First, thanks for this great forum. I have been mulling about finishing my degree online but was very appreshensive until I found the info posted here. I'm looking to finish my CS degree and would like some feedback from anyone attending a RA school for BSCS. I want to eventually get my teaching cert. so RA is a must. I am looking at Troy State, Excelsior, and TESC. Anyone have any experience with these programs? Price is important as I will be taking loans for tuition. I have about 90 credits to transfer from Community colleges and Universities, although most credits are 100 and 200 level. Again thanks for this great forum and the folks who take the time to dish out the experience and advice.
Excelsior BS-CIS I don't think Excelsior offers a BSCS degree. They do offer a BS-CIS degree and I don't know if the distinction makes a difference to you. I have been enrolled in Excelsior's BS-CIS degree program for about 2-1/2 years and have finished all the requirements for my BS-CIS but am taking some additional courses/exams which are required for me to get in to the MSCS program that I'm most interested in. My major complaint about Excelsior is that they no longer offer the exams you need in CIS to complete your degree. So Excelsior will charge you tuition while you have to pay to take CIS courses/exams elsewhere. Also, you have to make the necessary arrangements (and pay any charges) to have transcripts sent from whereever you take courses/exams to Excelsior. Many Excelsior CIS students take the exams offered by the ICCP (www.iccp.org) to earn CIS credits. These exams are designed for certification and do not map exactly to what one would learn in a CS college course. They are are not easy to prepare for and some are quite out of date. So my recommendation would be to find a program that offers you a complete package for you to complete your CS degree.
Re: Excelsior BS-CIS calidris, how is your overall experience with Excelsior ? did you took mostly exams or DL courses also ? how is the support from Excelsior ? I am planning to enrol with them as well. Am I looking at a lot of hassle you think ?
Folks, not sure which one of the Troy State sites you are looking at. But if it is the one in Alabama they have several locations and each has on-line options. The CHEA website (www.chea.org) lists them. Sort by state-Alabama All of them are good schools and work well with adult learners.
Fed, Probably Troy State Florida and Western Region which is part of TSU in Alabama I am in their program right now. Cheap tuition (140 per credit) fairly short terms (10 weeks). Some proctored exams some blackboard exams (depends on teacher). Former military (w/ ace recommended credit can apply their MOS/training/whatever to a minor in military science). I was avionics in the military and 18 credits went towards Milt science and the rest satisfied a 18 free elective section (so I recommend this to any technical military MOS w/ a lot of ACE credits). Bill
CS Program Rick, If you are looking for a "true" CS program then I don't think any of the programs you listed will do (i.e. Troy State, TESC and/or Excelsior.) If my memory serves me correctly, neither TESC nor Excelsior offer a BSCS degree. And while Troy State has a degree they label as Computer Science, if you look at its courses and compare those to almost all major Computer Science programs you will find that its missing courses in: * Computer Architecture * Data Structures * Theory of Computation * Analysis of Algorithms * Operating Systems * Discrete Math Some or all of the courses listed above are generally considered prerequisites for a masters degree program in Computer Science. Since you already have a considerable amount of credits, you should investigate the DL BSCS program at Florida State University. If this interests you, take a look at this URL. Good Luck!
Very Expensive ! Fees at Florida State. Non-Florida resident: $411.37 per credit hour wow ! who can afford this in this down economy unless you have thousands hidden away somewhere.
Troy State covers just about all of what JoAnn mention (discrete math is not a course offered which I thought was rather dumb considering it helps you a lot in data structures). If you look at the course listing for the BSCS at Troy State it seems it is not related to CS and rather IS; however, if you actually read the course syllabus (instead of looking at course names as a lot of people [me included] on this forum tend to do) you begin to realize that the courses do follow a CS/programming path. Here are some examples: Programming methods - basic programming (procedural some OOP) Fundamentals of digital computers - comp architecture w/ assembly language Advanced C++ - OOP methods and intermediate programming (had some compiler design) Information Processing - Data Structures (this is where you need discrete math the most). Control Programming - OS programming and more assembly The rest of the coursework is what it is: Database processing - SQL programming, and some other stuff Systems Design for Business - software engineering and systems design. Data Communications - telecommunications and networking concepts Networking fundamentals (or whatever the course is call) - A more applied course on networking than data comm. There are three other programming languages (Visual Basic C# .net, and Cobol) I agree that it is probably not as in depth as FSU's DL BSCS. It lacks the math (especially discrete math which you could really use if you are not familiar w/ logic and data structure problems discussed in some of the courses). It does way more programming than I would think an IS/IT program would have. Personally if I were pursuing a masters in CS I would still take Troy State's BSCS and take whatever course work I needed additional at another CHEAP school. Best Regards, Bill
I agree that FSU has the best program but the out of state tuition is out of my league. I'm looking to get my degree so I can apply to the education department at UTex-San Antonio for a secondary teaching cert. TSU looks like the logical choice, and I agree if it misses any classes I would need- I could take one or two somewhere else. I have taken Discrete Math and Calc I so I'm good there. Thank you all for the advice, this is by far the most useful forum around. wfready- how many classes have you been attempting each semester? I'm thinking two may be enough but is three out of the question? I have some programming courses already (program logic and C++) but I may retake C++.
BSCS, I have been taking 2 classes (it's considered full time, so I have been taking that many to get fulltime beni's from GIBill). I don't think 3 is out of the question (it just may be a little hard, depends on which courses you take). For example, I am doing three classes this semester (first time.. testing the waters if it is too hard I will drop out of one). One of the classes is a 2000 level programming course (Cobol), so I am guessing this won't be big deal to do w/ 2 other courses. If you do two a semester, I believe it comes out to just over a year to complete the major (6 10 week terms). It's definately not easy (then again, computers wasn't my profession before so, (other than programming in high school) this stuff is kind of new to me). I forgot how fun it is to program though, so it's definately been a fun ride so far. Best Regards, Bill PS, I will let you know if 3 courses is "out of the question" in a few weeks
