BA Computer Science Questions

[Jonathan Whatley]

Some graduate programs that generally look for a GPA allow an exception for WGU. Some will credit a GPA from your prior undergraduate work.

You could also take a select few computer science courses from a school with graded credit, then transfer these to WGU. You would still have the graded computer science credit and computer science GPA on your transcript from the school you took these from.

[turbotortuga]

I took 6 courses with TESU.

The rigor of TESU is evident in the challenging exams.

One person on DF recently took COS-3300 Computer Architecture and failed due to not studying enough for the exam and the difficult material. That list you have includes many demanding courses, and combining multiple challenging courses in a single term could set you up for failure.

The way to get a high GPA at TESU is to cherry-pick the easiest courses with no exams or exams that account for very little of the overall GPA.

When you start at TESU, you see all the writing assignments and forum requirements for the entire course, allowing you to work ahead. You could also read the book before the term starts. The exams have a fixed date range, so you have to wait until they open up to take them.

Why on earth would you want to take so many courses at TESU? That's a lot of extra time and money compared to doing Sophia and Study.com.

Why are you planning on taking so many courses at TESU? That will cost some serious $$$$ and take a long time. It won't be like UMPI as TESU is not a CBE program. For the time and money, you may as well go to SNHU, PUG, or CSU Global.

I would like to apply to graduate programs through a Bachelor in Computer Science with at least 45 RA credits.
ACE credits may not meet the requirements of some graduate schools.
I am applying to both TESU & SNHU's Bachelor in Computer Science programs.

Advantages of TESU:
1. Cheaper compared to SNHU.
2. More flexible to transfer credits, I have transferred in over 70 credits.
Cons of TESU:
1. Probably harder courses.
2. Requires a lot of exams.

Pros of SNHU:
1. No exams, may be able to graduate with a high GPA.
Cons of SNHU:
1. More difficult to transfer credits, I only transferred in 30+ credits. I still need to finish some credits on Sophia or Study or I won't be able to graduate in one year.
2. I can't get an associate degree in math at the same time.
3. The price is higher.
4. There is some controversy surrounding this school and i am not sure if there will be some negative repercussions.

WGU:
Since it doesn't have a numerical GPA, I didn't consider it.

I'm not sure what Graduate Schools you are looking at but if you just did WGU for one term for BS in Computer Science/IT and then did the OMCS at Georgia Tech, you'd get all the rigor you have ever wanted from them.

[joneedell]

Sophia and Study.com courses are garbage; if you want to take those for like gen ed courses great, but why would would anyone take them for like the core courses of their degree? Just to save time and money? If you end up applying for a proper tech job and have to pass a tech interview I seriously doubt those courses are going to help you much if at all. I had looked at the tesu cyber program a few years ago and in that program if I recall correctly they don't take let courses from either of those places transfer it. But to each his own...good luck.

[ss20ts]

Sophia and Study.com courses are garbage; if you want to take those for like gen ed courses great, but why would would anyone take them for like the core courses of their degree? Just to save time and money? If you end up applying for a proper tech job and have to pass a tech interview I seriously doubt those courses are going to help you much if at all. I had looked at the tesu cyber program a few years ago and in that program if I recall correctly they don't take let courses from either of those places transfer it. But to each his own...good luck.

This is your first post and you're pretty aggressive with claims about Sophia and Study. Have you taken any courses from Sophia or Study? Study courses cover a lot more material than several courses I've taken at RA colleges. Many people on here already have work experience and need the piece of paper saying we have a degree for employment purposes. For many people, it's literally just a check box because we have 5, 10, 20 years of experience.

[joneedell]

I have not, but I have friends who have and said they were not challenging at all and they only did it to save time and money and cared little if they learned anything. And there are posts about this online; many of whom say time and money are their reasons for taking them not quality:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SophiaLearning/...ble_to_do/

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/10...om_sophia/

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...estionable

I am sure you can find others. But, like I said, each his own. But I think more and more tech courses are actually trying to prepare students for industry certifications, cause that is one way to prove that a job candidate actually has skills, and are the courses are tailored to the content of the test - do sophia or study.com tech courses tailor their course content to any popular industry certifications? Do they have practical hands on labs from reputable providers? This is all again my opinion.

[LevelUP]

I have not, but I have friends who have and said they were not challenging at all and they only did it to save time and money and cared little if they learned anything. And there are posts about this online; many of whom say time and money are their reasons for taking them not quality:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SophiaLearning/...ble_to_do/

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/10...om_sophia/

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...estionable

I am sure you can find others. But, like I said, each his own. But I think more and more tech courses are actually trying to prepare students for industry certifications, cause that is one way to prove that a job candidate actually has skills, and are the courses are tailored to the content of the test - do sophia or study.com tech courses tailor their course content to any popular industry certifications? Do they have practical hands on labs from reputable providers? This is all again my opinion.

To pass Google's IT Support Certificate, you need to learn networking, and both Sophia and Study.com prepare you for that part of the certification.

Knowledge is knowledge, and Study.com and Sophia offer education in various subjects. You can always deepen your understanding of a subject by using external resources.

At the end of the day, you need the skills to do the job. College can only teach so much, and often, it focuses on theoretical skills over practical ones. After graduating, for some jobs, you may need to spend around 90 days teaching yourself the necessary skills to perform competently before applying for a specific position.

[ss20ts]

I have not, but I have friends who have and said they were not challenging at all and they only did it to save time and money and cared little if they learned anything. And there are posts about this online; many of whom say time and money are their reasons for taking them not quality:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SophiaLearning/...ble_to_do/

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/10...om_sophia/

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...estionable

I am sure you can find others. But, like I said, each his own. But I think more and more tech courses are actually trying to prepare students for industry certifications, cause that is one way to prove that a job candidate actually has skills, and are the courses are tailored to the content of the test - do sophia or study.com tech courses tailor their course content to any popular industry certifications? Do they have practical hands on labs from reputable providers? This is all again my opinion.

Well if you haven't taken any classes from Sophia or Study how do you know what they're like? Who cares what some randos on reddit say? There's a whole lot of nonsense on reddit. Plenty of college courses aren't challenging. I'm taking 3 grad courses right now from an RA university and I don't find them challenging at all. That does not mean that others would find them to be a piece of cake. My husband has no idea what I'm even talking about when I bring up these courses. He thinks they sound difficult. 

You'll find that many college courses do not prepare anyone for industry certifications. That's not the purpose of college courses. Industry certs are something totally different and normally have their own training programs. I mean I've taken numerous undergrad and grad project management courses and that doesn't mean I'm qualified to sit for the PMP exam. That doesn't mean I didn't learn anything in the courses. It means that the college courses are to teach you general knowledge. The hands on application is what you do at a job.

[frankc]

Sophia and Study.com courses are garbage; if you want to take those for like gen ed courses great, but why would would anyone take them for like the core courses of their degree? Just to save time and money? If you end up applying for a proper tech job and have to pass a tech interview I seriously doubt those courses are going to help you much if at all. I had looked at the tesu cyber program a few years ago and in that program if I recall correctly they don't take let courses from either of those places transfer it. But to each his own...good luck.

I see where you're coming from. I both agree and disagree with this. On one hand, I agree that the CS courses on Study.com are not very good, especially if you're a complete beginner with no experience (But so do some of the CS courses I took in university. CS in general requires a lot of self study).
But on the other hand, for someone like OP, who has been working as a SWE for 6 years, then taking a shortcut with study.com isn't a bad idea. I've been in a similar position myself (I also worked as a SWE for a few years before deciding to get a degree in CS). If I had to go through every single CS courses, covering basics like programming, OOP, and DB, it would feel like a huge waste of time and I probably won't even start the degree program.

[bjcheung77]

Basically... Sophia.org and Study.com would not be sufficient unless you're using it to 'start' the process, each learning system is equivalent to a community college class (slimmed down, like an intro course). That's the main reason you read me mention getting the balanced trifecta of certs, degree, experience.

If you have 5+ years doing software engineering or something similar, Sophia.org/Study.com and the other ACE/NCCRS credits are only used as 'check the box' requirements for a 'check the box' degree. You'll still need to supplement the knowledge with your certs, experience, extra learning, etc, to make sure you have the prerequisites for the graduate degree...