Cheap RA credits (online)

[FungiTao]

Hi all,

I'm approaching the ACE 90 credit limit - TESU BACS (international student).

I haven't started gathering RA credit yet and I'm looking for recommendations for cheap RA online colleges / RA providers.

These have caught my eye:

• Diné College
  
• New Mexico Junior College
  

Does anybody have any experience in using these colleges and/or recommend any others?

(I'm planning on doing a couple of TECEPs and TEL Learning courses also!)

Thanks!

[Tomas]

UoPeople certificate programs are USD 67 per credit. (No experience - not completely sure that they can be transferred, just thinking that they should...).

[animuscerebri]

Some community colleges have a decent CS program, but you will have a hard time finding some CCs offering specific CS upper-level courses. In addition, bear in mind that most CCs also require the whole enrolment procedure (high school diploma - if not in English, translation, transcripts, TOEFL or equivalent test, and so forth); as an international student, I would do it if you found some CC that really offers a cool package of certain CS courses. Otherwise, you will spend some time on red tape.

There is another way:

If you have EU citizenship, you can get relatively inexpensive and, in some cases, free and pretty good CS courses at some Finnish universities.
Other EU universities do not necessarily require EU citizenship for open university (or their equivalent) courses.
Whatever EU university you choose (and when you're done taking sufficient courses at a particular school), you need to send the transcripts of the respective universities to a foreign credits evaluation provider. This "credit evaluator" determines in what way a particular EU course is equivalent to its US counterpart. Additionally, this evaluator also determines how many US credits are granted for each 1 ECTS.

There are a handful of these foreign credit evaluation companies, the biggest are WES and ACEI (but there are many more, but I guess TESU only accepts 5-7 different evaluators, take a look at TESU's website). Take into account every provider has its pros and cons. WES is pretty slow (evaluation can take up to 2 or even 3 months), but it provides a good amount of US cred for each ECTS. ACEI is pretty fast and very responsive to phone calls and emails, but a little more strict in terms of granting credits, they have a policy of 1 ECTS = 0.5 US cred.

Finnish universities:
- Metropolia University, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free, others cost around 15-20€
- University of Helsinki, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free, others cost around 75€
- University of Jyväskylä, has few Open University courses, most of those a free; if you wanna take upper-level courses, you gotta fill out a form to get "study right" to pursue specific courses, this study right is usually valid up to 2 years. It's pretty worth it.

German universities:
- There is a platform VHB where you browse through a relatively big catalog of courses, many are in English, and I don't think you need EU citizenship for that.

[FungiTao]

Some community colleges have a decent CS program, but you will have a hard time finding some CCs offering specific CS upper-level courses. In addition, bear in mind that most CCs also require the whole enrolment procedure (high school diploma - if not in English, translation, transcripts, TOEFL or equivalent test, and so forth); as an international student, I would do it if you found some CC that really offers a cool package of certain CS courses. Otherwise, you will spend some time on red tape.

There is another way:

If you have EU citizenship, you can get relatively inexpensive and, in some cases, free and pretty good CS courses at some Finnish universities.
Other EU universities do not necessarily require EU citizenship for open university (or their equivalent) courses.
Whatever EU university you choose (and when you're done taking sufficient courses at a particular school), you need to send the transcripts of the respective universities to a foreign credits evaluation provider. This "credit evaluator" determines in what way a particular EU course is equivalent to its US counterpart. Additionally, this evaluator also determines how many US credits are granted for each 1 ECTS.

There are a handful of these foreign credit evaluation companies, the biggest are WES and ACEI (but there are many more, but I guess TESU only accepts 5-7 different evaluators, take a look at TESU's website). Take into account every provider has its pros and cons. WES is pretty slow (evaluation can take up to 2 or even 3 months), but it provides a good amount of US cred for each ECTS. ACEI is pretty fast and very responsive to phone calls and emails, but a little more strict in terms of granting credits, they have a policy of 1 ECTS = 0.5 US cred.

Finnish universities:
- Metropolia University, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free, others cost around 15-20€
- University of Helsinki, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free,  others cost around 75€
- University of Jyväskylä, has few Open University courses, most of those a free; if you wanna take upper-level courses, you gotta fill out a form to get "study right" to pursue specific courses, this study right is usually valid up to 2 years. It's pretty worth it.

German universities:
- There is a platform VHB where you browse through a relatively big catalog of courses, many are in English, and I don't think you need EU citizenship for that.

This is extremely helpful, thank you! 

I do actually have EU citizenship so this seems like the perfect option for me! I'm going to take a look at some of the courses from the Universities you mentioned. 

Just a thought - should I be strategic with my selection of courses I choose (in terms of being related to an existing TESU course) or do I have free rein? Can I be confident that a course I choose is University level / appropriate for US credits? I suppose it's up to the foreign credit evaluation companies right?

[animuscerebri]

Some community colleges have a decent CS program, but you will have a hard time finding some CCs offering specific CS upper-level courses. In addition, bear in mind that most CCs also require the whole enrolment procedure (high school diploma - if not in English, translation, transcripts, TOEFL or equivalent test, and so forth); as an international student, I would do it if you found some CC that really offers a cool package of certain CS courses. Otherwise, you will spend some time on red tape.

There is another way:

If you have EU citizenship, you can get relatively inexpensive and, in some cases, free and pretty good CS courses at some Finnish universities.
Other EU universities do not necessarily require EU citizenship for open university (or their equivalent) courses.
Whatever EU university you choose (and when you're done taking sufficient courses at a particular school), you need to send the transcripts of the respective universities to a foreign credits evaluation provider. This "credit evaluator" determines in what way a particular EU course is equivalent to its US counterpart. Additionally, this evaluator also determines how many US credits are granted for each 1 ECTS.

There are a handful of these foreign credit evaluation companies, the biggest are WES and ACEI (but there are many more, but I guess TESU only accepts 5-7 different evaluators, take a look at TESU's website). Take into account every provider has its pros and cons. WES is pretty slow (evaluation can take up to 2 or even 3 months), but it provides a good amount of US cred for each ECTS. ACEI is pretty fast and very responsive to phone calls and emails, but a little more strict in terms of granting credits, they have a policy of 1 ECTS = 0.5 US cred.

Finnish universities:
- Metropolia University, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free, others cost around 15-20€
- University of Helsinki, take a look at the Open University courses, some are free,  others cost around 75€
- University of Jyväskylä, has few Open University courses, most of those a free; if you wanna take upper-level courses, you gotta fill out a form to get "study right" to pursue specific courses, this study right is usually valid up to 2 years. It's pretty worth it.

German universities:
- There is a platform VHB where you browse through a relatively big catalog of courses, many are in English, and I don't think you need EU citizenship for that.

This is extremely helpful, thank you! 

I do actually have EU citizenship so this seems like the perfect option for me! I'm going to take a look at some of the courses from the Universities you mentioned. 

Just a thought - should I be strategic with my selection of courses I choose (in terms of being related to an existing TESU course) or do I have free rein? Can I be confident that a course I choose is University level / appropriate for US credits? I suppose it's up to the foreign credit evaluation companies right?

Hang on, you ask quite a bunch of questions that need to be dissected, because they imply various aspects so that you can take an educated approach in terms of your journey to a TESU BACS. I will just give you some info so that you can do your own research, but you can still ask follow-up questions.

Question #1: "should I be strategic with my selection of courses I choose?"
-> In my opinion, you should always be strategic in pursuing a college degree, because time and money are limited (in most cases, it is time). Thus, of course, yeah, I highly recommend you to setup a plan (an excel file, a simple table, whatever you prefer) and think about how to go about finishing this degree. Which courses do I need and how do I get them. How do I get upper-level creds? How much time do I invest into getting those foreign creds? Which ones are faster, which ones are more difficult, but I learn way more? And many more questions.

Question #2: "do I have free rein?"
-> Directly answering your question: no, because the TESU BACS curriculum sets up the boundaries of what you can transfer in (surplus credits are put in the "Other courses" section and are de facto useless for your degree requirements). However, here comes the big BUT: but at the same time, you have a certain degree of flexibility, but it is not unlimited. 

Question #3: "Can I be confident that a course I choose is University level / appropriate for US credits?"
-> It depends. And it depends on so many factors; you'd have to narrow down your question, it is too broad actually, but lemme try to explain it this way: if you choose some random course that has little overlap with a TESU course, it will most likely become an elective course (meaning it will go straight to your 30 credits section of electives at the bottom of your MyProgress overview - recognized foreign credits are RA creds, and those new RA creds usually "push out" pre-existing ACE creds). In short, you need to make a list of classes that you need and where you wanna take them. You gotta compare the content of the TESU courses with the ones those other universities offer. In many cases, there is no 100% match, but oftentimes there is sufficient overlap to get them considered equivalent. The foreign credits evaluators is a whole separate topic I will not go into now, maybe in a separate post when you ask a more narrowed-down question.

I recommend the following: you should consult the Wiki study plans that other forum users already wrote. For example, this one created by @rachel83az (big shout out to you and thank you, I used that as inspiration back in the day) takes into account the use of Metropolia courses: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...)#BACS_AOS
Remember that this study guide hasn't been updated for some time. Talking from experience, some recommendations are incorrect and / or are no longer valid, because the universities have changed their courses in the meantime (adding content, changing the examination style, etc). Nonetheless, this wiki is a pretty good starting point to get an overview of how to tackle this degree with foreign creds. (In the meantime, there are more options and even better options than just Metropolia, but I'll answer that in follow-up posts.)

In addition, this forum is a treasure trove of information, because so many forum users share their experiences and recommendations. Therefore, search this forum via the search field for various topics. If you look for certain classes, such as how to get an ACE or Finnish equivalent, you will find some information here. Nonetheless, you will still need some time to do your own research in some cases.

In general, I wanna make a big statement: I strongly disagree with some other forum users' recommendation about the electives section, I wanna highlight the following question: what's the point of filling up that precious 30 creds electives section with a bunch of random courses that have little to do with your major? For instance, a course like "College Readiness" (https://www.sophia.org/online-courses/ca...readiness/) does not really help you stand out with your transcript as CS undergrad (I understand that most employers or companies may not care about your transcript, but some day and in some cases, it may be important. Moreover, if you intend to go to grad school for a CS masters or any other STEM grad program, they will definitely scrutinize the courses on your transcript). Furthermore, if somebody would prefer to pursue a CS masters or any other STEM-related degree in other parts of the world, such as the EU, those universities put in certain requirements in terms of amount of credits in a certain area (e.g. >= 30 ECTS in advanced math, theoretical computer science, networking, etc.) and whether your degree "looks STEMish." I understand that many people just take a huge amount of Sophia credits to fill up the 30 cr electives section, because it is relatively inexpensive and quick to do. However, I would carefully analyze whether this is the best approach toward this chunk of precious credits you could use otherwise to craft a more STEMish degree.

In my case, I filled this 30 electives up with CS and IT creds and I carefully chose classes that were not required in the major but are actually missing in comparison to CS degrees at other major universities or foreign universities. To sum it up, I used the electives section to make the BACS more a BSCS. How I did it is too much info for here. I will probably write my own wiki and publish it here, but that will not happen in the near future.

I hope I could answer some of your questions. As I previously told you, you can ask me more narrowed questions.

[bjcheung77]

Did you take any additional classes from the UK or from Europe? https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...student-CS
Have you completed everything on your spreadsheet already? https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Questions
You're approaching 90, how far did you go from here? https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Study-com

Note: You only need 30 RA credits in total, 6 comes from the capstone/cornerstone, your TECEPs, etc. You can decide on completing the 15 residency credits instead of paying the Accelerate Fee. Update your spreadsheet as it shows TECEPs for business related subjects, if you want to continue using those, you might as well do the BACS & BSBA combo for the same price point, by completing more Sophia.org/Study.com classes plus TECEPs that can go towards the business degree.

[animuscerebri]

Hey @bjcheung77,
that's good to have the full context of FungiTao's previous questions and answers.
@FungiTao, as bjcheung77 already asked, how far have you gotten with your study plan (https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Questions). Your spreadsheet displays that you got 60 creds completed. Is this still correct or do you need to update more info?

You planned to take a significant number of TECEPs, but I'm not sure how you wanna slot them into your proposed curriculum - all go to Electives?
If yes, what do you need "Mariage and the Family," "Introduction to Marketing" for? Any plans on what you wanna do with the degree afterwards?

Furthermore, you should decide soon which way you wanna go in terms of how much money you wanna spend on TESU, namely:
a) Flat rate route: getting 15 creds at TESU directly? If yes, you save the residency waiver, but you pay for the flat rate fee, which is less expensive. Additionally, with that flat rate fee, you can take TESU's cornerstone/capstone together. Or you just take the capstone with 4 other classes at TESU (for BACS, you can also take EdX's TESU literacy course at a fraction of TESU's price), which one is it? Flat rate route implies more work and more stress in a single term of 12 weeks. Do you have the time and energy to do it?

b) Residency waiver route aka time saver route: You can basically just take 1 class (capstone) at TESU, but you gotta take EdX's TESU literacy course (transfer that to TESU) instead, pay the residency waver and transfer all other RAs to TESU. This is usually the time saver route as well, but it depends on which courses you wanna transfer in. In this case, you gotta get RA creds either from another 4 year school, CC, or a foreign university. As you said that you have EU citizenship, I'd take way more courses at either Finnish or German universities, because they are significantly less expensive in Europe. However, bear in mind that each foreign credits evaluator charges different fees. Currently, they charge around $250 for a course-by-course evaluation (don't forget that if you add just 1 course later to your existing transcript from that foreign uni, you need to pay again - it costs a little less, but it is different at every evaluator. Moreover, some evaluators charge extra for sending their work product to the university, another $50, it's a rip off, but it is still significantly cheaper than just taking 1 class at TESU). In addition, it is more likely to get more upper-level classes as well and - in most cases - of higher quality at foreign unis than some ACE creds at Study.com.

IMPORTANT: This "time saver" route may actually turn out be more time-consuming if you take a significant portion of foreign classes at certain unis. However, you significantly improve the quality of your degree! For instance, most math and CS upper-level courses at University of Helsinki take about 3 months. This can slow down your journey significantly, but you get really high quality skills and you acquire a significant amount of knowledge. I can highly recommend both Data Structures I and II, very very tough courses and quite time-consuming, but they are worth every second you spent on it. These are pure task/assignment-based courses, and you need to solve some pretty tough algorithmic issues. These are the skills you will cherish later as a computer scientists in the workforce. Additionally, I got Data Structures II as upper-level recognized and it takes care of the 15 upper-level CS requirement you gotta meet. Helsinki has another upper-level algorithms class "Algorithms for Solving Problems" 10 ECTS, pretty challenging and time-consuming, but you do learn a lot from that. If you pass it and got it evaluated, you will likely get 5+ upper-level creds with the name of either "Computer Arithmetic Algorithms" or "Problem Analysis and Solution" at TESU (if you take the BA in Computer Science Credit Distribution from 2016-2020 with the proposed list of CS electives. Back then, they also offered COS-231 Assembly Language at TESU: https://web.archive.org/web/202104160254...S-231&sem=). And a course like that looks pretty good on a transcript - especially, for a CS major.

Long story short: what is your plan?

[FungiTao]

Did you take any additional classes from the UK or from Europe?  https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...student-CS
Have you completed everything on your spreadsheet already? https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Questions
You're approaching 90, how far did you go from here? https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Study-com

Note: You only need 30 RA credits in total, 6 comes from the capstone/cornerstone, your TECEPs, etc.  You can decide on completing the 15 residency credits instead of paying the Accelerate Fee.  Update your spreadsheet as it shows TECEPs for business related subjects, if you want to continue using those, you might as well do the BACS & BSBA combo for the same price point, by completing more Sophia.org/Study.com classes plus TECEPs that can go towards the business degree.

Hi bjcheung!

Thanks for the response.

I've strongly convinced myself that I'm going to take the Accelerate Fee route. Whilst I do want to finish as quickly as possible, I want to maximize my chances of getting a 4.0 GPA (which I hope to achieve by just taking the Capstone).

Here's my updated spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...ue&sd=true

Do you think the BACS & BSBA is still attainable?

---

Hey @bjcheung77,
that's good to have the full context of FungiTao's previous questions and answers.
@FungiTao, as bjcheung77 already asked, how far have you gotten with your study plan (https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Questions). Your spreadsheet displays that you got 60 creds completed. Is this still correct or do you need to update more info?

You planned to take a significant number of TECEPs, but I'm not sure how you wanna slot them into your proposed curriculum - all go to Electives?
If yes, what do you need "Mariage and the Family," "Introduction to Marketing" for? Any plans on what you wanna do with the degree afterwards?

Furthermore, you should decide soon which way you wanna go in terms of how much money you wanna spend on TESU, namely:
a) Flat rate route: getting 15 creds at TESU directly? If yes, you save the residency waiver, but you pay for the flat rate fee, which is less expensive. Additionally, with that flat rate fee, you can take TESU's cornerstone/capstone together. Or you just take the capstone with 4 other classes at TESU (for BACS, you can also take EdX's TESU literacy course at a fraction of TESU's price), which one is it? Flat rate route implies more work and more stress in a single term of 12 weeks. Do you have the time and energy to do it?

b) Residency waiver route aka time saver route: You can basically just take 1 class (capstone) at TESU, but you gotta take EdX's TESU literacy course (transfer that to TESU) instead, pay the residency waver and transfer all other RAs to TESU. This is usually the time saver route as well, but it depends on which courses you wanna transfer in. In this case, you gotta get RA creds either from another 4 year school, CC, or a foreign university. As you said that you have EU citizenship, I'd take way more courses at either Finnish or German universities, because they are significantly less expensive in Europe. However, bear in mind that each foreign credits evaluator charges different fees. Currently, they charge around $250 for a course-by-course evaluation (don't forget that if you add just 1 course later to your existing transcript from that foreign uni, you need to pay again - it costs a little less, but it is different at every evaluator. Moreover, some evaluators charge extra for sending their work product to the university, another $50, it's a rip off, but it is still significantly cheaper than just taking 1 class at TESU). In addition, it is more likely to get more upper-level classes as well and - in most cases - of higher quality at foreign unis than some ACE creds at Study.com.

IMPORTANT: This "time saver" route may actually turn out be more time-consuming if you take a significant portion of foreign classes at certain unis. However, you significantly improve the quality of your degree! For instance, most math and CS upper-level courses at University of Helsinki take about 3 months. This can slow down your journey significantly, but you get really high quality skills and you acquire a significant amount of knowledge. I can highly recommend both Data Structures I and II, very very tough courses and quite time-consuming, but they are worth every second you spent on it. These are pure task/assignment-based courses, and you need to solve some pretty tough algorithmic issues. These are the skills you will cherish later as a computer scientists in the workforce. Additionally, I got Data Structures II as upper-level recognized and it takes care of the 15 upper-level CS requirement you gotta meet. Helsinki has another upper-level algorithms class "Algorithms for Solving Problems" 10 ECTS, pretty challenging and time-consuming, but you do learn a lot from that. If you pass it and got it evaluated, you will likely get 5+ upper-level creds with the name of either "Computer Arithmetic Algorithms" or "Problem Analysis and Solution" at TESU (if you take the BA in Computer Science Credit Distribution from 2016-2020 with the proposed list of CS electives. Back then, they also offered COS-231 Assembly Language at TESU: https://web.archive.org/web/202104160254...S-231&sem=). And a course like that looks pretty good on a transcript - especially, for a CS major.

Long story short: what is your plan?

Many thanks for the responses and apologies for the delay (trying to refrain from anything degree related on weekends  )

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...ue&sd=true

I've completed 91 credits (all ACE) and totally agree with your point regarding the uncorrelated degree electives - this is where I hope the foreign credits will shine! As said to @bjcheung77, I am pretty set on the Accelerate Fee path - pass on the 12 weeks of hell, even though I am a full-time student. 

My plan is pretty much what you described in (b), but now the duration and cost for the foreign credits ($250!!!) are swaying me. I've realized from my spreadsheet that I've gone over my ACE limit (90 credits) and will need to cancel my ACE electives for RA electives. I was planning to finish by October this year but now I'm less optimistic lol - I think the RA credits and Capstone are going to set me back. And yes, choosing CS electives via foreign universities sounds like an appropriate course of action.

[animuscerebri]

Well, it seems as if you need to make some more hard follow-up decisions.
I'm sorry that I have to break it to ya, but I'm not sure if October 2025 is still feasible in your case.
Lemme explain why:

a) Taking RA creds at foreign unis usually takes longer than a Sophia / Study.com course (there are some easy and informative classes at the Uni of Helsinki - Jeff aka infradata.it and I have already elaborated a preliminary list of non-stop, self-paced courses at Helsinki, browse the latest thread https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid440612 - but not all of 'em. Additionally, if you wanna take term-based courses (which are the really good ones, and you learn the most), you may end up waiting for the next round of available courses - like a traditional uni), but at the same time, you get way better quality courses and they look way better on your transcript than ACE creds. You need to decide which is more important: faster vs. higher quality.

b) RA creds involves red tape and waiting till you get your transcript from that University until it ends up on your MyProgressView at TESU. For some courses and for example, the University of Helsinki issues credits in intervals, like when you finished on May 1 the will issue 4-6 weeks later. Then you also need to request a transcript - which may take some days. Then, you need to talk to an administrator to send it to a foreign creds evaluator. Takes 1-2 days. Then, the foreign creds evaluator is a whole other topic where you need to fill out a form, pay the fee, waiting for him to confirm reception of transcript. And THEN, the clock is ticking, and it usually takes 5 or more business days till you get an evaluation (for instance, ACEI is relatively quick). I did another transcript with WES for another Finnish uni where I got 60 ECTS from (btw, you cannot mix and match with different evaluators FOR THE SAME UNI - always use one evaluator for 1 uni and you gotta stick with that - therefore, choose wisely), but the whole process with WES was really frustrating. I started with filling out the form at the beginning of November, like November 8, 2024 and I got everything transferred in at TESU either January 30, 2025, or the first week of Feb, 2025. I talked about 6-8 times with the hotline at WES asking why it takes so long and they had missed all deadlines. That's why, I had realized I cannot force a specific date regarding graduating, because you can't control when certain evaluators and university administrators feel like doing their homework.

Nonetheless, I had my happy ending: when I got my WES evaluation, I was so happy, because I got a big chunk of high quality RA creds, some of them 3.5 US creds and I filled up most of my major requirements and major electives with purely RA creds. In the end, around 2/3 of my degree will be RA creds and most (GenEd) is ACE-based.
Therefore, as most employers and companies and universities care about the quality of your major, I recommend getting high quality RAs for your major - you can fill up GenEd with ACE-based stuff, because everybody knows that this is just a filler section. For example, basically all grad schools in the US and Europe scrutinize the quality of your major (what did you take and what type of cred it was), and I did wanna fulfill the requirement this way, because you will have to live with this degree for the rest of your life.

c) After some research, I realized that the final capstone for BACS has changed, and there are more stringent requirements at TESU, see thread here https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...nt-Changes .
And, it requires extra study, namely Theory of Computation. The required proctored ETS Major Field Test that is part of your Capstone, and Theory of Computation is part of that test.
Therefore, you can either study for that with an open course at MIT or you take a class at Helsinki to prepare for that.

d) I hope you don't mind my being blunt, but - according to your updated spreadsheet - you should ditch aside the Sophia courses from your 30 Electives. Why? Because you can craft a better BACS with high quality CS courses from RA sources. Take a look at Helsinki's CS courses. In your case, I recommend taking "Advanced Programming in Python" (it has a capstone with a project to code - a 2D game as the final requirement, apart from that you have about 100+ programming tasks to get an A, but you can do less and get a B or C, C is the threshold for TESU to get credit; however, bear in mind a grad school will later request your transcript from Helsinki and they will see your grades there. That's why, I'd go for the A). Take all the Cybersecurity classes, because your current BACS lacks this skill (believe me, other schools put software security / cyber security in there as requirement), take Data Structures II for fall term 2025, you lack a lot of Math classes for a CS grad school, the base minimum at TESU - College Algebra, Discrete Math and Calculus I - is not enough for most grad schools, especially in the EU. You can add Calculus 1A, 1B, Advanced Calculus from Helsinki to the mix. You also lack Linear Algebra what most grad schools expect, you can get that at Helsinki, but if you wanna have a quicker route, take it from alternative creds provider Coopersmith (US) to at least have some Linear Algebra there. A CS degree without Linear Algebra nowadays is like a one-legged man (sry for being so blunt, but you need linear algebra on a regular basis if you go into more advanced software projects - especially for AI). Statistics from Sophia is OK, it gives you good overview, but it is not enough for more advanced software projects, I recommend taking a probability and / or advanced stats class at Helsinki, Probability 1 course comes up for fall term at Helsinki. A specific intro networking class would be also beneficial to add a little more of that too.

I hope you get what I mean, but if you wanna have a more STEMish BACS and for life, you need to upgrade it on your own and with additional classes, and the 30 Electives is the place to do it (I'd give you a list of RA alternatives for your CS major main requirements classes, but you have already done all the courses via Study.com, I don't wanna recommend you to re-do things - I, for instance, re-did classes at Helsinki and I ditched the Sophia Python and Java courses. The Sophia classes won't help you in this case. If you had a business degree, it looks different, but you don't. Additionally, if you insist on ACE, do at least the Precalculus and Intro to Math class at Sophia, take as much as you can for MATH. Remember, a CS degree is not software engineering; as computer scientist, you are 1) a scientist and b) you need Math for that and c) you are essentially a problem solver on a very abstract level (later it boils down to the actual doing via applied tools like coding) and your main tool for having acquired those problem solving skills is MATH (+ Data Structures that's why DSA 2 at Helsinki). Software Engineering is just the applied aspect of that, but in your job, you are a problem solver.

e) Could you explain how was your experience (effort, time spent, difficulty) regarding Study.com's courses:
- Computer Architecture
- Systems Analysis + Design
- Database Management
- Management Information Systems

Taking all these factors into consideration make me think that I don't know how you wanna do it for October 2025. You need to sacrifice something if graduation in October is essential to you.

What is your plan?