Any grants/scholarships/Financial Assistance for MS in Cybersecurity

usman4673 · October 2016

Hi Guys,
I am currently exploring my MS in possibly Cyber-security and Information Assurance. I know there are many threads here which talk about institutions/fees etc that offer this MS program but I want to find out what are the funding options available?

I have heard Govt/DHS/DoD are very actively trying to create a stronger cybersecurity workforce. Can you all share any institute which offers partial/full scholarship or a grant option?

Do you guys know any 3rd party or agency which offers any scholarship/grant or any assistance for MS in Cybersecurity?

Is there any option to get into binding agreement with DHS/DoD where they first financially support one for MS in Cybersecurity and in return want the graduate to serve them for some years?

I am primarily interested in doing it fully online and there are 1001 options from CMU/JHU/GMU/UoD/PennState and many more. It all comes down to, "how to raise money to meet that 30-45k which is required to pay the tuition."

Obviously, bank loans etc are the worst and not even worth considering here.

kiki162 · October 2016

They have forgiveness plans setup if you work for the gov't for a specific period of time. If you have been paying on Federal loans for I think 10 years, and you've worked for the gov't for a specific time, they will forgive your debt, and wipe it clean. Now I haven't done it, I only heard about it through others.

As far as a "Cybersecurity workforce", most people here know that it's the Contractors and not the gov't employees that make up a lot of that workforce.

BTW, CMU is gonna run you closer to $70K (Heinz College) and JHU is pushing the upper $30K's. Also take a look at the pre-req's for each school. I know JHU has a bunch.

I know a lot of scholarships want you to have a min. number of credits before your eligible, if that's the case, you'll probably be spending your time on pre-req classes like programming or math courses just to get yourself in the front door. Look at some bigger scholarships out there, like ISC2 is starting their 2017 round of scholarships after the 1st of the year. I'm in the same boat you are now, and it's a daunting task.

jdancer · October 2016

You can have your student loans forgiven if working for a non-profit after making 10 years of payments called Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program

Another option is have your education paid for but work for the government afterwords called CyberCorps Scholarship For Service (SFS). This program will also pay for your doctorate.

dmoore44 · October 2016

+1 for the CyberCorps Scholarship For Service (SFS) program.

Also, have you checked with your employer to see if they offer any sort of tuition assistance/reimbursement program?

Or, for the long shot... You could join the military in some capacity... The GI Bill is a hell of a benefit.

usman4673 · October 2016

dmoore44 wrote: »

Also, have you checked with your employer to see if they offer any sort of tuition assistance/reimbursement program?

Or, for the long shot... You could join the military in some capacity... The GI Bill is a hell of a benefit.

yeah, employer can reimburse $5500 per year.

With family/kids, living on military pay with a home-maker wife will be a huge challenge. Not going to work.

usman4673 · October 2016

SFS doesnt sound bad. Has anyone availed it?

secondly, out of the listed instituions, which one you think is the easiest to get in? Is there any easiest to get in with a cost-effective tuition?

here is the list:
[h=1]Students: Participating Institutions[/h]

dmoore44 · October 2016

Depends on how you're defining "easiest".

I don't think Norwich or Penn State have any sort of hard GRE/GMAT requirement. Johns Hopkins doesn't require GRE/GMAT, but you do need to have recently taken one year of calc.

Also, you'd have to comb through that list and decide which schools have online programs that interest you...

Oh, and one other factor to consider... "Easiest to get in to" might not be the best criteria for deciding where to go; you might want to add a requirement around coursework. If you read the thread that some of the Norwich students are using to document their progress, you'll see that there's a LOT of writing involved - does that jive with your expectations for a grad program? Other programs are going to feature more programming and math type classes (I seem to remember the JHU program being an example of this) - are you good with a lot of programming, algorithm analysis, and crypto?

usman4673 · October 2016

dmoore44 wrote: »

Depends on how you're defining "easiest".

I'd prefer the following characteristics:
i) No GRE
ii) 100% online
iii) One of the highest graduation rates
iv) Center of Excellence from NSA, if possible
v) Well-known to Texas or at the national level
vi) Generous in funding (grants/scholarships)

dmoore44 wrote: »

I don't think Norwich or Penn State have any sort of hard GRE/GMAT requirement. Johns Hopkins doesn't require GRE/GMAT, but you do need to have recently taken one year of calc.

I do have 1 year of calculus but that was taken almost 14 years ago. I have noticed where institutes require IT courses to be taken within the last 5 years to be considered as pre-reqs, I dont know if that also holds true for Maths courses too.

Secondly, Norwich vs Penn State seem to be a good consideration for the final two.

dmoore44 wrote: »

Also, you'd have to comb through that list and decide which schools have online programs that interest you...

Another good advice! Yeah, I always try to look at core/electives/concentration options.

dmoore44 wrote: »

Oh, and one other factor to consider... "Easiest to get in to" might not be the best criteria for deciding where to go; you might want to add a requirement around coursework. If you read the thread that some of the Norwich students are using to document their progress, you'll see that there's a LOT of writing involved - does that jive with your expectations for a grad program? Other programs are going to feature more programming and math type classes (I seem to remember the JHU program being an example of this) - are you good with a lot of programming, algorithm analysis, and crypto?

No, I dont mind writing, maybe I like writing papers more than anything but the biggest objective is to acquire in-demand skills which will let me earn bread/butter for the next 10-15 years. So, I dont mind writing and learning and similarly I won't mind learning programming if that suits best to future-proof ones time/efforts/money that goes to grad studies.

usman4673 · October 2016

Penn State's Scholarship for service page also states "[FONT=&amp]Note: Currently, we are not in a position to enroll World Campus students, due to the sustained and individualized mentoring offered to our CyberCorps students."

So, fed grant for online student is not available.
[/FONT]

usman4673 · October 2016

I discovered this too. An independent study which shows the top 12 schools for Cybersecurity.

http://www.ponemon.org/local/upload/file/2014%20Best%20Schools%20Report%20FINAL%202.pdf

dmoore44 · October 2016

usman4673 wrote: »

I do have 1 year of calculus but that was taken almost 14 years ago. I have noticed where institutes require IT courses to be taken within the last 5 years to be considered as pre-reqs, I dont know if that also holds true for Maths courses too.

If you don't mind taking a Calc refresher, I'd say that the JHU program is certainly worthy of consideration. From what I could tell, it looks quite rigorous and seems to teach both technical skills and managerial skills. As I've mentioned in other threads, if I had met the pre-req for Calc, I would have applied to JHU - they're an excellent school.

I know the TE community has a lot of love for Norwich, and I had heavily favored it at one point. Norwich is a great school, and I don't think you'd be disappointed. I think if I have enough energy, I'll go for Norwich's MA in Military History.

EANx · October 2016

UMUC probably has the largest online cyber enrollment in NSA's backyard and one of the largest in the country given how much they focus on getting people deployed overseas to enroll. Worth looking at if you hadn't already.

kiki162 · October 2016

For JHU, you have 2 options. The Cybersecurity track requires at least 5 pre-req classes and the ISE program is 2 or 3, but there's no GRE requirement, which is nice! I was conditionally accepted into their program, but had to complete the pre-req's in order to be fully accepted.

usman4673 · October 2016

Out of Norwich and JHU, which one is more known and well-regarded?

Norwich seems to be cheaper than JHU. $29k vs 40k.

dmoore44 · October 2016

On a national scale, I think JHU will have better name recognition - they host the Applied Physics Lab and have several famous alums: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Johns_Hopkins_University_people

krokodilo · October 2018

If you're a UK national, have 3 A levels and are 18, so long as you have an offer at undergrad or integrated masters level in any subject at a UK university you can apply for the CyberFirst scholarship from National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) which is a part of GCHQ: https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/early-careers/cyberfirst.html

Any grants/scholarships/Financial Assistance for MS in Cybersecurity

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