WGU MS:ISA grads and students, any regrets?

Danielm7 · August 2015

A little background, I have 14 years in IT now, I have a BS in IT:Security from WGU already. I like the WGU model, I was able to knock out almost 3 years of credits in 1 year with a lot of IT experience and busting my rear. I'm currently a contractor in security for large company that wants to hire me as FTE before the end of the year, when that happens I should get tuition reimbursement. I believe it's approx 6K a year max.

One of my coworkers went to WGU too, he was doing it before I started here, he had a less than great experience. He's been hassling me about looking at different schools because he didn't like WGU. That wouldn't stop me from going there but I thought I'd check here if there are others who have done the MS security program at WGU and felt like they would have been better off going another route.

I'm working on a SANS on demand course right now, I'd like to knock out my CISSP before I'd start grad school. I'm probably grossly overthinking all this as I doubt what school I got an MS from would make a huge impact on my career all things considered. My wife is currently in school, so I want more student loans like a hole in the head, since WGU would fit right in my tuition amounts and I'd imagine somewhere else, DSU, etc, wouldn't, that should answer most of it right there.

So, any feedback?
Thanks.

Blackout · August 2015

My Father had a pretty bad experience with WGU working on his Masters and ended up abandoning his masters there.

Danielm7 · August 2015

Can you elaborate? Was he looking for a different model of education with more in-class or actual instruction?

nelson8403 · August 2015

I have no regrets, I took the MSISA and now I'm going for my Doctorate, I would have possibly liked to go to DSU instead for my Masters but that just wasn't an option, and either way WGU vs DSU isn't a huge difference in most HR or hiring managers eyes, Ivy league schools yes.. but just getting the degree it doesn't make a difference.

I did my MSISA in 7 weeks so it was really just proving knowledge most of the time and accelerating quickly, I couldn't get that anywhere else.

JoJoCal19 · August 2015

nelson8403 wrote: »

I did my MSISA in 7 weeks so it was really just proving knowledge most of the time and accelerating quickly, I couldn't get that anywhere else.

I wish I had the intestinal fortitude to push through it that fast. I'm wrapping up my third term of the MSISA, just trudging through it. I think I've got my motivation now so I'm powering through it and hoping to finish by the end of the year. I can expand upon it later, but if I were to do it again, I would have gone with Norwich's MSISA (I was accepted there but went with WGU).

Danielm7 · August 2015

Yeah I don't think I could pull it off anywhere like 7 weeks, that's amazing. I have a full time job, a wife/family, train martial arts, the gym, etc. I'd have to cut out sleeping to do that, haha.

Blackout · August 2015

My Father didn't elaborate on why, he just said they were thoroughly nit picky about things and it put him significantly behind schedule. Something about them asking him to redo things for no apparent reason, other then to redo it. Said he would change it to what they asked for then the next assignment they would change it again, it continued like this for a couple of months before he dropped.

cs8400 · August 2015

nelson8403 wrote: »

I have no regrets, I took the MSISA and now I'm going for my Doctorate, I would have possibly liked to go to DSU instead for my Masters but that just wasn't an option, and either way WGU vs DSU isn't a huge difference in most HR or hiring managers eyes, Ivy league schools yes.. but just getting the degree it doesn't make a difference.

I did my MSISA in 7 weeks so it was really just proving knowledge most of the time and accelerating quickly, I couldn't get that anywhere else.

Where are you going for your Doctorate?

JoJoCal19 · August 2015

Blackout wrote: »

My Father didn't elaborate on why, he just said they were thoroughly nit picky about things and it put him significantly behind schedule. Something about them asking him to redo things for no apparent reason, other then to redo it. Said he would change it to what they asked for then the next assignment they would change it again, it continued like this for a couple of months before he dropped.

Ive started contacting ecare for appeals. That works in those cases.

emerald_octane · August 2015

I too left WGU at about 70% primarily due to changing circumstances that made it advantageous to attend a bm school with an online presence . Nothing wrong with the school but I got tired of trying to answer questions like why my GPA equivalent was "only" 3.0, or why my school wgu _______ was "headquartered" in Utah. Or having to convince people that WGU is nothing like Phoenix. Task stream was also the bane of my existence.

The GPA and taskstream issues like described above really made it difficult to finish out although my new "option" only accepted three wgu classes, setting me back a while. I'll always consider myself a night owl but I have to think about the practical aspect as well.

smokeyalien · August 2015

I completed the MSISA from WGU in 6 months. I estimate that I wasn't "working" on the degree/assignments during about 2.5 months of that time due to holidays/prior commitments/etc so I could have finished faster. I have the CISSP and I work in the industry so I was already pretty knowledgeable since the program is designed around the old 10 domains for the CISSP. I don't get questioned on the whole B&M vs. Online thing because I simply list the school location on my resume as their primary Utah address and they aren't that well known (like Phoenix) in my work circles.

The biggest thing with it is to not submit just one thing and wait. You can work multiple classes even before they are officially released to you because all of the material is available so work multiple assignments and simply submit in a merry-go-round fashion. I would have liked to get some course credits for having the CISSP, but it got me an automatic acceptance to the program as it was. I already had the CEH so I did get that free pass but I did have to take all the other courses/tests.

WGU met all of my requirements which is why I chose it; low cost so my employer covered it completely meaning a positive ROI from the start, self paced so I could do it in my timeline, no GRE requirement, and fully online with a respectable name (non-profit/regional accreditation/mostly positive reviews). All in all I am happy I did it. I learned a little bit, it cost me nothing, it filled 6 months of time, and I got CEUs. I also can check the Masters box without feeling like I went to a diploma mill and bought my degree. I budgeted a year for a masters so doing it in 6 months was ahead of schedule for me and not something any other school would let me do (a 1 year program that is).

Danielm7 · August 2015

emerald_octane wrote: »

Nothing wrong with the school but I got tired of trying to answer questions like why my GPA equivalent was "only" 3.0, or why my school wgu _______ was "headquartered" in Utah. Or having to convince people that WGU is nothing like Phoenix. Task stream was also the bane of my existence.

That's interesting, only once did someone ask about WGU on my resume and it was because I wasn't done my BS yet at the time and they wanted to make sure I didn't have to run off to classes after work. There are so many schools out there, I don't think most people have even heard of most of them unless they are ivy/big state schools/known for sports/etc.

WGU MS:ISA grads and students, any regrets?

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