01-31-2017, 06:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2017, 06:34 PM by Drakemoore.)
@yb1
Thank you for the reply and sharing your current experience. I've taken courses for A+, and currently have a course for Sec+, so I've been thinking about taking practice certification exams and possibly going down and just getting certified since I can get discount vouchers, I think up to 50% off. From what I understand though ideally you do it in the proper sequence, A+ - > Net + - > Sec+ and then CCNA like you said because each of those in that order renews the previous certifications automatically.
@Cookderossa
You are correct I don't have any loans at the moment, First generation degree seeker, I'm riding purely on Pell and Florida state grants which almost doubles the amount of financial aid but of course I can only use the Florida grant at Florida universities. The only local university to me is the University of Florida which is about 30ish miles one way. In theory I could technically attend there I think and manage to cover the tuition at least, but I'd have to travel the distance, relocate near it, or find a completely online degree program there and possibly start over from scratch. So I don't know, something I'll have to think about.
Edit: I glanced at UF just out of curiosity again since it's been a few years. I'd have to probably spend at minimum 1 year or more at a CC just to meet the transfer requirements due to Foreign language / physics, bio, and chem + lab requirements on most of the topics I'm interested in. Or CLEP out of Foreign Language but I never took it growing up so I'd be learning completely from scratch which doesn't sound too practical.
@davewill
Thank you for the insight and letting me know what's out there and that I shouldn't limit my horizons purely to programming alone.
Thank you for the reply and sharing your current experience. I've taken courses for A+, and currently have a course for Sec+, so I've been thinking about taking practice certification exams and possibly going down and just getting certified since I can get discount vouchers, I think up to 50% off. From what I understand though ideally you do it in the proper sequence, A+ - > Net + - > Sec+ and then CCNA like you said because each of those in that order renews the previous certifications automatically.
@Cookderossa
You are correct I don't have any loans at the moment, First generation degree seeker, I'm riding purely on Pell and Florida state grants which almost doubles the amount of financial aid but of course I can only use the Florida grant at Florida universities. The only local university to me is the University of Florida which is about 30ish miles one way. In theory I could technically attend there I think and manage to cover the tuition at least, but I'd have to travel the distance, relocate near it, or find a completely online degree program there and possibly start over from scratch. So I don't know, something I'll have to think about.
Edit: I glanced at UF just out of curiosity again since it's been a few years. I'd have to probably spend at minimum 1 year or more at a CC just to meet the transfer requirements due to Foreign language / physics, bio, and chem + lab requirements on most of the topics I'm interested in. Or CLEP out of Foreign Language but I never took it growing up so I'd be learning completely from scratch which doesn't sound too practical.
@davewill
Thank you for the insight and letting me know what's out there and that I shouldn't limit my horizons purely to programming alone.