Great site - need help on education direction

Hello all, first of all, excellent site and thanks to everyone who posts such great help and information on here! I was hoping that your experience and thoughts might help me in my situation.

I'm almost 21 years old with no college experience to date. I do have my high school diploma, I took a couple years off to work on getting debt-free (only a couple months away!) after making some bad financial decisions early on. I've been in computers my whole life, my dad owned a computer store in Michigan and when we moved here to NY I worked at his office doing networking, computer building, troubleshooting, you name it. I taught myself java, html, some VB and Javascript.

First, I would like to pursue either
1. Game Programming and/or design either as a coder or eventually a management position.
2. "Normal" business level programming.
3. The hardware side of things, ie repair, network setup, etc.

I currently run a part-time business from my home doing system building and upgrades and some tech support. i figure a Degree and some certifications (any opinions on which ones would be helpful) would aid me in that endeavor and in getting a job at a full company.

I have BASIC math education from high school (all algebra classes and physics) but no trig or calc. One thing I was wondering was should I pursue the general courses (math, history, writing etc etc) at a brick and mortar school (I live in NY and the community college near me Finger Lakes COmmunity College is pretty cheap) or a DL school thats cheap? I was looking at AIU for FINISHING my degree but what degree I should go for is a little confusing for me. AIU looks good, so does RIT but the expense isn't justified to me for the first two years (or equivalent) of basic stuff. I would prefer the DL route because of the time saver, allowing me to work more because I don't want to go back into debt if at all possible.

Sorry about the long post, just trying to decide what the best course is. Looks like most people doing this are RETURNING to college or finishing up a degree, things like that. I would like to have a masters or PH.D degree eventually but I believe I'm smart enough to not have to take 8 years to do so!

Thanks in advance for all the help!
-David

 

Go to a local community college first

You can't beat the cost. With your age and situation it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend the type of money AIU or someone similar will charge for an online program. Debt avoidance at this stage of your studies is the best idea. Plenty of time for that when you are getting your masters. Do you want to do programming or hardware? Let that be your guide in your studies. An associates degree should be good for almost any hardware job. Software jobs tend to look for 4 year degrees these days. However, if you go to a community college first you can look around after you get your AA to see if anything is available in programming. I don't recommend getting an AAS as the applied science degrees are light on the general education requirements and you may have to make those up when you go on to your BS. Certifications are good, some community colleges offer them these days.

 

Wow, thanks for the info chris. I like both sides (hardware and software) but I always liked programming more. So, that being said, I was thinking along these lines now ->

Get AA to get general course work out of the way at FLCC and use the aa degree towards a bs then masters in computer science either at RIT or an online Univ. While I have the aa, try and get a entry level or internship job to gain experience. IS an AA any specific field? And Because I want to learn EVERYTHING the aas is probably a bad idea cause I want to spend my time at the expensive schools learning all the "important" things, not going back over or having to take english 101!

A follow up question, you said that most places are looking for four year degrees now. Should I consider a masters in CS? and would an MBA help and be possible to pursue at the same time? I'm a natural leader and would like to be a manager at some point in the future because I have ALWAYS had issues with managers who know less then their employees but they have a degree so it's ok . That's why I'd like a solid foundation in the technical side of things, then an education in business and management.

 

my take is... get solid education in Technical side because that is what you are good at. Later get education in business and progress. In my opinion Mangers who have both technical and business knowledge are the most successful.

 

my take is... get solid education in Technical side because that is what you are good at. Later get education in business and progress. In my opinion Mangers who have both technical and business knowledge are the most successful.

 

ok great, that's kind of what I was thinking. What is your opinion eteech on how to pursue the technical side? 2 year community college followed by bachelors or masters at RIT or good ONline u? or ?

 

Get a BSCS

Talk to your counselor at the community college and they will help you map out a path to get you into a BSCS program. Here in Illinois, they have articulation agreements so you know exactly what you need to take. In your BSCS you may still have a couple of classes of filler to finish your degree. Take classes that will fulfill your the prereq's for an MBA if you want to get one of those past your BS. Most MBA programs will require some preparatory classes in accounting, economics, Finance, statistics so if you can get them done in your undergrad you won't have to pay the higher rates later in grad school. Consulting agencies like to hire BS graduates because they are mor marketable. Thus the usual desire for BS graduates in the programming field.

 

good suggestions by chris.