Western Governors University Questions and Answers / Threads related to WGU

nster

Did you mean C169 will not satisfy C173? That would suck if they did that change.

GSXR750K2

nster wrote: »

Did you mean C169 will not satisfy C173? That would suck if they did that change.

Yep, here's the exert from her email after contacting Records for them to mark C173 as complete...

"I also got bad news...C169 is not going to satisfy C173. I really apologize for this. The good news is that C173 will be really easy since you have already completed C169. Call if you want to talk about it."

There's some system called CrossTalk or something like that that has all of their course equivalents and "what-satisfies-what" information and she said after she got the email that C169 worked for C173 that she never checked that system for verification, which would have pointed to the email she received as being incorrect. She feels bad for it and I feel bad for mentioning it here every chance I got. At some point in life I guess we all suffer from someone else's mistakes.

GSXR750K2

Just took the C173 pre-assessment. It's not bad...I'm familiar with Python's overall syntax but I've never done more than poke my finger in it, and it covered some general development theory and UML stuff that I never really use. Scored 77% cold (66% cutoff) so it may just be a minor setback for many.

hurricane1091

I have not got a mentor yet for April 1 start. Normal?

srabiee

I would recommend giving student services or your enrollment counselor a call. Better safe than sorry.

hurricane1091

srabiee wrote: »

I would recommend giving student services or your enrollment counselor a call. Better safe than sorry.

Okay, I'll try.

JamesKurtovich

hurricane1091 wrote: »

I have not got a mentor yet for April 1 start. Normal?

I was told by my enrollment counselor that they're not obligated to contact you until the last week of the month. That would be next week starting this Sunday, though they really should have contacted you this week to get things moving.

hurricane1091

LordSevink wrote: »

I was told by my enrollment counselor that they're not obligated to contact you until the last week of the month. That would be next week starting this Sunday, though they really should have contacted you this week to get things moving.

This is helpful as well, thanks.

markulous

srabiee wrote: »

I would recommend giving student services or your enrollment counselor a call. Better safe than sorry.

This. I started a year ago and 4 days into my term I didn't hear anything. I ended up calling and finally getting my mentor to call me. I'd be proactive and just call them.

hurricane1091

I just called. They said the mentor will call you between the first and second week and that's all I could get out of the convo

tahjzhuan

My mentor seems to be on the ball. We've spoken a couple of times and had a web conference. You should be able to start reading your course material.

hurricane1091

Mentor e-mailed me today, will call me April 2nd. So can't choose classes till then. Hoping to take the CCNA security exam immediately

ashernatanel

Applied last night. Spoke to my enrollment counselor today, and sent in transcripts, updated my FAFSA, the whole nine yards. I'm excited and looking forward to starting the BS-IT Security program. Question I have for you guys is, when should I start?

I'm currently attending a community college and the last week of classes is the first week of June, so I anticipated a July 1st start date. But now I'm thinking about starting on June 1st instead, because A) It's my birthday, and what a nice present to myself, and Those last 3 weeks of June can be put to good use instead of impatiently waiting for July to come around. Am I right in thinking that the first couple of weeks are sort of a settling-in phase, where I won't overwhelm myself? It's still important to me to finish the semester at my current school and do well on my finals; I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

nster

Just study for a certification for those 3 weeks, that way you will be ready to attack July full force

GSXR750K2

I agree with nster...since you already have the Net+, start studying for the other "plus" exams. If you're already comfortable with knowledge in those areas or don't think they'll be a problem, start looking at CCNA material. No reason to wait for July 1st to come around.

As an additional thought, could any or all of the courses your taking at your CC be applied to WGU? Since you'd have to complete them prior to receiving credit, it MIGHT be prudent to wait until July 1st or even August 1st if your current semester gets you out of three or more courses. You could still use the time in between to study for certs.

ashernatanel

GSXR750K2 wrote: »

As an additional thought, could any or all of the courses your taking at your CC be applied to WGU? Since you'd have to complete them prior to receiving credit, it MIGHT be prudent to wait until July 1st or even August 1st if your current semester gets you out of three or more courses. You could still use the time in between to study for certs.

I hadn't considered that yet, since I'm not taking tech-oriented classes. My French and Business Law classes, probably not, but I am also taking Astronomy and Intermediate Algebra.

TheTank

I have worked in the help desk call center environment for about 13 years and finding that I'm not able to move due to my severe lack of formal training and certifications. I'm looking to at WGU as a way to possibly get both. For the goal I am looking for, does my plan seem sound, from those of you who have been through their programs?

cs8400

I would say that it is a solid plan. If you've hit a barrier in your career and you believe that a degree/certs would remove that barrier, WGU is a great place to do that. I had a similar situation, cert'ed up, and moved to the next level in my career (+ a 50% increase in pay). You are making a smart choice.

TheTank

Thanks, I guess my next question revolves around which degree I should go for. I have a bachelors in business administration, but as I mentioned before, no "formal" computer training or certifications. With already having a BS, I'm thinking masters and understand I might have a lot of catching up required. The question is, do I go for the harder cert (believing there will be some instructive training) or the most expensive cert since it's included in the price of the tuition?

Or or do I have a poor assumption(s) right off the bat?

student321

I hope this is the correct place to post this. I just finished the MSISA at WGU. The key to successfully completing a degree at this school is a good student mentor. During my career at WGU I had three mentors, the first two where not particular helpful but my third was fantastic. I was very skeptical when I was assigned to Tom, but he quickly demonstrated that he actually cared about my progress and had an excellent knowledge of the courses within the degree program. If you are just beginning or are thinking about the MSISA, or if your current mentor's calls feel like a check off call then I would recommend asking for a mentor change to Tom Meeks. I can honestly say that, if it were not for Tom I would not have finished my degree

GSXR750K2

TheTank wrote: »

Thanks, I guess my next question revolves around which degree I should go for. I have a bachelors in business administration, but as I mentioned before, no "formal" computer training or certifications. With already having a BS, I'm thinking masters and understand I might have a lot of catching up required. The question is, do I go for the harder cert (believing there will be some instructive training) or the most expensive cert since it's included in the price of the tuition?

Or or do I have a poor assumption(s) right off the bat?

I'm not trying to be a downer, but "a lot of catching up" is probably an understatement just from a stepping stone perspective. The certs are outlined in the degree program so there isn't an option of difficulty or price, you have to complete what WGU has laid out. The MSISA is the only MS IT degree with certs, it has two EC-Council certs (Hacker and Countermeasures, and Forensic Investigator) and they both revolve around a deep understanding of topics not to mention an eligibility requirement to take the exam (one exam has a four hour time limit, not sure about the other). The eligibility requirement of coursework as opposed to practical experience is satisfied with WGU's curriculum. Yes, it is possible to pass the exam without prior experience, but a lot of underlying principles wouldn't be understood.

I see a couple of options for you. First, consider a BSIT. You should be able to knock it out in a year or 18 months given your practical experience and that you'd be bringing in a BSBA already to meet a huge chunk of the non-IT requirements. You'd be getting some certs that would open a lot more doors in the short term (CompTIA, possibly Cisco depending on what track you choose), and gain the confidence that you know those topics well.

If you don't want to look at a BSIT to get caught up on things, there's the other two master's programs revolving around management, one being MS IT Management and the other is the MBA IT Management (no idea what the difference is). It wouldn't get you out into the field so to speak, but it would let you leverage your BSBA education and potentially put you on the other side of the desk where you are the guy that tells all of the people with the fancy certs what to do (aka, the boss).

As I said, not trying to rain on a parade or anything, just speaking from my own observations. I've worked all tiers of help desk in the past and I know sometimes it's hard to get your hand deep into a lot of the stuff you're supporting.

TheTank

Thanks for taking the time to type all that up for a reply. You've made some excellent points. I had actually come up with the same options, and was planning to discuss the logistics with the admissions counselor. I wasn't sure if they would consider my "catching up" as making up prerequisites before starting the MS or whether they would see what of my GenEd classes would transfer and have me go for a BS first as you mentioned.

I've considered the MBA route, but the lack of certs, and the fact that I've done the management thing and gotten burned makes me want to avoid that track.

I realize now that my original question revolved more around one BS degrees not the MS degrees. It looks like the one BS degree involves Microsoft certs (more costly I believe, but could be wrong - would like to get it regardless), the other looks like more Cisco (which I have less experience with [therfore harder] but might be better for my current needs at work situation/needs).

Any words of wisdom?

GSXR750K2

You can ignore the cert cost...WGU pays for all of your certs for a max of two attempts each, it's part of your tuition.

Since you're burned out on the management deal, I'd definitely talk to an enrollment counselor about a BSIT track. Depending on what you've been supporting over the past 13 years, some of the CompTIA stuff may come naturally to you. A+ isn't relatively difficult (may have gotten harder, I took mine almost seven years ago because a client of the company I worked for at the time required all contractors to have it), and the Net+ will teach you some good foundational stuff for the CCNA, should you decide to go down the security track. The Sec+ and CCNA-Sec share a lot of the same information (I'd recommend CBT Nuggets for the CCNA-Sec, I loved the pace and information of that course). The Project+ I got with WGU, it was difficult for me because I started studying for it during term one but wasn't able to get it worked in and didn't pick it up again until later in term two, and I don't like studying things twice. Linux+ is also a handy one to have, can't attest to its difficulty because my MCSE got me out of it and the A+ (WGU only takes certs earned in the last five years).

Without knowing all of the details of your situation, my opinion is that would be your best bet. I know what it's like being behind that phone and repeating the same things to the same people, it gets old quick...did a year in Bentonville supporting Walmart's store servers in the US and UK and the old adage of "lowest bidder wins" definitely seemed the case a lot of times, especially when the guys calling for help informed me they thought they'd give "computer repair a try". Plus, having a BSIT and a BSBA could put you in a nice position to potentially choose between some options since you do have some managerial experience...I've always thought IT project management would be fun (I like high stress/fast pace). Then should you decide you want to tackle that master's you'll have the better-than-formal training (self-taught is best to me), the certs, and a lot of experience working in the IT field to back you up.

TheTank

Thanks for the thoughts, opinions, and insight. I'll hopefully be speaking with WGU soon.

yesalrightok

I asked this in another thread but it may be more appropriate here:

I'm interested in learning if anyone here was in another program at WGU and later transferred into the newer Software Development program. What month did you start?

To the newbies:
How long have you been in the SD program?

GSXR750K2

GSXR750K2 wrote: »

Just took the C173 pre-assessment. It's not bad...I'm familiar with Python's overall syntax but I've never done more than poke my finger in it, and it covered some general development theory and UML stuff that I never really use. Scored 77% cold (66% cutoff) so it may just be a minor setback for many.

Mainly to nster (and others concerned), C173 isn't a hairy beast at all. Went ahead and scheduled it last Wednesday after taking the pre-assessment and passed with 80% tonight (wasn't going for gold on this one). My focus need was the UML stuff which I looked at over the weekend, the rest is easy if you've tinkered with OOP before and shouldn't be too hard to pick up if not. I skipped a lot of the vids but the ones I watched from the CoS were informative and well aligned with the exam.

Another edit...just got off the phone with my mentor and she said the C169/C173 thing has caused so much confusion it's not even funny. She got a clarification email today about a clarification email she got yesterday.

hurricane1091

I have 173 done and not 169. Which is harder??

GSXR750K2

hurricane1091 wrote: »

I have 173 done and not 169. Which is harder??

Depends on your experience. C169 requires you to take an objective exam and submit a small program to fit a lit of requirements. If you have played with C#, Java, or a similar language in the past then it probably won’t be that big of a deal. I'm familiar with C# and did the performance assessment over about a week and did the objective assessment about a week after that if I recall (had to brush up on some Java specific stuff).

If you have no prior experience, C173 prepares you with some of the concepts but Python and Java have almost nothing in common as far as syntax. Some of the rubric requirements for the performance assessment are confusing some students from what I've read...specifically I've seen mentioned the requirement of calling of the print() method in the Student class from a static method in the main program for some of the required outputs as giving some students trouble. Just recall the OOP pillars and determine which suits the required need.

hurricane1091

GSXR750K2 wrote: »

Depends on your experience. C169 requires you to take an objective exam and submit a small program to fit a lit of requirements. If you have played with C#, Java, or a similar language in the past then it probably won’t be that big of a deal. I'm familiar with C# and did the performance assessment over about a week and did the objective assessment about a week after that if I recall (had to brush up on some Java specific stuff).

If you have no prior experience, C173 prepares you with some of the concepts but Python and Java have almost nothing in common as far as syntax. Some of the rubric requirements for the performance assessment are confusing some students from what I've read...specifically I've seen mentioned the requirement of calling of the print() method in the Student class from a static method in the main program for some of the required outputs as giving some students trouble. Just recall the OOP pillars and determine which suits the required need.

Thanks for the input. I've done java in the past but it's been 3-4 years and I wasn't good at it!

xocity

Have a question for whoever knows. I've been looking through the forums but this is a big thread. I want to schedule the "Microsoft MTA Software Development Fundamentals Exam 98-361" for the DJV1 class. When I get to the Certiport website, it asks me if I want to take the C# or the VB exam. Which one do I chose. My mentor just told me to wait for the voucher to come in to have clarification , i'm still waiting but I want to keep studying but don't know where to focus.

Anyone have any insight on this?

Thanks in advanced.