KayV Wrote:Do you have any IT certs already?
Also, Institute of Indian River is now called Indian River State College, right?
You have a lot of great general ed classes that should work in almost any degree plan. Just a few of them, like the reading class, won't be accepted in transfer by the Big 3.
Did you happen to get at least a C (not C-) on English Comp I and II?

dfrecore Wrote:So, for testing out, what happens is you look at the requirements for the degree, and then figure out another way to get some of them. For instance, many schools require a certain number of humanities courses (art, communications, english, literature, music, foreign language, etc.). You just need to figure out a fast and cheap way to get as many of those credits as possible. So you could take the English Lit CLEP, or take the Art History DSST, or Visual Communications Sophia course, or Religion at Straighterline (SL). To get your credits in social sciences (history, psychology, economics, Sociology, criminal justice, etc.), you could take a history CLEP, or DSST, or SL course. Lots of ways to find classes in the general education area that can be taken for $100 or less per course. Then you get into the "core" of the degree, and it can become a little more difficult to find those courses. So, you might want to take a couple at your local community college (CC) and transfer those in. Or find an online 4-yr school with decent prices. Etc.

TESU will accept 116cr transferred in - you have to take the 1cr cornerstone and 3cr capstone through them . WGU has a limit (but I don't know what it is - maybe 90cr?). COSC will accept 114 (3cr cornerstone and 3cr capstone have to be taken at COSC). Hodges I have no idea. And, it would be a little more difficult as they don't accept as many alternative courses.

With TESU and COSC, you can figure out exactly what it will cost and how long it can take, because you take each course individually. With WGU/Hodge and other competency-based (time-based) programs, you want to figure out the courses you can take ahead of time for credit, and get those out of the way. There's a balance, between paying for individual courses to make it possible to get all of your core classes completed through them in a single (or maybe 2) terms, and taking so many courses that you overpay because you could have taken them in a term instead. But I would prefer to take as many courses as possible first and get those all transferred in and have as few courses as possible left before you start their program. The cost savings can be significant, so definitely look into those.

One thing we need is your grades. If you got less than a C in anything (even a C-), then you may not be able to transfer it. Some schools will allow for it, others won't. I can tell because you repeated a couple of courses. It's also hard to know exactly what your math courses will transfer in as. And, you took Chem Lab without the Chem course? Is Prin of Physic physics or physical fitness? And, how many credits are all of the courses you took?

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If you were to look at the Hodges degree, here are the following courses you could apply towards their requirements:

Business Core (12cr):
Intro to Business (DSST)
Advanced Computer Applications (Management Information Systems DSST)
Principles of Accounting (CLEP) OR Personal Finance (DSST)

Liberal Arts Component (32cr needed, 40cr taken):
English Comp - English I & II already taken
Math or Science (including College Algebra & Statistics) - Intermediate Algebra, Plane Trig, Precalc Algebra, College Algebra, Bio I + Lab, Chem Lab all taken, Statistics DSST needed
Humanities - Philosophy & Ethics taken
Social Science - Human Development, American History I & II, Macroeconomics taken
Computer Applications - Intro to Computing DSST or Info Systems & Computer Applications CLEP

Electives (8cr) - fulfilled by excess Liberal Arts courses

So, if you passed the above 5 CLEP/DSST exams, you would come in with as much as you could take towards the degree, and all that would be left was the core SW Dev courses. That's what you would want to do for this particular degree program. It would only cost you $80 per exam (plus testing center fees of maybe $20 per exam), so a total of $500, plus the $2750 for a term (or $5,500 for 2 terms). That's a pretty good price for the degree that you want.

Hope that helps figure some things out.

dfrecore Wrote:The plan I laid out was only for Hodges, that is going to be your cheapest option, because they are so loosey-goosey in what they accept in the general ed area.

TESU is going to have more structure, and you will have more classes to take in Gen Ed (Speech, Religion, Sociology, American Government, 2 additional gen ed electives), and then your additional requirements for the CS degree (Calc I & II, Data Structures, Discrete Math or Linear Algebra, and 5 CS courses from different places). Those are going to take longer and cost more. I have a Data Structures course at a distance learning school for $944. Linear Algebra is $609. Discrete Math is $784. And you can't do those courses until you take Calc I & II (and some don't recommend you take them at Straighterline because they won't prepare you for higher level math, which means you need to take those 2 courses at a CC or somewhere else, and that's 2 semesters right there).

With Hodges, I think it will be the fastest and cheapest route for you. And with competency-based courses, the length of time it takes is totally up to you. If you are really dedicated and work like crazy, you can probably finish in 1 term. If you don't think you want to go that hard at it, you could do it in 2. You just need to look at all of the courses and see what you think you want to do. But like I said, they will be the easiest to do, because after the 5 CLEP/DSST exams, you can start right in.

davewill Wrote:I took the time to look over that Hodges BS in Software Development. Color me unimpressed. There's no Calculus, Linear Algebra, Computer Architecture or Data Structures. Instead there are business courses required. This is not equivalent to a Computer Science degree. That said, I'm sure that it would suffice to get many software jobs, but some employers might not accept it. Also, you would might have to take the missing CS and math courses before you would be accepted for an MSCS, for example. Not saying it's a bad choice, just that it's not the usual degree a software engineer would have. Might be a good choice for someone who has an eye to moving into project management or the like.