Is it too late to transfer to a different university for my degree?

[VexingCode]

I'm screwed I think :(

Help me I think I made a huge mistake?

First of all, I want to point out I did not have much guidance toward a school from my high school nor parents, and I fell for the Devry sales pitch. Now I'm 2 years wiser, and feel I made a great mistake. I have actually been reading and watching online MIT lectures to supplement my learning.

I'm just now graduating DeVry with a degree in ECT (Electronics Computer Technology). The degree was a joke, I learned more in high school physics and just me reading books on electronics than what was represented in the degree. I think I'm stuck now!

I want to go for my bachelors, but I do not think I want to get it from Devry. I hear employers laugh at Devry grads especially in the fields of EET, CET.

I live in PA, where there are a lot of great schools, like point park, IUP, Penn State. Do you think it would be possible to Transfer to them for my bachelors, I will most likely have to goto community college first, I doubt they will accept any devry credits. I really want to eventually be a real Electronics Engineer and not an Electronics Engineer Technologist.

OR ATLEAST an EET from a well known school

The biggest problem is cost, to get my Devry Bach degree in EET it will only take 1.5 more years and my ECT degree transfers (thus cheaper at Devry). I'm already about $40k in debt, and I'm just scared right now.

Are there any options for me. I need viewpoints from people in the industry, or people that have done something similar to this

 

[Troponin]

I don't have any experience with transferring credits from Devry, but I can tell you that you are absolutely not alone. I have no idea what the number is for people that transfer to a "normal" University from some type of community college or technical center, but it is very, very far from zero.

The debt is the last thing you should worry about.
School is expensive for everyone. My wife graduated Dental school recently. She did an undergraduate degree in pre-law first, so she has nearly 11 years of total schooling.

I was the only working person in our family that entire time. Do you think I paid cash for her Dental school...at $55,000 per year?

People get student loans and go into debt when they go to college. That's how it works. The degree pays for itself. If it didn't, then all the Electrical Engineers you know would be poor and all the uneducated employees would be rich.

My wife owes a quarter of million dollars in student loans (roughly), I owe just about as much.
My sister never attended college. I can tell you that my wife is much better off financially than my sister (who has often used the "cost of college" as reasons for not going to school)
I want to make sure that people understand I'm not trying to be arrogant or condescending. My wife and I married young and neither of our families are wealthy...by any means.
I understand fully the "cost of school." I worked nights at a bar and days at a pharmacy through my entire undergraduate degree.
We barely had enough money to buy food when my wife started Dental school.
The wonderful thing about education is, the bigger burden the "cost of school" will be to you financially, the more financial help you will receive in loans and grants.

 

[JustSam]

Definitely don't stay at DeVry. Find a school for your bachelors where you will actually learn stuff. If they don't let you transfer credits, maybe at least you can still take new classes that are challenging and useful, instead of having to repeat classes in subjects you already know.

If you are worried about student loans, you can easily find a reputable but still cheap university for your bachelors. Definitely DO NOT go to any for-profit school such as DeVry.

 

[DarrenM]

I understand fully the "cost of school." I worked nights at a bar and days at a pharmacy through my entire undergraduate degree.

Would you mind elaborating on that just a bit? How on Earth did you find time to attend class or study?

 

[Flat]

Would you mind elaborating on that just a bit? How on Earth did you find time to attend class or study?

Depending on the volume of the pharmacy, he could have studied there. I work at retail chain pharmacy that locally does not do very many scripts/week. The upside is that I have a lot of study time (although usually not of great quality). Downside is that my hours fluctuate a lot (currently at 20 hours a month).

To the OP:

I would apply to one of the universities and send in your devry transcript for evaluation. That would atleast give you an idea (although I am sure it will vary from university to university).

Another thing to consider is that it may be easier to get atleast some funding at a university.

 

[VexingCode]

I talked to Penn State, they will transfer some of my Devry Credits, not many, and most will be General Ed credits. They do offer an EET program that is ABET accredited, so does Devry. I'm thinking the Penn State EET program will look much better on a resume, and be more challenging for me. Since I'm graduating with a 3.9 GPA from Devry Penn State said they would automatically accept me.

There is also a choice of staying at Devry for the BMET degree, which I don't think Penn State offers, but I'm still having trouble deciding.

 

[Troponin]

Would you mind elaborating on that just a bit? How on Earth did you find time to attend class or study?

I did little of either unfortunately.
I played football in college and at the time, that is what I thought I went to college for. It's not like I worked 70 hours a week. I worked as a bouncer at the bar so my job consisted of little more than staying awake. I did that 3-4 times a week, from 9pm to 3am, give or take an hour each way. The pharmacy was 8 hour shifts on the weekend and maybe another 5 hour shift from 5pm to 10pm once or twice a week.
Because of football, I was only able to work for the second semester of the year. It was a small, private college that didn't give full athletic scholarships so I still needed money. My family was certainly supportive and helpful but they weren't wealthy by any means, so I had to make money.

I've explained my story on here a number of times. Probably more than anyone would consider necessary. lol
Neither of my parents went to college. My mother later went to community college to become a nurse when I was in school, and has done quite well for herself including additional schooling, but I was just never brought up in an atmosphere where school was important.
Whereas other families may put emphasis on grades, my family put emphasis on sports performance. It's hard to explain, but I grew up near Detroit and everyone worked for the "big three" and that was just the way people thought.
I thought doing well in school was for "nerds." I wish I didn't think that, but I can't go back in time.

I was lucky enough to start a small business that was benefitted by my success in powerlifting and bodybuilding. I was lucky enough for it to grow to a point where it essentially runs itself.
I've regretted my first "go around" in school for years. I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to do it again and I'm back in school for math and physics and working hard to do well.
Even today, when I talk to my family about math, their reaction is always along the lines of "Wow, you sound like a fun guy! I got to party with you!" Or "studying on a saturday night, sounds like one hell of a party!" Or other similar sarcastic comments. They don't mean anything by it, it's the small town 'school is for dorks, get a job and work till you retire' way of thinking.

I don't want to act like I'm using my work schedule as the reason for my poor grades and effort...that isn't the case. I'm just as busy with work now, and my schedule is much more rigorous. I just had to work to pay for school, rent, car payment, food, etc.

 

[DukeofDuke]

Yeah, get out of DeVry man. Last semester our main improv group (these guys are hilarious, get thousands of viewers at their main shows) kinda used DeVry university as a punch line...went something like "a study done at DeVry university shows that..." and I don't remember what happened next but it had something to do with the bigger narrative they were weaving.