Advice needed - looking to earn CS credits

[Merlin]

I think with University of Illinois you need to take the GRE in addition to the other admissions requirements.

Most graduate schools will want a GRE or GMAT. That said, I think you can bypass that requirement if you come in via the Coursera pathway for earned admission. UI is my top alternate school for MCS after the GAT OMSCS, so that is what I'd do if I were planning to attend there.

To be honest, I am trying to find a low price, flexible admissions, and a decent reputation. I think GA Tech is the winner. I am not trying to make it sound easy to get in at all. ASU is probably easier to get admitted, but Univ of Illinois is more expensive and has a longer list of entry requirements.

Yeah, but it really all comes down to why you want the MCS to begin with. If you're looking for employment and you need a masters in CS for some reason, then you cannot hurt yourself by getting the degree from a top 5 school (which includes both UI and GAT). The GAT degree is cheap enough that one could pay it out of pocket since you're paying a bit at a time. The UI degree is enough that I'd probably try to get a Federal loan or something,

Can I ask you this, when you go back to WGU to get an undergrad in CS, how many of your CS credits are ultimately coming from Study.com? WGU allowed me to omit/not transfer bad grades from a community college that I went to years ago. I had to sign a form acknowledging that I took college credit classes in the past, but that I wished to have them not be added to my WGU transfer transcript.   I wonder, if you want to get "clean" CS credits from WGU and omit ACE credits for CS is there a similar process you are following? I know you must have some CS credits that came from Study.com when you got your BSBA-CIS at TESU. Are you doing something to not have CS credits transfer to WGU?

I do have a number of CS or CS-related courses on my transcript from Study.com and StraighterLine. However, they do not encompass the bulk of the CS core curriculum. For me, the only courses that would be relevant here include C Programming, C++ Programming, Database Management, System Analysis & Design, and some applied computing courses (Intro to Computers, Computer Concepts & Applications, Computer Security, MIS). The CS curriculum uses Java or C# if I recall, so I'd likely take those computer languages courses and the rest of what I bring in are not included in the WGU degree (like System Analysis & Design) or are not really critical courses (like the database course, or the applied computing courses).

WGU's CS degree is a little light on some of the normal core curriculum options. The important courses that I'd make sure to take at WGU are things like Data Structures & Algorithms (I & II), Discrete Math (I & II), Computer Architecture, and the Programming/Software courses.

Alternatively, I might pursue the BS in Software Development instead of the BSCS. It has lower math requirements but covers the software and C#/Java programming stuff in more detail. I know people who have been accepted into the OMSCS with a WGU BSSD, so that is another option.