I’ve been looking for Online US. College education for some weeks, so far University of the People(which only has Deac, National Acreditation) has come as an interesting option. Here the CS Curriculum Certificate Courses in Computer Science - uopeople catalog
As for my personal interests, I’m would like to get into Game Studies & Data Science for cognitive sciences; so I actually would like to get a bit into academics, a thing that UoP doesn’t offer.
Thing is, I’m really in need to reduce costs, therefore UoP seems to be a good call. since I eve able to apply for financial aid there without major trouble (Associate degree would cost me less than $1k); and it grants me the following options:
1.Transfer to another College, after completing an Associate Degree
2.Get a Masters degree from a Well Know University online program.
3.Get a job, and then attend to a on campus College for post graduate programs
Now, great questions are:
*<since the partnership with Berkeley> do you guys think undergraduates with a Associate Degree from UoP will be able to transfer to Berkeley to finish the Computer Science Bachelor?
Do you guys think it would be viable to get post graduate studies, from Online & on Campus Master programs of Universities such as Georgia Tech(Computer Science), Illinois(Data Science) or Berkeley with a bachelor from UoP?
As far as I know, Oregon State University’s online CS program is regarded pretty well. I know several people who have gotten good jobs with that degree. Most online degrees aren’t regarded very well (e.g. UoP) and are only really useful if your place of business wants you to have a piece of paper before promoting you due to company policy. OSU’s is one of the few that seems to be regarded about as well as the in-person degree, and you can even go to grad school with it. (Granted, don’t be expecting to get into any amazing programs unless you have really good personal projects).
If you choose that route, you can probably email some of the professors there and see if they want to do remote research with you, but some are busier than others. For game stuff, Mike Bailey is probably who you would want to talk to, he’s part of the graphics and parallel computing department. For Data Science, I’m not sure. I know OSU was looking to hire some data science dedicated faculty but I don’t know if they did. The AI department is more theoretical machine learning, anomaly detection, planning, and NLP. I don’t know if they have any hardcore data analytics people.
I have some problems with the way OSU’s undergrad CS program is structured, the fact that it’s done almost purely in C, and the way they administer and grade some of the material, but they teach good fundamentals and are regarded well enough to get a good enough job, or a decent enough post-grad admission with some side projects under your belt.
I believe it’s a 3 year degree though, and I have no idea about tuition.
If all you want is a piece of paper that you can show to your employer’s HR department, or put on your resumѐ to try and trick your employer into hiring you without the skills to back it up, then getting a degree is the way to go.
I thought that, in an ideal world, we should learn for our own personal growth. Ideally, the teachers you have throughout life should be teaching you how to learn for yourself; such that you would not need their piles of homework and tests that still fall far short of the knowledge required to be a real positive asset to your employer.
If you were really interest in programming, I feel that you would already be reading the books for free at the library, or online, and learning on your own without the guillotine of grades needing to be hung over your neck.
That said, to answer your question. Yes Berkeley will accept the TOP performers from UoP’s associate degree program as said here:
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Berkeley said that it will take on qualified, top-performinggraduates from UoPeople’sassociate degree programme who wish to complete a bachelor’s degree at the university.
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And for your other question, I feel that every university is different and requires different things, some might not like accepting a full Bachelors at face value from an online only college. Even Berkeley wants to only take in associate degrees so that they can still run you through their own, more rigorous, programs. You can email their respective enrollment HR people and ask them directly if you really want a true answer.
But, you might not even be right in that you can get an A.S. for under $1000. If I am reading the below quotes correctly, an associates degree takes 20 COURSES, and EACH COURSE’S final exam will cost you $100. That is $2000 right there, before any other shady fees are added on.
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Why are there fees if you are tuition-free?
University of the People is a tuition-free, non-profit institution. The University does not charge students to take classes, does not charge for any reading and other study materials, and does not charge for annual enrollment. As a non-profit academic institution dedicated to opening access to higher education, UoPeople has succeeded in cutting down almost the entire cost of higher education. All we ask applicants to cover is an application processing fee of $10-$60, depending on the applicants country of residence. Additionally, for all new applications commencing from August 27, 2012, UoPeople will ask students to cover the cost of processing exams at $100 per end-of course exam. This fee is a non-refundable Exam Processing Fee for each exam taken. For students who are unable to pay this amount, UoPeople will soon refer students to a Micro-Scholarship Portal to enable donors to contribute directly to students in need of assistance. Additionally, students may apply for a UoPeople scholarship to cover up to the full cost of the Exam Processing Fees.
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The Associate of Science in Computer Science (AS-CS) requires completion of 20 courses, while the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BS-CS) requires completion of 40 courses. As such, many of the program learning outcomes is similar. However, BS degree students will be expected to achieve these outcomes at a higher developmental level.
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And lastly, there are other places to get better education than a degree mill like purely online “colleges” tend to be
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there are better ways to reach learners in places where education is at a premium and there are not many choices…You don’t want to have a bunch of third-rate schools." These better options include courses from providers such as the Open University and Ed2Go that provide “quality education for specific certificate programs in a much more personalised setting at very competitive prices and, in many cases, to developing nations gratis.”
The ultimate test of any degree awarded by accumulating multiple Moocs, he points out, is what doors that piece of paper nudges open. “Eventually employers will decide how valuable they are,” Donohue says. “But I question that lack of interpersonal relationship, and [current] lack of ability to accredit.”
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Hey slown down a bit, how do you know about that I don’t have any expertise?
To start I’m already experienced with programming, and have worked on a bunch of Indie Game Projects, also I’ve taken several CS’S Mooc’s from Stanford, Mit, Harvard, Duke… so with my portfolio, I’m confident to say I’m far from being a newbie in programming.
I’m already informed of that, but thing is they weren’t very clear about it, they didn’t specify careers, would say it seems likely that there’s a preference over the business career.
As for being a “TOP performer”, well to stand out in UoP won’t be much of an effort. Since I already have, lets say, “unfair advantage”; I’ve taken theoretical courses on c, c++ programming(aside from self experience), while in UoP courses are on higher Level Languages. Plus, admission isn’t exactly competitive.
This is the thing UoP seems to be a nice option for my case, since I can use an Associate Degree from there to cheapen expenses; in order for me to afford a “Higher College”.
If I go for the Berkeley’s Bachelor Router, these would be my expenses
$13,518 - Regular Fee per year; but UoP’s transfer are qite likely to get financil Aid… I don’t know about financial aids, but let’s say I end up with a 75% financial AID(feel free to correct my naivety, but I’m orphan and shit, so yeah). That would be $3380 per year & $6760 to finish the Bachelor.
Now I would have to add $10k for On campus living, adding other fees I would need around $20 000.
Do I have this? Well, I can cover some percentage by working after getting my associate degree… plus some student loan.
This wold be, by far, the ideal via… but if I’m unable to afford this… I feel that the Asociate Degree could be kinda worthless, I don’t feel very confident that some “decent” Universitie would accept my creditos from UoP… or maybe I’m just over paranoid? After all UoP have partnerships with Berkeley, Yale & New York U.
As I stated, <I can apply for financial Aid>, and as for “shady fees”, the only extra stuff to pay for are some exams on general studies & the application fee.
Yeah, yeah; but do you know puntual information on this? Which Universities wouldn’t had much trouble on accepting Online Only College Grads?
How much have you looked into scholarships? If you try http://myscholly.com/ or other scholarship aggregator apps/sites, you might find that combined they will give you enough to comfortably go to Berkeley itself.
I was thinking that many information on the web wouldn’t apply to my case since I’m a international student… which made me postpone research on the topic. I’m not aware about the quirks for international s. of federal aid, -if even possible-, or if the financial aid from Berkeley would be “private”… don’t know much about the topic.
The first statement sets off my scam bell. One could create a claim that any real university will accept the top students from any fake university. They merely apply like regular people and if they are actually good, the get in. In other words, attending an unaccredited university … doesn’t hurt.
The link sounds more official but is completely lacking in details. And omitting one key detail: do credits transfer? screams “Watch out!”.
Just do a program from a real university. Make sure they are accredited by one of the official regional associations. Anything else is unaccredited in my book. And also looks very bad on a resume. The very name flashes “This isn’t a regular university”.
Emm, they have a parternership and everything, and well, UoP grads have transfer/post graduated to New York University/Yale.
I would argue that the a lack of detail is justified since they just announced the partnership a bit more than a month ago.
As for credit transfer, yeah, seems kinda probable I will have to retake some course… but it’s still a good deal. I mean UoP Associate’s Degree level transfer credits would cost me the ludicrously low sum of $400-700 (for me).
Let’s say, I’m able to transfer 75% of the credits from UoP to Berkeley. If I start directly at Berkeley, I would have to expend $13 000 instead of $700.
Aside from that, the odds to get accepted at On Campus Berkeley, would be higher if I take the UoP path(international students have way lower odds to get accepted), while also would help me to get better financial AID, since UoP is pretty much the “super inclusive University Thing” and have a lot of support from ONU and bunch of companies.
To attend a generic regionally accredited college would be much expensive while competition would be considerably tougher to get transfer to Berkeley.
*No ugly resume… I would be finishing my Bachelor at Berkeley… or New York U. so yeah
It would just have to ask for better insight… Bit presumptuous statement TBH…
Don’t take a press release like that as fact. Contact UC Berkeley directly to verify that information. They should be able to tell you exactly which if any credits transfer from UoP, especially if they have actually formed a “partnership.”