

Ask YC: CS/Programming Online - xe_manup

Where's a good place to get a CS or programming degree via online courses?
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iamelgringo
I'm finishing up my degree online this year. After a lot of research a couple
of years ago, I settled on the University of Maryland. :
<http://www.umuc.edu/online_ed.shtml>

Here's my criteria: I needed a Bachelor's degree program. I wanted an actual
brick and mortar school that offered it's courses online. And, I wanted it to
be as geeky/CS heavy as possible. UMUC fit all of those.

While they don't offer a full CS degree, their full online degree is Computer
and Information Science. That's more of their Software Engineering major as
opposed to their Computer Science major. It's a "Java school." So, take that
for what it's worth. I wish I had more algorithms/compiler type classes. But,
I knew that I wanted to do web apps when I was done, so that's what I focused
my schooling on.

I'm sure that you might be able to skate through your degree, but it's far
from a diploma mill. I've worked full time the whole way through, and have
only been able to carry 9 credits at the maximum. Generally I've only been
able to carry 6 credits. The University of Maryland has a decent reputation.
For what it's worth, after my first year, I got an email from the National
Security Agency inviting me to apply for a full ride scholarship. I doubt that
you'll get that at Kaplan, Capella or at U of Phoenix.

UMUC has a big contract with the military, so you're doing a lot of your
distance education with people in the military or work for companies that do
military contracting. I took classes with other students who were working in
the Intelligence community, who were in combat zones, and one guy was doing
penetration testing for the State Department. I'm careful with what I post
online, and we don't chat about our jobs much. :)

All in all, it's been worth it, and I'd recommend it as long as you use
Ratemyprofessor.com. Like any University, some teachers are tools, some are
phenomenal. Like any degree, you get out of it what you put into it.

~~~
Shooter
I've hired UMUC online grads before (not from the CIS program, but other
subjects), and I would agree its a strong school. I was actually going to
recommend it, as well, but the OP seemed to want a CS program. I think there
are several other state schools that have CS/CIS/MIS programs, too (MA, CT,
etc.?)

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Shooter
I know University of Illinois at Springfield has an online CS program.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a great school for CS with an
impressive history of startup founders (Netscape, YouTube, Firefox, Oracle,
Siebel, AMD, Lotus, etc.) The Urbana-Champaign CS program is usually ranked
third in the country, after Stanford and MIT. If you did very well in your
online classes with Springfield, you could probably continue on with the MS
program in CS at Urbana-Champaign if you wanted to do so.

[Don't get me wrong, Springfield's CS program is the ugly third cousin of
UIUC, but it is still much better than Kaplan and UPhoenix and the rest of
those online busywork diploma mills. No offense to any Kaplan/UPhoenix alumni
;-) ]

~~~
iamelgringo
If I were to do a Masters in CS online, I'd go with UIUC. The school has a
great reputation, and I've seen a couple of their online lectures. They're
pretty good.

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thorax
Maybe try Kaplan University? I haven't done enough research to know what's
good. Would be interested to hear what others say.

