TESU - BS Degree in Data Science and Analytics

[Thatch]

Short question: What is the most effective gamification of completing the TESU - BS Degree in Data Science and Analytics, when starting from 0?  (shortest timeframe, most bang for the buck, order of operations, etc.)

Long question / background: I used to think I was a smart man, then I started working though all the information here on TESU (and similar) how to get course credit, all the different services, ALEKS, Davar, StraighterLine, Saylor, Sophia, Study.com … the mind wobbles.

Add to this my unique situation (aren't all our situation by definition unique?). I am already a Data Scientist for the US Army. I have a long career in IT and DS, with effectively no college credits or certifications. I have been very lucky/fortunate/blessed over my career, but occasionally I run into roadblocks from not having a degree. Just recently I was given an offer letter for what was certainly a dream job of Data Scientist in Italy, and was rejected at the last moment by the military on a resume review because of my lack of degree. That one stung a bit (but I did get a subsequent job shortly there after in another location, so the roadblocks are hit and miss) I say all that to at least give an idea of where I'm at and what I need. 

I've toyed with the idea of getting a degree a couple times before, but because a career specific degree wasn't available from one of the big 3, I just wasn't all that motivated to get a generic degree when I'm already in a job that many people would kill for. My preference is more 'work at your own pace' options as I am currently working away from my home, which means I bounce between large periods of time with no distractions at all, to travel and being around family with days without any time for courses. I'm not against CLEPs but would need to couple that with Instacertcredit or something similar as I've taken a few practice tests thinking "I'm good at tests, and I know this stuff already" and getting halfway through the test and realizing that while I might know some of the information, the details are missing.... and important. So courses that include instruction towards a test, but can be worked through as the learners pace are preferred.

Finally, the whole TESU residence thing is confusing to me. The whole, when to start with TESU issue is confusing. Do I just figure out a course roadmap, collect as many credits as possible and then enroll? My time considering a degree before was focused on not making a mistake as money was very tight. I have some flexibility now, but still have no desire to waste money. My focus is on bang for the buck on this degree and it seems like there are a few 'gotchas' with TESU. I'd love to see a roadmap forward on this, since it seems that there are orders in which to do certain classes, or certain tests, everything really. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing your input.

[natshar]

The thing about TESU data science is that the area of study is through statistics.com. This makes the degree more expensive and takes longer. The statistics.com courses are 4 or 8 weeks long and only available with certain start dates. Meaning if there is a class you need that doesn't have a start date for 6 months then you will have to wait that long.

WGU (western governors) also has a data science BS. You can transfer in up to 90 credits (StraighterLine, CLEP, etc) and then do the remaining 30 at WGU. However, WGU is self-paced competency so you can finish those 30 credits as fast as you want. Given your background, you could do those 30 credits in 6 months or less.

I don't know much about the data science program at either school. But I think you should at least look into WGU. I know it will be cheaper for sure and faster too.

Also if you are active duty US military CLEPs (and dsst) are free so I would at least try a few.

Also do you have any college credit at all? or anything that could potentially be counted as credit? list it below if you do.

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Statistics.com courses with dates: https://www.statistics.com/degree-progra...gree-tesu/

[Thatch]

Thanks for the information. The problem I have with the WGU degree is it is probably sounds a bit silly in that it is a Data Analytics degree, not a Data Science degree and that reads as 'lesser' to many people (regardless of the content of the coursework sadly). Also, the fewer transfer credits that WGU takes in compared to TESU has always made them a bit less appealing to me. That said, I formed that opinion from past TESU offerings, and from my reading of the Data Science degree that seemed to imply that there were other options on where to get those DS specific courses rather than only Statistics.com... having read through it again, perhaps that's not the case, and if so, the fact that some courses are offered once a year, that could drastically lengthen the time it would take for me to complete a degree. However, the cost of the courses doesn't bother me a lot, simply because they are the core courses from a specialist organization. That's a pill I can swallow. Paying those kind of prices for Sociology, or English Lit just makes me angry thinking about....

As for my credits. Most of my learning has been self taught or the occasional non-accredited course (think Udemy and the like) Otherwise, I might be given credit for military basic and tech school from years ago (been out for years), but I can't think of much else.

regardless, thanks for your thoughts.

[bjcheung77]

Thatch, do you have a JST transcript? LOL, at this point in time, it's best to just get started and not worry about the "name" of the degree. What I mean by that is to work on courses that will transfer to both TESU/WGU. So, start with the ALEKS/CSMLearn course to hit your math/stats requirements.

Then work on all the CLEP/DSST you can handle to get you to "90 credits", while you're working towards that 90 credit goal, you can decide then if it's TESU or WGU, maybe another school will hit your fancy by then. The main point is, get credits that transfer to BOTH through CLEP/ACE options.

[Thatch]

First off, thanks for chiming in. I've been reading through a few of your other posts that were particularly helpful. I'd agree with your general sentiment to just start on credits that are shared. Your previous posts are quite good covering TESU, but finding the correlating WGU courses has been a bit of a challenge (other than the direct straighterline partner college page... but that (of course) only covers their offering for WGU, not the potential other credits that might be out there)

Good question on the JST. I was in a very long time ago. I couldn't even tell you if they've pulled that data off the stone tablets it was written on. But I'll make some inquiries.

Is there anyone here that has done some sort of WGU course catalog equivalency matrix? I've tried to do some digging, but the search function on the site restricts 3 letter word searches and smaller, making "WGU" impossible to search.

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, it's hard to find the equivalencies, the only way is through the provider websites or through the institution websites. I think the only person other than myself who has a matrix excel file would be Dfrecore (yes, I even named it that file matrix.xlsx) I've removed many providers that don't exist, especially the NCCRS providers and left mainly the ACE providers in my matrix file.

These four links should help you get a handle on your program of choice at WGU, the website or TESU has more info and very clear of their transfers if you go to SL/Study.com directly. The TESU CLEP/DSST exams site also shows you the exact equivalents. The main thing you want is to take at least 4 courses from StraighterLine and 4 from Study.com, to reap the benefits of their tuition discounts and also to take advantage of courses that aren't available from each provider.

General Transfer: https://partners.wgu.edu/transferguidelines
WGU Data Management/Data Analytics (Yes, it's their Data Science program) https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSDMDA.aspx
StraighterLine transfers: https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...753&pid=73
Study.com transfers: https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...142&pid=73

[Merlin]

Also, the fewer transfer credits that WGU takes in compared to TESU has always made them a bit less appealing to me.

WGU pretty much takes everything that TESU does, with the exception of NCCRS credits. But WGU also accepts NA credits where TESU only accepts RA credits, so all-in-all, I think WGU actually accepts more transfer credits than TESU.

That said, WGU is more limited in the variety of courses that can be used to meet their degree program requirements since they require specific courses for each of the competencies for their programs. Most other colleges give students more choices in what courses they need to take to meet specific degree requirements. This means it can be harder to match a transcript to specific courses at WGU.

To avoid transfer issues, you need to make sure to review the transfer guide for the degree program you're interested in and look for online courses that match against the syllabus of each course you're looking to transfer in. If they have the same name, that will usually get you 90% of the way, then you just need to look at the syllabus of each to make sure that they align most of the way. Just be sure not to take courses that are not accepted for transfer (each degree has a few of those, such as the capstone course.)

If you plan ahead, you can make sure that 100% of your transfer credits are accepted at WGU.

[natshar]

Another thing to keep in mind is the 30 credits you have to take at WGU aren't like normal college credits but self-paced similar to SL, study.com, etc. And you pay per term not per course. So if you can do 30 credits in 6 months (which works out to a course every 2 weeks) you only have to pay the $3k fee for one term making it a much cheaper and faster option than TESU.

Whereas the statistics.om courses and SOS-110 at TESU have specific lengths and take longer. I also have no idea if the data science students are exempt from the residency wavier or not because of the statistics.com partnership. Definitely a question to ask if you are considering TESU.

However, I don't know much about this degree and maybe TESU is a better option. TESU might be more money and take longer but maybe there are other factors in your degree search.

[allvia]

Another thing to keep in mind is the 30 credits you have to take at WGU aren't like normal college credits but self-paced similar to SL, study.com, etc. And you pay per term not per course. So if you can do 30 credits in 6 months (which works out to a course every 2 weeks) you only have to pay the $3k fee for one term making it a much cheaper and faster option than TESU.

Whereas the statistics.om courses and SOS-110 at TESU have specific lengths and take longer. I also have no idea if the data science students are exempt from the residency wavier or not because of the statistics.com partnership. Definitely a question to ask if you are considering TESU.

However, I don't know much about this degree and maybe TESU is a better option. TESU might be more money and take longer but maybe there are other factors in your degree search.

Something else to keep in mind -  if your company offers tuition assistance WGU works really well for that; they are set up for it.

[Thatch]

Something else to keep in mind -  if your company offers tuition assistance WGU works really well for that; they are set up for it.

Really, how so?


I've been working a matrix out between the various options and finding Study.com to more courses and cheaper (depending on the number of courses you get through). That said I did see this on Study.com "A student can pass up to 2 courses a month"... I thought I'd seen discussion on this site that it was 5 (and people were frustrated that it was dropped from unlimited before) which is a bit limiting.

I'm also checking with a local school with online options that might be able to fill in the gaps since their cost per credit is quite low. Not enough info on their website yet to make a call on that one yet though.