Competency-based BS CS program from a globally ranked university

[npvn]

Greetings from Melbourne!

I am looking for a competency-based BS CS degree. My goal is to get entry into the MS CS program at University of Melbourne. They explicitly mentions that during application review they will look at the ranking of the institution granting the applicant’s bachelor degree on ARWU and Times Higher Education global ranking lists (if that institution is not Australian-based).

An alternative option for me would be doing a traditional bachelor at an Australian-based institution, but that will take 3 years which is too long for me (I want to optimize for time). 

A little about my background: I don’t have any tertiary degree but have more than 5 years of experience working as a software engineer. This is the main reason I prefer a competency-based bachelor degree because I can utilize my existing knowledge to accelerate the program. I hope to earn a bachelor within one year.

So far the only university I found that satisfies the criteria and accepts international students is NAU. It is ranked in the two above-mentioned ranking lists, even though the rank is not very high (501 - 600). The program is not exactly BS CS, but a BS in Computer Information Technology:

https://nau.edu/online/bs-computer-information-technology-pl

If you know other BS CS (or IT-related) programs please let me know. Thank you!

[Merlin]

Greetings from Melbourne!

I am looking for a competency-based BS CS degree. My goal is to get entry into the MS CS program at University of Melbourne. They explicitly mentions that during application review they will look at the ranking of the institution granting the applicant’s bachelor degree on ARWU and Times Higher Education global ranking lists (if that institution is not Australian-based).

An alternative option for me would be doing a traditional bachelor at an Australian-based institution, but that will take 3 years which is too long for me (I want to optimize for time).

A little about my background: I don’t have any tertiary degree but have more than 5 years of experience working as a software engineer. This is the main reason I prefer a competency-based bachelor degree because I can utilize my existing knowledge to accelerate the program. I hope to earn a bachelor within one year.

So far the only university I found that satisfies the criteria and accepts international students is NAU. It is ranked in the two above-mentioned ranking lists, even though the rank is not very high (501 - 600). The program is not exactly BS CS, but a BS in Computer Information Technology:

https://nau.edu/online/bs-computer-infor...hnology-pl

If you know other BS CS (or IT-related) programs please let me know. Thank you!

If you're only looking at competency-based online degrees, I'm afraid you'll find that most of them are not going to be coming from highly ranked schools. At least not yet. You can complete all but two of the courses required for the TESU BACS using a competency-based approach, but I doubt that TESU is any better rated than NAU. I would recommend WGU, but since you're not in the US they aren't an option for you (and they are also not highly rated.)

If you need a highly-rated school, you'll probably need to look at more traditional programs.

[npvn]

Thanks for your answer. In my case a bachelor degree from a highly ranked university should be extremely helpful, but I think as long as the institution is listed in ARWU and/or Times Higher Education’s ranking lists that should be enough.

So far I have only found NAU and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee satisfying the criteria, but the latter doesn’t accept international students

[akr680]

Brandman University also has Computer Information Technology program.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[posabsolute]

Information technology is somewhat far from CS, plus you only have 1 option according to your criteria.

If getting that specific MS is really your goal, maybe you should reevaluate the idea of doing a competency based program in the US. I don’t feel you are setting yourself for success


Sent from my iPhone using DegreeForum.net

[sanantone]

This is not self-paced, but this is probably the closest you'll get.

https://www.coursera.org/degrees/bachelo...nce-london

[armstrongsubero]

@sanantone hit the nail on the head. @novn University of London is your best bet. Well respected worldwide and globally ranked.

The program isnt that bad either you can choose to specalize in a particular area like Machine Learning or Physical Computing plus its UK based so you dont have to do any general education courses within the program unlike those in the US which is good or bad depending in your perpective.

The admissions requirements are a bit involved so you'll have to check that out.

[dfrecore]

Competency-based and highly-ranked are not 2 terms that generally go together. Fast and highly-ranked either. You can have one or the other.

[bjcheung77]

Just because U of Melbourne is Australia's top university, do you have to take your Masters there? Have you thought about doing a US Bachelors and laddering up to a US Masters with a Top Ranked US School instead? What is your end goal? Are you going to be traveling or moving overseas any time soon?

My recommendation would be different. There are a few programs that can be done fast at the undergrad level, such as doing a TESU BACS and then getting a Georgia Tech MSCS. The main benefit is affordability/ease/speed and value to that would be, it's "more" recognized in a sense than just usable in Australia.

Let's take a sample look: You take NAU at $3000/6 month term, but it takes you 2 years. That's $12K USD. When you get into U of Melbourne, their program is $50K USD for the two years. Total $62K USD and it will take 4 years. The ranking of U of Melbourne vs Georgia Tech is almost the same globally on Times Higher Ed.

Now, if you take the TESU BACS, you can probably finish this in a year at less than $10K. The Georgia Tech MSCS can be done for about $10K as well in 2 years, you have that for $20K and you can use the extra money for another Masters or Graduate Certificate to further specialize in ABC or XYZ (AI or Software Engineering, whatever floats your boat).

[davewill]

...
Let's take a sample look:  You take NAU at $3000/6 month term, but it takes you 2 years.  That's $12K USD.  When you get into U of Melbourne, their program is $50K USD for the two years.  Total $62K USD and it will take 4 years.  The ranking of U of Melbourne vs Georgia Tech is almost the same globally on Times Higher Ed.

Now, if you take the TESU BACS, you can probably finish this in a year at less than $10K.  The Georgia Tech MSCS can be done for about $10K as well in 2 years, you have that for $20K and you can use the extra money for another Masters or Graduate Certificate to further specialize in ABC or XYZ (AI or Software Engineering, whatever floats your boat).

If you assume his experience will allow him to do NAU in a year (as he said), then it's actually cheaper than TESU, plus it's ranked, so he can try for his first choice, U of Melbourne and consider a program like GT OMSCS as a secondary plan. The only rub I see is that nobody here (to my knowledge) has actually DONE the NAU program so we can't give him direct pointers. However, I'm sure there's an online community out there of people in the NAU program which he should definitely tap into before choosing it.