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Ask HN: Any colleges or universities offering credit for CS courses by exam?

6 points by rateofchange ↗ HN
Looking to attempt to accelerate reaching a BS in CS. Having worked as a software developer for decades, I can teach any introductory, intermediate and most advanced programming courses. Anything from basics to data structures, algorithms, computer architecture, embedded systems, real time operating systems, web development, etc. I have worked with over half a dozen languages on various systems, including everything from bare-metal bring-ups in Assembly/Forth to, robotics systems and Python/Django applications.

The point is, I know this stuff. What I know is equivalent to several years of university coursework. I am now interested in obtaining a degree in CS, initially a BS and possibly going on to an MS. This is mostly for personal fulfillment rather than a need.

What I don't want to do is spend three years writing basic code I can write in my sleep.

To this end, I am looking for schools where I might be able to take exams to pass courses rather than have to devote entire semesters or quarters to obtain the credit. I contacted our local college's CS department. While the school does offer credit for prior learning through examination, the CS department is the only one that does not, at this time, offer that option.

There are many interesting online CS courses (For example, I've done the MIT 6.00.1x series), yet none of them provide transferable credits. Does such a thing exist?

An alternative would be super-short terms. If I could take courses that only go for, say, 8 weeks, instead of 20, well, that might be a decent option. I would not have to study much, if at all. So, pass a couple of exams every eight weeks and knock out a few years off a degree timeline quickly.

I'd appreciate any input on this.

Frankly, this is what is missing in online education today. A degree granting program that is compatible with people who might have acquired the knowledge outside university walls. Coding is coding. Algorithms are algorithms. Theory is theory. If you know the subject, and you can prove it, it should not matter one bit where you did the learning.

Thanks.

15 comments

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endisneigh
There’s no US degree they offers credit by only taking the exam as far as I know.
rateofchange
That wasn't the question, or intent. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

The idea is to knock out as many credits as possible through examination. Not the full degree.

AnimalMuppet
While you're trying to do this, look into CLEP tests. They do what you're looking for, but in many topics, not just CS. Want to test out of your humanities requirements? CLEP tests let you do so (at least for many universities).
Jtsummers
In the US, get an associates degree (which you can speed up by CLEP tests) and you can also knock out a lot of other mandatory but non-major courses for a lot of state colleges, at least. I've had a few friends who did this, getting math or physics associates. Then they were able to primarily take CS courses for their CS degrees with maybe a few other mandatory electives that weren't previously covered (language requirements they couldn't test out of as typical monolingual Americans like me, mostly). This can shorten the time needed for the CS program to a comfortable 3 years, and if you can convince the department to let you skip some of the intro courses (based on professional experience) you might drop it further. Total, then, would be about 1-2 years for the associates (depending on how much you can test out of) and 2-3 years for the bachelors.

Also talk to professors about independent study courses, you may be able to knock out extra course requirements in summer terms where they don't normally offer courses, keeping the calendar (but not semester) time lower.

rateofchange
That seems like an interesting idea. I am also trying to see about not having to waste any time on non-major subjects. This is a horrible thing. I understand and agree with the idea of general education. That should happen in high school. Burning a year (or more) of someone's time in university doing unrelated coursework is a travesty.

It's both about the cost --which isn't trivial-- and the time. Most of our degrees have at least a year of stuff no employer has any interest in paying for. Education being the racket it is, there is no way to challenge it. This quickly points you in the direction of non-US universities, where this nonsense does not exist.

WheelsAtLarge
A lot of schools offer credit by exam for the intro classes. Very few people take advantage of the opportunity so it's not highly known. You need to be enrolled and you need to look in the school's catalog to see what they offer. You can even take the exam in one school and transfer the credits to another school where you want to graduate. Look at junior colleges. They are easy to enroll in and you can transfers the credits to a four year university. Don't expect to get a degree by exam but you can get some of the intro and general education classes out of the way. Also there are so many schools doing remote that it's a very good time to enroll in a school and never have to go to a classroom. This expands your choices.
JoeyBananas
I can tell you the University of Minnesota doesn't.
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nextos
In Europe there are many universities where you can register for as many courses as you want, ignore lectures, sit the exam, and get full credit in case you pass.

In principle, nobody prevents you from passing the whole BSc in two semesters.

This opportunity gets especially interesting when you consider national open / remote universities, as you won't need to travel to pass the exams.

However, coding is one thing, theory is another one. Even if you know theory pretty well, you will need to review a bit which kind of imposes a speed limit on how fast you can pass said courses.

rateofchange
> However, coding is one thing, theory is another one. Even if you know theory pretty well, you will need to review a bit which kind of imposes a speed limit on how fast you can pass said courses

Yes, definitely. For example, I did a lot of work with genetic algorithms about ten years ago. Jumped-in head-first, read a pile of university-level books on the subject. However, I haven't touched any of that in probably five or six years. I would likely have to do a deep review for two or three months before being able to take a real test on the subject.

I am looking at the online program offered by the University of London. Not sure if they have the ability to just take tests one one's own schedule as opposed to only being able to take a test at the end of the term, which defeats the purpose by imposing artificial time constraints.

The other thing I see at universities in Europe is that they don't tend to make you waste a year of your life taking non-degree coursework. One ought to be able to obtain a degree in CS, Engineering or Mathematics without having to devote a year passing courses in history, philosophy, etc. We could argue about the idea of general education, etc. Well, this ought to be a part of primary and secondary education. In the US, that extra year or more devoted to non-degree coursework can cost you USD $30K, $50K or $60K, depending on where you go. This is insane.

Yes, give people the option to study such courses, and, if they have career value or are valued by employers, graduates can list them as part of their resume. The reality is that the vast majority of employers don't give a shit. This ads no value at all. I would much rather a CS student spend another solid year on real CS course work than on general education. Far more value in that.

I bit of a rant, I know. It just bothers me to see young people in the US leave school with debt they did not need to incur. Last I checked the hiring process at FAANG companies does not include an essay on ancient European history. And yet our students spend tens of thousands of dollars and a massive amount of time (opportunity cost) getting enough of a good grade on this stuff to be able to obtain a degree.

robcohen
I’ll go one step further, with most lower level courses, there should be large open knowledge banks of questions which can be solved within a reasonable time (<15 min) and all homework/tests for testing knowledge should be automatically generated from a random subset of questions. Testing would occur in proctored settings and the knowledge banks should be large enough to not be able to be gamed. Separate the instruction from the certification. Why this hasn’t happened yet for things like CS and Math I have no idea.
elonmollusc
The term you're looking for is competency-based education. If you can demonstrate that you meet the learning goals for a course, usually by taking an exam, you get credit for it. You only need to invest time in studying the parts of the course that you haven't yet mastered.

Western Governors University is the largest and best-known school with competency-based degrees. They use an online model where you pay a fixed amount per semester, but with no cap on the number of credits you can complete.

the_only_law
OP mentions the potential of doing an MS. I’m curious what the effects of WGU and similar programs are in regards to grad school acceptance.

It’s definitely not on the level of a classic for-profit, in fact I believe it’s accredited and non-profit, but I forget who accredits them. I’m generally wary of any school that invests so much into advertising.

bjourne
CS is way more than just programming. I can promise you that if you pursue this path you will learn tons of stuff you had absolutely no idea about. You may not realize how little you know... At my local university the strongest students were writing their own chess engines in C++ in the first half of their first semester. The second year their own ann libraries.

Not saying you shouldn't do this - I think you should because CS is tons of fun - but thinking you can do it without spending time and effort on it is naive. If you have money saved why not take an extended vacation and run through as many CS and math courses as you can?

rateofchange
> CS is way more than just programming

> thinking you can do it without spending time and effort on it is naive

Well, yeah. I am not a 22 year old. I'm nearly 60. I have been developing non-trivial hardware and software for decades. I have both hardware and software I am responsible for that is currently orbiting the planet. Robotics, real time image processing in FPGA's, industrial controllers, video processing, distributed control systems, motor controllers, advanced illumination systems, audio processors, video and audio switching equipment, etc. I can't even remember all the work I have done. Believe me, I know CS isn't just programming. I have studied most of the theory on my own, as well as applied it.

This is hardly wanting to do it "without time and effort", in fact, it is quite the opposite. Someone can get a CS degree in four years and go to work. I went to college for a while and then went to work as a hardware and software engineer for 40 years in a range of industries and applications, from low-level embedded systems to genetic algorithms training neural networks. I think I have put enough time and effort into all of this to not be ashamed of the idea of taking a damn test to pass courses like intro to programming, data structures, algorithms, etc.

I mean, seriously, this is a real question. Why is it that universities assume students know nothing? OK, a high school graduate will, more than likely, fit that category. Someone who has learned through work across many years, even if it is five or ten, probably comes to the table with the vast majority, if not all, of the basic knowledge and likely a good percentage of intermediate and advanced. Yet universities force people to sit down and "learn" variables, loops and branching statements. What a waste of human capital and time.