ACCEPTED into Georgia Tech's OMS Cybersecurity!

[cookderosa]

It's hard to say how much weight they put on work experience, but it's definitely something they looked at. Most of the cohorts I've had interaction with are established professionals.

But I wouldn't let that discourage your son too much, there's at least one individual in the program switching career tracks from a GFX type of gig into cybersecurity, so it's not mandatory he have 10 years of experience or whatever.

I think the helpdesk will certainly help. The community college probably doesn't have a Security Operations Center, but if he can find a SOC to get his foot in the door, they have entry level jobs that can provide a ton of on-the-job prep and opportunity to advance to higher roles.

GT's Cybersecurity program (at least the IS track) is still essentially a computer science degree. Most of the courses are just borrowed directly from the OMS Computer Science program. He should know programming basic skills, it will be difficult to get by without them (unless he takes the cowards way out like me and moved into policy )

Thank you so much!! We have a lot of time, but I can't help but think ahead. Your advice helps! I encouraged him to learn some programming, however, I suspect he'll be more motivated if one of his teachers suggests it lol.

[jcmechem]

Today I found out that I have been accepted into the first cohort of Georgia Institute of Technology's new Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity program!! This will be for the Information Security Track (as opposed to their Energy Systems Track or Policy Track). I thought this was a long shot when I applied, especially since they said they were limiting the first round of admissions to 250 students and there was a very large application pool.

Classes start January 7th, and I'm limited to taking two courses at a time. So this will be a much longer program than I'm used to, which might be hard to adjust to after finishing two undergrad degrees in about year or less each.

I'll use this thread as a progress share once I start up, and let everyone know how the program goes.

I'm very excited, even though a little nervous about the caliber of work and having to commit to such a long program.

Go Yellow Jackets!

I just applied two days ago. Once you applied, how long did it take before you received an acceptance confirmation?

[jsd]

Proj 3 for IIS just hit the due date a few days ago, so it'll be a while before I hear back on that.

Pleasantly surprised to find I hit 100% on this project!

If I did well on Prj4 (which I believe I did), then it is at the point where I can bomb the final and still get an A in the course.

I just applied two days ago. Once you applied, how long did it take before you received an acceptance confirmation?

I applied on September 7th, and I received the department's decision email on November 1st.

[rckola911]

Congrats! You deserve it JSD! One of the smartest people on this board.

[quigongene]

JSD,

How would you compare the bachelors program at WGU to the classes you've taken so far at GA Tech?

[jsd]

Congrats! You deserve it JSD! One of the smartest people on this board.

Haha, not so sure about that, but thank you!

JSD,

How would you compare the bachelors program at WGU to the classes you've taken so far at GA Tech?

I kind of touched on this previously, but the biggest difference is just the difference of undergrad vs graduate level work.

The GT program is much more traditional and scheduled, but I'm still relying on a ton of self-study (though a lot of that is due to my lack of a CS background, and probably not so much an intended aspect of the program). The learning curve is a lot more steep, but I expected it to be. 

It's nice to have a large group of students all working on the same thing at the same time that you can bounce ideas off of and commiserate with, something you kind of forget exists when you're going the CBE/alt-credit route.

The term is way too long though. I'm much less motivated now than I was weeks ago, mostly because of how much everything has dragged on. The 16 week term needs to be trimmed down by like a month (and luckily the summer term just about is, so that will be nice).

[Merlin]

The term is way too long though. I'm much less motivated now than I was weeks ago, mostly because of how much everything has dragged on. The 16 week term needs to be trimmed down by like a month (and luckily the summer term just about is, so that will be nice).

16-week terms? Egads. That sounds miserable. Though I suppose that really isn't all that unusual for colleges on a semester system. I thought the 12-week terms at TESU were abysmally slow, I'm not sure if I'd be able to tolerate 16-week terms.

[sanantone]

Just about all traditional colleges on the semester system are going to offer 16-week or 8-week terms. It doesn't really matter to me. I can either take four courses per 16-week term or two classes per 8-week term. The only time it makes a difference is towards the end. At Angelo State, I had two classes to take at the end, so I finished my degree in the middle of the semester since the program had 8-week terms, but I still had to wait until the end of spring to graduate.

My program at University of Florida is one credit hour longer, and I'll be finishing two months faster even though they only offer 16-week terms. I think the terms are a little shorter during the summer. In total, the program would have taken me 12 months to complete.

[Merlin]

Just about all traditional colleges on the semester system are going to offer 16-week or 8-week terms. It doesn't really matter to me. I can either take four courses per 16-week term or two classes per 8-week term. The only time it makes a difference is towards the end. At Angelo State, I had two classes to take at the end, so I finished my degree in the middle of the semester since the program had 8-week terms, but I still had to wait until the end of spring to graduate.

My program at University of Florida is one credit hour longer, and I'll be finishing two months faster even though they only offer 16-week terms. I think the terms are a little shorter during the summer. In total, the program would have taken me 12 months to complete.

While I prefer a self-paced competency approach, I think I'd be okay with accelerated 8-week courses. I suppose I would probably be okay with 16-week courses as long as they were engaging and kept me interested. The 12-week TESU capstone course just felt like it dragged on forever.

[jsd]

I would really enjoy 8 week. It seems like a nice compromise.