01-16-2017, 08:52 PM
Good evening all! I asked a question for my girlfriend last week and got some great advice. She is weighing her options and will likely start a program this spring. We talked and she asked if I would like to finish my degree as well. Maybeeee 
Please let me know what you think: After the army, I used up my Army GI Bill and completed several units from a few colleges ranging from 1995 to 2005. We moved a lot, then I became a full time single father of two - school came to a screeching halt (for good reason). The course work I completed was general ed with later focus on IT. Plus I have IT certifications and 20 years experience. I contacted Excelsior, TESU and CharterOak and find their admission/tuition structure a bit confusing. This is what I figured out so far:
For all, technology classes expire in 10 years (partially dependent on degree being pursued)
-Excelsior - minimum 1.5 classes (something like 4-5 credits), $510 per credit, multi-source incurs Commitment Fee and Annual Student Fee. Is the Commitment Fee refundable if I graduate? They are doing an evaluation based on Unofficial transcript
-TESU - minimum 16 credits (something like 5.5 classes), $500 per credit, minimum 3 credits per year. I believe Syniccal said one TCEP a year would cover this. They are doing an evaluation based on Unofficial transcript.
-COSC - Minimum 6 credits (2 classes), very confusing pricing model due to lab fees but appears to be close to the others. No minimum yearly courses. Student can do their own eval based on transcript.
I don't need to complete this for career reasons (though it may help down the road). This is more of a closure and clean up the resume thing. The big questions for me are:
-As a veteran, do any of these schools provide a less expensive path?
-What should I study? I know this is my decision but open to ideas. IT/Cyber Security lines up with the job and some previous classes. However, since the degree is more like, "Icing on the cake", Liberal Arts could be faster - especially taking into consideration expired technology classes. Lastly, if it came down to the exact number of classes no matter what I did, I'd do something more interesting like psychology. I'm open to different job in the future, who knows
Thanks for checking this out. JB
Please let me know what you think: After the army, I used up my Army GI Bill and completed several units from a few colleges ranging from 1995 to 2005. We moved a lot, then I became a full time single father of two - school came to a screeching halt (for good reason). The course work I completed was general ed with later focus on IT. Plus I have IT certifications and 20 years experience. I contacted Excelsior, TESU and CharterOak and find their admission/tuition structure a bit confusing. This is what I figured out so far:
For all, technology classes expire in 10 years (partially dependent on degree being pursued)
-Excelsior - minimum 1.5 classes (something like 4-5 credits), $510 per credit, multi-source incurs Commitment Fee and Annual Student Fee. Is the Commitment Fee refundable if I graduate? They are doing an evaluation based on Unofficial transcript
-TESU - minimum 16 credits (something like 5.5 classes), $500 per credit, minimum 3 credits per year. I believe Syniccal said one TCEP a year would cover this. They are doing an evaluation based on Unofficial transcript.
-COSC - Minimum 6 credits (2 classes), very confusing pricing model due to lab fees but appears to be close to the others. No minimum yearly courses. Student can do their own eval based on transcript.
I don't need to complete this for career reasons (though it may help down the road). This is more of a closure and clean up the resume thing. The big questions for me are:
-As a veteran, do any of these schools provide a less expensive path?
-What should I study? I know this is my decision but open to ideas. IT/Cyber Security lines up with the job and some previous classes. However, since the degree is more like, "Icing on the cake", Liberal Arts could be faster - especially taking into consideration expired technology classes. Lastly, if it came down to the exact number of classes no matter what I did, I'd do something more interesting like psychology. I'm open to different job in the future, who knows
Thanks for checking this out. JB
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