Guide to Accelerated Computer Science Degrees for IT Professionals

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty and UND are two schools with a top com­put­er sci­ence accel­er­at­ed bach­e­lor’s degree pro­gram.
• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams con­dense tra­di­tion­al com­put­er sci­ence course­work, allow­ing IT pro­fes­sion­als to earn a degree in a short­er timeframe.
• While accel­er­at­ed pro­grams can be inten­sive, they often offer a high return on invest­ment by quick­ly prepar­ing IT pros for high­er-pay­ing roles in tech.

In the IT domain, there are plen­ty of career oppor­tu­ni­ties that can help you earn a hefty pay­check. Whether you want to be a sup­port spe­cial­ist or soft­ware engi­neer, the world is pret­ty much yours to con­quer. The tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor is also con­tin­u­ous­ly improv­ing, requir­ing IT pro­fes­sion­als to catch up fast. You just need to be com­mit­ted enough to learn so that you can get the degree.

Luck­i­ly, fast-track CS pro­grams can help IT pro­fes­sion­als obtain their degrees with­out leav­ing their day jobs. Their flex­i­ble sched­ule and fast pace make them more appeal­ing than their tra­di­tion­al coun­ter­parts, allow­ing indi­vid­u­als to advance quick­ly in their career of choice. In this arti­cle, you will learn more about these pro­grams and why they might ben­e­fit you.

Relat­ed:

• Top Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs
• Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lors of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees
• Best Online Schools for a Bachelor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science
• What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree?

What Are Accelerated Computer Science Programs?

To advance into their career, many IT pro­fes­sion­als need to fol­low a pro­gram to obtain a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or degree. How­ev­er, the prob­lem is that this kind of pro­gram takes around 4 years to com­plete, and class­es often occur through­out the week­day. To obtain the degree the tra­di­tion­al way, you would like­ly have to leave your job or take an unpaid sab­bat­i­cal. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, not every­one has the lux­u­ry of leav­ing their job, as this means loss of income.

Short dura­tion CS degrees offer an alter­na­tive to that, as class­es are often fin­ished in half the time of a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram. Get­ting a con­ven­tion­al bachelor’s degree takes around 4 years, but the accel­er­at­ed ver­sion is com­plet­ed in two years at most. The cur­ricu­lum is sim­i­lar, but few­er class­es are required, with stu­dents being able to attend dur­ing their free time (i.e., evenings and week­ends). This makes them effi­cient for those who want to boost their career with­out aban­don­ing their full-time job.

Benefits of Accelerated Degrees for IT Professionals

As an IT pro­fes­sion­al, you can enjoy the fol­low­ing accel­er­at­ed CS degree benefits:

1. Time Efficiency

Accel­er­at­ed degrees are obtained much faster than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, ben­e­fit­ing your career advance­ment in IT.It will put less of a strain on your time and allow you to get a poten­tial pro­mo­tion faster. Plus, if you get a sab­bat­i­cal for edu­ca­tion­al pur­pos­es, this type of degree lets you return much quick­er to the workforce.

2. Potential for Higher Education ROI

Very often, get­ting a degree means you can be placed in a high­er posi­tion with an increased income. The accel­er­at­ed degree ROI ben­e­fits will allow you to reach your goals in a short­er time, advanc­ing your career much faster than ini­tial­ly anticipated.

3. Learning Based on Existing Knowledge

Unlike tra­di­tion­al degrees that often start your edu­ca­tion jour­ney from scratch, cours­es for fast com­put­er sci­ence degrees focus on exist­ing knowl­edge. Your work expe­ri­ence can usu­al­ly be con­vert­ed into cred­its, allow­ing you to bypass cer­tain class­es if you already have the base knowl­edge. This could sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the accel­er­at­ed CS degree costs.

Challenges of Accelerated Learning

Get­ting advanced pro­gram­ming degrees at an accel­er­at­ed rate has numer­ous ben­e­fits, but there are also some chal­lenges to con­sid­er. This can include the following:

1. Intensive Coursework

One advan­tage that tra­di­tion­al pro­grams have is that your class­es are bal­anced out, mak­ing it eas­i­er to keep up. With fast com­put­er sci­ence degrees, the course­work has a high­er inten­si­ty, requir­ing more sig­nif­i­cant time com­mit­ment from you. This can be very stress­ful, as you will have to learn the same amount of infor­ma­tion in a much short­er time.

2. Maintaining a Work-Life Balance

As you enter the work­force, bal­anc­ing work and per­son­al life is com­pli­cat­ed enough as it is. Adding course­work to that could make things even more dif­fi­cult. Long study peri­ods are often required for inten­sive com­put­er sci­ence cours­es, mean­ing you like­ly won’t have much time left for per­son­al affairs.

3. Limited Networking Opportunities

Anoth­er advan­tage that tra­di­tion­al pro­grams offer over accel­er­at­ed ones is the abil­i­ty to social­ize and meet new peo­ple. Most of these fast-track class­es offer online com­put­er sci­ence degrees, so you won’t “min­gle” with class­mates and pro­fes­sors. This could be a dis­ad­van­tage because like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als are the ones who can bring the best oppor­tu­ni­ties in life.

Key Components of Accelerated CS Degree Programs

Accel­er­at­ed cours­es for career advance­ment in IT have sev­er­al key com­po­nents you should keep in mind. Depend­ing on what they include, it is best to com­pare them first and choose the one that fits your career require­ments. Thus, IT pro­fes­sion­als should focus on the following:

· Core Subjects Covered

When opt­ing for fast com­put­er sci­ence edu­ca­tion for IT pro­fes­sion­als, you must keep in mind that not all pro­grams are the same. While the most com­mon ones are machine learn­ing, advanced pro­gram­ming, and data man­age­ment, oth­er sub­jects might also be cov­ered. Whether you work in Python or C++, make sure the pro­gram cov­ers core sub­jects you will like­ly need dur­ing your career.

· Hands-On Learning Options

Degree cours­es for IT career accel­er­a­tion also offer var­i­ous hands-on learn­ing meth­ods. Some do it through projects you must com­plete over time, where­as oth­ers pro­vide intern­ships and cap­stones. You need to decide your learn­ing style to deter­mine what type of hands-on approach works best for you.

· Online vs. In-Person

Accel­er­at­ed degree pro­grams for com­put­er sci­ence can be attend­ed in three for­mats, depend­ing on your pre­ferred option: in-per­son, online, and hybrid mod­els. Online mod­els are often an excel­lent option for those who do not have the time to com­mute to the insti­tu­tion. In con­trast, in-per­son class­es are gen­er­al­ly suit­able for those who learn best from class dis­cus­sions. Some­times, IT pro­fes­sion­als also choose hybrid options, attend­ing online cours­es on week­days and in-per­son ones on weekends.

Admission Requirements and Application Tips

Like the stan­dard uni­ver­si­ty bachelor’s options, the aver­age admis­sion to accel­er­at­ed CS pro­grams also has some require­ments you must respect. You have to do pri­or research, as each pro­gram often has dif­fer­ent offerings.

Typical Prerequisites and Qualifications

Depend­ing on the course that you opt for, there may be spe­cif­ic pre­req­ui­sites and qual­i­fi­ca­tions that you need to meet. Your appli­ca­tion will look bet­ter if your school has a sig­nif­i­cant focus on com­put­er sci­ence, but any high school will do. Most pro­grams accept the CED cer­tifi­cate if you did not fin­ish high school.

Pro­gram­ming expe­ri­ence is also ben­e­fi­cial, so it could work to your advan­tage if you know Java or C++. Some pro­grams also ask for rec­om­men­da­tion let­ters and per­son­al state­ments or essays to show your basic skills. For the most part, it is rec­om­mend­ed to check online for the pre­req­ui­sites of the pro­gram meet­ing your IT pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment goals.

Tips to Strengthen Your Applications

Com­pe­ti­tion for admis­sion to these pro­grams is tight, as there are more IT jobs than ever. There­fore, your appli­ca­tion needs to be strong if you want to be accept­ed. Here are a few tips that could help:

• Try to keep your aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence at a good lev­el, as high­er GPAs are more like­ly to be accepted
• Choose a pro­gram that offers rel­e­vant course­work in line with your cur­rent job
• Show on your appli­ca­tion that you have basic pro­gram­ming experience
• Add extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties relat­ed to com­put­er sci­ence, includ­ing internships
• Get a let­ter of rec­om­men­da­tion from your superiors
• Write a pow­er­ful per­son­al essay

The more capa­ble you prove you are, the high­er your chances of acceptance.

Top Accelerated CS Programs Suited for IT Professionals

There are plen­ty of pro­grams where you can ben­e­fit from accel­er­at­ed learn­ing in tech­nol­o­gy, all of which end up with a degree. The fol­low­ing ones often appeal to work­ing professionals:

1. Franklin University Accelerated CS Bachelor’s Program

If you want to obtain your bachelor’s degree in com­put­er sci­ence online, Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty offers an attrac­tive option. The cur­ricu­lum includes advanced soft­ware design, app devel­op­ment, and soft­ware sys­tem main­te­nance. You’ll only need 124 cred­its to grad­u­ate, which is low­er com­pared to oth­er pub­lic universities.

2. University of North Dakota Accelerated Bachelor Program

Those search­ing for a hybrid mod­el could look into the CS accel­er­at­ed learn­ing pro­gram offered by the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Dako­ta. The cur­ricu­lum is flex­i­ble and prac­ti­cal, offer­ing project-based learn­ing along with intern­ships. You’ll need 120 cred­its to grad­u­ate, but the learn­ing process is smooth.

3. Springfield University of Illinois Information System Security Program

If your inter­est in com­put­er sci­ence focus­es pri­mar­i­ly on infor­ma­tion sys­tem secu­ri­ty, the Spring­field Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois has just the right pro­gram for you. Pre­req­ui­sites are tighter here, as you need 30 hours’ worth of trans­fer cred­its, a cumu­la­tive GPA of 2.0, and many more. That said, you only require 36 cred­its to grad­u­ate, mak­ing the pro­gram a good option for those need­ing their degree fast.

The Bottom Line

Accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degrees can be very help­ful for IT pro­fes­sion­als to advance in their domain. They are faster than your usu­al pro­gram, and with good time man­age­ment, they can be com­plet­ed with­out leav­ing your day job. You just have to pick the pro­gram that aligns most with your goals.