Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

This thread is intended for students to write about their experiences at Western Governors University.

Please keep it civil, and do not spend your time bashing the school, and its policies. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you have a problem you need to take it up with your professor or mentor. Please no Flaming on this thread.

You can ask for help with a referral (used to avoid paying the application fee) on the following thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/55634-wgu-refer-friend-thread-those-seeking-referral.html

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Comments

Jasiono

Psoasman wrote: »

Yes, you can. Do you have one of those mentors who doesn't return calls or emails?

Calls 20 minutes late
calls on days he shouldnt
he was supposed to call Thursday to set Aav and nothing. I emailed him and have gotten no reply
Excuse the lack of punctuation, my iPad lags really bad

Maybe something came up.

Hypntick

No need to put up with that situation. I mean I know people have personal issues from time to time, but if you have a scheduled time, keep it. At the very least shoot an email out saying you can't make it. Even my undergrad mentor did that when she had a death in the family and couldn't make our call one week. I'd be calling student services, you're paying around 3k every 6 months for school, at the very least you need someone who can keep an appointment.

Psoasman

Jasiono wrote: »

Calls 20 minutes late
calls on days he shouldnt
he was supposed to call Thursday to set Aav and nothing. I emailed him and have gotten no reply
Excuse the lack of punctuation, my iPad lags really bad

Maybe something came up.

I would definitely call student services and request a new mentor. Your time, as is his, is valuable. I understand that issues arise, but consistent stuff like this won't work.

Hypntick

Well LKT2 task 3 was sent back. Only 1 section requires revision which is physical security. Upon re-reading that section of the document it does seem lacking to me as well. I think I need to read just a bit more of the COS stuff on physical security and re-do that section a bit. Otherwise everything else was a 3 or 4 so no worries there.

Edit to add: Resubmitted. The skillport site was down for a few hours so I couldn't read through what I was looking for on the physical security aspect. Finally checked into the CISSP standards and addressed each physical concern for the scenario. Took a couple of paragraphs and delved into things to the extent of about a page and a half. To be fair I did kind of wing that section initially, physical security isn't something I deal with often.

Hypntick

Task 3 just came back and we're all good. LKT2 is done. Skipping ahead to VUT2, mostly because that interests me a lot more. Hope to knock that out by the weekend fully, next Tuesday at the very latest. Starting next Wednesday i'll be on call for a week, really hard to get work done without sleep.

amcnow

Gratz on the pass, Hypntick.

It sounds like you're moving along at a pretty fast pace.

Hypntick

I moved through the BS at around that pace as well. I just write pretty quickly overall so the writing stuff isn't difficult to me. When I hit the certs, that's going to be what slows me down, there's a ton of ground to cover for those. Although I am over halfway through the all-in-one for the C|EH.

Then again I am slightly insane.

lelei

Anyone have any tips for the GAC1 exam? I hate that math is holding up my graduating now

amcnow

Hypntick wrote: »

I moved through the BS at around that pace as well. I just write pretty quickly overall so the writing stuff isn't difficult to me. When I hit the certs, that's going to be what slows me down, there's a ton of ground to cover for those. Although I am over halfway through the all-in-one for the C|EH.

Then again I am slightly insane.

Speaking of insane, how do you rate the study material provided for CEH? Does it provide a lot of hands-on exercise? Or is it mostly theory?

demonfurbie

any one here taking the masters in networking, if so how do you like it

i was going to go in to the ms:isa but they said i didnt have the required exp ... which is odd cause i work in the info sec field

Hypntick

amcnow wrote: »

Speaking of insane, how do you rate the study material provided for CEH? Does it provide a lot of hands-on exercise? Or is it mostly theory?

I actually haven't looked at the WGU provided materials just yet. I have been following along with the all-in-one book that I picked up, some decent exercises. I also have been going through the CBT nuggets videos that I have available from where I work. At least with those resources it does allow for a good bit of hands on. I don't think I would even consider trying that cert without the hands on knowledge.

I'll let you know how I feel about the WGU ones when I get them. Although i'm going to try and knock out all of the written tasks first and then blast the certs out in a row.

amcnow

demonfurbie wrote: »

any one here taking the masters in networking, if so how do you like it

i was going to go in to the ms:isa but they said i didnt have the required exp ... which is odd cause i work in the info sec field

Does your InfoSec experience cover at least 2 of the 10 CISSP domains? https://www.isc2.org/cissp-domains/default.aspx Also, I think you need a minimum of 3 years.

You should be able to get in using your bachelor's degree if it focused on IT security (that covers at least 2 of the 10 CISSP domains) or IT networking. This is how I got in.

hiddenknight821

demonfurbie wrote: »

i was going to go in to the ms:isa but they said i didnt have the required exp ... which is odd cause i work in the info sec field

Hm, strange. You are the second person that said the same thing.

I hardly have experience in the industry. The closest I had was working for an information security office doing access reviews and send whatever reports boss wanted to see. The job was nothing technical and that position lasted a month. I didn't even give WGU my resume at all.

All I had to do was to request my mentor to direct me to the right enrollment counselor after I completed my last class. I graduated from the IT: Security track. So I dunno what you did wrong, but I think you need to speak up more louder.

amcnow

The requirements for entering the MSISA program at WGU are listed at this link:

http://www.wgu.edu/online_it_degrees/information_security_assurance_degree_details#admission

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Hm, strange. You are the second person that said the same thing.

I hardly have experience in the industry. The closest I had was working for an information security office doing access reviews and send whatever reports boss wanted to see. The job was nothing technical and that position lasted a month. I didn't even give WGU my resume at all.

All I had to do was to request my mentor to direct me to the right enrollment counselor after I completed my last class. I graduated from the IT: Security track. So I dunno what you did wrong, but I think you need to speak up more louder.

Your degree satisfied the requirement for enrollment in MSISA. Therefore, they didn't need to examine your work experience.

hiddenknight821

amcnow wrote: »

The requirements for entering the MSISA program at WGU are listed at this link:

Master Information Security Degree Program | WGU College of Information Technology

+1 rep for getting the facts straight from the horse's mouth. Demonfurbie, I am going to assume that you switched to the general IT track. I see the quickest way to get in the program is to get the CCNA. With the CCENT, you can get the COV2 waived. That's knocking down two birds with one stone. However, you can still argue that your experience is valid as long as you meet the following requirement:

Submit a resume for review showing recent significant IT security experience, of at least three years, which demonstrates at least two CISSP CBK domains.

Don't give up too easy. The options you have here are viable.

demonfurbie

i dont plan on giving up

i work in the court system as a probation officer/network admin but i always get called my the judges/mayors to testify/crack systems for info

i even have letters of rec from multiple judges, mayors and i can get one from the gov if i have to.

my idea is to get in the network degree and switch after i started or get the network one and just get the cissp after im not all that interested in pen testing more so the policy/management

and yes i did the standard it track, when i started they didnt have any requirements for masters programs

Hypntick

Really weird, I guess the server admin track covered the CISSP requirements. Although if need be I could have provided experience in disaster recovery, network security, and access controls. I wasn't even asked to provide anything aside from my CCENT. Weird.

demonfurbie

im really thinking its a blessing in disguise because i really wasnt interested in the eccouncil certs and i think ill be able to go faster with out having vendor certs...

thats whats really slowed me down in the bs degree and java but i still got java done in like 3 weeks... all the other wgu classes i was able to do in 3 weeks or less

Hypntick

Yeah since I want to get into a vulnerability assessment type role, the ecouncil certs will help. The SANS cert is the one that i'm more concerned about, I don't mind policy, I just don't have the level of experience to really know where i'm going with it.

demonfurbie

i deal with nothing but paperwork and turning something very tech into something every one can understand

i did my twa and capstone (40 or so pages) in 12 hours no revisions needed on either, so im use to writing

Hypntick

Yeah my writing stuff is fine, but for example looking over the FISMA stuff for one of the tasks for LKT2 was pretty painful. But then again everything the government does is a little painful.

erpadmin

demonfurbie wrote: »

i work in the court system as a probation officer/network admin but i always get called my the judges/mayors to testify/crack systems for info

i even have letters of rec from multiple judges, mayors and i can get one from the gov if i have to.

Now, that my friend is pull! LOL.

Have you ever dealt with cryptography? (Getting a cert from a CA, or even creating a self-signed CA yourself?) Between that, your forensics experience and no doubt dealing with access control (setting up NTFS permissions) then you most likely qualify for the WGU MSISA program. I'd save the political pull for something you're really gonna need (whatever that is...

)

demonfurbie

i havent dealt with crypto much, i deal with alot of ntfs permissions and firewalls

i try not to bother the politicians unless i have to ... its odd they have no issue calling me any time of the day (or night) to fix their computers

erpadmin

demonfurbie wrote: »

i try not to bother the politicians unless i have to ... its odd they have no issue calling me any time of the day (or night) to fix their computers

Being indispensable: something everyone should aspire to.

You are building capital that will transform into influence (and power.)

But as I said before, look at the CISSP domains again from ISC and see if there are two that fall under what you do today. If you think you qualify to take the CISSP tomorrow (for example) then WGU shouldn't be giving you a hard time if you want to take ISA.

demonfurbie

i just emailed with the enrollment guy (jeff) he told me that the network masters is 11 papers/projects, 1 wgu test, 1 oral defense

im sure i can complete it faster than the info sec path

i can always cert out the info sec path i want after, it seams that wgu only does the pen testing route

erpadmin

That's a good plan. A good MS like the networking one coupled with a CISSP can serve you well anyway, if you wanted to pursue the info sec route (or even just to have it for a management role.)

I just finished a task for work that involved some script writing that will automate decrypting a file that's on a SFTP server and then place that file in a share that will be accessed by certain users. The knowledge that I gained from Security+ helped me to understand and explain all of the processes involved in that task (creating a certificate and keeping the private key, giving the vendor our public cert, incorporating their public cert for validating their signature, decrypting the file with our private key, etc., etc.) I made sure I documented that task in case I pursue the CISSP at some point.

paulgswanson

Just now started working on WFV1 (CIW v5 Foundations) Anyone know if the Skillsoft training is adequet for this? I obviously have my A+, N+, and S+ but zilch exp in HTML or XHTML or coding in general (outside of the occasional Lua file.. ). I wanna pass it like a boss, but with the skillsoft I got a 63%. But having no exp with skillsoft before I've no clue how to rate that score on terms of realistic scaling.

Bottomline is WGU's CIW skillsoft trainging good enough?

I did try using the search function but seeing 30 differnt threads anywhere from 101 Pages long to as low as 2 made it hard to find a legit answer

( so...sorry if its been asked already)

demonfurbie

i used CIW Foundations Study Notes and thumbed over some of the topics i wasnt good at

erpadmin

http://www.techexams.net/forums/general-certification/70154-ciw-exams.html

This thread explains it all.

In short, all you need is the study guide found on mcmcse.com (especially with your CompTIA certs.)

CIW Foundations Study Notes

paulgswanson

Thx folks! I'll give that sucker a read. +rep to first responders!