Working while wanting Degree

I am working full time right now and can't exactly drop everything I'm doing to go to school. I'm still young (21) So I have some time but I would really like to take care of school right now so I can move onto other things in life.

I have been going in circles for a while now as to what I sould do. I want a B.S IT and am open to any suggestions. I checked out WGU and it seems like a viable alternative if I can't get any thing else going for me. The problem is that I never applied myself to my studies when I was younger and I am reaping the reward of my high school procrastination. I have a G.E.D. and scored a 20 on the ACT so I fall short of most admissions criteria.

I am working at a company based out of Cincinnati even though I live in Tennessee, I could easily transfer.

I can do the online option but I am hesitant because WGU is hounding me to apply while most regular schools have stricter guidelines. I could do an A.A.S IT degree at a local community college (who are offering me 18 credits for my current certifications) and transfer to University of Cincinnati for their B.S. IT program

What do you guys think? I am dazed and confused when it comes to college and making the best choice, thanks.

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jblaven

Overdash wrote: »

I am working full time right now and can't exactly drop everything I'm doing to go to school. I'm still young (21) So I have some time but I would really like to take care of school right now so I can move onto other things in life.

I have been going in circles for a while now as to what I sould do. I want a B.S IT and am open to any suggestions. I checked out WGU and it seems like a viable alternative if I can't get any thing else going for me. The problem is that I never applied myself to my studies when I was younger and I am reaping the reward of my high school procrastination. I have a G.E.D. and scored a 20 on the ACT so I fall short of most admissions criteria.

I am working at a company based out of Cincinnati even though I live in Tennessee, I could easily transfer.

I can do the online option but I am hesitant because WGU is hounding me to apply while most regular schools have stricter guidelines. I could do an A.A.S IT degree at a local community college (who are offering me 18 credits for my current certifications) and transfer to University of Cincinnati for their B.S. IT program

What do you guys think? I am dazed and confused when it comes to college and making the best choice, thanks.

Well at 21 do you think you can make yourself sit down and study? It will be on you to do it. I know how it is at that age. I'm almost 37 and just took the entrance exams this morning. At 21 I went back for my associates degree, but it was at a traditional college... so I kind of felt like I had to do it.

Now I need to do it.

nhan.ng

I'm in the same boat as you're in right now. Working full time while enrolling at WGU. If you're already working right now, good, keep going at it, dont quit. In the IT field, you'll need experience. Degree is important but it will not help you land a good job if you do not have experience. Keep going at it and by the time you finish your degree, you've already have a few years of experience under your belt. This, combines with your degree, will help you land a much better paying job

Overdash

jblaven wrote: »

Well at 21 do you think you can make yourself sit down and study? It will be on you to do it. I know how it is at that age. I'm almost 37 and just took the entrance exams this morning. At 21 I went back for my associates degree, but it was at a traditional college... so I kind of felt like I had to do it. Now I need to do it.

That's the easy part. What I learned from my certifications is that I have the ability to retain large amounts of information IF I care about what I'm learning. At 16 I was not mature enough to understand why school was important, I made a few mistakes and now I am a different person. Seriously though on the inside I'm 37 as well.

Overdash

nhan.ng wrote: »

I'm in the same boat as you're in right now. Working full time while enrolling at WGU. If you're already working right now, good, keep going at it, dont quit. In the IT field, you'll need experience. Degree is important but it will not help you land a good job if you do not have experience. Keep going at it and by the time you finish your degree, you've already have a few years of experience under your belt. This, combines with your degree, will help you land a much better paying job

That's true. I just got involved with a company that is going to give me a lot of hand's on opportunity with all aspects of building a SRV 2008 R2 Domain and Migrating from 2003, along with Networking, Backups, and all sorts of vendors and technology. Hardly something I could walk away from!

nhan.ng

that sounds like a sweet rig man. Good luck

jamesleecoleman

I think that doing the CC option is good if you don't meet the requirements for WGU. You can always work full time and go to school part time. While you're taking the classes you want to take at the CC, you can CLEP some basic classes like English, Math, and Social Science. This way some of the classes you don't really care about will be taken care of.

Overdash

jamesleecoleman wrote: »

I think that doing the CC option is good if you don't meet the requirements for WGU. You can always work full time and go to school part time. While you're taking the classes you want to take at the CC, you can CLEP some basic classes like English, Math, and Social Science. This way some of the classes you don't really care about will be taken care of.

CLEP sounds really appealing for knocking out college credits. Almost seems like a cert exam! Thanks I think I'm going to be doing that while I'm sitting on the fence. It would also help with the CC since they are given me 18 credits for IT classes based off my certs combined with CLEP I could get that A.A.S in a year!

instant000

Overdash wrote: »

CLEP sounds really appealing for knocking out college credits. Almost seems like a cert exam! Thanks I think I'm going to be doing that while I'm sitting on the fence. It would also help with the CC since they are given me 18 credits for IT classes based off my certs combined with CLEP I could get that A.A.S in a year!

Based off your certs you could get your bachelor's in a year at WGU.

There was one guy with an associates who got a bachelor's in a semester at WGU.

Overdash

instant000 wrote: »

Based off your certs you could get your bachelor's in a year at WGU.

There was one guy with an associates who got a bachelor's in a semester at WGU.

While that's definitely an option I am not sure that WGU is for me at this time. I may end up doing it as I have talked to them and learned about the program but again I'm not sure that WGU is what I am looking for.

sentimetal

Overdash wrote: »

I am working full time right now and can't exactly drop everything I'm doing to go to school. I'm still young (21) So I have some time but I would really like to take care of school right now so I can move onto other things in life.

I have been going in circles for a while now as to what I sould do. I want a B.S IT and am open to any suggestions. I checked out WGU and it seems like a viable alternative if I can't get any thing else going for me. The problem is that I never applied myself to my studies when I was younger and I am reaping the reward of my high school procrastination. I have a G.E.D. and scored a 20 on the ACT so I fall short of most admissions criteria.

I am working at a company based out of Cincinnati even though I live in Tennessee, I could easily transfer.

I can do the online option but I am hesitant because WGU is hounding me to apply while most regular schools have stricter guidelines. I could do an A.A.S IT degree at a local community college (who are offering me 18 credits for my current certifications) and transfer to University of Cincinnati for their B.S. IT program

What do you guys think? I am dazed and confused when it comes to college and making the best choice, thanks.

You could retake the ACT test and get a 25 you need to get into the school of your choice (within reason). A friend of mine as her 4 year degree in finance. She went to community college, got her AA, studied for the ACT, passed it, and got into business school.

With you having a two year degree, you shouldn't have a problem getting into an IT program at a university. It's usually the business schools and other bullcrap that colleges try to sell to students as elite/prominent that have ACT and SAT requirements.

Don't let the fact that you have a GED get you down. If I recall correctly, 30% of HS seniors who attempted the GED for research failed it. Surgeon General Richard Carmona got his GED, as have a couple governors.

anothergeek

Get school out of the way right now I currently work full time and this semester I finished 16 hours at WGU for my Masters. Its hard to manage everything but, no one ever said it was going to be easy. If you want it real bad you can accomplish anything.

Overdash

sentimetal wrote: »

You could retake the ACT test and get a 25 you need to get into the school of your choice (within reason). A friend of mine as her 4 year degree in finance. She went to community college, got her AA, studied for the ACT, passed it, and got into business school.

With you having a two year degree, you shouldn't have a problem getting into an IT program at a university. It's usually the business schools and other bullcrap that colleges try to sell to students as elite/prominent that have ACT and SAT requirements.

Don't let the fact that you have a GED get you down. If I recall correctly, 30% of HS seniors who attempted the GED for research failed it. Surgeon General Richard Carmona got his GED, as have a couple governors.

Thanks for the cheering up. I have learned that with my ACT score/GED I could take 30 credits at a CC and then transfer over to the university I want to go too.

CodeBlox

I entered the working world sooner than expected. I finished the A.S. in Computer Science and need to finish the B.S. However, now i am going to be working full time because I needed money. The job is an IT job with great potential so I took the job over school. I will now be doing school part time while I move up at the job. I honestly just can't wait to get the degree over with now.

Overdash

CodeBlox wrote: »

I entered the working world sooner than expected. I finished the A.S. in Computer Science and need to finish the B.S. However, now i am going to be working full time because I needed money. The job is an IT job with great potential so I took the job over school. I will now be doing school part time while I move up at the job. I honestly just can't wait to get the degree over with now.

I think all IT people just want to get the degree out of the way to focus on other stuff

Everyone

CLEP tests are supposedly hard. I took an English CLEP worth 6 credits, I didn't think it was hard at all, passed it without studying on the 1st try. I had an engineering professor say "Wow you passed a CLEP? You must be smart, nobody passes those." He wasn't being sarcastic either.

I thought about taking CLEP tests to finish the rest of the general education requirements I need to finish my degree, but never got around to it. I don't think I'd pass the math CLEP. I'm good if I have a calculator, but those aren't allowed when you test, and I can barely remember algebra. A class will probably be a good refresher for me on that subject.

Overdash

Everyone wrote: »

CLEP tests are supposedly hard. I took an English CLEP worth 6 credits, I didn't think it was hard at all, passed it without studying on the 1st try. I had an engineering professor say "Wow you passed a CLEP? You must be smart, nobody passes those." He wasn't being sarcastic either.

I thought about taking CLEP tests to finish the rest of the general education requirements I need to finish my degree, but never got around to it. I don't think I'd pass the math CLEP. I'm good if I have a calculator, but those aren't allowed when you test, and I can barely remember algebra. A class will probably be a good refresher for me on that subject.

Awesome,

Good job on CLEP. It's funny because when I test on stuff my reading comprehension is unusually high while my math skills suck!

spd3432

Everyone wrote: »

CLEP tests are supposedly hard. I took an English CLEP worth 6 credits, I didn't think it was hard at all, passed it without studying on the 1st try. I had an engineering professor say "Wow you passed a CLEP? You must be smart, nobody passes those." He wasn't being sarcastic either.

I thought about taking CLEP tests to finish the rest of the general education requirements I need to finish my degree, but never got around to it. I don't think I'd pass the math CLEP. I'm good if I have a calculator, but those aren't allowed when you test, and I can barely remember algebra. A class will probably be a good refresher for me on that subject.

I took a bunch of CLEP tests a long time ago. I remember one of them was a Humanities CLEP.
"Which of the following depicts 15th century Aztec art?" Followed by pictures of four of the ugliest statues I had ever seen. Hmmm... That one has a mark on the base looks like something I saw on a Batman episode with King Tut. That one has sort of slanty eyes, maybe its Chinese. Flipped a coin on the other two and chose the one on the left.

I passed the test but have no idea whether I got that question right or wrong. Point being, there are (or were) CLEPs for more than just readin', writin' and arithmetic. Anyone looking at CLEPs may be able to test out of quite a few lower division classes while going the CC route to getting a 2year followed by 4year degree. Each institution has rules about how many hours of credit can be awarded by examination and in which areas. Talk to the counselors, they can help.

Sean