Degree options for military affiliated overseas?

I am weighing online options, as I live in Germany with a civilian employee working for the US Army. I came across this site in a review for WGU, and have found it incredibly informative! But as I am in a unique situation, I thought I would ask if anyone has advice on a good path...

I will give a brief history: I am an USAF vet, Intel Analyst. (but have been out long enough that my GI Bill benefits have expired). I have worked in a variety of data analysis positions since, as a govt contractor, accounting data, medical data, and currently bulding an assessment score database for an elementary school here. I have zero college, just the CCAF credits from my AF training, and an english comp class I took years ago at a community college (prob about 40 credits, so I am sure some may transfer). I have had a progressive knowledge of databases over the years. I am self taught in everything. Since the beginning of my career I have been the "go to" girl for tech questions, especially software related. I love databases, and am excellent at building excel workbooks. I have been working on my VB skills so I can make excel do more, and back in the day knew a little UNIX to write little scripts, but I don't know yet if I am programer material. I have always just fell into a job which is why my backround is diverse, but because of my location, the job market is even stranger. I can't speak 2 words of German, so I have to find something on post. For over 10 years I have known IT was the direction I wanted to go, but I let life get in the way and feel now is the time to work on it. From the IT people I have talked to here, once they got some certs they found an ok job. But I do want to get the degree done and over with too.

So, I am looking for a program, which is cheap and fast. Obvoiusly anything that gave discounts for vets as well as transfer credits would help (I have no immediate funds to pay for anything). I have read a lot about WGU, and like that you earn certs as part of the program, but I am not sure if what I have would count as "3 years IT experience". I need to increase my knowledge base quickly. I have good problem solving skills, but I lack many fundamentals.

I would appreciate any advice you have to give!

Kim

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Comments

NinjaBoy

Since you're over here in the EU, have you thought about the OpenU in the UK? The OpenU is a degree awarding body (university) incorporated by Royal Charter (so it is a recognised and legit University in the UK).

I believe that if you register for a course this Feb, you are still entitled to the pre-increased fees and the courses are in English. There's modules that are based on Microsoft Server Technologies, Cisco Technologies, etc and like a Traditional university can gain degrees up to post-grad studies.

Not sure about discounts being a vet of any countries military, I do know that they do credit transfers but I'm not sure about the process or criteria.

powerfool

University of Maryland University College is one option. As a matter of fact, I think that they receive top billing as the most military-friendly school around. They recently had a graduation ceremony in Afghanistan... Should work out well enough for a civilian, as well.... I am a contractor and I am attending UMUC for my graduate program.

UMUC - Homepage

They have numerous programs that are IT-related.

bryanthetechie

You can also try Excelsior College. They cater to military students and accept Dantes exams for credit, as well as IT certs.

Gholden85

Im actually over in Germany, and was also debating on what to do about degrees. After looking at UMUC, WGU, and others, in my case, I have decided to finish going for the basic certs (A+, Network+, Sec+, and CCNA). So far I have completed A+, and Network+, and I'm working on Sec+ right now as self study.

Think about the price tag of the degree, and whether it will help you or not towards what you want to do. I was looking at doing a Masters program, and the most compelling schools I saw were WGU, UMUC, and Norwich I believe. I have heard some people on the forums just went for the BS in IT WGU degree for the price, and then focused on going to a brick & mortar school for their Masters.

Whatever you do, I would say you can't go wrong with self-studying the certs. If you choose to go the WGU route, I believe at least some of them will apply towards the bachelors. If you have any other questions, or would like to talk about it more, just send me a PM. Best of luck to you!

NinjaBoy

To my knowledge, WGU is out of the question for the original poster:

Will you admit students living outside the U.S.?

At the present time, WGU is accepting applications only from individuals living in the United States and select geographical areas of Canada. (The exceptions are U.S. active-duty military personnel and their families at overseas installations and individuals living in Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

See here.

Ryan82

I am a contractor over here in Germany. My boss and several co-workers are going to WGU so there shouldn't be any sort of restriction on who can apply unless something changed recently. UMUC is an option and you can take face to face or online courses. Unfortunately they only offer several of the general education courses so at some point you will be forced to take courses online, which despite what some people believe is a lot more work than the face to face.

To be honest, if I wasn't only a couple courses away from finishing with UMUC I probably would choose WGU. Depending on your determination you can definitely finish a degree with WGU much faster than UMUC. I have always had the GI bill at my disposal though so I haven't checked prices of each university.

Also in regards to the online format, I can't stand the forced interaction between students through UMUC. You will have to make posts on a topic and then respond to two other students posts each week for example. As I understand it from my supervisor this does not happen at WGU.

PM me directly if you have any questions

Valsacar

I'd say Excelsior (who I just finished my BS with) or WGU are your best options. Both will transfer in certs, EC is VERY easy as far as other sources of credits (if ACE approves and they can find a way to fit it in, they will), but it's more expensive than WGU.

You can go on base as well, my wife (I'm an Army vet and contractor in Korea) gets the military rate at UMUC because I'm a vet. UMUC is not as friendly when it comes to other sources of credits, and has a residency requirement (which EC does not).

nescotorres

Thank you all for your feedback:) I am trying to go for WGU first I think, and have been in touch with one of their admissions dudes there. I am hoping my database background and simple "help desk" go-to person experience will be enough to get me in (he said if not I will need to get a cert and reapply). I did consider just self studying for certs, but I think I am going to stick with the college road for 2 reasons at this point. 1) I have no out of pocket funds to pay for exams and materials myself and am relying on financial aid, and 2) I just feel I need to get an initial degree done and over with, it has been coming back to haunt me for a good 20 years, and I might as well study something that interests me. So I am using Khan Academy to get my math skils back in order, then I will work on the application:)

I would like to speak more with the other members who are living in Germany, your experiences would be valuable to me. I need to figure out the PM thing, I read I have to post more before I can send one, and I am just not that outspoken haha.

Thank you all, and if anyone else comes across this and has anything to add, I would be grateful!

Kim