both SNHU and TESU should be faster and cheaper than your local university.

Exactly what credits do you have, what grades did you get, and where are they from?

[breadloaf]

Thank you for taking the time to give me advice! Up until stumbling upon this forum a few hours ago, I had only really been informed about WGU. Would a degree from TESU or SNHU be equally as valuable as WGU? A lot of the credits were gen ed stuff so not sure how useful that is. School was University of Southern Indiana.

CIS 151 B (MS Office suite class)
MATH 111 B (college algebra level) 4 credits
Intro Rhetoric & Comp A
Rhetoric & Comp I A
Intro to Film A
Word Civ I A
PE A 1 credit
Speech/Public Speaking A
Object oriented programming B
Sociology B

All the courses not marked are 3 credits.

[rachel83az]

For someone starting from 0 experience, TESU and SNHU can actually both be more valuable than WGU. Not that I'm knocking WGU - it's very good for students who have at least some prior experience/knowledge. All WGU classes are pass/fail, so you get no GPA. This makes it harder (though not impossible) to continue on to a Master's degree, if desired. TESU and SNHU both require you to take a number of credits with them, so you do get a GPA. For someone with little/no experience in the field, a GPA can be important to gaining access to a Master's degree. (For someone who has experience, a GPA is less important when it comes to graduate schools.) You may or may not have plans right now to continue on to a Master's degree, but it's good to keep your options open. We've got multiple students who came here for "just a Bachelor's" degree, then went on to Master's or even Doctorates later.

All that said, it's great that your credits are mostly gen ed stuff. Otherwise, you'd probably have to redo classes. I think LevelUP knows more about SNHU than I do, so hopefully they chime in about that later.

For TESU, I think the Object Oriented Programming class will go in the AOS electives. PE is (I think) a free elective. CIS151 may go to AOS electives, may go to free electives. Everything else should go to gen eds. That's a great start. TESU requires at least 30 RA credits and you seem to have 14 that will work. Assuming TESU accepts all 14, if you do a single flat-rate 16-credit term (sounds onerous, but we have it worked out so it's not!) at the end of your degree, you'd both save money and meet TESU's RA requirements. Everything else can come from Sophia.org or Study.com.

To start off with, I would recommend signing up for the FREE American Dream Academy. Through them, you can complete the Google IT Support Professional and Google Data Analytics certificates on Coursera at no cost. Both of these provide some important experience for later, as well as credits that can apply to both TESU and SNHU. You can see more information about this here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera

If you want to start planning to see what might work best for you and your needs, we have SNHU degree plans here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:SNHU TESU is a bit more flexible and so, at least initially, is a little more confusing with gen ed planning here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap and specific courses for Comp Sci here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan

[breadloaf]

Wow thank you for the detailed response! I will definitely be doing the American Dream Academy thing regardless of my next move. Also I'll be spending some time looking over those planning resources. Another thing to consider is I currently qualify for a max Pell grant which would knock $3500 ish off each semester/session's tuition. Is it still more cost effective to stack credits on sophia.org or study.com? Or is it primarily to get courses done quicker? I'm assuming you can't apply financial aid to sophia or study.

[rachel83az]

You cannot use financial aid at Sophia/Study.com, no. But it still works out to be cheaper to use them than solely financial aid. Tuition at all but the cheapest community colleges typically works out to be more than a Pell Grant, so you wind up paying out of pocket. The price you could wind up paying out of pocket each semester can be more than Study.com/Sophia for the same time period, but you're not earning nearly as many credits.

Sophia is $300 for 4 months, during which time you can theoretically earn 90+ credits. Not all of these will apply to a Comp Sci degree, but some people do choose to get multiple TESU degrees (especially the BA CS and BSBA CIS combo) once they realize how easy it is to do so.

Study.com is $200/mo. and you can do up to 2 exams (6 credits) per month at that price. Additional exams are $70 each, up to 3 additional exams for a total of 5 exams/$410 in a month.

So, a TESU term is 12 weeks. If you take at least 9 credits (I think you must take at least 9 to count as full-time for the purposes of a Pell Grant), the cost is $4778. That means you'd be paying about $1300 for 3 months. $426/mo. For the same out-of-pocket cost as a single 9-credit term at TESU, you can earn ~90 Sophia credits AND about 30 credits at Study.com.

bjcheung77 is the one who has worked out the information about maximizing Pell Grants at TESU specifically. I think it involves taking 3 terms at TESU of ~9 credits each. Then, you wind up paying less out of pocket than if you only took the bare minimum of TESU credits. I would definitely suggest talking to him about it. SNHU doesn't have the same "tricks" because it's more of a standard university.

If you need to do multiple TESU terms, because of Pell, that also opens up the possibility of multiple TESU degrees, especially some "non-free" Associate degrees. Associate degrees aren't usually worth a lot on their own, but they can add keywords to your resume that may help employers find you. For CS students at TESU, some good options are:  

• ASNSM Computer Science - Free! Comp Sci ASNSM fills up automatically with a Computer Science Bachelor's https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...gree_Plans 
  
• ASNSM Mathematics - Free! May need to pay for an additional math course from Sophia/Study.com, but it should fill up most of the way with just courses required for Comp Sci. Together, the two ASNSM degrees count as a single TESU degree.
  
• AAS in Applied Computer Studies - NOT free. Requires Associate Capstone. Aside from the capstone, I think this one should fill up with the BACS and/or BSBA CIS. I don't think this can be obtained in conjunction with the ASNSM Comp Sci, you might have to pick one or the other.
  
• Various certificates. There are a couple of certificates that require 1 or 2 TESU courses. Plans here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...cate_Plans
  

There are, of course, other TESU Associate degrees as well. Some of these are going to be easier/cheaper than others to obtain than others.

Which reminds me. If it would help your current situation, you could also get the FREE Pierpont BOG AAS. You would need to pay for at least 1 month of Sophia ($99) and the cost of sending your university transcript to Pierpont, but it would otherwise be free. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC You must have 3 credits in communications, 6 credits in math/science, 3 credits in social sciences, and 3 credits in computer literacy for a total of 15 credits, plus additional credits to total 60 or more. 

• 3 credits in communication - you have that with your rhetoric & composition classes. 
  
• 3 credits in social sciences - your sociology class
  
• 6 credits in math/science - Take Precalculus @ Sophia to prepare for Calculus.
  
• 3 credits in computer literacy - CIS151 should cover this, but you can also take Intro to Information Technology @ Sophia. 
  
• 45 misc. credits - Whatever free credit-bearing certificates you want from TADA, plus Sophia courses that will fit with a degree from SNHU or TESU. 
  

[LevelUP]

Even though you are getting a Pell Grant, I would still try and max the credit transfers from Sophia/Study.com to WGU for all courses except for the Lab.

Software Engineering Degree Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/WG...egree_Plan

WGU and all the other colleges we recommend work for beginner programmers. 

Between Google searches, YouTube, StackOverflow, Github, etc, the answers are out there for any problem you run into. Last resort, you can hire someone to tutor you on Fiverr to help you get through a tough subject.