I've been quiet so far, but I'm trying to get a CS bachelors degree myself and the following are my thoughts and experiences:
1) Getting the degree completely on line, even from University of Phoenix, is not possible. I talked to University of Phoenix and was told to attend courses on a campus. 2) The requirements are changing even at PSU, and frankly the degree is valuable because it is hard to get it. There is a ridiculous amount of math and statistics that you have to take for example. I still have hard courses ahead of me even though I'm technically beyond what the fussers guide says I need to pass to be a CS major. 3) A bachelor's degree will in all likelihood not teach you what you need to know depending on what you are going to do, but it puts you in a different category compared to a person who doesn't have one. 4) Computer science is a lonely field, seriously consider social work or something else before you commit potentially 10 years or more to getting through engineering school. If you want to meet and work with people, this may be the wrong field for you. 5) If it is taking you a long time, don't be afraid to see a doctor in the event that depression is setting in and slowing you down. There are a lot of depressed people who are aren't getting any help even at PSU. The statistics are 1 in 3. 6) Be prepared to be treated like you are going to be an engineer even if you really want to be a programmer and could care less about hardware. 7) Be aware that what you really need in the computer science field is credibility and that is what a traditional bachelors degree is for, not education. With that in mind, a DeVry or ITT degree might work if you pile the appropriate certs on top of it. That said though, why go to ITT for a degree if you can get a traditional one that everyone will respect? 8) Don't expect to get through in 4 years. I graduated high school in 1998 and I'm still working on my first bachelor's degree. The number of credits to be a computer science major at PSU is >180 by a significant amount and none of that is underwater basket weaving. I got an Associates degree at PCC which helps considering that it secures me as a junior even though computer science is changing rapidly. 9) Don't take discrete mathematics at PCC like I did. I took it too long ago and it didn't cover the material that CS250 does at PSU. I'm signed up for CS311 and frankly I'm a bit worried. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
