WGU. Bleh. Changing from Info Assurance to Software Development B.S. Bad idea?

About 2 years ago, the company I work for sent me out to a bunch of SANS courses, so I stopped going to WGU with the intent on going back to finish the 3 courses + capstone project to get my B.S. in Cybersecurity and Information assurance. I just got my evaluations back for the school, and the program changed so much that they are requiring 14 classes form me, including the A+ cert (which was never even on the table from when I started in the first place).

I’m switching to Software Development. There is a lot of back and forth on whether or not this is a good degree to get into software development, but I’m not sure why it is or why it isn’t.

Would you say this degree is worth pursuing if I wanted to become a software developer? I don't want to waste my time here if I should be doing something else.

My development experience is extremely minimal. I’ve done 11 years of software testing before jumping into security.

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shochan

Should one pursue a WGU degree?? due to them losing their accreditation in 2012, but apparently that hasn't stopped many from continuing their certification curriculum.

Jasiono

They lost their accreditation? I need to research that STAT. I had no idea!

MrsWilliams

Jasiono said:

They lost their accreditation? I need to research that STAT. I had no idea!

I'll save you the keyboard strokes. It is talked about here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/5zyfua/accreditation/ also a few other places if you want to spend hours of your day reading about it.

Like I believe I've said before. I am sure I have read more bad WGU reviews online than good ones. On reddit, most of the people are happy to be going back to school and getting a degree, so of course it's more good reviews about them on that site. I think I read about a guy almost 60 getting a degree. Some people are just happy to be in school or something. I don't know. But, if you use your google kung-fu searching abilities and broaden your horizon, it's a lot of bad reviews.

I have more than one account for every website I log into. I have about four accounts on this forum. Three I can think of off the top of my head. What I will say is, how do I know the good reviews on reddit/tech exams are from actual students??

You don't know. You assume they are. We give credit for people on the internet who say they did this, that, and the third. We believe the passed this exam and have these qualifications. At the end of the day I really don't care. The point is, this is the internet. People Lie. I was watching a video on YouTube on how this guy got to be the number 1 restaurant on Yelp. Yes, he made a restaurant out of his backyard and cooked food in this kitchen. It's just countless stories of foolery.

Whatever happened in the past is in the past. Do you go into a relationship asking what your significant other did before you were together? You probably don't want to know. You don't go asking how many partners he/she had before ya'll met. With that, take WGU for what they are today. Get out of them what you please. If you are looking for a degree, a quick and cheap degree, the cheapest degree on earth, go with WGU. If you are looking for a prestigious university, WGU is NoT It. But, for a prestigious university the tuition is costly and they are and can be more selective with admissions.

**** or you can buy your way into a prestigious university***

Good Luck

JoJoCal19

I'll save you a mouse click. WGU lost a national accreditation. They are still regionally accredited and honestly that is all that matters. You can still get a bachelors at WGU and transfer into brick and mortar masters if you so wish.

MrsWilliams

JoJoCal19 said:

I'll save you a mouse click. WGU lost a national accreditation. They are still regionally accredited and honestly that is all that matters. You can still get a bachelors at WGU and transfer into brick and mortar masters if you so wish.

I seen the list of universities that a student has allegedly transferred into a brick and mortar university from WGU.

But, it's very few posts on people (outside of the WGU website that they own/edit) who have done so. I am not saying that it hasn't ever been done, I am just saying that with the 50 universities that WGU lists, and the 6 people who allegedly did it (and wrote about it) the numbers don't add up. With that being said, someone isn't obligated to write about it so maybe it happens more than I know. It might happen weekly as far as I know. But, I don't see why someone would start at a cheap university such as WGU, them transfer into a (more expensive) traditional university. At a traditional university you have X amount of semesters. You can only take X amount of classes per year. You have various tuition costs for state resident and out of state. It's a lot more negatives to transferring from WGU without finishing than positives. That part really doesn't make any sense why someone would do such a thing. That is just opinion.

All I am saying is I haven't read that many blogs about people who have done such. I can't think of that many. If I get bored, which I probably will not, I will use my google-kung fu and attempt to find some alleged students that have done such.

If they have, I would love to hear from them.

Have a wonderful day.

NetworkNewb

shochan said:

Should one pursue a WGU degree?? due to them losing their accreditation in 2012, but apparently that hasn't stopped many from continuing their certification curriculum.

Ummmmm extremely misleading comment.... They are no longer nationally accredited but are still regionally accredited. Most nationally accredited programs are mostly just "for profit" schools that focus on a specific area.

Most colleges in the US are just regionally accredited...

NetworkNewb

MrsWilliams said:

I don't see why someone would start at a cheap university such as WGU, them transfer into a (more expensive) traditional university.

Because it usually looks a little better on a resume graduating from a school people have heard of and think highly of (especially when just starting your career and haven't had a chance to prove yourself). And doing it the way mentioned would save a lot of money would be the obvious answer.

MrsWilliams

NetworkNewb said:

MrsWilliams said:

I don't see why someone would start at a cheap university such as WGU, them transfer into a (more expensive) traditional university.
Because it usually looks a little better on a resume graduating from a school people have heard of and think highly of (especially when just starting your career and haven't had a chance to prove yourself). And doing it the way mentioned would save a lot of money would be the obvious answer.

Ummmmmm. WGU is about 4k a semester. If you take 1 class or 10 classes it is still 4K. So, I don't understand the money aspect of your answer. If I am going to spend 4k, I am going to take every class I can take in a semester (6 months). Every class as in try my hardest to complete the degree in 1 semester. Why transfer in 1-3 classes for 4k if you can transfer in 10 classes for 4K

Coming from someone who has spent time a several universities throughout my life..No matter how many classes you WaNt to transfer over, if the curriculums aren't very very similar between the two schools...very few if any classes will transfer over. A graduate degree at school X isn't necessarily going to have the same classes at school Y, or Z. That is just a fact. The curriculums have to be closely aligned for the transfer credits to be accepted. Or, if it's a traditional university, undergrad... you will just get the class as an elective.

I am done here. Going over to the next post

colemic

MrsWilliams said:

I have more than one account for every website I log into. I have about four accounts on this forum. Three I can think of off the top of my head.

Why do you have multiple accounts here?

shochan

https://www.geteducated.com/regional-vs-national-accreditation-which-is-better-for-online-colleges

NetworkNewb

MrsWilliams said:

I am done here. Going over to the next post

Yea, you missed the point... Obviously you do your homework and see what classes would transfer first. Hopefully people do their due diligence when planning college... A lot of people do the lower level courses at community colleges or other small colleges then transfer those over and take the upper level ones at the larger university. It is actually quite a common practice that saves a lot of money and you get the same degree as the people that spent their full time at the larger university and spent a lot more.

Jasiono

I researched the difference in accreditation and found that regionally is better than national. My goal is to just get a Bachelors so I can move to my Masters. I already have a school lined up for the Masters.
I figured I would go out for the programming one since I would like to jump into that field. My thought is that a degree will show a potential employer I have the education for at least a junior position in which I can build my way up from.

NetworkNewb

Make sense to me! The courses should focus on the areas you plan on working in. As long as it doesn't add a ton of more time finish it seems like the logical step. I've also heard working on side things like at Github is a good resume helper for programmers. I don't work in Software Dev so don't take my word on that, just something I believe I have heard before.

Jasiono

Definitely. And if I decide to stay in security doing pentesting, I have a software dev degree to back up my understanding of applications. Seems like a win win to me the more I think about it actually.
It'll literally be 2-3 more classes, tops, going this route, but it will open more doors.

iBrokeIT

Why are you choosing Software Dev over Computer Science? Where are you planning to get your Master's?