Ask HN: Good Online Universities? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Good Online Universities?

4 pointsrajlego9 comments

Going to a university abroad, want to quit it and move back to the states.

My parents expect me to get a degree (they'd be fine with even an associates) and I don't hate the prospect but I'd prefer to start spending my time working on side projects (very rough list of random ideas: https://rajspace.brick.do/. there are plenty more in my head).

I'm looking for something: -cheap -not too time consuming (10-20 hours per week) -ideally an associates degree with optionality to transfer to undergrad

I'm thinking of doing computer science since it's been a long-term interest. At the same time, I'm more interested in UI design but I'm not sure I'd want to study it for a full 2-4 years. I'm open to something completely different with studying programming myself on the side too.

Any suggestions on universities/courses?

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Look into Western Governors University (WGU) www.wgu.edu. They seem to take into consideration your IT work experience and certification, inexpensive, and promote competency based learning.

Came here to recommend WGU, as well - it's my alma mater.

They're not a great school, but if you know how to code and want to fill in knowledge gaps and get a piece of paper at the end, they're a great fit. Plus it's possible to get a bachelor's degree in associate's degree time or less (I did not because I don't have enough focus in my day to do more than a full-time course load alongside a full-time job, but I know people who did WGU's CS course in under two years).

How hard would it be to do it in associates degree time?

I'd say fairly easy, especially if you're not working full-time. It was difficult for me because I have ADHD and that makes the extra focus necessary for accelerated learning difficult, but if you're good at focusing and driving yourself to finish things quickly, I've seen people get WGU's CS degree in as little as 1-1.5 years.

I'd recommend checking out the various subreddits dedicated to WGU, their college of IT, and the SWDev and CS programs (r/wgu, r/wguit, r/wgu_devs, r/wgu_compsci). There are also student-run chat servers on both Slack and Discord.

Coursera is a good place. They cooperate with actual university to get degrees. From what I've seen, the courses are top notch.

Also EDX may have similar program

Look at GA Tech’s options. Not sure about associates level, but have good online programs.

unfortunately, it looks like for online degrees there's only masters (though they have other non-degree course)

Check out edx.org. It is run by Harvard University and MIT. Can't get much better than that. They coordinate classes and programs by great universities all of the USA and world. Here are other universities that are part of the edx.org program: https://www.edx.org/schools-partners

You can take classes for free or can get certificates of completion for each class.

They have micro-Bachelors programs offered by universities that have a higher cost, but are 100% online, very inexpensive, actual real college credits, no application process. You can pay $500 - $1400 for a micro-course of 3-5 classes, or you can take them individually for free.

https://www.edx.org/microbachelors

They have UX classes: https://www.edx.org/learn/user-experience-ux

https://www.edx.org/learn/ux-design

They also have professional certifications. https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate

UI is great. If you are not 100% settled on that, Cybersecurity pays huge dollars and you will get job offers out the ass. It costs $1,344, which is a screaming deal, if you want the certificate. And again, you can take each class seperately for free, but with no certification. https://www.edx.org/microbachelors/nyux-cybersecurity-fundam...

I would definitely give this a look.

However, if you want an actual associates degree, then I would advise you to look at your instate public community college system and see if they have online programs, as that will be by far your least expensive way to go, and follow that up by going to your instate public state university. As you said, it is up to you to check each class for it's transferability to your public state university. I would hard core recommend that you do NOT talk to any private university unless tuition is under $10K per year, which I only see rarely. And you need to go in-state public universities because it can be very expensive to go to out of state higher education. For example, for California community colleges, the average tuition is approximately $1,458 per year for in-state students and $6,710 for out-of-state students. I know my nephews took a lot of online courses from the California community colleges. You'll have to check out your own, in whatever state that you are in.

Good luck.

These are pretty good and well put together . I highly recommend anything by Eric Lander https://www.edx.org/bio/eric-s-lander

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