Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

YesOffense

Currently enrolled in the BS ITM program but thinking of transferring to BS ITSec. Has just been uninspired and a bit dull, I'll save the business stuff for a later grad degree plus this gives me certs I was planning on getting separately.

shimasensei

Thanks for the good information!

CyberSecurity

YesOffense wrote: »

Currently enrolled in the BS ITM program but thinking of transferring to BS ITSec. Has just been uninspired and a bit dull, I'll save the business stuff for a later grad degree plus this gives me certs I was planning on getting separately.

I did the opposite where I switched from BS ITSec to BS ITM and having just graduated I'm glad I made the switch. I feel having the business background early really granted a lot of perspective into how my organization runs as a whole and what they mean when they say "It's just not in our budget." Overall the BSITM degree was great with regards to the finance and accounting classes even though they were pretty tough. Now that I have the business degree, I feel my employer would look at me more-so than before as a managerial candidate. But really it's all in what you want to do with your career, if you prefer technical aspects, definitely go with the BS ITSec! I don't think you can go wrong either way!

YesOffense

Thanks for the insight, actually reminded me why I sought that degree in the first place.

Blucodex

Waiting on review from Admissions. Do they actually ever deny people?

jcundiff

Blucodex wrote: »

Waiting on review from Admissions. Do they actually ever deny people?

yes, if you dont meet their qualifications

shimasensei

Currently in the middle of the admissions process, working on providing financial aid documentation.

Found out that I did not have to take the Readiness Assessment and go before the admission board since I have a number of IT certs that I am using towards CUs.

Also, I was pretty happy when they told me that my certifications will cover about 30% of the 123 total required CUs!

mzx380

shimasensei wrote: »

Currently in the middle of the admissions process, working on providing financial aid documentation.

Found out that I did not have to take the Readiness Assessment and go before the admission board since I have a number of IT certs that I am using towards CUs.

Also, I was pretty happy when they told me that my certifications will cover about 30% of the 123 total required CUs!

That's great news man. Do yourself a favor and keep a sustainable pace when you get back to studying. I started out the gate really hard and now I'm suffering from a case of burn out because of my workload at work!

shimasensei

Thanks for the good advice, I'm in the same boat, currently working full time as well.

boondock

I finished up my MS:ISA in February of this year. I really enjoyed my time there and loved the experienced. The degree as a whole took me roughly 17 months to complete taking additional/accelerated courses each term while maintaining a full-time job, family life, and some semblance of a social life.

I'm piggybacking off of that degree and heading into a date with CISSP sometime this summer. A lot of the course work lined up perfectly with the CISSP exam, so I'm hoping that reading through some of the CISSP material I've picked up will allow me to reach that goal.

shimasensei

Congrats boondock! Welcome to the TE community as well.

amcnow

Two months into the current term for MSCSIA. Once again, life happened. Long story.

So my plan to finish the remaining 5 courses in my first term back imploded real quick. With that said, I was able to pass the exam first try to wrap up Secure Software Design. I'm still on track to meet the 8 CUs for the term. Up next is Secure Network Design. I still have hope to complete Cyberlaw and even pull in Disaster Recovery Planning, Prevention and Response to finish out the term, leaving only the Capstone Project for next term.

Winzer

I just got back from term break. Did they replace the java programming course with a 'spreadsheets' course?

Also seems like the physics course is gone but replaced with a natural science lab.

Wtf, I wish they would at least TELL ME and I wouldn't have to guess from looking at my degree plan.

jak096

Yes, your mentor can switch you to the new degree plan with spreadsheets instead of Java. Too many people complained about it. My mentor said she wasn't switching me until after I take technical writing because the new one requires 4 papers instead of 1 I believe she said. Don't know about physics you asked about.

disip

Thanks for the information! Starting soon!

SecAdmin1981

amcnow wrote: »

I officially resumed my MSCSIA degree program on the 1st. My mentor thinks it's feasible to complete all my remaining courses this term. My plan is to:

Complete C706 and C700 in March.
Complete C688 and FXT2 in April.
Use the remaining 4 months to complete my capstone (LQT2).

I'm starting with Secure Software Design (C706). I have experience with this, and it piques my interest. I should have no trouble completing this one within the first couple of weeks.

Hello amcnow,

I am on my 3rd attempt to pass C706. My background is hardware/networking. I can not seem to grasp the scenarios on the assessment as it is totally different from the pre assessment. Could you give me any suggestions on how to pass this course or what I should study on? I have reread the areas the course mentor has asked me to yet, still I failed again yesterday.

heartgold

Thanks for the practical advice, I'm currently working full time as well. But looking forward to it

amcnow

4 months in and 2 courses down, the second being Secure Network Design. Cyberwarfare is up next. My goal is to complete this before month's end. I'm still hoping to bring in and complete Disaster Recovery Planning, Prevention, and Response (FXT2) before term's end in August, leaving just the capstone for next term. I wonder if I'd be eligible for a 1 month extension... :

SecAdmin1981 wrote: »

Hello amcnow,

I am on my 3rd attempt to pass C706. My background is hardware/networking. I can not seem to grasp the scenarios on the assessment as it is totally different from the pre assessment. Could you give me any suggestions on how to pass this course or what I should study on? I have reread the areas the course mentor has asked me to yet, still I failed again yesterday.

Sorry for the late response. I'm not on here much these days. I used the uCertify course ware simply to supplement what I already knew. I didn't use any external study aids for this course. Without knowing your specific deficiencies, it is near impossible for me to provide pointed recommendations either way. With that said, I can provide some general advice.

1. Know the SDLC model and its fundamental processes and methodologies inside and out.
2. Think security posture from a software perspective. What are the most common threats and vulnerabilities for software? How do we prevent or mitigate?
3. Studying the fundamentals of project management is a good idea!

Blucodex

Finally official. Starting MSCIA 8/1.

Johnmueller

Blucodex wrote: »

Finally official. Starting MSCIA 8/1.

How much credit did they give you for your degree and certs? Knock off one or two classes?

satxwes

Thought I'd post my experience thus far to help some others considering WGU. I have 22 years experience in IT, a full-time job, and primary custody of my 3 teenage daughters. I have multiple current MCSE certifications and a PMI:PMP along with some junior college classes from 1993-1994. I received 27 credits for my JC classes, which was much higher than I anticipated. I received 47 credits for my IT certs. So I was left with 48 credits out of 122 for BS IT: Network Administration.

I am 1 month in and have knocked out 18 credits, passing the A+ tests, Introduction to IT – C182, Integrated Physical Sciences – C165, and Critical Thinking and Logic – C168. So I'm left with 30 credits to go in the next 5 months. I'm trying to knock out the easier classes first, by studying for a day or two, doing a Pre-Assessment, then if I pass the PA I will study for a week and take the Objective Assessment.

So far so good. 48 credits in 1 six month term seemed like a daunting task at first, but after 1 month it seems very reasonable.

My tips: Don't let perfection get in the way of good enough. By that I mean don't over-study and let a classes material psych you out. Perfect example for me was the C168. I did well on the PA, but going over the material I felt like I was making no progress and not retaining anything. I took the OA less than a week after passing the PA and I got exemplary on it. It's easy to let some classes intimidate you, so focus on taking assessments for the course, know why you missed what you did, and do the PA. The coaching report on a PA really helps you see what you need to brush up on. Remember it's pass/fail, and each term is 6 months, so don't waste any extra weeks on a course just to make yourself feel warm and fuzzy. Even if you fail an OA, just dig in on your weak areas and jump right back in as quickly as you can.

satxwes

I received 74 transfer credits (27 from community college classes, and 47 from IT certifications). It all depends on your certs and the program, however. I'm in the BS IT: Network Administration, mostly because that lined up well for transferring my Microsoft MCSE and PMI: PMP certifications. Overall I was quite pleased with the transfer credits they gave. No complaints here!

Septuaginto

WGU is popular with my DoD contracting coworkers. Everyone I know that is currently taking college classes is taking them through WGU. Seems I'm the oddball that decided to do brick-n-mortar BS of IT.

gespenstern

Just passed C169 Java OA right after my PA was accepted (1st attempt). Received "exemplary", LOL. That was a tough one and took me unbelievable 4 months to complete (on top of work, family, etc). Python course, on the other hand, took me only 2 weeks.

Still i'm glad that I took it instead of a substitution course (Excel spreadsheets) as it was more challenging and who needs dumb Excel spreadsheets anyways.

Main complaints:

1) Udacity course. They clearly had a lack of diversity in the field in mind and made the course somewhat unbearable and numb. Barely managed to go over like 20% of the course here and there, just for reference. Can't really compare with awesome Codecademy Python course. Wiley Java book is okay though.

2) OA sucks. It was discussed here on TE a few times that some answers that are marked as incorrect by the engine are actually correct ones according to their own coursework. Someone even took screenshots and posted em here for demo.

3) Not really a complaint, but still. Because of somewhat lack of guidance I initially planned to complete the PA task using a two-dimensional array as it looked fitting the task in the taskstream. But one day I logged on to WGU using IE and to my surprise discovered the right pane in course contents (which is invisible in my FireFox!) with a link to a video and a set of files for a sample project which is a good skeleton for the PA task and the approach there is very different, it uses an ArrayList containing custom objects. So I scrapped everything I coded and redeveloped everything following the sample project.

4) Overall, unfortunately, Java is very unfun to code, this OO-oriented approach is forced on you everywhere, whether you need it or not. Can't really compare with the flexibility and beauty of Python which is very fun to code! I hope to never get back to Java.

More 45 CU to go and also I'm exploring the opportunity to switch to BS CIA as the cert package it boasts seems to be much better aligned with information security field. If the switch is possible without losing already acquired CUs then I'm in.

Blucodex

Johnmueller wrote: »

How much credit did they give you for your degree and certs? Knock off one or two classes?

I didn't get any credits. The MSCIA program only has two certs that accompany it. CEH and CHFI. I'll be taking the CEH this week and should be turning in the Risk Management paper shortly thereafter. It's looking like I'll finish at minimum 4 courses this first semester but if I can get 6 done I'll be on target for a 2 semester completion.

p@r0tuXus

Blucodex wrote: »

I didn't get any credits. The MSCIA program only has two certs that accompany it. CEH and CHFI. I'll be taking the CEH this week and should be turning in the Risk Management paper shortly thereafter. It's looking like I'll finish at minimum 4 courses this first semester but if I can get 6 done I'll be on target for a 2 semester completion.

Would you be willing to post the transfer requirements for each of the classes in your program? I think they send out a few pages that you should have received.

PJ_Sneakers

There are only two for the MSCIA program, the CEH and the CHFI. They can be waived by... CEH and CHFI. Lol.

gespenstern

Just passed older (003) version of CompTIA Project+ exam, thus finishing the C176 "Project Management" course.

I skimmed through the course and paid attention basically to "summary" and "exam essentials" sections. Turned out that they didn't cover a lot of important things, lol. But anyway, reading through all the chapters was too much for me because of TLDR and me having tens of years of practical management experience. Did some test questions.

Took post-assessment and scored aweful 56% score, only 1% higher than pre-assessment. That threw me off but it was too late already as I scheduled my P+ exam.

I hated the course. For example, a part of a project management plan that deals with human resources is "staffing management plan" according to CompTIA and not "human resources management plan". They even try to catch you if you bite the good sounding "human resources" lol. In real world nobody gives a crap about these names, the phenomenon these names point to is what matters.

Anyway, showed up for the exam, spent full 90 minutes, last 10 was reviewing marked questions, changed two of them. Scored 766 out of 900, passing score was 710.

This version of exam is scheduled to retire on the last day of Sept, I'm hearing that this version is the last lifetime version, the next will require continued education, etc.

Now to "Principles of Management".

N7Valiant

satxwes wrote: »

I received 74 transfer credits (27 from community college classes, and 47 from IT certifications). It all depends on your certs and the program, however. I'm in the BS IT: Network Administration, mostly because that lined up well for transferring my Microsoft MCSE and PMI: PMP certifications. Overall I was quite pleased with the transfer credits they gave. No complaints here!

Hmm, do they accept transfers of math/reading from your college, or do they insist on independent assessments of that? Also curious if they take into consideration what you already took on what I like to call "useless diversity requirements" like Anthropology, Hawaiian Studies(LOL), etc. My primary concern with moving to another State with a better job market right now is the fact that I might have to start entirely from scratch if I pursue a Bachelor's outside the State.

coreyb80

New term started for me today, but I switched programs and now I don't have a new student mentor yet. I was told a couple of days before I get a new one, but feel like this should've been done before the new term even started.