WGU: BS IT: Security - Starting 2/1/2014 or 3/1/2014
maakshif
Member Posts: 13 ■□□□□□□□□□
I've been lurking around the site for quite a while. I originally signed up a few years ago when I was preparing for my A+ and I have recently made my way back when researching WGU and plan to stay around this time.
I'll start with my background and I apologize in advance for this being such a long opening post. I've been working on computers in some fashion for over 20 years, but most of that was as a hobby doing troubleshooting and repairs for friends and family. About 13 years ago when I started college, I got my first job doing on-site work for a company that was bought out a couple of years later by Best Buy in what led to Geek Squad. When that happened I actually decided to end my contract and not work for Best Buy. I ended up dropping out of college and joining the Marine Corps a few months later and was supposed to be a Data Systems Analyst. I found out about half way through boot camp that they were doing away with that job and transferring it to a civilian job and I ended up becoming a helicopter mechanic. I spent 5 years doing that all the while still doing computer work as a hobby.
When I got out of the Marine Corps I moved back home and decided I was going to finish my Bachelor's degree, but once again life happened and I ended up leaving the 4 year university and getting a part time job working for the local school system doing some IT work and I finished up my Associate's degree in Computer Information Systems. After that I couldn't find a full time job, so I once again decided I was going to complete my Bachelor's and I went back to the 4 year university and was there for a couple of years and still had not finished and was not finding any jobs in the area that was enough to support my family, so I told my wife that I would start looking elsewhere and if given a reasonable offer before I graduated then the job would come first as I had to support my wife and daughter. I had a exactly one year left when that job came along so I dropped out of school and took the job which happened to be at a community college. I was hired as basically a Tier 2 support tech, though they quickly started pushing me towards server administration because the server admin at the time was also the DBA and his database duties had grown to a point where they needed to get him some help with some stuff and I had a bit of server background. The problem with the IT director and DBA wanting me to get into a server admin role was it irked my supervisor because he wanted that position and now he was being passed over for it and it was being given to "the new guy". Needless to say he started taking it out on me by throwing projects at me that he had been unable to complete, some for a couple of years, and he would give me totally unreasonable deadlines. Being a Marine and the passion I had for IT, I always took it as a challenge and never complained and only one time did I not get a project completed in the time-frame he gave me. It ended up being something that I later found out he was told drop due to not being able to get funding, though he neglected to tell me that at the time. He mainly was trying to make me look bad and find any excuse he could to write me up and get me in trouble with our boss which never worked out in his favor. I finally had enough of that guy and began looking for another job, because I knew he wasn't going to get fired and a hiring freeze had been placed on the college due to budgets, so about three months ago I accepted a Server Admin role for one of the districts of the Georgia Department of Public Health, which leads to now.
I started my current job on November 1 and after a couple of weeks of getting used to the new environment and people I was working with, I started inquiring about certifications and college. I found out that they don't technically pay for those, but for every relevant certification you obtain you get a 3% raise, earning a Bachelor's is a 5% raise and a Master's is a 10% raise. This of course only applies to certs and degrees obtained after you began working here, not anything you had prior and they have to be approved by the training coordinator prior and she doesn't approve just any certifications and the colleges have to be approved by the Georgia Department of Education. So I find out that the IT department head had gotten his Bachelor's from WGU and was working on his Master's from WGU and my supervisor had just began his first term for his Bachelor's with WGU. Now I'm intrigued with WGU and motivated to finally finish my Bachelor's degree.
In December I started researching the different tracks offered and I was torn between Security and Network Admin. When I was going through my Associate's degree I really developed a passion for Security, but I hadn't had the opportunity to do a whole lot with it in my career and now I was a Server Admin, so the Network Admin track made the most sense. Well I start talking to my boss and my supervisor and I find out that there is a loophole to getting certs paid for, so I find out that I can get the Microsoft certs paid for by my job now. So I decided on the Security track and started the application process around the second week of December.
I ended up not speaking with an enrollment counselor until the first week of this month after trying to get in touch with the one assigned to me, or anyone that would speak with me, numerous times. I finally got more than an e-mail response around the 11th and this guy has been great. We got everything on his end worked out so I could begin February 1st and then a Financial Aid snafu came up. The 4 year university I left 2 years ago for some reason had a pending disbursement to me so verification couldn't be completed until they cancelled it. I didn't find this out until 3 days ago. So in the title where I mentioned starting either February 1st or March 1st, depends on whether Financial Aid can get that verification completed. The other university took care of their issue immediately and I let WGU know, so now I'm playing the waiting game. I have submitted everything to use my GI Bill for tuition as well and that went smoothly, and I was told that even though the deadline has passed, due to the issues experienced, they are going to try and get me in for February, but we shall see.
So now on to my transcript eval. Between my Associate's degree, A+, and other college coursework, I ended up transferring in 74 cu's, so I only have 49 cu's left. I have to take:
CJV1 Database 1 (4 cu)
CNV1 Designing Customized Security (4 cu)
COV1 Fundamentals of Interconnecting Network Devices(3 cu)
CQV1 Interconnecting Network Devices (3 cu)
CTV1 Security (4 cu)
IWT1 Literature, Arts, and the Humanities Analysis and Interpretation (2 cu)
RIT1 Leadership Concepts and Applications (3 cu)
TPV1 Project Management (6 cu)
DRV1 Operating Systems 1 (2 cu)
DSV1 Operating Systems 2 (2 cu)
TXC1 Introduction to Programming (2 cu)
TXP1 Project in Introduction to Programming (2 cu)
TYC1 Introduction to Object-Oriented Design and Development (2 cu)
TYP1 Project in Introduction to Object-Oriented Design and Development (2 cu)
CUV1 Web technologies (4 cu)
BOV1 Web Programming (4 cu)
Being that I'm using GI Bill I have to do 18 cu's per term in order to be full time, which I don't think will be an issue and I am hoping to work it out to only take a year. I think trying to squeeze 49 cu's into one term would be impossible for me with my workload and family. Now I just have to figure out in what order I want to take the classes and hope I get a mentor that will work with me the way I want. I am pretty sure I am going to do CCENT, CCNA, CCNA: Security, and Security+ the first term, but I'm not sure what else with them.
Again I apologize for the long opening post and promise to keep the others much shorter as I update this thread.
I'll start with my background and I apologize in advance for this being such a long opening post. I've been working on computers in some fashion for over 20 years, but most of that was as a hobby doing troubleshooting and repairs for friends and family. About 13 years ago when I started college, I got my first job doing on-site work for a company that was bought out a couple of years later by Best Buy in what led to Geek Squad. When that happened I actually decided to end my contract and not work for Best Buy. I ended up dropping out of college and joining the Marine Corps a few months later and was supposed to be a Data Systems Analyst. I found out about half way through boot camp that they were doing away with that job and transferring it to a civilian job and I ended up becoming a helicopter mechanic. I spent 5 years doing that all the while still doing computer work as a hobby.
When I got out of the Marine Corps I moved back home and decided I was going to finish my Bachelor's degree, but once again life happened and I ended up leaving the 4 year university and getting a part time job working for the local school system doing some IT work and I finished up my Associate's degree in Computer Information Systems. After that I couldn't find a full time job, so I once again decided I was going to complete my Bachelor's and I went back to the 4 year university and was there for a couple of years and still had not finished and was not finding any jobs in the area that was enough to support my family, so I told my wife that I would start looking elsewhere and if given a reasonable offer before I graduated then the job would come first as I had to support my wife and daughter. I had a exactly one year left when that job came along so I dropped out of school and took the job which happened to be at a community college. I was hired as basically a Tier 2 support tech, though they quickly started pushing me towards server administration because the server admin at the time was also the DBA and his database duties had grown to a point where they needed to get him some help with some stuff and I had a bit of server background. The problem with the IT director and DBA wanting me to get into a server admin role was it irked my supervisor because he wanted that position and now he was being passed over for it and it was being given to "the new guy". Needless to say he started taking it out on me by throwing projects at me that he had been unable to complete, some for a couple of years, and he would give me totally unreasonable deadlines. Being a Marine and the passion I had for IT, I always took it as a challenge and never complained and only one time did I not get a project completed in the time-frame he gave me. It ended up being something that I later found out he was told drop due to not being able to get funding, though he neglected to tell me that at the time. He mainly was trying to make me look bad and find any excuse he could to write me up and get me in trouble with our boss which never worked out in his favor. I finally had enough of that guy and began looking for another job, because I knew he wasn't going to get fired and a hiring freeze had been placed on the college due to budgets, so about three months ago I accepted a Server Admin role for one of the districts of the Georgia Department of Public Health, which leads to now.
I started my current job on November 1 and after a couple of weeks of getting used to the new environment and people I was working with, I started inquiring about certifications and college. I found out that they don't technically pay for those, but for every relevant certification you obtain you get a 3% raise, earning a Bachelor's is a 5% raise and a Master's is a 10% raise. This of course only applies to certs and degrees obtained after you began working here, not anything you had prior and they have to be approved by the training coordinator prior and she doesn't approve just any certifications and the colleges have to be approved by the Georgia Department of Education. So I find out that the IT department head had gotten his Bachelor's from WGU and was working on his Master's from WGU and my supervisor had just began his first term for his Bachelor's with WGU. Now I'm intrigued with WGU and motivated to finally finish my Bachelor's degree.
In December I started researching the different tracks offered and I was torn between Security and Network Admin. When I was going through my Associate's degree I really developed a passion for Security, but I hadn't had the opportunity to do a whole lot with it in my career and now I was a Server Admin, so the Network Admin track made the most sense. Well I start talking to my boss and my supervisor and I find out that there is a loophole to getting certs paid for, so I find out that I can get the Microsoft certs paid for by my job now. So I decided on the Security track and started the application process around the second week of December.
I ended up not speaking with an enrollment counselor until the first week of this month after trying to get in touch with the one assigned to me, or anyone that would speak with me, numerous times. I finally got more than an e-mail response around the 11th and this guy has been great. We got everything on his end worked out so I could begin February 1st and then a Financial Aid snafu came up. The 4 year university I left 2 years ago for some reason had a pending disbursement to me so verification couldn't be completed until they cancelled it. I didn't find this out until 3 days ago. So in the title where I mentioned starting either February 1st or March 1st, depends on whether Financial Aid can get that verification completed. The other university took care of their issue immediately and I let WGU know, so now I'm playing the waiting game. I have submitted everything to use my GI Bill for tuition as well and that went smoothly, and I was told that even though the deadline has passed, due to the issues experienced, they are going to try and get me in for February, but we shall see.
So now on to my transcript eval. Between my Associate's degree, A+, and other college coursework, I ended up transferring in 74 cu's, so I only have 49 cu's left. I have to take:
CJV1 Database 1 (4 cu)
CNV1 Designing Customized Security (4 cu)
COV1 Fundamentals of Interconnecting Network Devices(3 cu)
CQV1 Interconnecting Network Devices (3 cu)
CTV1 Security (4 cu)
IWT1 Literature, Arts, and the Humanities Analysis and Interpretation (2 cu)
RIT1 Leadership Concepts and Applications (3 cu)
TPV1 Project Management (6 cu)
DRV1 Operating Systems 1 (2 cu)
DSV1 Operating Systems 2 (2 cu)
TXC1 Introduction to Programming (2 cu)
TXP1 Project in Introduction to Programming (2 cu)
TYC1 Introduction to Object-Oriented Design and Development (2 cu)
TYP1 Project in Introduction to Object-Oriented Design and Development (2 cu)
CUV1 Web technologies (4 cu)
BOV1 Web Programming (4 cu)
Being that I'm using GI Bill I have to do 18 cu's per term in order to be full time, which I don't think will be an issue and I am hoping to work it out to only take a year. I think trying to squeeze 49 cu's into one term would be impossible for me with my workload and family. Now I just have to figure out in what order I want to take the classes and hope I get a mentor that will work with me the way I want. I am pretty sure I am going to do CCENT, CCNA, CCNA: Security, and Security+ the first term, but I'm not sure what else with them.
Again I apologize for the long opening post and promise to keep the others much shorter as I update this thread.
Comments
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TomkoTech
Member Posts: 438
Semper Fi brother. I will hopefully be making a similar post in the coming weeks. However I have to deal with the hurry up and wait on the VA thing.
If it helps you any my counselor sent me a degree plan. They can probably do the same for you. I will more than likely bang out the 19 cus they have listed within the first 2 months as it's mostly things I know.
From what I have read you will probably be able to complete both the operating systems courses straight away based on your experience.
Currently I am slated for the Network Admin track, but I am trying to see if they will do a transfer eval for the Security track as I believe my programming courses would add a few more CUs that transfer in. We shalls ee what they say.
Anyhow good luck in your studies. -
CoolAsAFan
Member Posts: 239
I am pretty sure I am going to do CCENT, CCNA, CCNA: Security, and Security+ the first term, but I'm not sure what else with them.
Welcome to TE! I admit, I only skimmed your thread, but when I saw this ^ I thought I'd comment...Your mentor will most likely NOT allow you to do those classes on your first term, and this comes from your mentor's boss' "guidelines" from what I understand. You may be able to talk him into though.
I have learned that during your first term, they want you to take it easy and see what your capable of. BUT, if you get a bunch of classes done in your first term and do well, then your mentor will let you do pretty much anything you want on your remaining terms. This is at least how my mentor explained it to me.IvyTech - AS CINS (Completed: May, 2013)
WGU Indiana - BS IT Security (Started: August 1st, 2013)
Transferred: AGC1 CDP1 BVC1 CLC1 CVV1 DHV1 DJV1 GAC1 CIC1 CDC1 UBT1 IWC1 IWT1 TCP1 TJP1 TJC1 EBV1 WFV1 EUP1 EUC1 CJC1 UBC1 TBP1
Completed: CUV1 BOV1 DRV1 DSV1 CTV1 CJV1 COV1 CQV1 CNV1 TPV1 MGC1 TXC1 TXP1 BNC1 TYP1 TYC1
Required: SBT1 RGT1 RIT1 -
Danielm7
Member Posts: 2,310 ■■■■■■■■□□
CoolAsAFan wrote: »Welcome to TE! I admit, I only skimmed your thread, but when I saw this ^ I thought I'd comment...Your mentor will most likely NOT allow you to do those classes on your first term, and this comes from your mentor's boss' "guidelines" from what I understand. You may be able to talk him into though.
I have learned that during your first term, they want you to take it easy and see what your capable of. BUT, if you get a bunch of classes done in your first term and do well, then your mentor will let you do pretty much anything you want on your remaining terms. This is at least how my mentor explained it to me.
It really depends on your mentor, I did those certs and a couple more all in my first term. They might raise a concern if you put them as your first classes and tell you it will take awhile, etc. But if you knock out a couple easier courses quickly they should be less worried that you will add too much to your plate and let you add whatever you want. The way that I do it is start with 12-14 CUs in my term and then after those I add a class or two at a time after each new one is completed. If you started your first time and said, "add 47 to my term" they'll laugh you out of the building, but if you start with 12 and finish 47 they'll praise you up and down. -
maakshif
Member Posts: 13 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks guys! Funny enough, right after I made the first post, I got an e-mail from WGU stating they had received confirmation that the other university had cancelled the disbursement, but they still haven't completed the verification process, but at least progress is being made...I've been going through this process for so long now I'm really anxious to get started and patience is not one of my strongest qualities
@TomkoTech Semper Fi! I just e-mailed my counselor and asked him for a degree plan so I'll wait and see what he says...he's been on top of things since I started working with him so I'm sure he'll get me something
@CoolAsAFan I kind of figured most people would only skim the "book" I made as a first post...lol...I'm hoping that I can talk my mentor into doing things at least close to the way I want since I've transferred so many cu's in...I have to do 18 cu's per term to be considered full time for GI Bill purposes, so I might end of taking the path Danielm7 is suggesting and doing some "easier" classes to fill those 18 cu's somewhat quickly and then start adding in the others, but it also depends on the mentor I guess...my supervisor's mentor pretty much opened up every class for him except Technical Writing and the capstone, which I also didn't put in my list, and he only transferred in a few cu's when he started, so I'm hoping for a similar mentor experience -
maakshif
Member Posts: 13 ■□□□□□□□□□
Wow I forgot I started this thread. I guess I should update it and try to get a little more active on the forum. This forum has been such a huge help to me I need to begin giving back where I can.
I ended up doing 19cu during my first term. I knocked out CCENT, CCNA, Principles of Management, CIW Web Design Specialist, and Project in Object-Oriented Programming. My student mentor for my first term was absolutely horrible. I would pass practice exams and send her the results and it would take her a week or more to approve me asking for vouchers or scheduling tests. She ended up being let go by WGU during the last month of my first term. The new mentor I was assigned has been absolutely awesome. She has opened up every class so when I'm ready I can just ask for vouchers without having to submit practice test scores to her as long as I let her know I'm going to request them.
I got a little behind on this term due to my daughter being put in the hospital and some other family issues that came up. I'm three months in and only knocked out one class, but looking to speed things up now that life has slowed down a good bit for me to get focused on school. I completed the Security+ on Monday of this week and looking to knock out the Project+ in about 2 weeks. From there I'm moving on to the first Linux+ class. That will finish up the required courses for this term, then I'm going to go ahead and begin knocking out the other classes as fast as possible. I'll do the second Linux+ a week or so after the first one, then write the Literature and Interpretation papers and do the CIW Database cert. I am taking two weeks off at Christmas and hope to knock out a big portion of my Technical Writing paper as I've already spoken with one of the course mentors and got some things lined up with him to help me out once I get to that point, so I can make sure it is focused properly on security and so I can get it done as quickly as possible. I'm also going to be studying for CCNA: Security over that time as well. My third and final term begins in March and I'm hoping to go into it ready to submit my Capstone and take the CCNA: Security to complete my Bachelor's. Once done I'm looking to jump right into the a Master's program concentrated on security, but I haven't decided if I'm going with the ISA from WGU or going with another college. WGU makes the most financial sense and I like the looks of the program, but I've seen some others that I really like as well, so that's going to be a hard choice to make.