The courses are over-priced though individually the cost might be justifiable, but these certificates are not really a good investment. Sun Java certification and RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) would be better investments of your time and money, in my opinion. Local community colleges probably offer some of the programming-related courses at a fraction of the cost. Alternatively, buy a good book and study the material during a weekend.
They are among the cheapest of any university-sanctioned IT certificates I've seen anywhere, at least coming from a large, well-known and respected university. Initially, I'm less suspicious of these than the Gatlin certs some big colleges are passing off as in-house programs. RHCE is beyond the level of these certs, isn't it? Thus, it would take far more time and effort to earn RHCE than these O'Reilly certs. Plus, RHCE does not put a university name on the CV. While local community colleges are cheaper, they also don't look as nice on the CV. Sure, you can learn programming anywhere, even out of a book in the library, but the proof here is in the certificate earned at the end. An HR manager would not be as impressed with "Fred's Community College" as he would "University of Illinois," methinks, and that is essentially what the price buys you. Name recognition.
Indeed, the RHCE does not come from any University - the RHCE cert in and by itself, however, is highly regarded - certainly moreso than a University cert... Have a look at Certcities top 10 certs for 2006. We may be able to help you out better if you let us know what you're looking for in a computer cert... are you unix orientated? Security? Programming?... the more info you provide us, the more this board will help.
My point is that these look to be fairly simple to get and pretty inexpensive, especially given that they put "University of Illinois" on the CV rather than Mimi's Technical College of Botswana. Sure, RHCE is a premium cert, but it is only evidence of passing a test, not of actually studying a course and doing projects. Plus, RHCE and many other industry professional certs are technology specific...in this case, Linux. The O'Reilly/UI programs are offered in website design and programming. They look to be nice compliments to other, more specific certs like RHCP. They also seem to be good for gaining entry into the field. I was just bringing these to the attention of the board and asking if anyone had any experience with them.
