Does SANS require previous experience, and do internships count?

I did some research on various certifications and since I'm interested in pentesting I thought that SANS pentest courses gave the best preparation. The only thing that is discouraging are the prices which go up to $3000 per course. Is it possible to test out of the course without paying for tuition? And do I have to have experience to take these? I'm in college now--computer science major. Do internships count as relevant experience?

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Comments

Armymanis

If your college offers an internship, then yes they do count! Even if you have to pay to get the pass grade then it still counts. Just put it under your volunteer experience. That's how I got my first IT contract job.

Bl8ckr0uter

You can take the test for $900 out of pocket.

Stochastic13

Do you by any chance know what the name of the test is? I also heard about GPEN is it the test you are talking about?

Bl8ckr0uter

Stochastic13 wrote: »

Do you by any chance know what the name of the test is? I also heard about GPEN is it the test you are talking about?

Any SANS exam. Have you looked at the website:
Information Security Certification - GIAC

Stochastic13

OK, thanks for the info.

Bl8ckr0uter

Stochastic13 wrote: »

OK, thanks for the info.

From the people who have taken GPEN it is no joke. It will take seriously amount of study and experience. I want to challenge it one day but not until at least next year.

rogue2shadow

I can definitely understand the "discouragement" part when you mention the cost. I forgot who exactly found this before on this forum (creds to them) but you might want to look into this post college:
SANS: Work Study Program

(I mention post college because I don't know what your job status is right now)

If chosen, you would basically work at a conference and get to take a course and get onDemand as well as participate in some of the other events within that conference for around $850? I think you would still have to pay for the actual test though (correct me if I'm wrong). Any discount is still money saved!

docrice

SANS doesn't really have an experience requirement like (ISC)², but it's good to have some for many of their courses. Otherwise you may be a bit (or seriously) overwhelmed. You can always demo the OnDemand version of the course:

http://www.sans.org/security-training/network-penetration-testing-ethical-hacking-937-mid

Hit the "Free Demo" link on the right.

You may get better value going through Offensive Security or eLearnSecurity instead. However, like we've mentioned in other threads, being a good pentester requires experience not just in the actual pentesting part of the work, but the time-tested wisdom and knowledge gained from years of doing systems and network engineering work. Pentesting brings together a lot of IT disciplines to provide a business-related goal, and unless you have solid foundations in the platforms you're attacking, you won't be able to make a good assessment and write the reports.