I am new to the distance education world and am in need of advice. I currently work full time in a field i am not completely happy with and want to seek education in the computer field. I am 34 years old, married, 1 child. I have 1 semester in a community college towards a computer repair a.s. (1998) 1 year vocational studies in basic and rpg II (1985).I greatly enjoy programming and debugging and wish to seek employment in that direction. Is a b.s. degree in computer science going to get me a better job than a specialized certificate? Although i work full time, i receive assistance form the state. Is tap, pell or other grants available for online education concidering my finacial situation? I had been looking at accis, as the courses look like the direction i want to go in, but have not seen a good reputation with them here. Kennedy western also had a good course selection, but only had state licensure (that i saw). I am willing to relocate (long distance)for work if the price is right. Any assistance or reccomendations would be greatly appreciated. Steven Busch
Do a search on careerbuilder or monster with BSCS or computer science. You will find quite a bit of positions available. Not just programming jobs; you have hardware, network, systems engineer jobs that ask for a BSCS/CE/EE or similar. Definately a pretty versatile degree if you ask me. Troy state is pretty cheap if you want an RA BSCS program ($130 per semester hour). Here is the url: http://www.tsufl.edu/handbook/U_computer.htm If you have military training/experience, they also have a military science minor that will plug in all your ACE recommended credits (I feel the name of this minor is kind of misleading considering they claim they will take whatever MOS training/boot camp/etc. training you have.. maybe it should be called "Military Occupational Science"?) Whatever... There are other CS programs that are RA (alot more IT and CIS programs though). Best Regards, Bill
ACCIS would be significantly better than Kennedy Western. That said, look at the regionally accredited options as well. These can make sense unless you already have a lot of credits (in which case the Thomas Edison BACS or Excelsior BSCIS can make more sense for being relatively inexpensive and fast).
Thank you for your replys- is the troy BSCS program in florida the same as the troy program at ft. Bragg or in alabama? All show to be dl programs. Also, i do not have any military background.
Was also wondering: being that I want to seek employment programming in c++, vis basic, is CS the direction to go in? (compared to CIS,IT or other directions?)
The answer is - it depends. As I see it, computer programming jobs break into three camps: 1) Jobs that "require" a BSCS. Plenty of internet job listings for private companies and consulting firms list a BSCS as a job requirement. My experience is that, in general, these aren't requirements at all. Mainly they are looking for validation that you can, in fact, code, and a BSCS is at least a good indication that you have written some code (though I've seen truly incompetent programmers with BSCS degrees that left me scratching my head). Demonstrate the experience in other ways and you can get hired. A few of these really do require a BSCS. 2) Jobs that require a college degree. These often are programming jobs for governments, school districts, or universities. They often really do require the degree, though a BSCIS would be acceptable. 3) Jobs that don't require a degree. Many private jobs will list a degree as preferred rather than required. In these cases, you need to be able to demonstrate programming experience in some other fashion (portfolio of work, appropriate programming certification, etc). Most IT jobs fall into this category. In all cases, except #2, experience is more important than the degree. That said, having the degree is a nice tie-breaker. If you want to be eligible for nearly 100% (nearly, since there are always a handful that require a graduate degree) of programming jobs, get the BSCS. Not getting a BSCS perhaps narrows the pool of jobs by 20% or so. The good news is that those 20% are not necessarily the best jobs to have anyway. Remember that most people in programming do not have CS degrees - it's much more a meritocracy than any other field I've seen.
Unfortunately, i have not seriously done any coding in 10 years, and I know there have been major changes in the field in that time.. I also do not have certification for any current languages, so i am pretty much (on paper) starting from scratch. I need to make sure that I am confident to do the job before i can try to convince a prospective employer of the same. That is why i am leaning more towards the BS than cetificates, I beleive that would give me a firmer base to stand upon.
According to a memorandum issued by the Office of the President of Troy State University Montgomery, “the Board of Trustees has requested that steps be taken by 2005 to establish Troy Sate University as a unified institution, consisting of the campuses at Troy, Montgomery, and Dothan.” The unified Troy State University will have one accreditation for all of its campuses. Therefore, when this comes to pass, all of its satellite operations will be under the same umbrella.
I went to www.troyst.edu and compared the computer science program with the DL BSCS at the DL website. It is almost identical (the resident one has advanced cobol instead of C I think). Best Regards, Bill
