WGU - MSISA (1 and Done)

shoey

What's up everyone! I don't post often but try and read posts when I can. Figured I'd write today and share my experience with WGU.

I started the WGU MSISA (Masters in Information Security and Assurance) in March. I transferred in 8 credits (C|EH, and C|HFI). By March 31, I had completed 7 of the 8 classes. I was contemplating a dual major - but with work (and my wife being pregnant), decided to chill out. I completed my last course by the end of April, and took a couple of weeks off. I then started my Capstone project, and did my presentation today (officially done!!). Note: The Capstone did not take so long because of difficulty, but I was slammed with work and an ever increasing honey-do-it-now-damnit-i'm-pregnant-and-will-eat-you list.

Essentially, I got my Masters degree for $3k. Which I find to be crazy since I know a few people who have spent more than that on cert boot camps. If you do not have any previous IT certs or experience there may be a fair bit of reading to do. With that said, I referenced my CISSP Study Guide a couple of times, and typed my @ss off. Most of the topics covered by a quality CISSP study guide hit on the topics covered in this course.

While I'm sure there are plenty of individuals ready to debate the credibility of this degree (or any online degree for that matter) - the cost to benefit of this program can be insane. Period. If you are motivated, and ready to spend some weekends doing nothing but writing, this is a great opportunity.

Best of luck to anyone going (or thinking of going) to WGU. As someone who has gone to multiple traditional and non-traditional colleges/universities, this is by far the best online school I have attended.

devilbones

Nice job. I am working on mine now.

shoey

devilbones wrote: »

Nice job. I am working on mine now.

How much longer do you have?

devilbones

shoey wrote: »

How much longer do you have?

I just started two weeks ago. So about four months according to you

mzx380

Congrats on your accomplishment, your growing family will appreciate your hard work.

Networking_Student

WGU is heavily in demand.

If you did it in 6 months, that means you had the knowledge needed to do it. Compared to community college and other Universities I've attended, WGU is by far the most legit institution I've ever attended.

Blucodex

Congrats! The more I see these success stories the more excited I get to start.

shoey

devilbones wrote: »

I just started two weeks ago. So about four months according to you

LMAO! Well I see you have your C|EH and CISSP (as well as various others) so I'm going to guess it shouldn't be too difficult for you. How may credits were you able to transfer in? I like to write (and this definitely helped me), but I grinded to make sure I had this done before the baby arrives.

I attached a copy of my courses just as an fyi.

shoey

Networking_Student wrote: »

WGU is heavily in demand.

If you did it in 6 months, that means you had the knowledge needed to do it. Compared to community college and other Universities I've attended, WGU is by far the most legit institution I've ever attended.

Thanks for all of the congrats everyone. I agree with Networking_Student about WGU's legitimacy. This school is far better than most traditional colleges attempts at providing online courses as well.

shoey

Blucodex wrote: »

Congrats! The more I see these success stories the more excited I get to start.

Best of luck!!! It should go quickly for you as well!!!

shoey

I forgot to post these but here are a few tips:

1. At the start of a course go to the assessments page and download any Templates and Evaluation Rubrics.
2. When writing papers skip creating your own document and just use the provided templates (if available).
3. When writing papers make sure you discuss everything outlined in the EVALUATION RUBRIC. If you simply write your paper based on the overview tasks, you will likely find the paper does not meet requirements.
4. If your paper is scored as "Does not meet requirements" its far easier (and much faster) to just re-write (and provide more clarification) on a section than to contest an evaluation. I found a coupe of times that while I was likely correct - it was far more efficient to just change a few things than argue over an evaluation.
5. Save copies of NIST SP 800 -30, -37, and -53, and make your APA citations ahead of time (at least I referenced these a decent amount).
6. Don't feel the need to use referenced materials if you can complete your paper without it (several of my papers did not include any reference as I could write my papers without them).
7. For your Capstone - Try and use a situation with a finite issue. I made the mistake of using a more generic situation that ultimately resulted in writing 2 risk assessments, a UGF (that included NIST/FISMA,ISO/IEC, CFR, and various other industry specific compliance standards), Threat Analysis, Drafting of 5 security policies, a report documenting actual vulnerability testing, and a formal recommendation report. Keep this simple!!

If anyone needs help or advice just shoot me a pm - always happy to help.

devilbones

shoey wrote: »

LMAO! Well I see you have your C|EH and CISSP (as well as various others) so I'm going to guess it shouldn't be too difficult for you. How may credits were you able to transfer in? I like to write (and this definitely helped me), but I grinded to make sure I had this done before the baby arrives.

I attached a copy of my courses just as an fyi.

I only transferred in the CEH. I am working on the papers, slowly but surely.

Verruckt

Congrats! There's a lot that can be learned from the program for those new to infosec, but for most of us its just getting the paper for things we already know / do in our work.

For that reason it's an ideal program.

shoey

devilbones wrote: »

I only transferred in the CEH. I am working on the papers, slowly but surely.

Nice - doubt you'll have much trouble. Best of luck!

shoey

Verruckt wrote: »

Congrats! There's a lot that can be learned from the program for those new to infosec, but for most of us its just getting the paper for things we already know / do in our work.

For that reason it's an ideal program.

Definitely. Interestingly enough - I'm not in the InfoSec/IT industry anymore. Maybe I'll go back - but it'd have to be a pretty specific job opportunity. But working for the govt. a MS is pretty much a checkbox thing for me.

Reseven

How was the oral defense? I have to admit, that doesn't sound like fun.
I'm working at a major university now and one of the benefits is half price graduate classes. That's still a huge pile of money compared to WGU.

shoey

Reseven wrote: »

How was the oral defense? I have to admit, that doesn't sound like fun.
I'm working at a major university now and one of the benefits is half price graduate classes. That's still a huge pile of money compared to WGU.

Too easy. I had several people on my panel, but I just made sure to cover all the topics outlined in the syllabus. I took some time thinking about questions I'd ask if I were them, and just included that in my presentation as well. I hate giving presentations like this too - but it should be the least of your concerns.