IT professional wants to earn bachelors

[2Cool4School]

Where do I begin.. After earning an unaccredited 'associates degree' with a for-profit scam-style trade school, I was fortunate enough to enter my career in information technology. I was placed as an intern, was hired as a junior engineer, and rigorously climbed the ladder over the last 10 years.

I've recently applied for admissions with TESU. I have not received any correspondence back yet.

I need a degree program that will allow me to leverage my work experience as well as my current active certifications:

FINRA Series 7
Cisco CCNP, CCNA, CCDA
MICROSOFT MCP
VMware VCP 3,4,5,6

I would expect credit for some of these industry-standard certs, but possibly not others (e.g.: VMware) because they are vendor specific. I presume that I will work through the gory details once I make contact with TESU admissions, however I wanted to reach out to this group and see if anybody is in a similar situation that I am in.

I am interested in one of the following programs:

* BSBA in Computer Information Systems
* BSAST Degree in Information Technology
* Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity


Essentially the program that I enroll in will be determined by which program aligns best with my existing work experience & certifications. I'm hoping to take a prior learning assessment and gain some credits that way.


Can somebody steer me towards a good starting point? I'm starting to learn about CLEP and DSSP tests. My goal is to earn this degree by credit-by-examination. Does anybody have any feedback for me?


Any insight is appreciated. Thank you,


-Eric

[KayV]

Charter Oak generally offers more credit than TESU does for IT certs. For example, your FINRA series 7 would count for
Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments (3 credits, upper division level)
Investment Management (3 credits, upper division level)

That being said, TESU's BSBA in CIS is probably a much easier-to-complete degree, with the added bonus of having a test for the Capstone instead of having to take a class (they are phasing this option out though). Charter Oak requires 6 hours of residency.

I think I would just send my transcripts and IT certs to all of the Big 3 to see what each one offers.

[jsd]

Obligatory WGU recommendation.

[dfrecore]

I don't think TESU is the best way to go with this, as they don't give any (or not many) credits for certs. And the IT and Cybersecurity degrees are not able to be tested out of, so would be very expensive.

TESU's business degree is probably not what you're looking for - they certainly won't utilize your certs, and they won't take advantage of what you already know. It's a good degree for some people, but honestly it doesn't sound like what you're looking for. It truly is just a business degree with a FEW computer courses, and while easy enough to test out of, I don't think it's what you want (it will say BSBA, not BSBA in CIS, and if you want to show that it's a BSBA in CIS, you'll have to show your transcript, which will show just how light this degree is in the CIS area).

I think I would recommend WGU on this one. The only caveat - apply, but do NOT enroll until after you get all of the credits you want to transfer in. They will not take any transfer credits after you enroll. But, before you enroll, they will take a bunch of stuff, and you can knock out all of your Gen Ed's via testing out, and probably some of the core that way as well, and more core will be knocked out by your certs. That would leave you with maybe 25% of the degree to complete via the school. You could definitely do that in a single term there, which would be the fastest & least expensive way to get your degree.

Hodges is also a competency-based program and they will take ACE-recommended credit. It's worth looking at, although it's also light on CIS - but not as light as TESU.

You can also try COSC and EC. Not sure what they have that you'd want, but they may also end up not being able to be fully tested out of, so more expensive than WGU.

[jsd]

Hodges is also a competency-based program and they will take ACE-recommended credit. It's worth looking at, although it's also light on CIS

Great advice above, but to this particular point, Hodges actually has a competency based BS in Computer Information Technology
(as well as Cybersecurity and Forensics, or Software Development). So their Business options might be light in IT or CIS, but they have much better options for the field.

But I've never heard from anyone who has gone through any of the Hodges programs. I'd be interesting in hearing what the experience is like.

[dfrecore]

Great advice above, but to this particular point, Hodges actually has a competency based BS in Computer Information Technology
(as well as Cybersecurity and Forensics, or Software Development). So their Business options might be light in IT or CIS, but they have much better options for the field.

But I've never heard from anyone who has gone through any of the Hodges programs. I'd be interesting in hearing what the experience is like.

I'm trying to get my husband to go through the CIT in Networking degree. Really easy for him to test out of more than half of the courses there, so he would get it done really quickly. I'll let you know how it goes (my arm-twisting, and how he does).

[2Cool4School]

Thank you so much for the feedback.

I don't mind earning a plain manila BSBA versus a BSBA in CIS. I don't know if I'll stay in IT forever. I may try to break into finance, business consulting, or project mgmt down the road. The challenge is landing an opportunity where I can earn the same wages that I earn today. Unfortunately, that's not realistic for me so I stay put.


I took an MITx class wth EDX which earned credit with Charter Oak. I would have to read up on the residency requirements.


So that's the plan. I've already got the ball rolling with TESU. I'll inquire with WGU and Charter Oak and see where the best fit is (God bless a competitive market)... Thank you again for your help, and please keep the feedback coming if there is anything else that you wish to share.

Best,
-Eric

[dfrecore]

Charter Oak is like TESU, their residency requirements are low - a cornerstone, and a capstone (6cr total). Definitely check with them to see about your certs, and the Cybersecurity degree, as well as the BSBA.

[videogamesrock]

Can you share more about your vocational credits you posted earlier. ENMU does have a program where they will accept those credits. The drawback is you'd have to take 10 courses with them. I would assume the 10 courses would be less painful than repeating the 60 credits for your vocational degree? If you scam school was ITT Tech COSC will accept those.

[sanantone]

Can you share the name of the for-profit school? I'm curious because a lot of people called ITT Tech unaccredited when it wasn't. WGU and COSC are taking their credits. People have the tendency to call nationally accredited schools unaccredited, so I just want to make sure your school was really unaccredited so that you don't throw away credits.