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JTP's WGU MS CSIA Update Thread
#21
(01-23-2017, 04:17 PM)JTP Wrote: Mike in the TA office at WGU is the man!!! He helped me get everything squared away with the school. My tuition assistance showed up Friday and I was cleared for the semester. I'm hoping to complete all of the mandatory orientation over a couple evenings this week so I can hit the ground running next week when my term starts.

I was reading your thread and saw this and just wanted to add that Mike is the man. I coincidentally spoke with him last week and he was a LOT more helpful than anyone else I've talked to.
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#22
Ok, classes start back up this month. I probably wont be able to start the work till next week or the following, my funding for the scholarship is going slowly. Once this is set up I will be taking 3 courses this semester C700 Secure Network Design, C706 Secure Software Design, and VLT2 Security Policies & Standards.

In the 5ish month break from classes I got my CISSP certification. It was very difficult...took me 2 attempts, but it has already opened several job opportunities at work.
MS CSIA From WGU - December 2018
B.S. Cybersecurity - COSC - August 2016
A.S. - COSC - May 2015
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#23
Congrats on the CISSP!
Northwestern California University School of Law
JD Law, 2027 (in progress, currently 2L)

Georgia Tech
MS Cybersecurity (Policy), 2021

Thomas Edison State University
BA Computer Science, 2023
BA Psychology, 2016
AS Business Administration, 2023
Certificate in Operations Management, 2023
Certificate in Computer Information Systems, 2023

Western Governors University
BS IT Security, 2018

Chaffey College
AA Sociology, 2015

Accumulated Credit: Undergrad: 258.50 | Graduate: 32

View all of my credit on my Omni Transcript!
Visit the DegreeForum Community Wiki!
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#24
Definite grats on the CISSP!!! Stay on top of your CPEs/AMFs so you don't have to take it again ;-)
Up next:  WGU MSCSIA - Early 2023
Dropped:  WGU MSITM - Wasn't my cup of tea
Completed:  WGU BSCSIA (started 10/1/2018, finished 01/11/2019), Pierpont BOG AAS (5/2018)
Journey Thread (MSITM): https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...TM-Journey
Journey Thread (BS):  https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ersecurity
Degree Spreadsheet (BS):  https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/attachm...p?aid=2602

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#25
Took a while for my organization to pay the bill, but WGU was easy to work with. I just had to email the 3rd party payment office and provide documentation that my employer committed to paying the bill. Actual payment didnt make it to WGU till January 25th...so I missed out on about a month of my term.

Nonetheless I started with C700 - Secure Network Design and immediately took the pre-assessment and passed it. CISSP and other certs helped out a lot with this. Mentor opened the final exam and I scheduled it for this morning and easily passed it as well.
MS CSIA From WGU - December 2018
B.S. Cybersecurity - COSC - August 2016
A.S. - COSC - May 2015
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#26
Since Last Update,

I got moved within my organization to an awesome cybersecurity team. It was directly linked to my education (both bachelors and approaching masters) and my CISSP. Leadership approached me in January and asked if I wanted to join the team and I was officially moved by early February.

So like everyone, work and life got very busy and school took the back seat for most of my 6 month term.

****Back to School Stuff****

Secure Software Design C706 was the second class I had this semester. Like secure network design, it only consists of a final exam. I did well on the pretest and used it and the provided study guide to brush up on concepts before taking the final. Again, coming off of the CISSP in the last 6 months made this a pretty easy course to knock out in a couple days.

Security Policies, Standards, and Best Practices VLT2 is a miserable class. This is a dry subject and one of the lengthier courses for papers. Unfortunately the steps to success document provided by a couple of the course mentors overcomplicated a couple tasks. In previous classes these sorts of documents would help cut through some of the vagueness or provide a template to use. I had both task 1 and 2 sent back to me for revision and when I looked through the rubric I was usually way in the weeds describing something when all they wanted was a simple answer. By the third paper I would read the guidance from the mentors and reference it against the rubric an usually go with just answering the rubric as it was more simple. As dry and tedious as this course is I honestly have to say I have learned a lot, and already started applying some of it at work. Task 4 is currently in queue for grading and hopefully it goes through firs attempt or only needs minor revision because I have to be all done by June 30th when my semester ends.

then July 1 starts my last semester with Disaster Recovery Planning FXT2 and the Capstone.
MS CSIA From WGU - December 2018
B.S. Cybersecurity - COSC - August 2016
A.S. - COSC - May 2015
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#27
Task 4 required 2 revisions...This is a perfect example of how the guidance from the course mentor lead me to put way more emphasis on a section of the paper that wasn't of much significance to the grading, and completely underrated another. Nonetheless I got it all done with time to spare, and my bill for my last semester was paid today.
MS CSIA From WGU - December 2018
B.S. Cybersecurity - COSC - August 2016
A.S. - COSC - May 2015
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#28
Since last update,

Wife and I had a healthy son! Smile

I got promoted within my office at work back in September. It was a pleasant surprise when I made the short list for interviews and I was told one of the criteria that pushed me over was approaching completion of my Master's. The new role has been awesome so far!

***Back to school stuff***

This semester started with FXT2 Disaster Recovery Planning. This course is only 2 semester hours, but required more work than some of the other courses. Thats not to say that it was overly hard or complicated, I'm just not sure why it is only considered a 2 credit our course compared to others. The tasks for this course were pretty straight forward and just required putting in the leg work to write the papers and get through the readings. It took me 3 months to get through this course, but I definitely wasnt putting in extensive effort initially. As I said before baby and new job kind of took over all my priorities.

My last course was LQT2 Capstone. This course  was definitely the most challenging for sheer volume of writing required. The school did an excellent job of providing some templates to use and a couple example capstone projects from past students. This course consists of 4 assignments: Abstract, Prospectus, Project Report, and multimedia presentation. Luckily the 3 writing assignments are evolutionary and feed into each other. The hardest part was coming up with an idea. The catch is that your project has to provide a solution to a problem. My first idea was to create the curriculum for an organization wide education campaign, but was told that wouldn't count since it wasn't "technical"...even though it would have required a lot more writing than the project I settled on. None the less I put in the work and finished everything up.

As of today, December 10th 2018, everything has been reviewed in my student record and I have been awarded a Master's of Science in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance!!!!!
MS CSIA From WGU - December 2018
B.S. Cybersecurity - COSC - August 2016
A.S. - COSC - May 2015
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#29
CONGRATS!!!!

What a wealth of great news you're sharing today! I'm so happy for you and your family!
Northwestern California University School of Law
JD Law, 2027 (in progress, currently 2L)

Georgia Tech
MS Cybersecurity (Policy), 2021

Thomas Edison State University
BA Computer Science, 2023
BA Psychology, 2016
AS Business Administration, 2023
Certificate in Operations Management, 2023
Certificate in Computer Information Systems, 2023

Western Governors University
BS IT Security, 2018

Chaffey College
AA Sociology, 2015

Accumulated Credit: Undergrad: 258.50 | Graduate: 32

View all of my credit on my Omni Transcript!
Visit the DegreeForum Community Wiki!
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#30
Nice update, and congrats! Smile
Working on: Debating whether I want to pursue a doctoral program or maybe another master's degree in 2022-23

Complete:
MBA (IT Management), 2019, Western Governors University
BSBA (Computer Information Systems), 2019, Thomas Edison State University
ASNSM (Computer Science), 2019, Thomas Edison State University

ScholarMatch College & Career Coach
WGU Ambassador
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