In computer programming, what's the difference between getting your bachelor's degree&getting a certificate?

A BS degree is a fairly comprehensive program that covers a number of facets of IT. Besides practical knowledge, you'll also probably get a lot of the theory behind it.

A certificate program usually zeroes in on one single area (or even one single application program). It will tend to almost exclusively concentrate on the practical over theory.

Which is better depends mostly on what you want to do in the short run and where you want to wind up in the long run.

Bachelor's Degree:

A Bachelor's degree comes from a college or university. If you go this route, make sure the school is "accredited" or your degree won't be worth it's weight in toilet paper.

A real Bachelor's Degree is generally a four year degree and will provide a broad range of knowledge under the umbrella of whatever field the degree is in. For instance, to get my Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems back in 1991, I learned four different programming languages (including Assembler), a great deal about programming principles and methodologies, database design and administration, systems architecture, took classes in logic and "Probability and Statistics", studied concepts that were, at the time, "leading edge", and many other classes related to the field.

In addition, I took two semesters of "Physics of Energy", which was a physics class, not a computer science class, as well as many other general education classes which helped me to pick up other skills which have been useful to me in my career ... such as Public Speaking, Economics, and Political Science.

PLUS, you'll have the opportunity to pick up a "minor", such as Mathematics (which is what I chose) or Business or any number of other fields. This will give you sort of a secondary area of expertise.

Certificate:

Certificates are nothing like degrees. Certificates can sometimes be obtained by nothing more than passing a single test. They are for very specific fields of study, such as knowledge of a single programming language, and are often given by the software vendor for whatever you are getting the certificate in.

For instance, you can get a certificate as an "Oracle Certified Associate" in PL/SQL (Oracle's Stored Procedure Language) by passing just two tests. A third one will make you an "Oracle Certified Professional". All these tests are created and graded by Oracle Corporation, and the certificate comes from them.

Microsoft has their own group of certificates, as do many other companies.

The problem is that there are many training courses offered by various companies to enable you to pass these tests. Few last longer than a week. So there is the possibility of the class simply "teaching to the test", meaning you can pass the test without truly being an expert in the field.

I have known colleges to teach certification classes, though most of those colleges were not accredited.

Looking at Penn State's website, I'm not sure what kind of certifications they are offering. Are these THEIR OWN certifications, or are they training you to take the industry standard tests? For example, is their ".net" certification MICROSOFT'S certification, or something else?

Frankly, if an employer is looking for ".net" certification, then they want MICROSOFT'S certification, not a certificate from some school. The reason is that the employer knows what the Microsoft certificate covers. They don't know what your this school's certificate covers.

If you're going to get certifications, get them from the vendors of the development tools you're interested in. If you're going to get a DEGREE, go to an accredited college.

It is my experience that the degree opens more doors. Companies will often pay to send you to the week long training for the certifications if you already have a Bachelor's Degree.

In america, you get a degree in steps, the longer you go to institution, you'll be able to be competent to get more degrees... Nevertheless it expenditures increasingly. They are all called tuition degrees, beginning with the first you can get. 1. 4-6 years of institution: Bachelors degree 2. 5-8 years or institution: Masters degree three. 7-10 years of university: Doctorate measure (Ph.D.) while you get a Doctorate measure, you are formally referred to as medical professional, and you quite often have to take an oath. The years I gave you listed below are all very normal. It relies on how fast you conclude your lessons, and expectantly if you happen to do not flunk any. It simply looks like you have got a Bachelors measure with some very temporary Masters level education.

You could in theory, and IMHO, learn programming on your own. Is this a good idea? Probably not. You might get the knowledge you need, but unless you are completely confident in a business you start yourself, you may not learn things the correct way, and you will never be able to prove your skills to a potential employer unless you somehow build a large software project by yourself. That is why that isn't a good idea. But, if you are still in school, you could always start learning now, and then by the time you are an adult, you could go into college for something like electrical engineering, and already know programming, and get a job in computer hardware. A serious well-paying job in computer hardware.

EDIT: When I said learn computer programming by yourself, I wasn't meaning on the scope of what they teach you in college. I was meaning maybe with one or two languages on one or two types of machines.