Hello Saathi haru,

I am working as an Engineer (Mechanical) for last 2 years but I do not like it so much. So, I am thinking of switching career to Computer Science. I am currently working full time and cannot quit my job because of financial reason so I am looking for online degree/certificates.
First my priority would be a degree itself, so I looked at Master's Program. I need GRE and lot of prerequisite as I do not have any Computer Science courses in my undergraduate (except for Introduction to C++ but that was lower level). So, number of courses would be not so different to undergraduate computer science program. So, I thought second undergraduate would be a good idea (they cover from basic and would be relatively easier). I checked roughly, I need around 22 classes to get a degree which is a lot of time and especially money. That brings me to my next options ie Certifications. I am interested in learning programming and would like to be a programmer (if that doesn't work out at least a QA), so what would you guys recommend?

If you are or were in similar stage could you share your story? If you know any cheap Online Computer Science degree or good certificate program to start, please share.

University of West Florida.. Cheap, decently reputed since it is a public uni and the degree taught online are same degree on campus. Prereq, counts towards the degree. But I don't think it has pure CS degree available online. Only soft eng and db management. So basically Ms in CS with soft eng. Check it out.

If you wanna change your career to IT or be a programmer, you don't need computer science degree either in bachelors' or masters'. You can learn programming at your own pace online from site like youtube or udemy. Once you are ready you can apply for jobs or join consultancy.

@duderino it looks like out of state is $400+ per credit hour. Thank you for the suggestion.

@sinope thanks