A.A.S. in CIS or MIS?

1Caleb

I am running into a bit of trouble with my education choices. I am currently in my 1st year last semester of an Associates of Applied Science in Computer Information Systems and I had a friend graduate from a 4 year college with a bachelors in Management Information System. I can probably get through the AAS for free if maybe 1,000 in loans, if that and grab a few certs along the way. I could get a Bachelors in MIS, but I would probably be 20,000-30,000 dollars in debt, but I would still have a few certs. I have talked to a few people and most say that loans are not something you need to worry about as long as their not crazy outrageous. My brother has his AAS in CIS with a cert and started off around 25K out of school and he's making 65k now 6 years later and he always complains about loans. He's probably 15k in debt, just for an AAS. I have another friend who has his bachelors in Physiology and made 30k out of college and is at 38 now 3 years later and he is 30k in debt and he says its not that big of a deal because of the lifestyle a bachelors allows you to have. I know that certifications will matter a lot and either way I will get those. I don't really want to be a PC Tech. I like the management side of everything. I'm not a big fan of crazy math or a lot of coding, so I don't want a computer science degree. Long term I would like to end up working for the federal gov. DIS? something like that. My questions are: Are the loan worth it? How much better will a bachelors degree help me? AAS w/certs vs. MIS w/certs who gets the job? Is the that much better pay initially and long term? Job security? Best locations?

Sorry this is so long.

-Caleb

tsimmns

Take my opinion for what it's worth as I have no work experience in IT but a trying to break into it myself and get out of aircraft maintenance. I work for the Governement as a Guard employee. You can get a BSBA from Thomas Edison state college for fairly cheap as it seems like a lot of the degree is text out friendly by taking CLEPS and DSST test. I know there are some on here who work for the Government and would like to hear their position on this. While it's technically not an IT degree, it is a degree that provides around 24 hours in the required fields it seems to be eligible for the 2210 series of government jobs.