My journey and, issues. :)

[cookderosa]

Yeah. I was thinking of working towards an associate's first primarily for the fact that it would give me more employment opportunities initially. But I understand where you're going with in terms of time and efficiency for lower level and upper level courses. I need to research around on the forum where various CS / IT managed to acquire their UL.

Another part of the issue is that I'm mostly relying on FAFSA at the moment for tuition and fees wherever I go. I can come up with the money for something like a CLEP, DANTES and so on bit by bit. But I can't maintain funding currently for attending TESC on my own on a credit by credit basis. Although from what I've read very few people actually take a lot of courses through TESC. They mostly bring in enough credits so that they only have to take a semester or so worth to graduate.


For the local CCs I can bring in up to 45 credits. That works out fine for an AA degree such as Associate of Arts in Computer Science. It does not work so well at all for something like the AS:CS / IT degrees because while they do allow up to 45 credit transfer, there really isn't 45 credits that one can scrounge up to fulfill the degree requirements since they only accept CLEP and limited DANTES.


From what it looks like at least with TESC the general rule of thumb is that they require at least 18 UL credits for each program and I believe at least one DSST can be used there for the IT degrees but none of the CS.

If you have FAFSA Pell Grant, take the most you can at your school while avoiding a loan. For example, if your award is $5000, and your college charges $100/credit, then you can take 50 credits for no out of pocket cash! This is free (but not fast). If you're not eligible for the Pell, then don't enroll at TESC until you're very near completion- within 12 months. In the time from now till then, you can scratch and save to fund your clep exams. Pay cash, if it adds a year to your degree plan you'll be MUCH happier than having Sallie Mae add 10 years to your brokeness.