Degree Planning from scratch for late career software engineer

[christinadq]

P.S. Another thought. While his job may want his bachelor's degree to be U.S. based, graduate programs will not mind that he has a foreign degree. He could consider doing a master's to satisfy this need for a U.S. degree rather than getting a "redundant" bachelor's degree. The downside is that it won't be as cheap as the bachelor's (although the Georgia Tech OMSCS, at $7K or so, is pretty cheap), nor will he be able to go through it quickly. On the plus side, he will actually be learning new things, and enhancing his resume in a more meaningful way.

This is a great idea! If he can skip directly to the master's degree, he can avoid all the extra work of general electives and lower levels, and just concentrate on what interests him. Maybe this? https://www.wgu.edu/online-business-degr...ogram.html

I wish that would be possible, but his coursework over there was not enough for a degree either.  It was a software development training program that he took, then starting working, then went into the military, then was asked to come back and teach the course to others coming out of high school and did so for two years.  It was not a degree conferring program but could have been transferred into one.  He had no interest in sitting in school for years when he could be out in the world doing.  

I did, however, look at a bridge type program at one of those that is a Bachelors to Masters program.  That could be interesting, I will have to find it again.

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P.S. Another thought. While his job may want his bachelor's degree to be U.S. based, graduate programs will not mind that he has a foreign degree. He could consider doing a master's to satisfy this need for a U.S. degree rather than getting a "redundant" bachelor's degree. The downside is that it won't be as cheap as the bachelor's (although the Georgia Tech OMSCS, at $7K or so, is pretty cheap), nor will he be able to go through it quickly. On the plus side, he will actually be learning new things, and enhancing his resume in a more meaningful way.

This is a great idea! If he can skip directly to the master's degree, he can avoid all the extra work of general electives and lower levels, and just concentrate on what interests him. Maybe this? https://www.wgu.edu/online-business-degr...ogram.html

I wish that would be possible, but his coursework over there was not enough for a degree either.  It was a software development training program that he took, then starting working, then went into the military, then was asked to come back and teach the course to others coming out of high school and did so for two years.  It was not a degree conferring program but could have been transferred into one.  He had no interest in sitting in school for years when he could be out in the world doing.  

I did, however, look at a bridge type program at one of those that is a Bachelors to Masters program.  That could be interesting, I will have to find it again.

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I worked on the TAMUC degree plan today.  With as open as their electives appear to be, this is one of the most open degree plans I have seen beyond the in-residence coursework of course.  

Their degree guide says "PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ELECTIVES (48 hours) Complete before starting the Applied Major Courses 48 hours of lower division and/or upper level coursework transferred and/or completed at TAMUC."  That means the ACTFL credits and Sophia can be used easily to fulfill this very wide open bucket of transfer credits.  

I found a possible benefit of a Pierpont AAS for his case.  If he transfers into TAMUC with a completed Associates degree it looks like they don't need high school transcripts which would be simpler than navigating government bureaucracy to get them and then have them evaluated here.  He will call to verify that but if so, that could be a good practical reason to pull those together on a transcript there and get the degree.