Yet another request for advice on schools.

[rachel83az]

Wow! I really appreciate how clear you explained this for me. I mean Pierpont does seem like it would be great as a boost to continue working towards other higher education. I notice that you're working towards your computer science degree. How is it so far? Did you stick with the wiki plan or go at a little differently? I'm really thinking about doing this.

I'm not as far as I would have liked. I should have graduated by now. But that's not the fault of anything related to academics. Life keeps throwing me curveballs. Otherwise, the degree process has been fine! I'm mostly sticking to the wiki. There have been a few deviations and tangents because, again, curveballs.

Thanks for the explanation!  I like both of those options though I lean more towards CIS. The associates degrees really bring more variety. Also what would you think about acquiring both Bachelors degrees since they both are so close?

If you want to get both Computer Science and CIS, I would personally recommend it. One is a business degree and the other is not. This should pretty much cover your bases when it comes to obtaining employment in the future. Some jobs might expect a business degree and not a CS degree. Or vice versa. 

Thank you so much for breaking this down! I actually wanted to put accounting in there as well because even though its not technically stem I am also interested in it. I really think I might go with TESU for BSBA CIS. as far as the 15 RA credits do you have a personal preference on where you would obtain these?

If you go for Comp Sci, the best way to do this is to do a 16-credit-term at TESU. For computer science, this means taking the following courses in one term: 

• Cornerstone - must be taken no matter what; can be 90-99% completed in the first week.
  
• Capstone - must be taken no matter what; this will be your main focus. If you cannot complete it, paying a couple hundred for the extension fee still works out to being cheaper than paying the residency waiver. 
  
• CIS-107 ePack - This is a single exam that requires little to no study. 
  
• CIS-351 Software engineering - Although upper level, this class can be completed in 20-30 hours. 
  
• ART-100 or some other easy 100 or 200 level course - Could be another ePack exam, if desired. Choose something easy so that you can focus on the Capstone.
  
• PLA-100 - A short 1-credit course that is only here to bring your total up to 16. 16 is the magic number of credits to take at TESU so that they don't charge you the resiency waiver.
  

If you take 9 or more credits in a single term, you'll pay a flat rate of $4639. If you only take the capstone & cornerstone at TESU, you'd pay $519 x 6 credits for the two classes ($3114) + the residency waiver fee of $3192 = $6306.

Although 16 credits sounds like a lot, these courses have been chosen for ease and maximum impact on your degree progress. In the first week, you'd complete as much of the cornerstone as possible, mostly just leaving the weekly discussion posts to be completed on a weekly basis. You'd also spend a few hours completely finishing PLA-100. In the second week, you'd work on finishing CIS-351 in its entirety and take the CIS-107 exam. From the third week on, you'd do ART-100 (or your chosen class), the weekly posts for the cornerstone, and work on the capstone. This brings the 16-credit-term down to a more reasonable 6-9 credit term. And, again, you are able to request an 8-week extension, if needed, for the capstone. This costs $236.

haha I honestly laughed out loud to hat first sentence. Thanks so much for your explanation!  I really like this plan as I have been leaning more towards CIS but also accounting. And I like the recommended supplemental ASNSM in computer Science. I notice people are saying to skip TESU's waiver how exactly does that work with regards to FASFA? Also I was wondering does AOS mean area of study? sorry for so many questions.

Yes, AOS means Area of Study.

Financial aid will not pay for the residency waiver at all. bjcheung77 has some posts about how to maximize your financial aid, especially while pursuing multiple degrees. If you're doing two degrees that each require a different capstone (which the CIS and Comp Sci degrees do), then the simplest answer is to split the one 16-credit term into two or three 9-credit-terms. When you have financial aid, this can work out to be cheaper than taking all of your courses elsewhere and paying out of pocket. 

If you're doing CIS and Computer Science, you're going to want to finish your CIS degree first because of how TESU deals with degrees. It is allowed to get both degrees at once, but TESU tries to heavily discourage it for no particular reason except that they both happen to have computer courses in the AOS. If you do two 9-credit terms, I would probably do the cornerstone and BSBA capstone during the first term and then the BA capstone during the second term. If you do three 9-credit terms, you'd probably want to do the cornerstone & any desired UL courses during the first term, the BSBA capstone during the second, and the BA capstone during the third. Because, again, TESU will let you have both degrees. But they're weird about it.

Also, for English Comp II, it's strongly recommended that you take the TECEP exam for $150. Or, if you live near a CLEP testing center, take the CLEP College Composition exam. These are the easiest/quickest ways to get your English Comp II credit.