College Credits for Certification

Hey all,

I was wondering if you all would be willing to share a list of schools that grant college credit for Microsoft certifications (or other vendors)?

Colleges:
Thomas Edison State College (MCSE and MCP only)

University:
Western Governors University (MCITP, MCTS, MCSE)

If you know any, please keep adding them.
Thanks!

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veritas_libertas

Ashenwelt wrote: »

Hey all,

I was wondering if you all would be willing to share a list of schools that grant college credit for Microsoft certifications (or other vendors)?

Colleges:
Thomas Edison State College (MCSE and MCP only)

University:
Western Governors University (MCITP, MCTS, MCSE)

If you know any, please keep adding them.
Thanks!

Capella gives credit for the following: CCNA, C|EH, CH|FI, Security+, SSCP, and the CISSP.

Psoasman

Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, WA.
For MCP, MCSA, MCSE, any security certs, A+, NET+.

jamesleecoleman

Davenport University:

Comptia: (A+, Network+, Security+, Project+, Linux+ (I know for sure))
Microsoft: MCSA and MCSE
Cisco: CCNA/CCNP/CCIE

dynamik

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

thomas130

dynamik wrote: »

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

Yeah to be fair it would more useful to have that knowledge walking into an IT job then without. Let's be honest how much of the material do you use in your degree in real life anyway.

dynamik

With all my certs, I'd basically be given a college degree. That really seems to cheapen the "experience". It seems like the two should be separate and distinct parts of career development. I actually don't have a degree (yet), so I'm not really a zealot for formal education. It just seems too easy and transitory IMHO.

Psoasman

I am working on an AAS degree and I intend to transfer to a 4 year school later on. The school is allowing me to challenge some of the basic OS / hardware classes, which will save me about 2 quarters.
I agree if I were to get credit for 1/2 the degree, that might be too much.

networker050184

dynamik wrote: »

With all my certs, I'd basically be given a college degree. That really seems to cheapen the "experience". It seems like the two should be separate and distinct parts of career development. I actually don't have a degree (yet), so I'm not really a zealot for formal education. It just seems too easy and transitory IMHO.

You also have to take into account that some people don't want the "experience." They might not even want a degree at all and they are only getting it to have something to put on the resume.

Armor149

dynamik wrote: »

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

I can see where your coming from. However, my experience at the community college level has been that certs provided a deeper and more thorough understanding of a subject than the college course. The degree track at my school has been reworked many times in the last 7 years due to classes being obsolete.

I think in the case of a major such as IT, where technology is constantly changing, certs seems to be acceptable. It seems most schools, tailor a class curriculum towards the objectives of the current certification for that subject.

That's my two cents.

ULWiz

Armor149 wrote: »

I can see where your coming from. However, my experience at the community college level has been that certs provided a deeper and more thorough understanding of a subject than the college course. The degree track at my school has been reworked many times in the last 7 years due to classes being obsolete.

I think in the case of a major such as IT, where technology is constantly changing, certs seems to be acceptable. It seems most schools, tailor a class curriculum towards the objectives of the current certification for that subject.

That's my two cents.

I believe Devry also does this for a few courses. I am almost done with my degree and did not substitute any of my certs to pass a class. If i had known about it earlier i might have done a few courses just to get a jump start.

A person studying for the A+ would get way more info from his self study than taking a simple comp100 course at a college.

Ashenwelt

networker050184 wrote: »

You also have to take into account that some people don't want the "experience." They might not even want a degree at all and they are only getting it to have something to put on the resume.

The "experience" of gettinhg the degree? Um, no. You don't even get that old "experience" these days from the online schools, votechs, or even the accelerated programs at traditional colleges and universities.

But, consider what you learn when you get your certs? You learn current information. Unlike when I was at college looking at my comp classes (yes, years ago), I had to take ANSI C and BASIC. Um, why? Even back then most programming was C++.

Plus, traditionally, passing a test ussually equates to the time it takes to take a well thought out 3 semester unit class. So, whats the difference between using the certs, and testing out of classes? Might be different classes (sometimes), but still going to be similar.

dynamik

Maybe I'm just trying to justify my $1100 literature course that I just enrolled in, in order to satisfy my last miscellaneous liberal education requirement...

I'd rather have gotten Wireshark University/Laura Chappell training materials...

Hyper-Me

dynamik wrote: »

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

So what should I get a degree in?

Philosophy? Geography? Geology? English? Sociology?

Most academic degrees teach you things that arent applicable to the real world, and therefore wont do you much actual good.

English majors dont engineer your car, philosophy majors dont design multicontinent networks.

Yes, I know that a lot of people have degrees in random stuff and then moved into IT, but they also generally have piles of certs and real world IT experience. I dont think any of them can honestly say that some random degree gave them required skills to work in IT.

dynamik

Hyper-Me wrote: »

So what should I get a degree in?

Philosophy? Geography? Geology? English? Sociology?

Yes, all five. Once you unlock those achievements, you become fluent in binary and will be truly l33t. That was clearly the point I was making.

I've seen computer science degrees becoming more broad over the years and are no longer directly focused on programming. Many are including networking, databases, security, etc.

A solid DB class will provide you with a solid foundation for years to come and will be applicable to Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL, etc. Compare that with someone who has their class waived because they have a cert for SQL Server 2005.

How far will that go? Look at how much Exchange changed between 2003 and 2007. It's odd to put so much value on something that will be useful for such a fleeting time.

Besides things like Latin, most other fields evolve over time, but few, if any, do so at the rate that IT does. That's why I think you'll get more out of your education if you work on core concepts instead of ephemeral technologies.

There other options besides CSci. Maybe check out information systems or a business degree. An understanding of business is inconsequential if you're working at the help desk, but it becomes exponentially more important as you climb the ladder.

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Most academic degrees teach you things that arent applicable to the real world, and therefore wont do you much actual good.

I'd like to see some statistics that back that up. I think what more commonly happens is that people don't know what they want to do and end up with something unrelated to where they end up. Had I chosen to pursue a career in psychology, my studies would have been very applicable.

Even though I am now in a different field, I still feel that my education has been valuable to me. We do remote and in-person social engineering, and psychology is an enormous aspect of that.

There was much dealing with interpersonal relationships, business, and a lot of other things that I simply found to be interesting that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. The management course I'm taking now has been mostly review in a late of areas because psychology is an integral role in management.

I joked about my literature course, but there's a lot to be said for being well-rounded as opposed to being intently focused on technology. I also developed solid research, writing, speaking, and presentation skills. Report writing and presenting to management (sometimes C-level executives) is a large part of my job.

TL;DR version: You get out what you put in. I've been able to take a great deal to a seemingly unrelated field.

Hyper-Me wrote: »

English majors dont engineer your car, philosophy majors dont design multicontinent networks.

I actually know someone who has a philosophy undergraduate degree and was a CCNP; he indeed designed, implemented, and interconnected networks all over the world. He went on to get an MBA and now is one of the top executives at a company that's worth a quarter billion.

My other concern with these types of degrees is where they leave you, and this is why I shared that previous story. My degree gives me very many options for graduate studies. I obviously have the option to pursue psychology, but I can also get into business, computer science, information security. Most would require to take a few catch-up classes beforehand, but it's actually an extremely versatile degree. Where does CCNA or MCP coursework fit into a reputable MBA program. What sort of gap would you have to fill if you later decided to pursue that?

Even if such a degree is ideal for landing an IT job, what are your options for the future? Which schools will accept that degree? It will obviously vary a great deal based on the institution and the program, but I'd definitely look into that. Would your graduate studies be limited to that institution, or only a few related ones? Do you want to have that role in IT forever? Do you want to get into management or do research? Are you sure you'll feel that way 10, 20, 30, etc. years from now? Would you have to essentially start over if you change your mind? If you had to, would/could you?

Someone in another thread showed a statistic that stated one in four graduate degrees is an MBA. Will that institution make you stand out from that crowd, or will you just be average? Would that be worth the time, energy, and cost?

These are all things you need to consider. I've seen people get royally effed and ultimately end up wasting a lot of time and money.

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I dont think any of them can honestly say that some random degree gave them required skills to work in IT.

Myself, nor anyone else I've seen, has said or implied that.

I also want to make it clear that I'm not saying that these degrees are inherently bad, wrong, or worthless. Additionally, there's too much variance between institutions and programs to speak generally about them. Maybe a very reputable program will allow you to waive a class or two.

If you found something that meets your needs, go for it. Just realize that all degrees aren't equal and make sure you're not simply doing what's easy and convenient at the moment without taking other things into consideration.

L0gicB0mb508

I think most schools will do something if you pass the cert. I know at my local CC they allow you to forgo the final if you pass the certification. Most of the time the finals were about 1/4 of your grade, so it helped.

I like you dynamic know plenty of people who do not have an IT degree, yet are functioning pretty well as IT engineers. A lot of people look at college as human skills and problem solving than anything else. Your mileage may vary.

Hyper-Me

My only response is...

I know way more people with over 100k in to a degree that are making less than 1/3 of that than I do people who have over 100k in to a degree and are making 1/3 MORE than that.

Pretty much all colleges flat rob you with their prices, which increase every single year reguardless of the fact that the value of the education they provide isnt increasing.

Im going to go to WGU, and combined with what i paid for my AAS, I will have no more than 10k into a BS. Should I change my mind about my career down the road, i'd rather have my previous schooling paid off and be able to pursue other things rather than say "well ****, I still owe 85k to ITT Tech after paying on it for 25 years, I guess I cant do anything else"

crrussell3

dynamik wrote: »

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

I do agree to some extent, that they just shouldn't give you credit unless the cert applies directly to the certification. I know I wouldn't want to go into a degree having to take a class that focuses on Net+, A+, or any other cert if I already had said cert under my belt. In those situations, they should give you the credit. Otherwise, just me having a CCNA shouldn't qualify for random credits unless it was for a Cisco class focusing on the same material.

drainey

On a different track, my fist college course in the late 80's taught me how to do pc-calc (a dos based spreadsheet), pc-write (a dos based word processor), and pc-data (a dos based database program). How much does college credit for that count in today's world? My certs are certainly more relevant than those programs or even the first iteration of basic (before qbasic, quick basic, etc.). Not to mention 8 college credits for programming in a "introductory training language" that never had any practical real world relevance.

Not trying to say that having many certs should earn you a degree, but if used for credit for relevant classes, why not?

Hyper-Me

crrussell3 wrote: »

I do agree to some extent, that they just shouldn't give you credit unless the cert applies directly to the certification. I know I wouldn't want to go into a degree having to take a class that focuses on Net+, A+, or any other cert if I already had said cert under my belt. In those situations, they should give you the credit. Otherwise, just me having a CCNA shouldn't qualify for random credits unless it was for a Cisco class focusing on the same material.

I am going into a degree for Network Design (which is for MS networks, not actual IP networks) and I've already designed a rather massive AD infrastructure and a bunch of other services and software that ties into it. I wish they would give me an honorary degree

. But schools are businesses just like any other, and they are solely in it to make money, nothing else.

crrussell3

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I am going into a degree for Network Design (which is for MS networks, not actual IP networks) and I've already designed a rather massive AD infrastructure and a bunch of other services and software that ties into it. I wish they would give me an honorary degree . But schools are businesses just like any other, and they are solely in it to make money, nothing else.

Very true. Real world experience should count for something, but as you said, schools are businesses, so they are in it to make money. But at the same time, how much different is it to test out of a class, or getting credit for it automatically if you have the certification that the class prepares you for?

dynamik

Hyper-Me wrote: »

But schools are businesses just like any other, and they are solely in it to make money, nothing else.

That certainly explains why the vast majority are non-profit...

veritas_libertas

dynamik wrote: »

Does certs for courses seem a bit cheesy to anyone else? I'm not discounting the work it takes to get a cert, but the don't seem to be on par with an actual college course. Obviously something like a CCIE will give you a wicked understanding in a solid concept like TCP/IP, but a lot of these places will accept MCPs/MTCSes, CompTIA, and other certs that will be obsolete in a matter of years. It just seems odd to me to get a degree based on something that will be rendered completely obsolete in a few years.

I guess that depends, I don't think you should be able to completely fulfill a degree with certifications. On the other hand there are plenty of certifications that are easily more in depth than college classes. Cisco is one obvious case. Yes it is manufacturer specific, but I could easily have replaced two of my classes with the CCNA (in knowledge.) On the other hand using an operating system certification for a class replacement does seem a little ridiculous.

kenny504

Exclesior college proabably the best online school for college credits tranfer...they accept mostly all I.T certifications.

check this link

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/School_of_Business_and_Technology/Technology_Programs/BS_IN_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY/CREDIT_FOR_IT_CERTIFICATION

Hyper-Me

dynamik wrote: »

That certainly explains why the vast majority are non-profit...

Being non-profit on paper doesnt mean that there arent forces at work within the organization to bring in funds by any means, and for any means necessary.

I bet the President of one of our local community colleges raising tuition and other costs year over year (and more each year) had nothing to do with the huge building he built with his own name on it.

dynamik

The other concern is that it's rather trivial to **** certs, so by extension, those people can now **** some or all of a degree. That devalues those degrees across the board.

Hyper-Me

dynamik wrote: »

The other concern is that it's rather trivial to **** certs, so by extension, those people can now **** some or all of a degree. That devalues those degrees across the board.

I have a coworker that has a BS in computer science from a university that does NOT offer credit for certs. Yet he has admitted to dumping some NT4 certs, and every project he has worked on at work he has stolen documents from other companies/univerisities/etc and changed the name on them to our companies name, and passed it off as his own. So its entirely plausible that he did the same thing throughout college. If you knew him you wouldnt put it past him.

So how is plagiarizing all of your work in college any different than dumping an exam?

Claymoore

dynamik wrote: »

The other concern is that it's rather trivial to **** certs, so by extension, those people can now **** some or all of a degree. That devalues those degrees across the board.

I've seen test files at fraternities that would put Certification Trendz braindump sites to shame.

It can be challenging to develop courses for subjects that change so rapidly. Microsoft and Cisco basically do this for the professors with their university academy programs and certifications. If I can take a course that gives me college credit and a certification, shouldn't the certification alone count towards completion of the coursework? What else would the course be measuring, attendance?

I have considered going back to school to complete a degree in comp sci, but one of my requirements would be the ability to apply my certifications to some of the beginning course work. I do not have the time or money to waste on filler courses covering material I feel I have already mastered.

veritas_libertas

Claymoore wrote: »

I've seen test files at fraternities that would put Certification Trendz braindump sites to shame.

It can be challenging to develop courses for subjects that change so rapidly. Microsoft and Cisco basically do this for the professors with their university academy programs and certifications. If I can take a course that gives me college credit and a certification, shouldn't the certification alone count towards completion of the coursework? What else would the course be measuring, attendance?

I have considered going back to school to complete my degree in comp sci, but one of my requirements would be the ability to apply my certifications to some of the beginning course work. I do not have the time or money to waste on filler courses covering material I feel I have already mastered.

No kidding! At Michigan State University a friend of mine watched dozens of people just **** their way through a degree. On a personal level, I watched a person I considered bright (up until this point) sneak his textbook under the table during a test. Would you believe he is still taking classes even after I reported him? As I understand it Cisco/Microsoft/CompTIA would be more harsh about dealing with this kind of violation then my Community College?

Psoasman

Claymoore wrote: »

I have considered going back to school to complete a degree in comp sci, but one of my requirements would be the ability to apply my certifications to some of the beginning course work. I do not have the time or money to waste on filler courses covering material I feel I have already mastered.

+1 That is what I am doing. I didn't want to waste 2 quarters going over how to install and configure XP / Vista, basic hardware, etc.

MoInSTL

Rio Salado Community College in Phoenix, AZ automatically granted 3 credits when I took my Net+ exam. I wasn't even enrolled there.

The OP may want to check their area schools.