Cyber security degree

[Student00]

If I want to work in cyber security should I get a BA in computer science from tesu or bs in cyber security from Excelsior? I have about 35 credits, there all from general ed classes.

[Life Long Learning]

Work for who? If the Federal Gov't and especially DHS cybersecurity from Excelsior. If at the State and below or private both might work.

[jsd]

WGU will be your cheapest option if you think can do it fast, and will roll industry certifications into your degree.

But if you're not already comfortable with the material and dont have some experience, I wouldn't recommend this route.

[Student00]

WGU will be your cheapest option if you think can do it fast, and will roll industry certifications into your degree.

But if you're not already comfortable with the material and dont have some experience, I wouldn't recommend this route.

How much cheaper is WGU compared to Excelsior? are there degrees similar? I like how Excelsior requires classes on computer architecture and reverse engineering for the cyber operations specialization.

[jsd]

WGU is $3000 for 6 months. Courses are self paced and you complete as many as you are capable of per term. The faster you complete it, the cheaper your degree is.

As part of the program, you get these certifications:

Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) – Associate of (ISC)² designation
Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) – Associate of (ISC)² designation
Certified Encryption Specialist (EC-Council ECES)
Certified Incident Handler (EC-Council ECIH)
Certified Internet Webmaster – Site Development Associate (CIW-SDA)
Certified Internet Webmaster – Web Security Associate (CIW-WSA)
A+ (CompTIA)
Network+ (CompTIA)
Security+ (CompTIA)
Project+ (CompTIA)
ITIL Foundation


Here are the courses, not including the general ed stuff. Many, but not all, courses will map to one of the certifications above, and your final exam will be the cert exam. These are included in your tuition, you don't pay extra to take these exams.

All classes are pass/fail, and depend solely on your passing of an exam, or a paper/project, or both in some courses.

Business of IT - Applications
Business of IT - Project Management
Introduction to IT
IT Foundations
IT Applications
Fundamentals of Information Security
Information Systems Security
Network and Security - Foundations
Networks
Network and Security - Applications
Web Development Foundations
Scripting and Programming - Foundations
Managing Web Security
Managing Cloud Security
Data Management - Foundations
Data Management - Applications
Technical Communication
Introduction to Cryptography
Digital Forensics in Cybersecurity
Legal Issues in Information Security
Cyber Defense and Countermeasures
Managing Information Security
Emerging Technologies in Cybersecurity
IT Capstone Written Project

[Life Long Learning]

If the college is not on this NSA/DHS list beware!
https://www.caecommunity.org/resources/cae-institutions

I do not see WGU?

[jsd]

If you don't plan on working with NSA/DHS, no one really cares about that list. I don't know how much they care about it within those orgs, but it's not an issue otherwise.

Also, WGU's program is only 3 months old. If it gets recognized by CAE, it'll take longer than that.

[dfrecore]

TESU's program is brand new as well.

[eriehiker]

This is slightly off topic, but Cisco is currently offering scholarships for its Cyber Ops certification. They have an entire mentoring/preparation program. Might be a nice addition to your path.

[Student00]

This is slightly off topic, but Cisco is currently offering scholarships for its Cyber Ops certification.  They have an entire mentoring/preparation program.  Might be a nice addition to your path.

Cool, thnks, ima look into it. I decided to go with Excelsior. I am currently working on Calc at study.com and plan on doing intro to c++ at SL. Does Excelsior accept the free teex credits?