ACCEPTED into Georgia Tech's OMS Cybersecurity!

[jsd]

I would say that is an over estimate in my experience. SOME weeks there are projects that will need a lot of time, but some weeks are light.

It will really depend on your background, your track, and how motivated you are.

[Thorne]

I would say that is an over estimate in my experience. SOME weeks there are projects that will need a lot of time, but some weeks are light.

It will really depend on your background, your track, and how motivated you are.

Are the projects from a business or technical perspective?

I.e., the difference between an Enterprise Information Security Policy and a task where you hack a website on contract

[jsd]

Just coming back around here for another update. I haven't poked around the forum in a good while. Looks like a dumpster fire of changes from ACE transcripts to TESU no longer being Big 3. Ouch.

This term I finished out PUBP 6502 Information and Communications Technology Policy  and  INTA 6742 Modeling, Simulation and Military Gaming. Ended with an A in both, keeping that 4.0 alive heading into my final term in the spring (where I'll inevitably blow it   ).

The Policy course was really what you make of it. Good professor and lots of great information from a historical perspective and how it shapes the modern landscape. But you could also do very little and still get by just fine in that class. If you want to learn, there's plenty to take in from the class. If you're lazy, you'll probably still be fine and just won't learn anything.

INTA 6742 Modeling, Simulation and Military Gaming was a complete waste of time. It's primarily looking at and modeling historical military battles, with no relation to modern cybersecurity/cyberwarfare threats. i thought it would at least attempt to tie in historical real world battles to where we might be headed as far as cyberwarfare, but it didn't even attempt to make that connection. This is not a cybersec course. I'm sure it's fun if you're a history or military strategy buff, but it has no business being in a Cybersec program. Almost the entirety of your grade is based on a term-long group project, so just hope you get put in with a good group. Luckily, I was with some solid peers. But it was a complete waste of time and money (thank you, employer tuition reimbursement!). I didn't really have the option to take different courses since none were ready yet for the program since this is the first run, but if you have the opportunity I would avoid this... unless you don't care about learning cybersec specific information in a cybersec program.

Now it's off to the Practicum in Jan, which is essentially a mini-thesis. It is pitched on their website still as an internship or a work project, but the people who went through it for the first time this term, and all the information the school has provided to us makes it clear that it is misrepresented. You're not working with your current employer or an internship, you're solving a research question.

I have no idea what I'll be writing about, but hopefully something comes to me. Pretty nerve-racking. I think the practicum will kill my 4.0 GPA at the school, but I'm not too worried about it. That's just a vanity thing, and I'll still end with a high GPA anyway even if I bomb this.



To answer your question Thorne, it entirely depends on the course. The IS track projects are of course much more hands on, the Policy specific courses are more business/public policy focused.

[MrBossmanJr]

So, what do you think about the program so far?

I applied for the MS in Analytics online program in Fall 2021.

[jsd]

I think you'll likely enjoy the OMSA more than I've enjoyed the OMS CySec Policy track so far. It's certainly not something I regret, but the program is very immature still and needs a lot of ramping up. All of the irrelevant classes I took need to be stripped out and replaced.

I think those in the OMSCS program are better off as well, or even the OMS CySec IS Track, since that track is basically just a rebunding of some of relevant OMSCS courses with a few other actually relevant CySec courses tacked on in addition.

In another year I'd probably recommend the policy track, but it's not quite ripe yet.