WGU: B.S. I.T. - Security, Start Date: 10/01/2015

CCIE Wanna Be

I’ve been putting this off for a while, mostly because I had hoped I would land something and not need to pursue another degree, but alas my search has not landed me my “dream” job, so why not go back to school. I currently have a Bachelor’s degree in a non-I.T. field, and yes I know I could do a Master’s, and that is part of my plan, but if I can get the B.S. in I.T. – Security done in a term or two, then I don’t think it sets me that far back. I transferred in 63 credits and have 61 to go. I have been studying for the Linux+ exams, so I plan to knock those out first.

Remaining:

C182 (4), Intro to IT
C697 (4), Operating Systems I (Linux+)
C698 (4), Operating Systems II (Linux+)
C484 (3), Organizational Leadership and Behavior
C483 (4), Principles of Management
C176 (4), Business of IT – Project Management (Project+)
C178 (4), Network and Security – Applications (Security+)
C179 (4), Business of IT - Applications
C299 (6), Designing Customized Security (CCNA: Sec)
C173 (3), Scripting and Programming - Foundations
C169 (4), Scripting and Programming - Applications
C175 (3), Data Management Foundations
C170 (4), Data Management - Applications
C376 (3), Web Development Fundamentals
C435 (3), Technical Writing
C436 (4), IT Capstone Written Project

My hope is to do this in one term, but it will not be a deal breaker if I don’t, I have heard in the past that if you go into another term and finish before the half way mark they won’t charge you for the full term (does anyone know if this is true?). Getting it done in one term would be awesome though.

I currently work as an IT Analyst for a MSP. It’s a hybrid role, so some helpdesk work as well, but I do work with Linux and Windows Server clusters on a daily basis. I have some programming experience a well, I have taken classes in C++, and VB.net, I also played around with C#, but nothing too serious. From what I hear on this forum the Java class kind of worries me, but I’ll push through.

Any insights, tips, tricks, or hints you can provide are welcome and greatly appreciated. I’m excited to get started, let’s do this thing.

Codyy

Best of luck man, I'm pursuing the same degree and can almost see the light at the end. You may be aware though CCNA: Sec changes soon and the last day to take the current exam is 29 Nov I believe. Not sure how much material is out for the new exam but I'm going to attempt it before the deadline. Of course, I need CCNA first. Going to be a busy 2-3 months!

bpenn

I am in the middle of C170 right now. Next up is C169. I am also hoping to be done in one year, as I will only need 36 hours after these two classes.

fuz1on

Doing the same thing as you! I just applied and sent in my transcripts today. Hopefully, I should be able to finish in one period since I have a lot of transfer credit from universities/colleges and CompTIA certification exams (maybe CCENT/CCNA too). Good luck and go Night Owls!

CCIE Wanna Be

Codyy wrote: »

Best of luck man, I'm pursuing the same degree and can almost see the light at the end. You may be aware though CCNA: Sec changes soon and the last day to take the current exam is 29 Nov I believe. Not sure how much material is out for the new exam but I'm going to attempt it before the deadline. Of course, I need CCNA first. Going to be a busy 2-3 months!

Thanks for the kind words, I don't think I will take the CCNA:Sec before November, but who knows...I have the new OCG and I hear that there's a lot less CCP in the new exam, so for now I'm going to the newest version

markulous

Good luck. That's about how many credits I transferred in. Took me just over a year to complete it.

My biggest tip for exams (both certs and in house) is study hard and request the voucher ASAP. Take the test quickly. If you pass, great, you can move on. If you don't you have a free retest on all certs so you can go over what you missed. For in house exams, I think you get 3 free tries (then it's like $50 or something). But you can basically treat the first time as a practice test and don't have to study for months to make sure you pass the first go around.

fjhesq

Congrats and welcome! I started on 9/1...well 9/2 due to enrollment call issue but I am finishing up C394 now and scheduled C182, I'll have 12 CU's knocked out by the end of the month then if all goes well, roughly 18 by end of October. My student mentor told me that it's definitely possible to knock out 63 or so credits in one term. It all depends on you and the time you have to invest in studying/preparing. I haven't taken a WGU exam yet so I don't have insight on how they are but I've taken many Cisco and Microsoft certs and @markulous is right, study til' grasp it and then go for it. The turn around for requesting vouchers so far for me have been a few hours if during the day and I requested one at night and I had the voucher code in my inbox that morning. My goal is to average a class about every 7 to 10 days.

@bpenn, my worries are the scripting and database classes...I'm a network engineer and this will be pretty much all new to me. PM me if you can provide any assistance, notes, or just take aways.

CCIE Wanna Be

My start date slowly approaches, just now finishing up the final enrollment steps. I had an idea of the order I wanted to take my classes, but when I mention the order to my counselor, it seemed like I got some push back and that they want you to follow some pre-defined plan setup by WGU, is this really the case or is this counselor specific (I may need to switch already), please let me know.

markulous

The only thing my mentor told me was that I could not take Cisco classes my first term (meaning the first 3 or 4 classes), but other than that it was 100% up to me. What is the order you are wanting to take them in? I don't think there should be any issue.

CCIE Wanna Be

markulous wrote: »

The only thing my mentor told me was that I could not take Cisco classes my first term (meaning the first 3 or 4 classes), but other than that it was 100% up to me. What is the order you are wanting to take them in? I don't think there should be any issue.

I want to take the OS 1 and 2 classes first since that's what I've been studying, but I got push back from my mentor, but we shall see what they say, I 'm gonna push them on it

thaiguy314

Congrats man! I've been following this thread like a hawk because youre in the same circumstances as far as life and career and you were my most realistic role model. Hopefully starting in January and would like to finish 77 cu's in a year.

For everyone taking the course, is the information and resources given by the school enough to pass the certifications or would you say additional outside resources are necessary to pass them? Thanks!