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Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

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    SheckyShecky Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Taking my ORC1 exam at 3 p.m. today. Wish me luck!
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    veritas_libertasveritas_libertas Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Shecky wrote: »
    Taking my ORC1 exam at 3 p.m. today. Wish me luck!

    Good luck! I took that last week... icon_wink.gif
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    petedudepetedude Member Posts: 1,510
    Excellent1 wrote: »
    That's exactly what I'm doing right now. The most frustrating thing so far is doing the programming exercises without using an easier way of doing it (like using if/else statements to split a string instead of split or using an array to begin with).

    Ah well, back to the fun.

    Please don't tell me that's in the task-- I'm still working off the older version of the task in .jpg format, hoping I won't find there's some new obscure requirement I don't know about yet. I've been using split in the tasks, so I hope I don't get called on that. It was bad enough having to develop loops/clauses to parse data.
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
    --Will Rogers
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    never2latenever2late Member Posts: 122
    Alright... progress update on Tech Writing! I'd say I'm about 50% there! Should be done by this weekend! Who's buying the drinks?
    I'm about 75% done with the first draft. Already at 18 pages and looks I might top 25-28 with the appendixes. Gantt chart? Really!

    Same plans as ErpAdmin, finish draft this weekend, tidy up and trim some of the wording. Plan is to turn it in by Wednesday. It does seem there is a lot of repetition. I feel like a politician, saying the same thing 20 different ways.
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    Excellent1Excellent1 Member Posts: 462 ■■■■■■■□□□
    petedude wrote: »
    Please don't tell me that's in the task-- I'm still working off the older version of the task in .jpg format, hoping I won't find there's some new obscure requirement I don't know about yet. I've been using split in the tasks, so I hope I don't get called on that. It was bad enough having to develop loops/clauses to parse data.

    I don't believe it's in the task. I'm just trying to complete the exercises outlined in the CoS to see if I can do them as I cover the material. There are several exercises that you have to use some extremely long and clumsy coding in order to do it the way they want it done (i.e., using only those concepts covered up to that point in the material).

    It's all good, and I'm loving java, but it's definitely new territory for me. Can't wait to get into jdbc and start playing around with database connectivity. Heh, never thought I'd say that, but there it is.
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    whatthehellwhatthehell Member Posts: 920
    erpadmin wrote: »
    The only (IT) Masters I would recommend from WGU would be the MS in Information Security Assurance.

    Personally, I'm answering that that second question (getting a BS from WGU and going to a B&M-AACSB school to get an MBA....that was always the plan from the word go.)

    Thanks for the info and recommendation!
    2017 Goals:
    [ ] Security + [ ] 74-409 [ ] CEH
    Future Goals:
    TBD
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    SheckyShecky Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
    PASSED ORC1! w00t! Onto MGC1, TPV1, BOV1 then Technical Writing and finally Capstone!!! icon_cheers.gif
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    petedudepetedude Member Posts: 1,510
    erpadmin wrote: »
    What he said.....

    Java is great because you need an OOL to develop front-ends/interfaces for SQL databases. A developer does all of that jazz, as opposed to a DBA (though a DBA will at least familiarize himself with the OOL code of choice).

    Java is now, for better or worse, the common tongue of programming courses for many schools. It's not exactly a hidden notion-- the language is everywhere, solid development tools/documentation can be had for free and it's cross-platform (PCs, Macs, Linux. . .). It does a lot of interesting stuff, even if it does it in goofy ways sometimes (GUI development, anybody?).

    The DB development stuff piques my interest a little bit, but I'm almost tired of Java given how much time I've spent on GTT1 so far.
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
    --Will Rogers
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    hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    petedude wrote: »
    Java is now, for better or worse, the common tongue of programming courses for many schools. It's not exactly a hidden notion-- the language is everywhere, solid development tools/documentation can be had for free and it's cross-platform (PCs, Macs, Linux. . .). It does a lot of interesting stuff, even if it does it in goofy ways sometimes (GUI development, anybody?).

    The DB development stuff piques my interest a little bit, but I'm almost tired of Java given how much time I've spent on GTT1 so far.

    Before you go on praising Java, I have heard students complaining about Java at my previous school. Most of them prefer C++ over Java (even CS students admitted it), because it's mid-to-high level programming language that interact closely to the machine language, but is nowhere as close compare to assembly, of course. C++ is far better than Java because it has better memory management. So, you may want to dabble on C++ a little bit. I have experienced both languages. If you think Java is easy, wait until you try playing around with pointers and nodes in C++.
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    themagiconethemagicone Member Posts: 674
    I turned in my Tech paper today. Figured why not... I got 3 tries might as well see what they say. Came to 18 pages with cover page, contents and appendix. Trying to get done asap.
    Courses Completed at WGU: JIT2, LYT2, TFT2, SJT2, BFC2, TGT2, FXT2
    Courses Required For Me To Graduate WGU in MS: IT Network Managment: MCT2, LZT2, MBT1, MDT2, MNT2
    CU Done this term: 16 Total CU Done: 19
    Currently working on: Nothing Graduation Goal: 5/2013
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    Excellent1Excellent1 Member Posts: 462 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Excellent1 wrote: »
    That's exactly what I'm doing right now. The most frustrating thing so far is doing the programming exercises without using an easier way of doing it (like using if/else statements to split a string instead of split or using an array to begin with).

    Ah well, back to the fun.

    Well, just found out that when you use the scanner class to allow user input that anything the user enters is automatically split into tokens when they use spaces. So, in the example above, I didn't need to use split or boolean comparisons with charAt to check for .isWhitespace or any of that nonsense. A simple 3 variable declaration following the prompt allowed the 3 numbers entered by the user with spaces between each number to initialize correctly. So much for doing it the long way. Too bad that little nugget wasn't explicitly stated anywhere in the coursebook. icon_wink.gif

    Also, regarding C++, I intend to work on that soon. I'm enjoying java enough to look into some other languages to see how they work. Fun stuff.
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    erpadminerpadmin Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    I turned in my Tech paper today. Figured why not... I got 3 tries might as well see what they say. Came to 18 pages with cover page, contents and appendix. Trying to get done asap.


    Someone wants that beer.......LOL.

    18 pages you say?! Keep us posted!
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    erpadminerpadmin Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Before you go on praising Java, I have heard students complaining about Java at my previous school. Most of them prefer C++ over Java (even CS students admitted it), because it's mid-to-high level programming language that interact closely to the machine language, but is nowhere as close compare to assembly, of course. C++ is far better than Java because it has better memory management. So, you may want to dabble on C++ a little bit. I have experienced both languages. If you think Java is easy, wait until you try playing around with pointers and nodes in C++.

    Excellent1 wrote: »
    Well, just found out that when you use the scanner class to allow user input that anything the user enters is automatically split into tokens when they use spaces. So, in the example above, I didn't need to use split or boolean comparisons with charAt to check for .isWhitespace or any of that nonsense. A simple 3 variable declaration following the prompt allowed the 3 numbers entered by the user with spaces between each number to initialize correctly. So much for doing it the long way. Too bad that little nugget wasn't explicitly stated anywhere in the coursebook. icon_wink.gif

    Also, regarding C++, I intend to work on that soon. I'm enjoying java enough to look into some other languages to see how they work. Fun stuff.


    It may behoove the both of you to know that I work with two developers who knew nothing of PeopleCode before they came to work at my shop (that's PeopleSoft's Native OOL...if you know C++ or Java, PeopleCode is stupid easy...). It is much easier to find a job doing development work than it is doing help desk; that much I know. I don't personally enjoy coding though. Scripting, yes, but not coding. Application development just isn't my thing. However, that's where the money is...a junior developer in the NYC area can make $45k-$65k. They tend to work for a couple of years and typically double that salary.

    Just FYI, FWIW.
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    themagiconethemagicone Member Posts: 674
    GTT1 can be done in a week. I mostly forgo the COS and just plunged into the tasks. Google will be your friend. Get the 2 java books, java for everyone and big java. Any specific questions PM me and I'll point you in the right direction.
    Courses Completed at WGU: JIT2, LYT2, TFT2, SJT2, BFC2, TGT2, FXT2
    Courses Required For Me To Graduate WGU in MS: IT Network Managment: MCT2, LZT2, MBT1, MDT2, MNT2
    CU Done this term: 16 Total CU Done: 19
    Currently working on: Nothing Graduation Goal: 5/2013
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    petedudepetedude Member Posts: 1,510
    Before you go on praising Java, I have heard students complaining about Java at my previous school. Most of them prefer C++ over Java (even CS students admitted it), because it's mid-to-high level programming language that interact closely to the machine language, but is nowhere as close compare to assembly, of course. C++ is far better than Java because it has better memory management. So, you may want to dabble on C++ a little bit. I have experienced both languages. If you think Java is easy, wait until you try playing around with pointers and nodes in C++.

    No praise here for Java. It does lots of nifty stuff, but also (as others have pointed out) forces you to jump through hoops you don't have to jump through in other languages. Not to mention a couple other issues:

    1. Write once, test many (allegedly multi-platform, but known to have differences);
    2. Lack of interpreter stability-- I've seen more Java meltdowns in my day than I care to admit.

    I think some of those issues stem from the fact that Java has been largely a proprietary, closed solution developed in a vacuum as opposed to a language developed by academia or outside a regular corporate environment.

    If you want me to praise a language, think Perl. I realize it's not a general purpose language for client applications, but you can do things in a few lines of Perl that would take gobs of lines in Java.
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
    --Will Rogers
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    hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    petedude wrote: »
    If you want me to praise a language, think Perl. I realize it's not a general purpose language for client applications, but you can do things in a few lines of Perl that would take gobs of lines in Java.

    I'm gonna praise the Perl with you! icon_cheers.gif Althought, I'm not familiar with it yet (I dunno why), but I plan to get that stuff down in the near future once I do my Linux+ study. I plan to master Perl, sed, and AWK once I began working on it. I was suppose to take a Perl class, but I left my old school a quarter right before I was due to take the course. This makes me mad icon_mad.gif, but as long as I am still living, I still have the opportunity to learn later on my own free time.
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    never2latenever2late Member Posts: 122
    I turned in my Tech paper today. Figured why not... I got 3 tries might as well see what they say. Came to 18 pages with cover page, contents and appendix. Trying to get done asap.

    Good work, hope you pass on the first try. It may be down to erp and myself for the honor of buying privileges.
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    demonfurbiedemonfurbie Member Posts: 1,819
    yea im gonna be cutting it close if i wanna walk in feb
    wgu undergrad: done ... woot!!
    WGU MS IT Management: done ... double woot :cheers:
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    hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    yea im gonna be cutting it close if i wanna walk in feb

    Ugh, the more I hear you guys talking about graduating soon, the more I anticipate graduating by the end of the year. I'm officially jealous. icon_cry.gif I definitely need to email my mentor and ask when is the latest possible date I can finish all of my course works for graduation in Atlanta. I really need to speed up through the ICND2.
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    demonfurbiedemonfurbie Member Posts: 1,819
    Ugh, the more I hear you guys talking about graduating soon, the more I anticipate graduating by the end of the year. I'm officially jealous. icon_cry.gif I definitely need to email my mentor and ask when is the latest possible date I can finish all of my course works for graduation in Atlanta. I really need to speed up through the ICND2.

    mine told me last day in january

    ive thought about changing my degree to the basic it degree and getting my mcitp after
    wgu undergrad: done ... woot!!
    WGU MS IT Management: done ... double woot :cheers:
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    erpadminerpadmin Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    never2late wrote: »
    Good work, hope you pass on the first try. It may be down to erp and myself for the honor of buying privileges.


    How far along are you? I might have a whole paper done by Sunday. (slight maybe...)
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    erpadminerpadmin Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    mine told me last day in january


    Mine too.

    I have to have CPW3/TWA1 done by 1/15/2012 though....it's looking good right now.... :D
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    demonfurbiedemonfurbie Member Posts: 1,819
    erpadmin wrote: »
    Mine too.

    I have to have CPW3/TWA1 done by 1/15/2012 though....it's looking good right now.... :D

    the mcitp classes are taking longer than i was expecting i was wanting to do one a month and capstone/tech in one month
    wgu undergrad: done ... woot!!
    WGU MS IT Management: done ... double woot :cheers:
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    themagiconethemagicone Member Posts: 674
    No word yet from TaskStream. I've heard they grade the tech paper in a few hours but it has been over 24. I didn't even get the originality report. My refresh button on my email is getting worn out.
    Courses Completed at WGU: JIT2, LYT2, TFT2, SJT2, BFC2, TGT2, FXT2
    Courses Required For Me To Graduate WGU in MS: IT Network Managment: MCT2, LZT2, MBT1, MDT2, MNT2
    CU Done this term: 16 Total CU Done: 19
    Currently working on: Nothing Graduation Goal: 5/2013
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    pixelperson1pixelperson1 Member Posts: 22 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Hi, I was wondering if there are any WGU graduate students on this forum.

    I already have a B.Sc. IT degree from Barry University (Miami Shores, FL) and I am looking for a regionally accredited MIS grad school.

    If there are any WGU grad students I would like to hear about their experiances and thoughts.

    Thanks in advance.
    C. Christensen
    CompTia Network+; A+ Certified, Security+
    www.creativeoverload.com
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    hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    Hi, I was wondering if there are any WGU graduate students on this forum.

    I already have a B.Sc. IT degree from Barry University (Miami Shores, FL) and I am looking for a regionally accredited MIS grad school.

    If there are any WGU grad students I would like to hear about their experiances and thoughts.

    Thanks in advance.

    To be frank with you, we are getting tired of people asking the same questions. Mind you but if you can do a search, you will have found some answers to your questions. Here's the thread of one of the alumni who recently graduated from the Information Security and Assurance program. As for the MBA program, I would not search it for you, but good luck on your search.
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    Excellent1Excellent1 Member Posts: 462 ■■■■■■■□□□
    No word yet from TaskStream. I've heard they grade the tech paper in a few hours but it has been over 24. I didn't even get the originality report. My refresh button on my email is getting worn out.

    Once the cancel submission option disappears, you know the graders have picked it up. Until then, it hasn't been looked at. Not sure if that's common knowledge or not. I found out about it a couple months after starting.
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    phonetic.manphonetic.man Member Posts: 79 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Hey all. It's been a while since I posted anything in here.

    I passed ABV1 class today. Not too bad and I think I could have had it done a lot sooner if my mentor would have let me. He said that he wanted me to do every little task for this since it was my first semester and this was "the hardest class". Its all good now though because he said now that I have proven myself to him I wont be constrained or limited.

    Best wishes to everyone else!
    Currently studying: Backup Academy, CWNA, MCSA:08, iBoss ISCP
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    never2latenever2late Member Posts: 122
    erpadmin wrote: »
    How far along are you? I might have a whole paper done by Sunday. (slight maybe...)

    I just finished the project timeline. I pasted the sample IT project timeline and changed the tasks to fit my project. Do I need to reference it in my paper? Wife is a 12+ year project manager and she said most timelines use similar format.

    Still have the Competency Matrix, references, and a couple appendixes. I hope to finish those tomorrow and then review the paper Sunday\Monday. Don't think I can get it in by Sunday night though. But like themagicone says, you have three tries to get it right.
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    erpadminerpadmin Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    never2late wrote: »
    I just finished the project timeline. I pasted the sample IT project timeline and changed the tasks to fit my project. Do I need to reference it in my paper? Wife is a 12+ year project manager and she said most timelines use similar format.

    Still have the Competency Matrix, references, and a couple appendixes. I hope to finish those tomorrow and then review the paper Sunday\Monday. Don't think I can get it in by Sunday night though. But like themagicone says, you have three tries to get it right.


    I received a sample paper that discusses data de-duplication. (Something I might have to personally look into as our data growth is taking a toll on our tape backups, but that's another headache for another time....)

    He basically uses a simple gant chart with a task name, duration, start and end times for columns. (nothing fancy and I was grateful for that...I don't even need to use MS Project).

    If you need the sample paper, PM me your email. His format is very straightforward and I am following that for my own paper. (My topic is completely different from data de-dupes...not even going to tie that in, though a backup mechanism probably should be mentioned....but I could just do D2T like I do in real life.)

    I'm almost at goal and objectives in my paper. I don't think I'm gonna be done even with a BS draft to send to taskstream.

    Just remember guys....the deal was to be done with TWA1, and Capstone, if my memory serves me right..... :) Either way, it looks like tonight will be the night I burn the midnight oil.
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