WGU and Certs

simtech

Since I'm thinking of registering to WGU for BS IT, should I wait taking the net+ exam since exam fee is covered by the tuition? Is this true? anything that I don't know since I will be paying the tuition for 6months term anyway?

colemic

I am looking at WGU for MSIA as well, and the way I see it, you can 1)wait and let the test fee be covered by the tuition, or 2)take it now out of pocket, and it is one less class you have to take (at least that is how I understand it, someone please correct me if I am wrong.) You can save your $250 or whatever the test fee is, but I woul dbet that you would save more than that in tuition costs by accelerating your degree plan. JAT

eansdad

If you have the 15 credits to transfer in the take the exam first for the 2 exam reg. for the scholarship. If not might as well wait.

simtech

I guess what I'm trying to say is since we take as many classes as we can in the term, why not take the network+ class, finish quickly and take the exam since it's part of the tuition. Any thoughts?

erpadmin

simtech wrote: »

I guess what I'm trying to say is since we take as many classes as we can in the term, why not take the network+ class, finish quickly and take the exam since it's part of the tuition. Any thoughts?

Sim, if you have the time between your enrollment, you can take the exam before you start. Once you officially start, then you have to do it with them. I was in the same boat with Security+. If the month of July wasn't so hectic, I would have probably been ok to take it. I didn't have a problem spending the $258. But when I started, I took Security+ as part of my first set of classes. The only thing I was required to do for Security+ as far as WGU was concerned was take a MeasureUp in cert mode before I got my student voucher. I got 82% after I spent some time in study mode. In truth, the MeasureUp was much harder than the actual exam (which I'll say over and over, that's better for us!). Most likely, you may end up taking it through WGU and that's ok. No money out of your pocket...just tuititon. (Plus it forces you to pass the exam... )

colemic

erpadmin wrote: »

Sim, if you have the time between your enrollment, you can take the exam before you start. Once you officially start, then you have to do it with them. I was in the same boat with Security+. If the month of July wasn't so hectic, I would have probably been ok to take it. I didn't have a problem spending the $258. But when I started, I took Security+ as part of my first set of classes. The only thing I was required to do for Security+ as far as WGU was concerned was take a MeasureUp in cert mode before I got my student voucher. I got 82% after I spent some time in study mode. In truth, the MeasureUp was much harder than the actual exam (which I'll say over and over, that's better for us!). Most likely, you may end up taking it through WGU and that's ok. No money out of your pocket...just tuititon. (Plus it forces you to pass the exam... )

Well that's certainly a good nugget of information - once you start, they won't accept any certs for credit? Kinda sucks if your ompany/organization decided to send you to CEH/CHFI training and then you had to re-take the tests 6-8 months later.

erpadmin

colemic wrote: »

Well that's certainly a good nugget of information - once you start, they won't accept any certs for credit? Kinda sucks if your ompany/organization decided to send you to CEH/CHFI training and then you had to re-take the tests 6-8 months later.

Kinda, but not really. Once your transcripts, etc., are finalized, then any certs that you have must be done from WGU in order for it to not negatively impact your SAP (the WGU equivalent of a GPA). Otherwise, if you schedule for a Network+ exam, but you don't schedule it with WGU at that point, I believe you will get a "Requirement Met", but not a PASS! Requirement Met CUs won't count toward SAP. That's why, if you want to get Network+ you really have one of two choices:

1) Schedule the exam as soon as possible and pass it. Wait your 5 business days, and then send the transcript to your enrollment counselor.
But just make sure it's done BEFORE your WGU transcript is finalized.

2) Save your money and just wait until you are enrolled in WGU and receive a student voucher from them.

I had to do the second route personally for Security+, only because I had a lot of time constraints at the time. If it was going to be taken the earliest would have been the end of August...which was when I passed it.

simtech

erpadmin wrote: »

Sim, if you have the time between your enrollment, you can take the exam before you start. Once you officially start, then you have to do it with them. I was in the same boat with Security+. If the month of July wasn't so hectic, I would have probably been ok to take it. I didn't have a problem spending the $258. But when I started, I took Security+ as part of my first set of classes. The only thing I was required to do for Security+ as far as WGU was concerned was take a MeasureUp in cert mode before I got my student voucher. I got 82% after I spent some time in study mode. In truth, the MeasureUp was much harder than the actual exam (which I'll say over and over, that's better for us!). Most likely, you may end up taking it through WGU and that's ok. No money out of your pocket...just tuititon. (Plus it forces you to pass the exam... )

Let me get this correctly, so once I registered to WGU, I have to go through network+ module from them before they give me the voucher?
So it's a matter of paying the exam fee now, than having to spend the time to complete WGU network module to get the voucher.
Am I correct?

simtech

erpadmin wrote: »

Kinda, but not really. Once your transcripts, etc., are finalized, then any certs that you have must be done from WGU in order for it to not negatively impact your SAP (the WGU equivalent of a GPA). Otherwise, if you schedule for a Network+ exam, but you don't schedule it with WGU at that point, I believe you will get a "Requirement Met", but not a PASS! Requirement Met CUs won't count toward SAP. That's why, if you want to get Network+ you really have one of two choices:

1) Schedule the exam as soon as possible and pass it. Wait your 5 business days, and then send the transcript to your enrollment counselor.
But just make sure it's done BEFORE your WGU transcript is finalized.

2) Save your money and just wait until you are enrolled in WGU and receive a student voucher from them.

I had to do the second route personally for Security+, only because I had a lot of time constraints at the time. If it was going to be taken the earliest would have been the end of August...which was when I passed it.

How is it going to effect negatively on the SAP?

uhtrinity

erpadmin wrote: »

Kinda, but not really. Once your transcripts, etc., are finalized, then any certs that you have must be done from WGU in order for it to not negatively impact your SAP (the WGU equivalent of a GPA). Otherwise, if you schedule for a Network+ exam, but you don't schedule it with WGU at that point, I believe you will get a "Requirement Met", but not a PASS! Requirement Met CUs won't count toward SAP. That's why, if you want to get Network+ you really have one of two choices:

1) Schedule the exam as soon as possible and pass it. Wait your 5 business days, and then send the transcript to your enrollment counselor.
But just make sure it's done BEFORE your WGU transcript is finalized.

2) Save your money and just wait until you are enrolled in WGU and receive a student voucher from them.

I had to do the second route personally for Security+, only because I had a lot of time constraints at the time. If it was going to be taken the earliest would have been the end of August...which was when I passed it.

A score sheet is a score sheet, whether it was taken on a WGU voucher or not. That is all that is needed to finish an exam based class.

uhtrinity

simtech wrote: »

Let me get this correctly, so once I registered to WGU, I have to go through network+ module from them before they give me the voucher?
So it's a matter of paying the exam fee now, than having to spend the time to complete WGU network module to get the voucher.
Am I correct?

No, you just have to score high enough on a pretest for your mentor to give you the voucher, though if you have a good enough exam history your mentor might approve one without a pretest.

This is one of the things I like about WGU. Learning resources are recommended, but not required. If you already know it you don't have to do the busy work.

jmasterj206

I knocked out all my Comptia certs before starting. I had to recertify a+ and network +, so I did A+, Net+, Proj+, and Sec+. I took 4 months and it cost me 1200 bucks with books. If I would have done it through WGU it would have costed me the 2800 dollars. Granted I still could have got another class or two in. To me it was cheaper to get them done on my own and transfer them in.

simtech

jmasterj206 wrote: »

I knocked out all my Comptia certs before starting. I had to recertify a+ and network +, so I did A+, Net+, Proj+, and Sec+. I took 4 months and it cost me 1200 bucks with books. If I would have done it through WGU it would have costed me the 2800 dollars. Granted I still could have got another class or two in. To me it was cheaper to get them done on my own and transfer them in.

Hmm, technically I can finished all the certifications first then go WGU, in the end it'll cost me less. Just like you I'm thinking of net+, sec+, proj+, and ms 70-680, even all the CIW certs. Other than cheaper cost, any pros? and cons?

erpadmin

jmasterj206 wrote: »

I knocked out all my Comptia certs before starting. I had to recertify a+ and network +, so I did A+, Net+, Proj+, and Sec+. I took 4 months and it cost me 1200 bucks with books. If I would have done it through WGU it would have costed me the 2800 dollars. Granted I still could have got another class or two in. To me it was cheaper to get them done on my own and transfer them in.

It's not necessarily cheaper though. If it would have taken you 4 months to graduate with or without the CompTIA certs added to your course schedule, then it actually cost you $1200 additional. The only certs I had to do with CompTIA were Security and then Project+ after. With, or without them, it's still going to take me about a year and a half to two years to graduate. I thought there would have been a cost savings NOT taking the exams with WGU, but I end up saving money because I didn't have to spend $258. Even if I failed the exam twice, I would have only have to spend $165 dollars to retake it a third time. (Because I'm buying a student voucher, not the regular one). But it never got that far because I passed.

I thought the same thing though, but when I re-did the math for the classes that I have, and you can just look at my sig to confirm that, it wouldn't have mattered whether I did Proj+ and Sec+ before I started.

It's not going to matter for simtech either. He'll save on the additional expense because even if he fails, he gets to spend half for a voucher instead of full price. (And I'm not saying that he will....far from that!)

Sim, let's say you were going to start WGU tomorrow, for argument's sake. Say you were going to take Network+ as part of your first 12 CUs, then you do EWB plus whatever else you think will be easy (like I did). You concentrate on knocking out all you can and then you can study for Network+ independently of the COS (I did NOT go through COS for Security+....I used Darril Gibson's book, plus Transcenders and MeasureUp and called it a day). You'd knock it out within the month, like I did with Security+. You can see how my first month was in that regard in the Student Experiences at WGU thread. For Security+, I discussed that more in detail on the Security+ forum, but I noted in the SE thread that I did pass.

simtech

Thank you all for the responses.

Erpadmin - if let's say 1st term is 12 unit, what's the max in average realistically we can take on the 2nd term? I'm trying to calculate cost on how many term I need to complete.

erpadmin

simtech wrote: »

Thank you all for the responses.

Erpadmin - if let's say 1st term is 12 unit, what's the max in average realistically we can take on the 2nd term? I'm trying to calculate cost on how many term I need to complete.

Read the Student Experience thread for that. The term is 6 months. There are guys who are doing 20-30+ CUs every 6 months til graduation. I myself did 12 CUs in my first month (that included Security+). I'm signing up for an addition 7 CUs for September-October and will most likely have one MS exam (at least) done before January rolls around. At a personal minimum, I'm shooting for a completion of 25 CUs. (at a minimum). But the minimum amount of CUs you must do in each term at WGU is 12 CUs.

There was one guy who did something crazy like 75CUs in one year. (I believe it was slightly more). Look for bwcarty's posts....he mentioned it in the SE thread. BUT....to retiterate what was said about that accomplishment, that is definitely NOT the norm. You don't want to kill yourself doing CUs for the sake of doing it quickly. But you don't want to slouch either. Many of us found or are finding that balance. I don't doubt that you will too.

One other thing to note. Enrollment Counselors are useless. Sometimes you'll get good ones, other times no. You will get a lot of canned responses. Just go through the motions to get your information to them and once you're in, you never have to deal with them again. While they were a part of my WGU experience and it was pretty much negative, I won't hold that against the main WGU experience, which are the classes and people you meet.

simtech

erpadmin wrote: »

Read the Student Experience thread for that. The term is 6 months. There are guys who are doing 20-30+ CUs every 6 months til graduation. I myself did 12 CUs in my first month (that included Security+). I'm signing up for an addition 7 CUs for September-October and will most likely have one MS exam (at least) done before January rolls around. At a personal minimum, I'm shooting for a completion of 25 CUs. (at a minimum). But the minimum amount of CUs you must do in each term at WGU is 12 CUs.

There was one guy who did something crazy like 75CUs in one year. (I believe it was slightly more). Look for bwcarty's posts....he mentioned it in the SE thread. BUT....to retiterate what was said about that accomplishment, that is definitely NOT the norm. You don't want to kill yourself doing CUs for the sake of doing it quickly. But you don't want to slouch either. Many of us found or are finding that balance. I don't doubt that you will too.

One other thing to note. Enrollment Counselors are useless. Sometimes you'll get good ones, other times no. You will get a lot of canned responses. Just go through the motions to get your information to them and once you're in, you never have to deal with them again. While they were a part of my WGU experience and it was pretty much negative, I won't hold that against the main WGU experience, which are the classes and people you meet.

Yup, I have to agree with Enrollment Counselor negative experience.
I emailed him and still no clear response, just generic messages.

erpadmin

simtech wrote: »

Yup, I have to agree with Enrollment Counselor negative experience.
I emailed him and still no clear response, just generic messages.

When you need something, best to always call and get on them and stern too.

I can say this much, every other department (assessment dept., financial aid, bursar, mentors, etc.) has always been (so far) a very positive experience. I have always been received very politely. (So far).

One time the student portal went down right after I finished taking my assessment. I called the assessment department as I wanted to know my score. All I knew was that I passed, but I wanted to know by how much. The guy saw that the portal was down, and he not only said he'd call the IT department to see what was going on, but he would call me back as within 20 minutes to give me a status. The young man went above and beyond what he needed to, and I told him as much as I thanked him. Customer Service like that is terribly missing in the enrollment department. IF WGU enrolled 20000, I'm guessing they could have gotten at least 2000-10000 more if not for their shoddy service. But I guess maybe it's to weed out those who are unsure...or to force the ones who are sure to do what they need to do.

Then again....I always try to find the positive....lol.