Completed MSISA

Well, the MSISA is finally done, with two days to go in the term. Sent my graduation paperwork (more like electronic forms) yesterday and all is clear. To provide some background, I've been doing work along the lines of what the MSISA covers for a few years, although my knowledge of the subjects goes back longer. I started the program back in August 2014 and made some good progress until November. I hit a wall then where a few tasks came back for revision several times. The comments provided by Taskstream were either nonexistent or extremely vague. I reached out to the course mentors and their input was basically nothing, as they couldn't even understand why my paper failed. The advice the provided was basically "say the same thing in other words". What? I was so frustrated that I did NOTHING WGU related from November-March and contemplated withdrawing several times.

I also had to change mentors as the one I had assigned was nothing more than a cheerleader who was driving me crazy and just didn't fit my style. She seemed a little stiff and by the book. I remember one time I told her two weeks in advance that I would be travelling and unable to get the weekly call. She said it was no problem. The day of the call comes and I of course miss it, and next thing I know she's sending me a nastygram about how vital the stupid calls are and that there could be repercussion for missing more. I never felt more like punching a woman. Anyway, WGU quickly assigned another one and her style was more in line with the way I work. It definitely gave my experience a very positive spin.

Since the completed coursework was at 65% and the new mentor seemed better I decided to keep pushing. But I was still stuck with those returned tasks with vague comments. Seeing that WGU resources were useless, I reached out to some people who had been through the program. This was finally helpful as I was able to get some sense of direction. Progress resumed and tasks started flowing again. I completed all classes and then spent 2 weeks writing the prospectus and capstone, which passed on the first try.

Some will ask if I recommend the program. I absolutely do. Everything has pros and cons. If you are a self-learner who requires minimal guidance, you can't go wrong. Since my sole goal for getting a masters was personal achievement at the lowest possible cost, I definitely accomplished my mission. Although my ideal masters is the SANS Technology Institute one, there was no possible way I could pay for it. I'm lucky now to be at a place with tuition reimbursement so this may be an option 2-3 years down the road.

With this done now I can focus on the fun stuff. The rest of the year looks exciting as I have WAPTv2 lined up, the SANS FOR408 course via Work Study, 3 Splunk virtual classes, and probably an EnCase course. I'm starting a nice two week vacation next week too. Perfect timing!

P.S. I almost forgot the worst part of the program: taking the damn EC council certs! Right Colemic?

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Comments

NetworkNewb

Nice work, congratz!!! Has to be a pretty good feeling!

GreaterNinja

Congratulations Sir!! I've got 3/4 more the way to go...I hate writing papers lol.

xeruan

Congratulations, I hope to join you in the new few months.

billyr2009

Congrats!! ENjoy the well deserved vacation

nelson8403

Awesome job with completing the degree!! I'll be in Chicago in a few weeks for SANS I'll get you a congratulatory beer!

bpenn

cyberguypr wrote: »

I never felt more like punching a woman.

You haven't met my mother-in-law. Haha, jk. I don't advocate punching women...

srabiee

Congrats!

I have had similar frustrations with the MSITM program. Luckily I haven't had any problems with my student mentor, but some of the course mentors are either MIA or extremely unhelpful. I have also had tasks rejected by Taskstream with vague comments. Alter 1 or 2 sentences, resubmit, and then it miraculously passes. At any rate, glad to hear you completed the program in two terms.

koz24

Congrats man! Going anywhere fun for the vacation or sticking around at home?

cyberguypr

Thanks all! Going to the Caribbean so it's all sun, beach and alcohol.

sigsoldier

Congrats! What was your capstone topic?

cyberguypr

Insider threat detection using operational intelligence. Part of what I do on a daily basis so it was extremely easy.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

Any plans for a PhD or you done with school for good? Have a great vacation.

cs8400

Congrats! Halfway through this program myself. Nice to read about your take on it.

TLeTourneau

Congratulations!

auxiliarypriest

Congratulations! Thank you for your input, I'm about to start the program in September. Have a good well-deserved vacations.

JoJoCal19

Congrats man! I'm slogging through it and I've got (hopefully) one more term to go when my current one ends at the end of August. I will probably reach out to you to see if I can get some advice because I'm running into the same thing with assignments coming back for bunk/vague reasons. I too took a break and almost quit, literally about to apply to another school and notify WGU I was withdrawing. I decided to stick it out because as you said, can't beat the cost, and I also want my MBA which will cost a pretty penny. Good luck on your future cert endeavors. Which SANS event are you doing the Work Study at?

cyberguypr

@Dakinggamer87 Don't think I will do a PhD. I rather do the SANS masters which is the one I've always wanted to do.

@JoJoCal19 FOR408 at Crystal City, VA. Never been to DC so it will be a SANS/touristy trip.

coffeeluvr

Congratulations!! Enjoy the rest of the Summer!!

JoJoCal19

cyberguypr wrote: »

@JoJoCal19 FOR408 at Crystal City, VA. Never been to DC so it will be a SANS/touristy trip.

Ah. I'll be at the Virginia Beach one in three weeks.

NetworkNewb

cyberguypr wrote: »

Thanks all! Going to the Caribbean so it's all sun, beach and alcohol.

When are you going down? My wife and I are looking to book a trip sometime in October and heard the Caribbean is having a big seaweed issues right now. Tons of it getting washed up on beaches.

I'm pretty certain it wouldn't ruin any trip because who doesn't mind going to resort and laying by the pools and drinking all day though!

colemic

Congrats! Took you long enough.

(that's what you get for all the crap you've given me about EC-Council.)

gespenstern

Gz, Cyberguy! I even envy your success!

I'm about to start MSISA at WGU myself and this part about returned papers with vague comments sounds definitely scary to me. How did you finally manage to get a pass? What was wrong with them and why the notes from WGU were vague?

goatama

Conga rats, Cyberguy! I've let my studies slide a bit because of those same frustrations. (Well, and the fact that I've been moving, and my kid decided my laptop was "thirsty".) But this motivates me to get my nose back to the grindstone.

@gespenstern - The problem is that you have a rubric that describes what they're grading on, and oftentimes a "scenario" for what you're supposed to accomplish with the assignment, but how you structure the document and write it seems to be problematic. For example, when I was in normal college, we were given an assignment and were told to write an essay. Writing an essay in typical professional essay format worked perfectly. However, since grading is outsourced they want to put as little effort as humanly possible into grading it. So what I found is that you take the rubric items and use them as your headings for your essay. And then you have to write it so a third grader could understand it. I've been told it's like the military: "First you tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then you tell 'em. Then you tell 'em what you just told 'em." One assignment I got back three times for insufficient identification of stakeholders, so I did exactly that and finally got a pass.

Another issue is that it's not the same grader each time. Normally when you take a class you get a feel for what the professor/grader is looking for and adjust your style to fit. But these are different people each time, so while one will give you marks for something, another will take away marks for the exact same thing. I've gotten to the point where I tell them when I resubmit EXACTLY what sections have changed so they only re-grade those.

I realize upon reviewing this that it makes probably zero sense for someone who hasn't experienced WGU's methodology.

cyberguypr

Here's an example of the vague feedback I'm talking about:

Three new policies were presented with regard to x, y, and z policy. A response of changes to the attached 'Service Level Agreement' to better protect Finman's data and intellectual property.

Can you make some sense of this? I certainly can't. Then there were a few "does not meet standard" with ZERO feedback.

srabiee

When I get that crap, I call E-care (Taskstream) to complain. I've done it at least 3 times. Last time I called, I was told that WGU recently "cleaned house" and let a bunch of Taskstream graders go, and they apologized to me for some of these issues.

JoJoCal19

srabiee wrote: »

When I get that crap, I call E-care (Taskstream) to complain. I've done it at least 3 times. Last time I called, I was told that WGU recently "cleaned house" and let a bunch of Taskstream graders go, and they apologized to me for some of these issues.

How recently? It's been at least two months since I last turned in an assignment (had same issues) and I'm about to turn one in tonight.

srabiee

Last time I called them was probably 5 or 6 weeks ago.

JoJoCal19

Well that's good. Hopefully the house cleaning has happened since my last assignment. I guess I'll find out in a few days if they're improved or not.