WGU: BS IT: Security - Starting 2/1/2014 or 3/1/2014
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.
