BS for Masters Degree Plan

[senior_dev]

1st, you still didn’t say which school OSU is.  Oregon? Ohio? Oklahoma?  It’s important to know.

I was initially puzzled by this comment but, when I scrolled up, I wasn’t able to find the very detailed answer to @bjcheung77’s questions that I wrote today   I have no idea what happened, but I’m absolutely sure I hit the “Post Reply” button.... It’s Oregon State U.

2nd, 180cr usually is a quarter-based school, so you may be comparing apples-to-oranges here.  54cr from a semester-based school equates to 81cr at a quarter-based school.  So you may not be as far as you think.  Keep that in mind.

This is good to know, thanks.

3rd, it may cost quite a bit to go back and “fix” that low GPA (like eating up your entire budget); and it may not be necessary.  You may want to look at several schools that have 30cr required, and take those to give your gpa a boost, and many schools will look favorably on a student who left school years ago with a low GPA, and then came back and finished with a high gpa.  Many have a “fresh start” program where they only look at grades X number of years old when admitting you; things like that are common.

Makes sense. To raise my GPA to 3.2 (and graduate) I’d need to take 7 additional credits + retake 9 credits. This would end up costing me ~$9k. I don’t think an AA is worth this much. Plus the time commitment to completing those classes, time that could be used towards a (more useful) bachelors.

Had they been recent, I’d absolutely retake those classes. But 20 years later, transferring those credits and starting over might be the smarter route. And I could always go back and retake them if my GPA ever becomes an issue, since I never graduated.

I think my point is: would a 3.2 GPA AA in CS carry its own $9k weight when pursuing a Masters? Or would it be better to skip this degree, finish a generic business degree as soon as possible and apply to a Masters that doesn’t require a CS degree?

I would probably look at UMPI, WGU, SNHU, Franklin University; schools that will let you take 30cr for a decent price, with all graded credits. It might be worth it for you to do that rather than go the Big 3 route.

WGU isn't an option for me since I'm overseas, but UMPI, SNHU and Franklin U are good choices, thanks!

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It seems my first reply got lost, so I'll try again. Sorry for the confusion!

@senior_dev, it's great you've filled in the template and addendum partially... why are you not providing us more details?  Where is "International"?  What's the home country?

I am a Portuguese citizen living in South America, hence the "International" (I might move back to Europe or Asia within the next couple of years).

Which state/school did you almost complete your AA?  Where/which masters have you looked at enrolling in the near future? There are too many variables at play, knowing more would be easier to make a final choice on your plans... I suggest D! See below...

Montgomery College, MD. I had been accepted at UMD but never enrolled.

Where/which masters have you looked at enrolling in the near future? There are too many variables at play, knowing more would be easier to make a final choice on your plans... I suggest D! See below...

Upsalla - Concurrency and Parallel Programming - Master's Programme in Computer Science
GaTech - OMSCS
University of London, Birkbeck - MSc in Computer Science
York University - MSc in Computer Science
UPenn/Coursera - Master of Computer and Information Technology
Oregon State U - Computer Science Postbaccalaureate Degree

For graduate level, entrance requirements vary for each degree, institution, and school of choice.  You really need to bump up your GPA by re-taking the failed courses and bring up your GPA by completing the AA and Bachelors.  I highly recommend looking at possible programs that interest you and look closely at their requirements, upgrade your application package to make a stronger one.  You can really bump D-F grades by retaking the course at the AA.

Minimum Requirements
Upsalla - degree in CS (undergrad or masters), academic letters of rec, CV, interview.
GaTech - >3.0 GPA, undergraduate degree (any field), CS/Math upper level courses.
UoLondon - CV, no undergraduate degree required, there's a "prove yourself" track througha cert.
York U - > 2.2. GPA, undergraduate degree (any field)
UPenn/Coursera - >3.0 GPA, undergraduate degree (any field)
Oregon State U - >2.75 GPA, undergraduate degree in any field.

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Yikes! I posted the above as two different messages but they got somehow merged. Apologies!