I have been an active professional software developer (mostly utilizing .NET) fo

Question

I have been an active professional software developer (mostly utilizing .NET) for the past five years and, without being too full of myself, I would say I'm a very competent developer. I stay intimately up to date with the latest tools, the industry, and modern standards/practices. I work for a fairly high-level IT company and I swing just fine with the rest of them. I am even up to date on the latest team dynamic methodologies and feel like I have good leadership/management/people skills.

However, I never got my degree. I learned and am learning everything I know on my own from hundreds of books and experiences. I ran my own software company for a while until it took a big hit from the economy a year or so ago. It took a LONG time and A LOT of applications, but I finally found the job I have now.

Like an idiot I dropped out of college to forgo paying more tuition and I started my company and as life goes, I now wish I had stayed and got the degree. I have student loans that are in default and I'm working my hind end off to pay off those debts now that I am making a fair amount of money again.

I have hit too many ceilings without this degree. For one, I will never make as much as someone with the same level of knowledge and experience, but also has a degree. Also, the amount of effort it took to get a job in the industry without a degree was exhausting and depressing.

Now I am wondering what the best way for me to go about getting my degree is?

Are there online schools that would offer this degree?

Would an online school even be a good choice?

Would my knowledge and experience in the industry help me finish schooling faster/cheaper?

Have any of you ever found yourself in a similar position? If so, how did you overcome all the barriers put in front of you?

Have any of you ever had student loans in default and tried to go back to school later? How did you deal with that and how did it affect you?

Explanation / Answer

There are several, but you will want to check their accreditation first. Also look at local schools to see if they offer correspondence or a flex-student program (one near my some colleagues have done where they can attend class or do it online depending on schedules that week).

I got my BS from an online school (already had an associates'), with my experience it seemed a good fit, and I have not had issues with it. Online is also a very independent study, it is often much harder to get help (though email/phone is usually an option) and you do need to be honest with yourself that you will be self-motivated enough to get stuff done since most of the classes will be more self-paced week to week and is easy for some people to behind (my brother-in-law struggled with this, though he had a 4.0 in his onsite classes), it is not for everyone.

I am not sure about cheaper/faster, but you may be able to test out of some classes, though that is rare. I did find that I could handle more programming classes at once because they were a lot easier for me than those that were just being introduced to the subjects.

I was able to complete my 4-year with the birth of 2 kids, my mother-in-law dying and a full-time job. If you are committed, you can do it. I was amazed how much better focused I was than I had been when I was younger.

Sorry, cannot answer that.

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