Post experiences about Capitol College

puertorico1985

I understand all the concerns with a Masters, and it makes it that much more complicated when you have no experience in IA (which describes my situation). I am a Network Engineeer with zero experience in IA, and took a huge gamble when I decided to go for more education than experience in that field.

I chose CC over WGU for a few personal reasons. I did my research and realized that, while you do have an adviser at WGU, the course work would have to be done on your own. From my understanding, there are no live classes and everything would be at your own pace. While that may work for some, I know myself, and I would have a tough time forcing myself to study and lab without hard deadlines. That may be something that others can overcome, but I do much better when a deadline is set instead of someone telling me "just do it at your own pace." So just knowing if you can thrive under that type of environment is beneficial to your studies, and will allow you to realize if WGU is a good choice. Another reason I chose CC was that my undergrad degree was all self taught. There were deadlines and assignments with hard due dates and what not, but there were no professors readily available. You would send an email and get a response in 48-72 hours, if you were lucky. Not ideal, and college shouldn't be like that, but it was for me. I decided that for my graduate degree, I wanted instructors that were more hands on, and live classes if possible. I love the fact that the professor is there every week, I can ask all my questions, and have actual communication with the professor. Those two reasons were my main ones for choosing CC over WGU.

As far as cost, I am currently spending $1,707 per course. If you multiply that by 12 courses, you are looking at $20,484 for the MSIA program with graduate certificates (CC is also backed by the NSA in all six categories. Something only a handful of schools have...here is the link: IA Courseware Institutions.) While it is not cheap by any means, it is much more affordable than other schools. Cost is something that you have to consider for whatever school you choose. (This is in parenthesis because this will differ for everyone, but I do not have any experience in Security, and was just recently offered a NetSec position with a 20k increase in pay. Take that however you will, but I am sure that my education played some factor in that position being offered to me.)

CompSci and Engineering degrees are the better options, however, if you are dead set on an IA related position, you will not want to choose a degree that generalizes in multiple areas. IT Security professionals know alot about alot of areas, but they know the most about Security.

I did not apply for the gov't scholarship, but that is an option. I also am not a member of the IEEE, but if you are, they will give you a discount.

(Sorry for the long post)

Devilry

puertorico1985, why don't you just signup for IEEE? its $32 a year for a student. Pretty good ROI if I do say so myself.

I am also like you, I need deadlines in order to keep a good pace. I failed miserably at WGU last year due to that issue. WGU is a great school, but it won't work for everyone.

Did you receive this NetSec position while enrolled at CC? or prior?

puertorico1985

I may sign up now that it is being brought back up. I sort of just put it on the backburner.

As far as the new job, I still have a few more classes to finish my degree, and am scheduled to graduate in December, but I received the offer yesterday, and just accepted the offer today. I can't say how much my enrollment in an MSIA degree had an impact, but I like to think that it did weigh in at least some what.

Devilry

Congrats on the offer acceptance!

Doyen

Congratulations on the job offer. They obviously saw the value that you invested in yourself.

puertorico1985

Thank you both very very much. I had a tough first few years in IT, and it is finally good to be on the winning side of things. It has been hard but now I can see the fruits of labor paying off. I will start a thread here once everything is finalized and hope that my story motivates others.

Good luck to both of you in your career and your school choices. As always, I am here if there is anything you guys need. Send me a PM and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Devilry

Sorry for all the questions - I just thought of one more I had. Is the program a 1 year or 1.5 year if you are fulltime? I could not decipher that.

puertorico1985

This one is a bit complicated, but I'll try to answer it as clearly as possible.

There are 12 classes total. 7 classes are considered term classes (8 weeks) and 5 classes are semester classes (16 weeks). There are 3 semesters per year. Spring semester is January to April, Summer semester is April to August, and Winter/Fall semster is August to December. In a term, you can take any combination of classes (semester or term) but as an example, if you only wanted to do one class at a time, you could do 2 term classes per semester, and they would never overlap.

What I normally do is I take 1 semester (16 week) course, and at the same time take 2 term (8 week) courses in the timeframe of one semester. So basically I am taking two classes at once (since the term courses never overlap), and it looks something like this:




My schedule was set up for me by my counselor, who gave me the full listing of my courses and when to take them. When I am finished, I would have been in school for 5 semesters, which for me, was from April 2013 to December 2014. I could have finished in 4 semesters (starting April 2013 to August 2014), but my first semester was taken slow, since I was just getting in the swing of things. So roughly 1.5 to 2 years depending on how fast or slow you take things

Hope this clears it up for you. I can explain it better if it doesn't make sense.

Devilry

It makes perfect sense. Thanks for the explanation.

Do you find there is a logic behind this? Are the 8 or 16 week classes more difficult to justify that type of setup?

puertorico1985

I don't really understand the logic of why some courses are 16 weeks versus 8 weeks. The 16 week courses are essentially 8 week courses that are spread out. 8 week courses have live sessions every single week, with something due every week on average (of course, this varies by professor), where the 16 week courses have 8 live (synchronous) sessions and 8 asynchronous (not-live) sessions. So one week you will have a live session, and the next week will be not-live. This is extremely useful for the tougher classes where students need extra help. Asynchronous courses are not mandatory, but you can attend if you want to ask questions, and is more of an informal meeting. Some of the classes could be made into shorter courses (8 week course), but I understand the reasoning of why they chose to do 16 versus 8 weeks for the courses with harder concepts.

All in all, I find that the extra week of break on the 16 week courses is refreshing for me, because the 8 week courses are very rapid and I am always busy with those. Honestly, with my current time commitment, I could not do two 8 week courses at a time. So the week of not-madatory session (break) is welcome.

Devilry

So then it sounds more realistic that it is possible to run two 16 week and two 8 week per semester. Would that be accurate?

puertorico1985

No reason why you could not do that. You would stay extremely busy, but it is certainly doable.

Doyen

Thank you for breaking down the 16 week semester and the two 8 week terms. You made it easier to understand. Remember to let us know in December when you get a degree that you also get the 3 graduate certificates, as well as a certificate saying you completed a program with NSA/DHS "stamp of approval" on it. That is one of my deciding factors of attending Capitol or WGU.

ComputerForensics

I agree that this is very good information.

CodeBlue1914

Nice to see this thread is still going and @puertorico1985 glad you chose Capitol. Can't believe I graduated almost 4 yrs ago. I am sure the program has improved alot since I was there.

But I echo what @puertorico1985 said, its a great program and I loved the live classes. It was nice to be able to give a presentation from the comfort of my own home.

Devilry

Nice to see a graduate from there on these forums.

Would you mind elaborating on how your degree was received from an employment standpoint?

AM-3

puertorico1985 wrote: »

I may sign up now that it is being brought back up. I sort of just put it on the backburner.

As far as the new job, I still have a few more classes to finish my degree, and am scheduled to graduate in December, but I received the offer yesterday, and just accepted the offer today. I can't say how much my enrollment in an MSIA degree had an impact, but I like to think that it did weigh in at least some what.

Hey puertorico1985 would you say Capitol College's MSIA program is/will help you in getting CISSP certified? I'm looking into going to Capitol College.

puertorico1985

AM-3 wrote: »

Hey puertorico1985 would you say Capitol College's MSIA program is/will help you in getting CISSP certified? I'm looking into going to Capitol College.

That's an excellent question. The MSIA program is definitely preparing me for the CiSSP, and they actually go through on all ten domains in detail for the duration of the program. Once I'm done with the program, I plan on doing a refresher and taking the test to get certified. I feel confident passing on the first try, with the information I'm getting from the program.

eLs

Thanks for this thread I have been considering graduate degree for a while now and was looking into WGU but this sounds more inline for me too bad it is almost twice as much as WGU but being B&M by my region helps thank you.

AM-3

puertorico1985 wrote: »

That's an excellent question. The MSIA program is definitely preparing me for the CiSSP, and they actually go through on all ten domains in detail for the duration of the program. Once I'm done with the program, I plan on doing a refresher and taking the test to get certified. I feel confident passing on the first try, with the information I'm getting from the program.

What elective classes are you taking if you don't mind me asking?

puertorico1985

I just went onto the CC webpage and am looking at the degree requirements, and it appears that the curriculum is changing. There are some new classes appearing on here that were not there before. As far as the electives, I took 611: Mobile Computing Security, 621: Wireless Network Security, 684: Complimentary Security, and 679: Vulnerability Mitigation.

The link below is what the degree requirements used to look like:

http://www.capitol-college.edu/files/file/PDFs/Academics/MS%20in%20Information%20Assurance%20Degree%20Flier.pdf

AM-3

Thanks for all your help and good luck on the CISSP. I'm currently enrolled and trying to start this Fall.

Devilry

Are the degree requirements just for electives, are is there more to it?

AM-3

The list puertorico1985 posted is the old degree requirements including the electives. https://www.capitol-college.edu/academics/graduate-academics/information-assurance-ms/degree-requirements is the link to the new degree requirements. 36 units for a Masters degree of which 12 units must be electives.

exspiravit

I also just graduated from CC in May. They have in fact changed the curriculum somewhat by adding SCADA courses as well as a four software electives. I'm kinda jealous as I'd love to have taken the SCADA one.

There is a difference between the 8 and 16 week courses, mainly the tempo. The reasons for an 8 week or 16 week course depends on the body of knowledge, the expected course load, and anticipated student count. The Capstone courses are 16 weeks, courses where students had issues learning the material in 8 weeks were also made 16 to give them more time to study and ask questions. But, each brings their own to the table so some classes for me were super easy and others were mind-boggling hard.

What I did was email the instructors for the syllabus, look at the material, see if I could find the book on Google Books and read a little about it, and make my best guess as to how hard the course would be. I'd then mix and match a hard course with a easy one.

I have some tips...

1) Kindle is your friend. I was able to read when I had slack time at work, had all my books, and when you copy-and-paste to write a paper it has the source right with it. That actually saves a lot of time.
2) Note take in PPTs. I would read them ahead, and when I would read my material, I'd annotate in PPT where I found it in the book. This was a huge help.
3) Download the courses. I did this and then played them back while driving or at work to listen in the background.

puertorico1985

Those are all great suggestions. I agree with you about changing the requirements, in that I wish I could take some of the newer courses. I only have two courses left to graduate so I won't sweat it too much.

Strongly recommend what elecronbee said about looking at the syllabus to determine work load.

philz1982

Slightly off the OP's question. I am attending DSU's MSIA, and so far it has been really good. I like the fact that the online classes are on-demand, meaning I do not need to be online at a set time. I personally, with my travel schedule, would find on-line synchronous classes to be unmanageable. Plus, DSU is so cheap @ 10k per degree.

Just a counter-thought. I had it narrowed down to Norwich, CC, and DSU. Norwich was to pricey for me, I didn't get a good feel from the class listing at CC so I picked DSU. The only bad thing about DSU being so cheap is my single degree has spawned into me pursuing 3 degrees. MSIA, MSIS, and MS in Analytics.

-Phil

exspiravit

The online classes are recorded and you can watch them later. I have had to do that quite a few times in the past as my jobs have always required travel. The instructors do require attendance but I never had an issue as I notified them ahead of time that I would watch the class later. And yes, they can in fact check to see that you watched the class in its entirety or not.

typfromdaco

Hello everyone,

I just submitted my application and requested a copy of my transcripts be sent to Capitol College, so I am glad I have finally made the first step. I have not been able to gather too much information on what I should expect from taking the MSIA online, and I must admit that I am a little nervous. What kind of course load should I expect from this program, and is it something that will consume all of my time? What books should I read before hand to get a good idea of what materials will be covered. Any information that you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

exspiravit

So, you can go to the CC website, then MyCapitol and you can do a class search (even without a login ID). From there you can email the professor and ask for a syllabus. The required texts will also be listed as well, I suggest Kindle.

How consuming the MSIA will be will depend on what one brings to the table. However, many people agree with me that a MS is actually easier than a BS as it is focused on just what you want to learn making it vastly more interesting. The classes are "online delivery" via AdobeConnect so you will have live classes and be able to interact with the professor. You can also download them for later viewing.

I had some hurdles, the legal and forensics classes were difficult for me at first as they both involve "legal" type stuff of which I had no other previous exposure aside from Law and Order. But, once I got around that it became engrossing and I got an A in both. I also coincidently took both at the same time and I would suggest that as well.

You will learn how to write. A lot of people struggle with this at first but it gets to the point where you will hand over from struggling to try and meet the min page count to trying to stay under the max page count. Also, you must attend class/watch the lecture and read the materials. If you think you can passively pass the classes you won't be able too.

Another tip I can give is to do site searches of other schools hosting cyber security and IA programs. I have about seven schools worth of lecture and PPT and misc. documents that I also read/studied to gain additional insight and perspective.