TESC BACS or Excelsior CIS

Entering with an AAS degree which of these two programs would take the shortest amount of time to complete?

Also, has anyone encountered any problems in entering a MSCS with one of these degrees?

Thanks in advance for the replies!

 

There are multiple people on here who are in MSCS programs with Excelsior BSCIS degrees (I recently got accepted into the Univeristy of Illinois program with a BSCIS). There are also readers who have done the TESC degree, but I don't know if they followed up with graduate school.

The Excelsior degree can be done very quickly since you can test out of *most* of the requirements. Discrete math and data structures seem to be the ones that are most difficult to test out of. The Computer Science GRE should count for both, but I don't know if it does. Excelsior gave me 30 credits for the CS GRE, but I took it after I had completed all of the degree requirements (but before my official graduation) so I don't know which degree requirements it would have counted for.

http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/join/i2cs.html

 

I completed a BACS from TESC, and I'm currently enrolled in the MSCS program at Capitol College. I didn't attempt admission at any other schools, but I had no trouble at Capitol.

As for which program would be the quickest to complete, it really depends upon your circumstances (which courses you've already taken, and what method you prefer for earning credit). You can look at the requirements and see how well they match up for you. Either degree should be fine, so long as you are careful to take electives that will meet the prerequisite requirements of the graduate programs you are interested in. Jeff got accepted to the Illinois graduate program (probably in the top 5 for CS), so they obviously considered the Excelsior degree to be sufficient. Of course they do put a lot of emphasis on the GRE, and I Jeff pulled off some pretty impressive scores on the GRE (way to go, Jeff!), so there's no guarantee of admission. Many schools will also waive prerequisites if you get a high enough score on the CS GRE exam, and I'm sure that a high score on that exam also looks good on an application to a program with competitive admissions.

 

What's the good study book to prepare for GRE CS?

 

GRE CS study materials

Someone from Amazon recommended the following books:

Schaum's outline in digital logic

Schaum's outline essential computer mathematics

Fundamentals of Data Structures, by Ellis Horowitz and Sartaj Sahni

Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools, by Aho, A., R. Sethi, and D. Ullman.

An Introduction to Computer Logic, by H. T. Nagle.

Computer Organization and Architecture, by W. Stallings.

Computer Science, an Overview, by J. Gleen Brookshear

 

Know classic data structures (stacks, queues, linked lists, trees). Introduction to Algorithms (Corman Leiserson, Rivest) is solid in this area.

Know discrete math *very* well. The Schaum's Outline on Discrete Mathematics is solid.

Know the basics of compilers, languages, regular expressions, etc. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (Aho, Sethi, Ullman) is very good. Additionally, the Scaum's Outline Essential Computer Mathematics has a surprisingly good section on Modern Algrebra (which is critical when dealing with language concepts).

Know classic algorithms, algorithm analysis including the Master Theorem. Introduction to Algoritms covers this extremely well.

Know basic operating systems concepts (memory management, concurrency, etc). I used Operating Systems (Stallings), but there may be better books

Other topics that are covered, but in less quantity (and therefore may not be as critical to specifically study) include software engineering concepts, object orientation, variable scoping, linear algebra, and data communications.