WGU, certs before or during?

I am heavly looking at enrolling in the network admin program at WGU and I started thinking... In the past year my employer has invested in technet, train signal videos and books for mcitp, ccna and windows 7 certs and with being busy I have not used them yet. Would I be better off spending some time getting the certs before enrolling to save myself the money and just transferring them in? I figure if I spend 6 months doing some of the same certs I would do in school it will save me in the long run.

Thoughts from those who have been?

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ptilsen

WGU is relatively inexpensive, but not free. If you can get sufficient training material for free, it makes more sense to get some or most out of them way before enrolling. I am considering WGU and plan to cert and transfer out of more than half the degree.

nhpr

The certs are included in the tuition at WGU, so if you're going to pay for the tests out of pocket you wouldn't be coming out ahead. On the other hand, if your workplace is going to pay for the exams then you could save a great deal of time; maybe you could even cut down your tuition to one term if you got most/all of the certs done beforehand.

swild

Before I enrolled I knocked out a couple more quick certs so I didnt have to waste enrollment time on them. I passed Project+ in less than 2 weeks and 70-680 in a week. I already had the books for 70-680 and got the voucher at 50% off. The project+ book was only $25 and I got the voucher for near 50% off. Altogether, it cost me $230 to knock out 13 CUs. There are a bunch of certs that will give you credit for more than one course. I would focus on those. The 680 exam gave me 4 CUs in transfer, plus 3 CUs in RS, and project+ is 6 CUs. I knocked out what would be considered a terms worth of CUs in 3 weeks. There were a couple of other certs that have could have done as well, but I wouldn't have received my Pell Grant if I didn't enroll for Jan.

powerfool

nhpr wrote: »

The certs are included in the tuition at WGU, so if you're going to pay for the tests out of pocket you wouldn't be coming out ahead. On the other hand, if your workplace is going to pay for the exams then you could save a great deal of time; maybe you could even cut down your tuition to one term if you got most/all of the certs done beforehand.

This.

If someone else is going to pay and you have materials, do it beforehand. If you are using your own money, or only employer tuition reimbursement through WGU, wait and do them in the course of your degree.

Also, if you are looking at certain Microsoft exams, they have a student discount available... the 072 series as opposed to the 070 series. They are the exact same exams, they are just priced for students, though not all exams are available... more of the lower end exams.

jmasterj206

nhpr wrote: »

The certs are included in the tuition at WGU, so if you're going to pay for the tests out of pocket you wouldn't be coming out ahead.

Not necessarily true. If you have experience and can breeze through certs...yes. Say for the Network Admin emphasis you had to take the MCITP:SA exams and it took you 6 months to complete. You would have to pay WGU roughly 3000 dollars. If you did it on your own I could see it costing no more than a thousand with materials and vouchers and you already have some of that with your work.

If I were to do it again I would have done all the certs first and transferred them in, but it depends on the person. Some people need the class motivation to actually do the certs. Also, if you have a lot of experience you can breeze through the certs then you would be better taking them through WGU.

I have struggled my entire term with the 70-642 and it is looking like I have spent an entire term (2890 bucks) for one 150 dollar MS exam. Not worth it.

So it really depends on you.

ptilsen

nhpr wrote: »

The certs are included in the tuition at WGU, so if you're going to pay for the tests out of pocket you wouldn't be coming out ahead. On the other hand, if your workplace is going to pay for the exams then you could save a great deal of time; maybe you could even cut down your tuition to one term if you got most/all of the certs done beforehand.

The cost of taking every test in the MCIT:EA track twice is less than a semester at WGU. Unless you are on an extremely aggressive track at WGU, you should come out ahead by getting most of the certs before-hand.

petedude

ptilsen wrote: »

The cost of taking every test in the MCIT:EA track twice is less than a semester at WGU. Unless you are on an extremely aggressive track at WGU, you should come out ahead by getting most of the certs before-hand.

Finishing certs beforehand results in a time and hassle savings more than a monetary savings. I wrapped my MCSA 2000 to 2003 upgrade before enrolling so I could avoid having to take more basic certs through WGU.

demonfurbie

if i could do it again i wouldnt pick a degree path, i would go with the normal degree and take the certs after wgu

now for the ones you do have to take for wgu i would say take the comptia exams and 70-680 before starting and in the first term take the ciw exams (pay for comptia/ms and let wgu pay for the useless ciw ones)

im in the same boat as jmaster, ive spent an entire term on 70-642 and cant get past it so now im going to switch to the normal degree path and be done with it.

Slowhand

It's a tough call. On the one hand, the cost of the certs is included in tuition for WGU so you'll save some cash there. On the other, if you complete a good chunk of the certs before going to WGU, you'll get those classes waived and spend fewer semesters before you graduate. You'll have to look at what's worth more to you: your time or your money. (That also goes the same for potentially doing an Associate's degree beforehand and transferring, or jumping in with both feet and starting from scratch at WGU.) Definitely have a look at what certs track to what classes before you sign up, and see what you're willing to work on beforehand, if anything at all.

instant000

Maybe it's my background, but I just looked over the objectives for 70-642, and nothing jumped out to me as being particularly challenging.

TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring

Was there some concept that wasn't working, or an issue with getting in enough lab time to feel comfortable?

darkerz

My question is, when you enroll in WGU, do you need to do classes as if they were normal classes and then take the cert as a "final exam" or when I start "a class", just tell my counselor...

Hey. I work with this stuff. I studied the material. Can I just have you guys pay for me to go start and do the exam in 1-2 weeks and get this class checked off?

After a good amount of time in my new job, the MCITP:EA exam objectives and material is ridiculously MSoft biased, but easy than if I had no experience. I'd rather not go through a lot of "assignments" for a class thats for a cert exam. Rather, I'd like to start class A,B,C and just get the go-ahead to do the cert exam.

Make any sense?

If that's the case, saves me time and money.

demonfurbie

the certs are the entire class

how ever i will tell you ive been working with ms networks since 3.51 and the questions on 70-642 are crazy... without saying too much i had at least 5 questions with 15+ choices and some were only different by 1 or 2 characters or a dash

jmasterj206

instant000 wrote: »

Maybe it's my background, but I just looked over the objectives for 70-642, and nothing jumped out to me as being particularly challenging.

TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring

Was there some concept that wasn't working, or an issue with getting in enough lab time to feel comfortable?

This is a good read on MS changing their exams and from my understanding they have started implementing this now:
Microsoft Certification Exams Are Getting Harder
In the early stages of the 70-642 people were getting nearly perfect scores. Now it seems that not many people are passing. I have been working with Windows since the NT days and I couldn't pass it. I could probably say more but I don't want to break the NDA.

petedude

instant000 wrote: »

Maybe it's my background, but I just looked over the objectives for 70-642, and nothing jumped out to me as being particularly challenging.

TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring

Was there some concept that wasn't working, or an issue with getting in enough lab time to feel comfortable?

It's easily the Server '08 counterpart to the old Configuring Network Infrastructure exam, and those have been reputed to be the "beasts" of the Microsoft certification track. I missed 70-642 like two or three times, the last only by a few points. Haven't touched it since then, probably over a year now.