How hard are these colleges?

I am currently attending ITT Tech at the school which requires 1 online class a semester. I really enjoy the school and am learing great things, but it is not a very challenging school. I have a 4.0 gpa right now and I have never done so well before in a learning institution.

Here is my question.

I see a lot of stuff about UOP, Kaplan college, AIU, Walden university, A college in Colorado, etc. and I am just wondering are they all schools like ITT Tech where it seems like they are very relaxed on grading and do not grill you to dot every i and slash every t. I am really enjoying ITT, I am just finding it too easy in a way. A huge difference from my Community College.

If anyone can give insight i would appreciate it. I am not Wanting you to come on here and trash your degree if you went to one of the above schools that I am sure are fine schools, I am just wondering how difficult they are compared to some of these state schools (Pellessippi and UT) That are Killing my friends social lives, making them lose their hair, and raising their blood pressure and stress levels with the degree of difficulty of their classes.

I am asking this question becuase I read a review about UOP online about getting a masters degree and they talked about how it was very relaxed compared to a regular university masters degree. Let me give you guys the link over at Eopinions.com:

http://www.epinions.com/educ-Colleges_and_Universities-All-University_of_Phoenix/display_~reviews

Did not know if places like AIU and UOP are super hard schools or more like ITT Tech.

Thanks!

 

From personal experience of having been a hiring manager, I wasn't that impressed with IT Tech when comparing it to other simular technical schools such as DeVry, Cogwell, and others. Despite what UoP touts, it is hardly a technical school (I have my IT degree from UoP and it is basically a modified MIS business degree with no hands on).

ITT is easier than most CC because like so many tech schools, they only focus on the tech portion of your education including only providing enough english and math (which is usually focused on your particular curriculum itself) to get you through the degree

Are you shooting for an BS or AA degree?

 

As there are several (24 RA) colleges in Colorado (not counting community/junior colleges) and I am attending one of them by DL (Colorado State), I will say that it takes a LOT of work to even come close to a 4.0 at CSU.

 

I am going for a A.S. in Computer Networking and a bachelors in Data Communications Systems.

I worked a help desk job for about a year and a half and was also doing a part time PC Repair Job for KORRnet. I have now moved into the cellular industry and am working Roamer Support, supporting roaming calls on the cellular infrastructure. I like ITT because I am very self educated in the fields I am in as I read technical manuals and industry magazines all the time.

ITT fills in the gaps in my knowlege ( I have not encountered any gaps yet though) but the class listing for the Bachelors seems very interesting (data and voice communications classes mixed with a lot of wired and wireless networking infrastructure classes) I am maybe interested in pursuing a bachelors or master's degree at Devry or AIU or one of the many Online colleges, and I do want them to be challenging so that I will learn a lot of material. It is not an immediate plan to switch to one of these schools, it might be some time in 2006 or 2008. I really want to finish something at ITT and see my options.

That is why I asked about these schools. One thing I am not looking for is an over-theorized school that focuses on people writing professional papers (which I am quite good at, but not 25 page ones ;-0 ) and taking 3 different calculuses and 2 additional theoretical maths, plus having to take 2 years of science on top of the science, math, history, and english I have already completed at my community college (I am at sofmore level in classes and got sick of the "style" of education i was recieving)

 

Sorry, forgot the name of the tech college in Colorodo, but it is an online one that is mentioned a lot in ads on the internet.

 

Perhaps a thread better placed in the IT section?

Rich Douglas, Ph.D.

 

Hi first -
Listen, I think I have some understanding of your position but I also think that you've asked a bad question (no offense intended). What I mean is this. If someone answers your question, say Mr. X says that he enrolled at Walden and thought that it was very easy, what would that mean to you? Would that mean that you would find it easy as well? My point is this, the whole hard v. easy thing is totally subjective and one persons experience will not mean much to another person. I'd like to suggest however that if you're working and going to DL school at the same time, and if you plan to go to a respectable school with challenging programs, etc. then you should be prepared to join your friends in waving good-bye to your social life (as you know it).
Jack

 

Yea i expect to do my best and spend my time in school. Don't get me wrong. It is not about social life for me, me and my wife (newly weds) just kind of hang out together all the time because we are best friends.

I am not looking for a college based on having free time, I am just not ready to go to Harvard. Does that make me a slacker? I just don't think every school is as demanding as harvard and Yale are on their students. I am just trying to identify which schools are "Normal" and which schools are "Insane"

I guess I am more focused on a technical education instead of an education full of high level CS theory, Sciene, and mathematics. I agree that those things are important and can definetly be vital to many many jobs, but I do not want to fabricate processors or design memory subsystems. I just need enough math to be able to program Business and enterprise applications and to be able to handle memory allocation and code smart with my algorithems. I do not necessarily wish to create a compiler or program in Assembly.

i just want people to be sure that I am not discounting the following skills and how they apply to computer science and engineering, but my path is towards The NOC for a large cellular company. Completely different skillset.

 

If your goal is to work in a NOC the following may be of some interest:

http://www.fhsu.edu/int/telecomm/courserequirements.shtml

Additionally,

Ohio University has a good communications program (not DL):

http://www.mcclureschool.info/

but you may be able to self design a program using DL courses below that resemble the B&M program:

http://www.ohiou.edu/univcollege/degree/description.html

Another recommendation is to check out COSC

www.cosc.edu and self design a program that will meet your interests and COSC degree requirements.

 

wow, that first one is fantastic! thanks for the link! I am definetly interested in that first college link!

 

Wow.
Welcome aboard, and good luck to you.

 

I am just in my first semester, I am looking forward to my 3rd semester and forward for the tech classes. I have been using computers since I was 7 years old and love them. (I am 25 now) I have just picked up a lot on my own over the years.

Tech is like that thought, I would not say the same.. say if I was going into nursing or business. But tech you can pick up a lot because it is basically all written down in Technical manuals, etc.

 

What is a Sofmore?

 

I do not think pointing out typo's is a polite thing that builds good conversation online.

I think it just shows us who the rude people are.

You are rude.

 

Not trying to be rude, it is Sophomore.

 

I am the rude one, I am sorry. Please accept my apologies.

I am so very tired today and not acting civilized

 

I agree with the sentiment expressed earlier, that the question is not fair because the term hard is quite subjective.

I attended AIU for my Bachelors of IT and I am presently working on the masters. I have found it both easy and challenging.

One of the things I think that AIU does, perhaps more than anything, is to teach you how to rapidly assimilate and use information. They offer all classes on an accelerated 5 week basis and to succeed you have to jump in, and jump in quick.

Some of the classes I have found extremely "easy" but that is only because I have been in the IT field for a number of years and already had exposure to those concepts. SQL for instance was a breeze for me.

Other courses, where I was not so proficient, have been extremely challenging for me. Java in particular was hard for me, and I did OK meeting the basic requirements, but I don't think the 5 week session was really long enough in that case.

At any rate, I think easy or hard, all depend on your frame of reference.

 

No, I don't think it makes you a slacker. I don't think I said that either. In your original posting you mentioned that your friends were attending state schools. In general, I'd say that these fall into the "moderate hardness" category. Clearly, there are exceptions but if you're looking for a rule of thumb I'd say that's been my experience. I'm glad you're getting some good leads. Finding the right fit is important. Good luck.
Jack