BOG AAS v TESU ASNSM CS

[xicovu]

The appeal of NOT doing all of it at WGU is I sometimes have to stop doing school for months at a time with no warning to study or learn new things, or travel. Doing it piece meal via these other ACE sources and turning it into an AS at COSC gives me that latitude. My work uses a "matrix" for internal promotions, raises, etc, so even an AS is going to help me out quickly. I do agree the WGU Cloud Sys Admin course is what I should get, I'd just like to get as close to 90 outside of the pre-paid term as possible.

As for the classes LL computer classes to make my de facto AS IT degree, I lined all of those up with the transfer requirements from WGU. That would leave 15 "real" credits at WGU + portfolio/capstone.

All that make sense?

I do think you should earn all the credits you can (90) before enrolling in WGU (you must complete 30 at WGU) - and yes a generic  associates at COSC could likely be earned in route at a reasonable cost.  Plan for what works at WGU and then work backwards to an associates through COSC; as it seems quite clear you want that associates degree first (but keep in mind it doesn't really help much on the resume as far as applying for jobs in the first place  when it comes to "checking the box" that requires a bachelors - this 'check the box' goal is in fact what drove many, if not most, of us to this forum in the first place).

You can transfer in credits to WGU as often as you wish once you apply (so get a few earned before applying), but you cannot transfer any more in once you enroll. ACE only for WGU, no NCCRS (such as onlinedegree.com).

Now as far as your concern with WGU about suddenly not being able to complete courses - you will likely be surprised by how few courses you'd have to complete within the 6 month term in order to be eligible to use your tuition reimbursement.  You would not have to complete everything in 6 months (but if time allowed in your schedule you could); and WGU can help you with what your minimum completion requirement is - they work with people all the time that use tuition reimbursement.  Also, if you had already brought in all the Gen Eds and such the courses you would be working on at WGU would be based the technical subject areas (not the boring 'fluff' of the required of the gen eds), so you'd likely move pretty quickly - meeting your tuition reimbursement requirements while still moving forward towards earning your bachelor. That bachelors degree (with new IT certifications along the way as a WGU bonus!) which results in  the  magical ability of even just applying for jobs that you had not been able to prior because you were not able to 'check the box' of holding a degree.

A large majority of IT jobs count "experience" by treating 2 years of school to 2-4 years experience. With 7 years experience, that pushes me past the decade mark. I needed 6 years to qualify for my current job, but with an AS it would of been 3. I just don't see me having the bandwidth to cover all the material in a B.S. even over the next year. Even with the AS i was anticipating 1 year with only a couple hours a week. The majority of WGU cert's are worthless as far as hiring mangers go. Only the big name certs (AWS, VMWare, MCSE, CCNA/P) are actually going to matter.

How much time are people dedicating a day to finish WGU quickly?

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The appeal of NOT doing all of it at WGU is I sometimes have to stop doing school for months at a time with no warning to study or learn new things, or travel. Doing it piece meal via these other ACE sources and turning it into an AS at COSC gives me that latitude. My work uses a "matrix" for internal promotions, raises, etc, so even an AS is going to help me out quickly. I do agree the WGU Cloud Sys Admin course is what I should get, I'd just like to get as close to 90 outside of the pre-paid term as possible.

As for the classes LL computer classes to make my de facto AS IT degree, I lined all of those up with the transfer requirements from WGU. That would leave 15 "real" credits at WGU + portfolio/capstone.

All that make sense?

I do think you should earn all the credits you can (90) before enrolling in WGU (you must complete 30 at WGU) - and yes a generic  associates at COSC could likely be earned in route at a reasonable cost.  Plan for what works at WGU and then work backwards to an associates through COSC; as it seems quite clear you want that associates degree first (but keep in mind it doesn't really help much on the resume as far as applying for jobs in the first place  when it comes to "checking the box" that requires a bachelors - this 'check the box' goal is in fact what drove many, if not most, of us to this forum in the first place).

You can transfer in credits to WGU as often as you wish once you apply (so get a few earned before applying), but you cannot transfer any more in once you enroll. ACE only for WGU, no NCCRS (such as onlinedegree.com).

Now as far as your concern with WGU about suddenly not being able to complete courses - you will likely be surprised by how few courses you'd have to complete within the 6 month term in order to be eligible to use your tuition reimbursement.  You would not have to complete everything in 6 months (but if time allowed in your schedule you could); and WGU can help you with what your minimum completion requirement is - they work with people all the time that use tuition reimbursement.  Also, if you had already brought in all the Gen Eds and such the courses you would be working on at WGU would be based the technical subject areas (not the boring 'fluff' of the required of the gen eds), so you'd likely move pretty quickly - meeting your tuition reimbursement requirements while still moving forward towards earning your bachelor. That bachelors degree (with new IT certifications along the way as a WGU bonus!) which results in  the  magical ability of even just applying for jobs that you had not been able to prior because you were not able to 'check the box' of holding a degree.

A large majority of IT jobs count "experience" by treating 2 years of school to 2-4 years experience. With 7 years experience, that pushes me past the decade mark. I needed 6 years to qualify for my current job, but with an AS it would of been 3. I just don't see me having the bandwidth to cover all the material in a B.S. even over the next year. Even with the AS i was anticipating 1 year with only a couple hours a week. The majority of WGU cert's are worthless as far as hiring mangers go. Only the big name certs (AWS, VMWare, MCSE, CCNA/P) are actually going to matter.

How much time are people dedicating a day to finish WGU quickly?

I just can't wrap my head around the idea of being able to get an AWS SysOps cert alone in 3 months, let alone a BS. And then people that need to learn VMware, Azure, all these other things I just can't see how it's humanly possible for people to finish something like this so fast.