BS for Masters Degree Plan

[senior_dev]

Hi everyone,

First, I would like to thank you all for the valuable information in this forum/wiki.

I am looking for some advice/help to plan my degree. My info:

Your Location: International

Your Age: 42

What kind of degree do you want?: Quickest bachelors so I can ultimately enroll in a CS Master’s program or, failing that, a post-baccalaureate.

Budget: Looking to stay below $10k for the bachelor’s but flexible.

Commitments: Kids/spouse, work full time (WFH/flexible).

Dedicated time to study: I can dedicate 25-30 hours/week if the degree takes less than 8 months total.

Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree as fast as possible would be ideal. I would like to finish within 8 months.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 54 from community college

Code:

CS     213     JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE   3
CS     270     INTRO TO ORACLE             3
HE     100     PRIN HEALTH LIVING         1
AS     101     INTRO TO ASTRONOMY         4
EN     101     TECH OF RDNG & WRTG I         3
FR     101     ELEM FRENCH I                 3
MA     181     CALCULUS I                 4
MU     136     AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC         3
EC     201     PRIN OF ECON I                 3
EN     109     WRTG/TECHNOLOGY & BUSINES   3
MA     182     CALCULUS II                 4
AN     105     INTRO PHYS ANTHR/ARCH         3
GE     101     INTRO GEOGRAPHY         3
SP     108     FUNDAMENTALS OF SPEECH         3
CS     204     COMPUTER SCIENCE II         4
CS     256     DISCRETE STRUCTURES         4
HS     114     THE WORLD IN 20TH CENT         3

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: none

Work Experience: I have been working as a software engineer for the past 20 years even though I have never graduated.

Goal
My goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree as fast as possible so that I can either apply to a CS Master’s or, failing that, to a post-baccalaureate. I attended a CS program at a CC 20 years ago with the goal of eventually transferring to a 4-year university but, because of a health problem, I had to go back to my home country with only 7 credits remaining to graduate (AA in CS).

Not having a CS degree has never been an issue for any of my employers, but I have always felt self-conscious about it - avoiding education-related conversations at the workplace and constantly doubting my abilities. I’ve felt like a fraud even when holding senior positions, which ultimately has led me to avoid applying to top companies. I’ve also felt that at any moment my colleagues would realize that I didn’t qualify to be there, I’d get fired and never get a job again. TL; DR I need the confidence boost of a diploma to feel validated.

Why a Masters? Given my experience in the field and my age, at this point I’d rather focus on CS courses rather than spend my time doing GenEd classes.

I got in touch with my old CC, was able to reactivate my student account and, surprisingly enough, found out that the curriculum remains pretty much the same so, in order to graduate, I’d only need 2 more courses (they can be taken online).

After spending several weeks researching my options, I’ve come up with the following plans:

Plan A

UMPI BLS/BABA -> Masters CS

Plan B

UMPI BLS/BABA -> OSU CS post-baccalaureate -> Masters

Plan C

UMPI BLS/BABA -> UMass Lowell IT post-baccalaureate -> Masters

Plan D

??

Given the above, a few questions that I'd appreciate help with:

1. Is UMPI the best option in this case?
2. If so, should I go for a BLS or BABA?
3. Given that I’m only 2 (online) classes away from finishing my CS AA, should I? My concerns are
    A. an AA in CS isn’t going to a game changer and might actually be counterproductive since my GPA at the CC was very low (2.7). Maybe leaving it in the past, focusing on transferring my credits and earning a BS would be better.
    B. Being out-of-state, I’d be paying $530/credit.
4. If I pursue this AA, I’m considering retaking all D and F courses to try to raise my GPA a bit (3.2 at least).