ACCEPTED into Georgia Tech's OMS Cybersecurity!

[Imbanewbie]

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

After this course, you should take a small road trip.

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

After this course, you should take a small road trip.

[dfrecore]

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.

16-week terms is what killed it for me at traditional schools - I just could not keep my interest going for that long.  When I switched to a different (expensive, private) school that had all kinds of different terms (10-week was the most popular, but I also took a 5-week weekend "intensive"), I found I did MUCH better.  Once I changed jobs to something that didn't have tuition reimbursement, then I was out of luck.  Until I found this forum.

[mysonx3]

Honestly, I find even 12 week terms to be a drag. Wish I had planned in more APU classes (they've got many with 8-week terms)

[jsd]

Whew, okay...

Both my Policy course and Intro to IS course project 4s came back, with 100% for each!

On top of that, my policy professor asked if he could use/share my paper (along with two other students' papers) as a model for next term. I knew I'd do well on the paper, but I'm surprised it did that well. No complaints!

Very exciting way to end the term.

Official grades were posted for both courses, and I got As in both. So I'm officially a 4.0 grad student, at least until the next term ends

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Oh, and now my OmniTranscript is updated to include grad credits

[cookderosa]

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.

16-week terms is what killed it for me at traditional schools - I just could not keep my interest going for that long.  When I switched to a different (expensive, private) school that had all kinds of different terms (10-week was the most popular, but I also took a 5-week weekend "intensive"), I found I did MUCH better.  Once I changed jobs to something that didn't have tuition reimbursement, then I was out of luck.  Until I found this forum.

Same. Harvard's terms are 16 weeks, and because of the holiday, I had one that was even 17 weeks. TESU's were 12 just barely ok - I am soooo dead after about 8 lol. I took summer sessions at Ocean for some of my sciences, and 5 weeks is brutal, however, it's by far my preference too.

[jsd]

I'm one week in to my Summer term, taking "Introduction to Cyber-Physical Systems Security" which satisfies a required "flexible core" course, making sure we're well rounded

only one course this summer unfortunately.

It's actually a pretty interesting class, even though it has nothing to do with my professional field. I'm 2/3 done with the first project due june 2nd (part 3 is making me pull my hair out again), but i think so far so good?

i've built a strong relationship with one person from term one who has joined me in this course, and a lukewarm relationship with another term 1 person in this course.... so it's nice to have shared experiences with folks along the way -- something that i haven't really had in the alt-credit world (outside of this forum, but we're all on such different paths here on the forum)

[bugfree]

I start in the Fall.  Any suggestions?   How much time do you spend a week?  Also will I be guaranteed a spot in the policy and the intro to security class?  I got into InfoSec program, but I am really temped to switch to Energy.  Do you know if I have to re-apply or if I can switch.

[jsd]

I start in the Fall.  Any suggestions?   How much time do you spend a week?  Also will I be guaranteed a spot in the policy and the intro to security class?  I got into InfoSec program, but I am really temped to switch to Energy.  Do you know if I have to re-apply or if I can switch.

Congrats, welcome to the program!

The IIS course is huge, it started out over 1,000 (with 250 spots reserved for CySec students and as opposed to CompSci). You should be fine. It dwindled down to about 600 I believe by the withdrawal date. Policy is much smaller, up to 250 spots available, but I believe only 75 students where in my term. So I think you'll be fine in both. One caveat is that I was in the first cohort of 250, and you'll be starting when they've added the second cohort -- I have no idea if that second cohort is larger than 250 or not. You'll be competing with both groups, though I'd be shocked if anyone hadn't taken IIS and Policy by then from the first cohort.

I started in InfoSec, but switched to Policy because my CompSci background is non-existant and not strong enough for some of the courses I was facing, and what i do professionally matches policy, management, and compliance closer and the track was a better fit. When I did it, I literally filled out a form requesting it and within a week i was approved to move. However, I did it very early and was likely the first student in the program to do so. In speaking with students who tried it a while after me, they had to fill out the form and write a new Statement of Purpose for the dean of the school for the track they moved to. So I would expect you would at least have to do that.

As far as suggestions... I think they upped the requirements for your cohort so you probably have a stronger background than me. But if you don't, check out the free CS MOOC they recommend (i think it's python-based). That would be the bare minimum I guess. for IIS, you'll be doing a very basic buffer overflow (though I saw one of the TAs was retooling this project a bit, so it might be less basic than it was for me) so you can look into overflows with C and gdb, using cuckoo for virus analysis (there's nothing really worthwhile to prepare for here, you figure it out as you go), RSA exploitation with python - so know a bit of python and hopefully you don't hate math as much as i do, and finally web based exploits that you'll need to implement CSRF, XSS, and SQL injections for. Know how to read PHP and utilize basic html, and a little bit of basic javascript.

For Policy, there's nothing to prepare for. The course is a breeze, but it does require some groups stuff. Your final paper is an application of the Diamond Model of Intrusion analysis, you can look up that paper but you'll have plenty of time to learn about it in class.

Get ready to do a lot of self-directed learning. Your'e not hand-held throughout the work.

[bugfree]

Thanks for the suggestions. 

I have studied CS before and I have spent the last few years studying every cyber security class I could get my hands on.  Plus, I used to work for a top software company as a tester, so my programming is decent.  I was thinking of switching to the energy track because the Department of Energy has a lot of jobs in my new town.  In October I am starting on a MS in EE, so I will be busy later in the semester.

[jsd]

This summer term of 1 course has been keeping me busier than the normal length term with 2 courses!

I got my Project 1 grade back --- my 100% streak has survived! I need it, because the current project I've been working on is killing me and there is no way I'll get another 100% on this second project... it's also been taking up all of the time I should be studying, and the midterm is coming up next weekend. I do not feel confident about it at all. I'm just hoping for a solid B on this second project, and I'll be happy.

PLC ladder logic is not fun