TESC BA Computer Science Degree Plan (Have many general ed credits already.)

[instant000]

Please Note: I'm pretty flush on general education credits, and have credits just lying around at this point. If necessary, I have no problem with doing CLEPs. I've actually taken two programming courses already, so there's a chance I may be able to get two of those cleared, also.

According to the TESC catalog, credit towards an undergraduate certificate can be used to roll over into a degree program. In this case, the undergraduate certificate contains courses I would have to take anyway, so it looks like an easy choice.

Key:
? = Begin Section
! = Completed Section
- = Task pending
* = Task completed previously


? Begin pre-enrollment courses and testing
- STRAIGHTERLINE Calculus II (Integral Calculus)
- DSST Introduction to Computers
! Complete pre-enrollment courses and testing

? Begin Undergraduate Certificate in Computer Science (pass six courses)
- TESC Computer Programming Language #1
- TESC Computer Programming Language #2
- TESC Assembly Language Programming
- TESC Computer Architecture
- TESC Data Structures
- TESC Operating Systems
! Complete Undergraduate Certificate in Computer Science

? Begin BA Computer Science (pass four additional courses)
Required:
* STRAIGHTERLINE Calculus II (Integral Calculus)
* DSST Introduction to Computers
* TESC Data Structures
- TESC Discrete Math
- TESC Computer Science Capstone
-----------------------------
Electives: (21 hours)
* TESC Computer Programming Language #1
* TESC Computer Programming Language #2
* TESC Assembly Language Programming
* TESC Computer Architecture
* TESC Operating Systems
- TESC Computer Arithmetic Algorithms
- TESC Computer Organization
! Complete BA Computer Science

Is it reasonable to expect to clear ten TESC courses (specifically, these ten) within a year of enrollment?

[instant000]

Since I can't edit the original post, I'll add this additional information.

I am doing this so that I can be setup for a good M.S. Computer Science program. (I want to dig a little deeper theoretically into computers, as I want to be a better Information Security Professional, if that makes any sense.)

I already have these degrees:
B.S. Information Systems, American Sentinel University (NA)
M.S. Information Security and Assurance, Western Governors University (RA)

The issue is that a good M.S. Computer Science program usually requires prerequisite courses like Algorithms, Computer Organization, Assembly Language, Discrete Math, etc. I figure that if I'm going to take all those courses, I might as well just go for a degree. Also, since I was going to be doing that, I'd rather have an (RA) degree, as it has slightly more utility when applying to Master level programs.

I hope this provides a bit more information.

I really appreciate the PM with suggestions.

[dmar001]

I don't see why not. I need to complete 9 classes in computer science core and the capstone which I plan to hopefully complete in 1 year. Theres 4 terms in a year I don't see why you can't break it up throughout the year. I'm doing it 3 this term, 2 the next (to have time to knock out cleps and SL classes), 3 following term, and 2 last term.

[instant000]

Upon further investigation, I realize that the plan won't work.

I'd need to find some other electives, instead of these classes:
- TESC Computer Arithmetic Algorithms
- TESC Computer Organization

TESC does not offer courses in Algorithms or Computer Organization.

From what I can tell, Computer Organization is often taught using the same text as Data Structures (so they're probably synonymous here.)

I see that there is the Networking Technology TECEP
Also, there is the DSST for MIS that is apparently accepted.

I'll try to update the original post.

Update: I could not update the original post.

Oh well. Hopefully someone reads the entire thread before running with the original post.

[dcan]

Yeah that is something that threw me at first too. TESC has the concept of a degree separate from the courses they actually teach. I think there is at least one degree program if I'm not mistaken that they say simply cannot be completed only through their courses -- maybe most of them in the AST path actually. This is because they accept courses as transfer credit.

TESC will however transcribe equivalencies. For example, if you took a course in Analysis of Algorithms at another school and transferred it in TESC would accept it as equivalent to COS-385. Thing is, there is no COS-385 at TESC (I just made that number up), but they have to say it is acceptable as something so they create a new "course" in their database and make your incoming transfer course "equivalent" to it so they can grant you credit for it toward your degree. There isn't anything really "wrong" with that, it's just very different from how normal schools work. TESC is primarily an assessment college, not a "traditional" college, so their methods are a bit different.

But they don't tell you any of that. Instead they just list a bunch of courses that work for their degree, even when they don't teach half of them. It's up to you (unfortunately) to contact the advisors and ask if a course at another school is applicable towards the degree and if so what it will slot in as. The advisor will look it up in their system and determine if it duplicates something you already have or duplicates something else you've planned.

I'm going through the data structures course right now. From what I see looking at a few other courses on computer organization the two have almost nothing in common. Computer organization (from the ones I found) is analogous to the Computer Architecture course at TESC, i.e. it covers fundamental hardware components and things like binary math, logic gates, etc. Data structures deals with in-memory structures created by software such as lists, stacks, queues, trees, graphs, etc. Data structures and algorithms is sort of combined at TESC but its really data structures with some talk about algorithms thrown in. You are correct that they do not offer an Analysis of Algorithms course, but you are free to take that elsewhere and transfer it in as long as it does not duplicate something else. Such a course would be heavy on math and proving algorithm "correctness" mathematically rather than implementation of data structures themselves.

At TESC the Computer Science courses are accepted as gen eds, therefore they are all listed in the gen ed courses list, available here. I had to figure that one out myself too and it took a while to put two and two together.

Hope this helps a fellow CS student.

PS data structures is pretty easy if you can get the hang of C++ and write in a modular fashion. I spent extra time up front building a modular, templated linked list with plenty of operations. Now queues, stacks, etc are pretty much trivial to implement. I'm pretty sure I could implement a full network graph with only minor changes to the underlying list, just passing in a struct containing an array of edges as the list item for each node. That said, I *sucked* at it at first until I got the hang of C++. For what its worth.

Edit If I'm not mistaken TESC accepts the CIS credits as COS electives as well, they are also on the gen eds list. That is where the MIS test slots in. You can see all test equivalencies for CLEP tests and DSST tests at the two links. TESC did a much better job of listing the equivalencies but they really buried them on their site, so it isn't easy to find unless you know what to look for.

There's also the older unofficial equivalency list that covers everything discussed here, including Straighterline, FEMAs, etc.