Look for online university for MSCS / MSIT

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by mouhanad_alramli, Jul 12, 2010.

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  1. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

    Hello Everyone,

    I am looking for a good online university to get my masters in computer science or information technology. I have looked into some of the available online universities but I can decide which one has the best degree / best value.

    Has anyone attended Grantham University? The university website seems pretty good, but I read some pretty bad online reviews about the university:

    http://www.onlinedegreereviews.org/college/grantham-university-reviews/

    Grantham University Review | Rip-off Report #160917

    The main points of those bad reviews are the following:

    1. Bad student service (emails and voicemail not returned, records lost,... etc)
    2. Quality of education is not good (open book exams, assignments not challenging,... etc.)

    3. Students unable to transfer to other universities (specially regionally accredited).
    4. Degree not accepted by employers.
    5. University treating employees not-so-good.

    I would like to see what people who studied at Grantham have to say about it. I am mostly concerned about the first two points (i.e. I understand the difference between RA and NA).


    Besides this, I'm looking into Aspen University, University of Atlanta, and American Sentinel University (where I completed my BSCS). If you have any comments about those universities or if you have any other suggestions please share...

    Thank you,

    Mouhanad S. Al-Ramli


     
  2. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    Grantham has been around a long time, but it's a DETC-accredited school. Depending on what you are planning to do with your degree, you will probably find greater utility in a degree from a regionally accredited school. If you search "masters in computer science" in our search engine, it should bring up some threads on a bunch of different schools, along with comments from our members.
     
  3. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    I took a couple classes in computer science with Grantham that were fine. I learned a bit, and the price was good to me at the time. However, I ended up transferring to a RA University and they would not accept my Grantham credits for transfer, unfortunately.

    There was someone on this board that was able to get into a RA graduate engineering program with a Grantham BSEET, though. Maybe he'll chime in here as I forget his name...
     
  4. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

    Thank you for your replies. I am aware of the possibility of not being able to transfer to an RA university however this is not a big concern for me as my company accepts NA degrees and my experience should help me find a another job if I need to. However, what I am more concerned about is not being challenged and finding the courses too easy. I am interested in NA colleges because they are less expensive than RA ones.

    ps. I had two links in my post and I am not sure why one of them is not showing. Maybe it was removed by admins?
     
  5. scubasteveiu

    scubasteveiu New Member

    Their main website is about trash.
     
  6. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    My bad. A quick review of the post looked like it was another site spamming its own links.

    I've re-added the link for you.
     
  7. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

    Thank you very much...
     
  8. jackrussell

    jackrussell Member

    I am with Aspen, you may want to ask them about their Masters, education wise, I find it rigorous and good enough with my modules being taught by well qualified professors. For me doing Ed.D it is all writing, Masters may be different, it will be wise to talk to them and maybe let you attend a sample class. Degree acceptability and transfer should be standard for DETC.
     
  9. Cyber

    Cyber New Member

    Have you tried the University of Wisconsin-Platteville graduate engineering program? On their website, it says they accept NA accredited course/degrees; if their $600/credit is not an issue for you.
     
  10. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

    Thanks for the info. Taking a demo class sounds like a good idea. Right now I'm trying to decide between three schools Grantham, Aspen, and University of Atlanta (any other suggestions would be great as well).

    Grantham - $265 / CH - MSIT - Good payment plan (i.e. $100 down payment and $200 a month. After student graduates they would tell companies that (s)he received a degree from them, but they would not give out an official transcript until all tuition fees are paid off. There is no interest in this plan). - Has been around for almost 60 years. - Has been getting some bad reviews (i.e. regarding quality of education and their student service). - Student is locked-in tuition rate that he/she starts with as long as a break of 6 or more months is not taken during program (I think unless approved). - Books included in tuition.

    Aspen - $300 / CH - MSCS (I find computer science the most interesting area of IT and I work as a software engineer). - No payment plans but very good deals when large payment can be made ahead of time. - Many members on this forum seem to be enjoying (or have enjoyed) taking classes at Aspen.

    Atlanta - $300 / CH - MSCS - Monthly payment plans over 12 or 18 months - The only problem with this is that they require 9 CH of research (not my favorite thing to do) and many of the classes are theoretical (not very enjoyable but might be beneficial if I decided to go into teaching at some college).

    Any suggestions, comments, or thoughts?

    Thanks,

    -Mouhanad
     
  11. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    It depends where are you located. A DETC degree might work for you in you live outside the US as it is a NA degree.

    However, it you live in the US, I would say that the DETC Master is not very useful. The IT industry is more about certifications and having a degree from a DETC school might not be much better than having a CCNA or MCSE.

    You cannot teach with a DETC degree and most Fortune 500 companies won't hire a guy with a DETC degree so this questions the utility of the degree.

    There are few reasons to persue a DETC degree. I once considered a Sentinel University Master degree as I live in Canada and the DETC degree would be considered legal and accredited so useful for my purpose that was a pay bump as a community college teacher. Sentinel is very generous when it comes to credit transfer and life experience credit so it looks like an ideal deal for a community college teacher in Canada.

    Most of the DETC schools are put in one basket, I don't think prospect employers care if it is Aspen, Sentine, Graham or anything else.

    If you cannot get accepted because your DETC bachelor to an RA school, I would suggest contacting schools in Canada or Australia. I know most of the Australian Universities would consider a graduate from a DETC shool including USQ and Deakin. Australian Universities have equal status of RA in the US so I believe it is much better than any DETC masters.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 14, 2010
  12. imalcolm

    imalcolm New Member

  13. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

    Thanks for the comment.

    Again I am choosing a DETC university because they are generally less expensive than RA ones. However I don't agree that fortune 500 companies do not accept DETC degrees. They care about experience much more than they care about the degree. I have worked and still work at fortune 500 companies. My DETC degree was never a problem.

    If I find a RA university that is $300 / CH or less for a masters in information technology, I might consider it.

    Again thank you for your comment,

    -Mouhanad
     
  14. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

  15. BlueMason

    BlueMason Audaces fortuna juvat

  16. Cyber

    Cyber New Member

  17. mouhanad_alramli

    mouhanad_alramli New Member

  18. mark74

    mark74 New Member

    RFValve,

    Great post overall!

    While I do agree about certifications being valuable in IT, one advantage of a master's degree (ignoring DETC versus RA for the moment) over certifications is that the degree lasts forever where certifications are often version specific and become less valuable over time (some more than others) unless they are kept current.

    Both are certainly valuable though, and a combination of education and certifications is probably best.

    Mark
     
  19. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Why not both at the same time? Few schools offer this option including Charles Sturt University, Ec council (About ECU) and SANS institute (Masters Degree in Information Security - sans.edu).

    I have been working in IT education for the last 10 years. I have seen a dramatic decrease for the demand of IT graduate education. At the University that I work the MIS master has been closed completely and at few that I adjunct online the Master has decreased about 80% enrollment. Few surveys revealed that students are not pursing graduate education because employers are not willing to pay for this level of education and it doesn't seem to be a differentiation factor that can give advantage as certifications such as PMP, MCSE, etc seem to carry more weight for employers. These are for accredited programs that have AACSB and other international accreditations so I suppose the DETC degrees would follow this too.

    I think the DETC master is an excellent way to improve yourself at the lowest cost but I question the real value for employment purposes but again the IT master value is questionable for any Masters RA, DETC or AACSB accredited for the same reason that you mentioned that is that IT just changes too fast.
     
  20. siersema

    siersema Active Member

    EC Council and SANS aren't Accredited. Though it looks like SANS is a candidate at least. In my opinion they're both a bit expensive as well.
     

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