A little WGU MSISA Review ....

[rebel100]

Awesome!!!! Congrats

[stretcharmy]

Awesome!!!! Congrats

Thanks rebel! And thanks for your tread on the MBA at WGU, it was my deciding factor.

[stretcharmy]

I wanted to do a recap of my experience at WGU and answer some questions I got along the way from people I told about the program. Hopefully it will help others decide if they want, or don't want to attend WGU.

What did it take to complete the degree?
There is a LOT of writing, I wrote about 61,000 words worth of knowledge inducing papers. There were two certifications, the CEH was of average difficulty for those that have taken IT certs before. The second CHFI was a joke, almost a rehash of CEH. The cryptology test through WGU was hard, not because it was mentally challenging, but rather the practice doesn't prepare you properly. It's not a Peterson's for sure! You should score in the 80's+ if you want to pass the real test.

Would you do it again knowing what you know now?
Yes I would. Sans my capstone mentor, the mentors are useless. I would go as far to say that they actually waste time more than save it. I spend a few min of my life creating emails and leaving voice-mails never to be returned. I could have used that time guessing what the graders were looking for.

Would I recommend it to others?
For people on the degree forum I would. But that's because we folks here are the kind of people that can thrive in the cut and run type of "teaching" that wgu has. If someone needs help to learn, or doesn't have some experience in the field I absolutely WOULD NOT recommend it.

What was my total cost?
About 3K for one term

How long did it take?
About 4 ish months.

How much time did you spend on studies?
About 30-50 hours a week for those four months.

Will the certs be valuable in your professional life?
I would guess the CEH might, I have seen it in job postings. The CHFI is worthless, its listed in 0 job postings. Furthermore, I wouldn't put any faith in anyone that had it now that I've taken it and consider it a joke.

would you recommend their MBA?
I dunno, ask Rebel100

How are the mentors?
As a farmer would say "As useless as tits on a bull". My main mentor was helpful, the capstone mentor was helpful. The only one that returned my inquiry was useless. And I've ranted enough about the total lack of response on the others.

And my favorite question "how can it be legit if you finished in four months?"
Let me see you do it, then we will see how legit it is!

This forum, and my subsequent degrees taught me something very valuable in life. Everyone says to work smarter not harder, until you do, and you do it smarter then them. It is at this moment that they try and discredit you.

[bricabrac]

:hurray:Congratulations on your hard work and dedication to excel! In your field I'm sure it's a huge benefit and will assist further career goals. It has been eye opening following your experience with WGU and the degree program. Your follow up Q&A post was great as well. I am also a strong believer in working smarter vs harder.

In contrast to CS/IT, in my field a four month masters would be frowned upon. A comfortable min would be 1.5yrs, but then I work with folks who are mds/pharmds/phds/mph etc. It has taken years for them to accept online degrees (not to be confused with online classes). No thanks to UoP, which in certain circles has set distance learners back a few years. Fortunately, the majority of companies offer full tuition reimbursement and higher education can be written into your goals so it's a win-win.

Again, ConGRADulations!!! Now...take deep breaths, laugh, dance, relax and quickly find a few hobbies to fill the down time. Some people have a driving need to continually work that brain muscle; it's darn close to an addiction. You my friend, seem to be someone that may just fit that group? Hmmm.

:hurray:cheersmate:hurray:

[JTP]

Congrats StretchArmy cheersmate, this has been a really neat journey to watch you complete. I really appreciate your review of this program and answering my many questions along the way.

Good luck in whatever comes next for you!!!

[ajs1976]

stretcharmy,

Congrats on completing the MSISA.

Do you have any recommendations for things that will help someone prepare for the program?

Thanks

[Bond]

Greetings Stretcharmy,

Thank you for posting this thread. I am impressed how quickly you were able to document and demonstrate the competencies for the degree. Like you, I earned my MSISA from WGU in May 2014. However, for various reasons it took me 2 1/2 years to complete the degree. Still, I motored through and didn't give up. When I saw your thread tonight, it inspired me to join this forum so I could reach out and say "hello". Did you have any Cisco certs when you applied at WGU? I didn't ... and it would have saved me a lot of time had I prepared for that in advance. Anyway, thanks again for sharing your story.

Best regards,

~Bond

[stretcharmy]

Greetings Stretcharmy,

Thank you for posting this thread. I am impressed how quickly you were able to document and demonstrate the competencies for the degree. Like you, I earned my MSISA from WGU in May 2014. However, for various reasons it took me 2 1/2 years to complete the degree. Still, I motored through and didn't give up. When I saw your thread tonight, it inspired me to join this forum so I could reach out and say "hello". Did you have any Cisco certs when you applied at WGU? I didn't ... and it would have saved me a lot of time had I prepared for that in advance. Anyway, thanks again for sharing your story.

Best regards,

~Bond

No, they were not required for the program when I started. I think they are purposely aligning with the CISSP, which doesn't get into the real nitty gritty technical details. Which I'm fine with, I really don't do anything with switches in my work. The knowledge that I have is good enough, probably more than I need.

[stretcharmy]

stretcharmy,

Congrats on completing the MSISA.

Do you have any recommendations for things that will help someone prepare for the program?

Thanks

Be prepared to write, write, write. I would have to say that my writing skills have really improved during the duration of my degree.

[JTP]

@Stretcharmy I finally took my CEH exam on Friday and passed it. Definitely tougher than Security+ but nowhere close to being tough enough to need the 4 hours and 15 minutes they give you.

You were right about the official courseware being boring and useless. I did the labs and used Matt Walker's All In One exam guide book(generic gold and red cert books), and printed off lists of commands for nmap, netcat, nslookup, and a couple other tools.

Once the official cert comes in, I am going to have it evaluated by COSC to see how many credits it will get me in their cyber security major.

Anyway best of luck in your future studies, and thanks again for this update thread.