I’m an international student completing my Associate's Degree in Computer Science from UoPeople. I’d like to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree at UMPI or another regionally accredited university (EU universities are also an option as long as they accept credits from UoPeople but I am not a non-EU student, so keep that in mind).
Age: 25 Degree Goal: Bachelor’s Degree related to Computer Science or IT Current Regional Accredited Credits: None Current ACE Credits: Google IT Support Professional Certificate (via Coursera), planning to do some Sophia courses Budget: Around $5,000 Dedicated time to study: 40 hours/week Timeline: I’d like to complete the degree within 6 months. Tuition Assistance: None.
I’m looking for advice on the best way to finish my degree as quickly as possible.
I would like to seek your guidance and advice on a few items. First off, let me tell you about my circumstances:
I moved from the Philippines to Colorado 2 years ago for work.
I currently work for a big tech company, and basically in my dream company. I currently work as part of the vendor management team.
I would like to be able to get into other teams within the organization, and right now I'm thinking of going into supply chain.
I did not finish my degree in the Philippines, but I studied BS Chemistry there.
I'm thinking that I would like to speed through the non-major courses, but I would like to really learn the major subjects since supply chain is not a field that I am in right now, and I will be completely new to it.
I've been working for 20 years now, and 5 years with my current company -- (3 years in the Philippines, 2 years and going in the US).
Your Location: Colorado (but not a US citizen; moved from Philippines)
Your Age: 42
What kind of degree do you want?: Supply Chain Management
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None
Any certifications or military experience?: I have COPC certification but that was from 2016.
Commitments: I have a full-time day job. No spouse or kids.
Budget: Quite flexible but hoping it would be less than $6k.
Dedicated time to study: 10-14 hours per week.
Timeline: Whenever it can be possible
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I can get reimbursement for 1/3 of the cost.
Here's where I may need your guidance:
(1) Is there any way that I can get credits for some of my courses from the Philippines?
(2) If I want to pursue a masters degree from a traditional/ more prestigious institution in the future, should that limit my options for where I should get my bachelor's?
(3) Are there any scholarships/ grants at all that I can take advantage of as a non-citizen?
(4) What online university would you recommend given my circumstances and future plans?
(5) What kind of preparations should I be making before enrolling? Should I be taking any third-party tests already?
I promised myself when I started working through these threads that I would post my final degree plan. Now that I've received my TESU diploma in the mail I figure I'm due to make this post.
My background:
American who went to school in Canada and then moved back to the US
Got a BA in a humanities subject (with a minor in statistics, which wound up being a major plus for the BACS)
Fell into a career in tech
Hitting a ceiling in my career because I have no technical credentials or formal education
Wanted to use this degree as a ladder to OMSCS
This degree cost me just under $11k, which is WAY more expensive than most BACS degree plans here. It cost this much because I went for primarily RA credit. I have my reasons for this, which I lay out below.
Overall I am very satisfied with my experience. I feel like I learned a lot, it didn't take forever or break the bank (especially relative to those $30k CS postbacc programs out there), and I've come to greatly enjoy this style of online learning.
Why on earth did you do mostly RA credit?
Three reasons:
I tailored this degree plan to the expectations of the OMSCS admissions committee, who say they like to see graded RA coursework. As such, I tried to cover their recommended prerequisite areas with graded RA coursework, and then used ACE credit to plug the gaps.
I had a feeling (which was quickly vindicated as I took Sophia and SDC courses) that I would not learn a damn thing from my ACE courses. Could I have, had I taken the time to sit with the material? Yes, but I knew I wasn't going to do that, and instead go as fast as I can through the course material. I like the structure that RA courses provide, and I do feel like I learned more doing it this way. It also definitely prepared me for OMSCS coursework, which has a similar structure to most of the courses I've taken.
I wound up doing, like, ten times the number of projects this way. Really got my reps in.
Can you get into OMSCS without CS coursework being RA?
Maybe. I dunno. Other people on this forum have, but they all seem to have had more work experience than I.
Why the BACS, and not something else?
I didn't want the UMPI BABA PM & IS because it didn't seem technical enough, and WGU (which, despite not having grades, does seem to be reliable for getting into OMSCS if you do the BSCS there) wouldn't have waived my gen eds because I don't have an American degree. I also wanted something that would cost around $10k total and take around a year. So, the BACS it is. Just as well because I wanted to take structured coursework with set schedules and grades.
Why Washtenaw CC for so many of your courses?
They're my local community college, and I got a good rate going there, especially considering that courses there are 4 credits, not 3. Despite being my local CC, all the coursework is online, and you could hypothetically complete it from outside the US (WCC takes international students). Their non local rates aren't that much higher.
The 3 WCC courses I took were all part of the so called "Advanced Certificate in C++ Programming". The advantage of this program is that the courses are all condensed, 4 week, back to back and async, so I knocked all my courses for more advanced CS courses out in a single summer semester instead of having to spread them out over 3.
WCC automatically awarded me the certificate after I completed my coursework. I should note that I sent in my WCC transcript to TESU before the certificate award appeared on it. It doesn't seem like this should cause an issue with which credits count as "new" because TESU doesn't seem to see certificate programs as degree programs, but worth noting.
Anything to look out for?
Yes!
The Berkeley X course in C was kind of a waste. Would try and find an OSes course instead.
The Colorado State Analysis of Algorithms course, on the other hand, was genuinely great! Very, very expensive at over $1500, but I learned a ton about algorithms and got practice writing them to predetermined big O targets. I would highly recommend this course if you have the budget for it.
The Oakton College computer architecture course, while a good course overall that I did learn a lot from, transferred as LL. The BACS curriculum has comp. arch. as a UL course, so if you follow this path, you'll need another UL elective, and those are already hard to come by.
SOS-1100 is indeed waived for students pursuing a 2nd BA
What was your OMSCS application like?
OMSCS, while not literally open admission like most of the schools we talk about on this forum, is not hard to get into. I had recommenders from work, my previous BA, and my WCC courses, and once those were squared away I filled out the application in a single night.
Even though I hadn't completed the BACS when I applied in March 2024, I took the capstone in the summer, and I wouldn't technically be awarded the degree until September, they let me in, conditional on me sending in a transcript that showed the degree awarded in my first semester. I did that a few weeks ago and they've officially given me the big thumbs up.
Would you like to brag?
Yes. I got straight As in every graded class (including the capstone), was given High Honors at WCC, and was made a Presidential Scholar at Oakton. Oakton even sent me a certificate for it. Very kind of you to ask this question in this post that I am writing by myself.
I feel like I must be missing something. I am signed up for a couple TECEPS. They have 12-week terms. TESU says the dates of the TECEP term are listed in the "course space." When I go to "My Courses" and click on the relevant TECEPs, there's lots of information, but I can find the term dates nowhere.
I have the email saying when the term started, so I can calculate 12 weeks from that, but it would be nice to actually see the date confirmed somewhere in My Courses. What am I missing?
Hello all, I'm Aaron from Shanghai, due to depression I dropped out from a fulltime university and my major is CS, I have an AA in public management from CUC in China. I know there's CU Boulder and Ball State MSCS that does not require a bachelor's degree on Coursera, but my budget is kind of tight.
My plan is to get a BS first then MS from GT as quickly and affordable as possible so I have already completed about 40 credits from Sophia and SDC, most of which are CS related and want to transfer my associate's into bachelor's to make the best use of the transfer policy. I'm currently enrolled in Excelsior and Charter Oak, but Excelsior only admitted half of my credits, is there any pathway that could follow or other college that matches my preferences? Thank you so much!
Your Location: Shanghai - China
Your Age: 26
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelors, Computer Science
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 0
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 40
Any certifications or military experience?: No
Budget: Below 10 thousand USD
Commitments: Work full time - but remote
Dedicated time to study: I can study as long as my work is finished
Timeline: Complete BSc within 9 mo
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None that I know of
Hi all! Like the title states, I'm 33 and went straight into the workforce in 2009 after high school - meaning no college, no credits, etc.
I've stumbled into a decent career in the tech/startup world, in an operations role in human resources (but I admin some tech platforms, and am extremely computer literate and tech savvy)
I've always wanted to pursue Computer Science, just never had the time/resources until now. I'm teaching myself some programming basics in Python and C but I know I need to start pursuing credits, brushing up on my math, and ultimately committing to enrolling.
Your Location: United States - North Carolina
Your Age: 33
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelors, Computer Science
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 0
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 0
Any certifications or military experience?: PMI Certified Associate Project Management, Google Project Management
Budget: Not unlimited but... unlimited within reason
Commitments: Work full time - but remote
Dedicated time to study: I dedicate around 4h a day to learning programming right now, so I could commit that and likely even more (weekends, etc.) as I have a flexible work schedule.
Timeline: None really, but I'd like to get through in 2 years or so - willing to put in the work
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None that I know of
I'd also love some input from those that may have started in a similar place to me; how much programming should I learn prior to enrolling and/or taking ACE courses? Ideally I'd do it all, but I'm currently dedicating most of my time to getting through some MOOC courses in Python.
I tried logging in today at 1:00 PM EST but I keep getting an error screen that says:
" Page Error. There was a problem with your last request. You may have tried to perform an action after a long period of inactivity. If that's the case, try going back, reloading the page you were working on, and resubmitting. If not, please let us know what you were doing when the error happened."
Is anybody else having this problem? Or is it just me? I tried clearing cookies and using a couple of different browsers. Same result.
I'm studying full-time and losing any type of time is kind of a pain.
I am on the path for BAS with triple minor PM, MIS, and MGT. I am wondering what are the odds of getting UMPI to let me get a quad minor and add Business Admin? I would only need to take BUS125 to finish out that Minor as well. I would love to have those 4 on my degree.
Also does anyone know if any courses at Sophia cover BUS125? Seems like this is a very easy course from what I am reading and I may have something completed to cover this.
