This post is mainly for military members: I noticed that AIU is an expensive school. More than UoP. For those that are using the TOPS program (GI Bill and ACF), does this cover the total cost per class? If not, how much more has to be absorb by the military member? This of course will be the deciding factor in my case
Allow me to the chance to direct your attention away from AIU (not because it's a "bad" school, but because there may be much cheaper alternatives for you). Now, believe me I know that the accelerated program, seemingly boatload of credit they give for military training is certainly appetizing they are by no means the only school that will grant sufficient credit for military training. Let's start with "THE BIG THREE" and I'll throw in another: 1. Thomas Edison State College http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/military/ 2. Charter Oak State College http://www.cosc.edu/Visitors/militarypersonnel.cfm 3. Excelsior College http://www.excelsior.edu/mil_home.htm Now, I know at least with the Coast Guard when we had our training records sent off (consisting of civilian & military training) we would receive credit evaluations from "The Big Three". Now, it isn't neccessarily the accelerated format you're looking for although with enough credit you can still finish in relatively quick fashion. However, it is MUCH, MUCH cheaper than AIU and will allow you to save your education benefits with burning them all up on one degree. *Founding Member of the Department of Homeland Security*
Another military friendly school is Troy State. All you need is two classes per term and you are fulltime (for MGIBill payment purposes). They have a few different majors including a BSCS (if you were considering the BIT at AIU). It's more of an "applied" computer science (pretty close to an information systems degree) considering there is no heavy math requirement and a lot of the courses are focused on the application of programming. What's great is that if you have military training, it can apply to their "military science" minor (which was poorly named in my opinion.. should of been occupational studies or something to that nature). I have an AAS in techincal studies (which had NOTHING to do with computer science) and MOST of it (except the analyzing and interpreting literature CLEP) plugged right into the curriculum the (with the ACE military credit fitting right into the "military science" component). Courses are 10 weeks long (they use blackboard) so, you can can get a good deal of coursework done in a years time (5 terms a year @ 6 credits is 30 semester hours equivalent to a fulltime student). The tuition is REALLY cheap compared to AIU or UOP ($140 per semester hour) Here is the link: http://www.tsufl.edu/distancelearning/default.htm Hope this helps, Bill
Thanks. Even though I have the GI Bill/TA and ACF, I don't want to burn up all my money. Who knows I may want to get a second Masters or even a Ph D!
Bizgrad, keep referring to this site in the futute. It's an invalubale resource. Best of luck! Ray, FINALLY! Someone caught the joke. You're the first person to actually point it out to me. If you want such *extradordinary* credentials, for a small fee I can create it, appreciate the printer that prints it, mail it, and, truthfully, I can lie about the whole thing.
