Pierpont BOG AAS and IT certifications

[raekwon]

My actual question: does anyone know if Pierpont will consider IT certifications (specifically, CompTIA A+, Net+, Security+, and EC-Council CEH) for credit toward the BOG AAS? It appears that the WV Board of Governors program is who determines if certifications will count. Anyone have any experience getting any of these certifications to count as part of the 60 necessary credits?

Background: So I'm headed into WGU's cybersecurity BS program, and after reading a lot here and other places, I'm pretty sold on the idea of getting this BOG AAS from Pierpont and transferring it in before officially enrolling at WGU. I currently have zero (0) RA credits, so I'm starting fresh and will likely be getting my 12 RA credits as inexpensively as possible from Olivet or UExcel (or a combination of those) plus the one graded credit from the Clackamas library class. The other 48 will come from various other sources--CLEP, ALEKS, the TEEX cybersecurity course, etc. I'm just wondering if my certifications will help out in that.

Also, is Pierpont still the only WV community college that doesn't have a residency requirement for the BOG AAS?

[rachel83az]

I don't think anyone here has tried transferring in any certificates that aren't ACE-recommended. Thankfully, even if they don't accept the certificates, it should be pretty easy to get an IT emphasis using either TEEX or the Google IT Support Professional certificate + extra tech courses at Sophia. For the graded credit, you might want to go with the $25 one from ASU instead of the free one from Clackamas.

As far as we have seen, yes, Pierpont is the only one without a residency requirement for the BOG AAS.

[bjcheung77]

Your easiest option is to go for the Sophia.org Intro to IT and the free TEEX Cybersecurity courses, as these are open book/non proctored, you can have a second monitor to multi-task and look up the answers in the provided course materials/pdf files. If you need the graded credits because you don't have anything yet, you can take the course mentioned above, if you do have community college credits already, skip this step. Send in "ALL" certs for evaluation...

Pierpont is the last remaining one that doesn't require residency credits. WVNCC had an option as a few members completed that degree, like a few of the other WV colleges, they made a change afterwards that required 3 or more credits residency. Back in 2018, I emailed all the WV colleges and asked about the residency requirement, some schools require 3 and others required up to the 12 residency.

A side note is, for the WV colleges, they mention there is an option to request an exception for the residency credits that are state mandated. I haven't seen anyone on the board asking for that exception, if someone does ask for a 3 credit exemption from any one of the 8-9 community colleges and has an approval, that should result in a "free" degree, pretty much the same as Pierpont.

[origamishuttle]

About the TEEX credits, they're still not showing as renewed with ACE. There's always the Google IT Support Professional Certificate. It can be completed within the first week free trial if you already have the knowledge and you focus on completing only the required tests / assignments, or you can take your time and pay the monthly fee.

For graded RA credits, wouldn't the ONU credits be graded, precluding the need for CCC or ASU? For quick non-graded RA credits, there are TECEPs. For the remaining ACE credits, Sophia is the way to go.

[NoStudentNoCry]

For graded RA credits, wouldn't the ONU credits be graded, precluding the need for CCC or ASU?

ONU credits are graded, yes.

[bjcheung77]

Here's my recommendation, instead of going for an emphasis in IT at Pierpont for their BOG AAS, you may want to have a different concentration to show for.  In other words, if you take enough Sophia.org courses, you can have a concentration in Business instead.  Just in case it will land you something in the "Business" field if you want to enter that realm later.  That is if you have a little more energy/time on your hands, it won't cost much more either... not all courses will transfer into the IT degree you're looking for though.

Since you're starting off with 0 credits and possess some IT Certs...it's optimal that you're going for a BSCIA at WGU, further to that, you may want to see if PUG IT degrees will accept your certs or provide you more credits, you want to keep your options as open as possible and swing to the one that you can complete cheaper, easier, faster.  You may want to see which is more beneficial to you in the end, it may better prepare you for a supervisor/leadership role.  You've got a pretty good plan already as I just reviewed your other thread as well.

---

If you're taking the ONU courses, do you know which courses you're taking? They're for RA grades, it'll be used for calculation at Pierpont, but do you need more than one? Is it for your future degree after Pierpont or WGU? I would take as many courses as possible that will fit into the Pierpont/WGU degree using alternative credits unless you require anything with graded credits.

[raekwon]

Your easiest option is to go for the Sophia.org Intro to IT and the free TEEX Cybersecurity courses, as these are open book/non proctored, you can have a second monitor to multi-task and look up the answers in the provided course materials/pdf files.  If you need the graded credits because you don't have anything yet, you can take the course mentioned above, if you do have community college credits already, skip this step.  Send in "ALL" certs for evaluation...

Yeah, the only credits I have are nationally accredited, so it looks like I'm out of luck there.

About the TEEX credits, they're still not showing as renewed with ACE. There's always the Google IT Support Professional Certificate. It can be completed within the first week free trial if you already have the knowledge and you focus on completing only the required tests / assignments, or you can take your time and pay the monthly fee.

For graded RA credits, wouldn't the ONU credits be graded, precluding the need for CCC or ASU? For quick non-graded RA credits, there are TECEPs. For the remaining ACE credits, Sophia is the way to go.

I mean, I don't need the Info Systems emphasis on my BOG degree by any means, but it'd be nice to have. I've only got one TEEX class to go until I'm done with Cyber 101, so I'll see if I can get that to show up on ACE/Credly. If not, I'll check out the Google cert. I didn't realize that there was a free trial available for it. It's probably (hopefully) something I can breeze through.

Thanks for pointing out that the ONU courses will be graded. Dunno what I was thinking there.

Also, I've noticed that folks here really love the Sophia exams. What's the advantage of paying for them over doing Modern States courses and getting free CLEP vouchers? (That's been my tentative plan for at least College Algebra, English Comp 1/2, and Information Systems.)

[rachel83az]

Also, I've noticed that folks here really love the Sophia exams. What's the advantage of paying for them over doing Modern States courses and getting free CLEP vouchers? (That's been my tentative plan for at least College Algebra, English Comp 1/2, and Information Systems.)

For English Comp, definitely do NOT do Sophia. For the others, you have to consider your time investment as well. In the same time as it would take you to complete one ModernStates course and schedule a CLEP exam, you could be done with two or three Sophia courses. You can complete Sophia 100% from home, while that's not recommended for ModernStates. While you can, theoretically, do at-home CLEP exams, there are SERIOUS privacy concerns with the specific proctor that they use. I don't know about you, but it makes me uncomfortable to know that I would have to give 100% control of my computer settings over to some person who may or may not actually know what they're doing. These concerns do not exist if you go into a CLEP testing center, but then how much is your time worth traveling back and forth? Unless you live almost atop a testing center, you need to account for your time spent traveling back and forth.

tl;dr: most Sophia courses are faster and ultimately cost less than ModernStates exams. This person did at least 7 in a matter of a day or so.

[raekwon]

Here's my recommendation, instead of going for an emphasis in IT at Pierpont for their BOG AAS, you may want to have a different concentration to show for.  In other words, if you take enough Sophia.org courses, you can have a concentration in Business instead.  Just in case it will land you something in the "Business" field if you want to enter that realm later.  That is if you have a little more energy/time on your hands, it won't cost much more either... not all courses will transfer into the IT degree you're looking for though.

Since you're starting off with 0 credits and possess some IT Certs...it's optimal that you're going for a BSCIA at WGU, further to that, you may want to see if PUG IT degrees will accept your certs or provide you more credits, you want to keep your options as open as possible and swing to the one that you can complete cheaper, easier, faster.  You may want to see which is more beneficial to you in the end, it may better prepare you for a supervisor/leadership role.  You've got a pretty good plan already as I just reviewed your other thread as well.

---

If you're taking the ONU courses, do you know which courses you're taking? They're for RA grades, it'll be used for calculation at Pierpont, but do you need more than one?  Is it for your future degree after Pierpont or WGU?  I would take as many courses as possible that will fit into the Pierpont/WGU degree using alternative credits unless you require anything with graded credits.

Thank you, this is very helpful. Not a bad idea to have an emphasis other than Info Systems. I'll have to see.

From what I've seen, WGU's BSCSIA will be the best option for my time/money budget and my interests, as far as undergrad goes. I'd strongly considered Purdue Global and SNHU as well, but WGU came out the winner. After that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. Grad school is in the back of my mind, but there are at least four vastly different routes I'm pondering taking if I even do that. (Continue with cybersecurity? MBA or MS in IT management? Education/teaching? Divinity school?!) I'm trying to only worry about getting this BOG AAS and then the BS from WGU for now.

I'm not sure yet which ONU courses or other exams I'll be taking. I'm still in the preliminary stages of planning this thing out, but I'm definitely trying to come up with a combination of courses and exams that'll serve me best with regard to covering degree requirements at both Pierpont and WGU, exactly like you said.

Also, I've noticed that folks here really love the Sophia exams. What's the advantage of paying for them over doing Modern States courses and getting free CLEP vouchers? (That's been my tentative plan for at least College Algebra, English Comp 1/2, and Information Systems.)

For English Comp, definitely do NOT do Sophia. For the others, you have to consider your time investment as well. In the same time as it would take you to complete one ModernStates course and schedule a CLEP exam, you could be done with two or three Sophia courses. You can complete Sophia 100% from home, while that's not recommended for ModernStates. While you can, theoretically, do at-home CLEP exams, there are SERIOUS privacy concerns with the specific proctor that they use. I don't know about you, but it makes me uncomfortable to know that I would have to give 100% control of my computer settings over to some person who may or may not actually know what they're doing. These concerns do not exist if you go into a CLEP testing center, but then how much is your time worth traveling back and forth? Unless you live almost atop a testing center, you need to account for your time spent traveling back and forth.

tl;dr: most Sophia courses are faster and ultimately cost less than ModernStates exams. This person did at least 7 in a matter of a day or so.

Awesome. Super-helpful. Thank you so much.

[rachel83az]

Divinity school?!

If you're serious about this, you might want to check out NationsU. They're NA, not RA, and you have to find your own proctor, but they're $450 per quarter for students who live in the US. The first quarter is free. https://nationsu.edu/tuition-policy/