Documenting My Journey: WGU BSIT-Security

[Thorne]

Obvious as it may be, I was officially admitted to WGU with a start date of 8/1/17. I started with 9 classes, 35CUs remaining, having transferred in 88 credits from a mix of my IT certifications, my CC credits, and my work with StraighterLine. The course list and my thoughts or plans are listed below.

• IT Foundations (A+ 220-901) -- DONE: Like I thought, this was a breeze. Due to scheduling issues and long drives, took me four days.
  
• IT Applications (A+ 220-902) -- DONE: Also a breeze. Finished this early in the second week due to more scheduling issues and long drives. Four days total.
  
• Business of IT – Project Management (Project+ PK0-004) -- DONE: Ended up taking the new test (PK0-004). Not hard, just a pain in the backside. Wrapped this up in 14 days.
  
• Principles of Management -- DONE: Extremely easy. Took me four days, including my post-Project+ day off. I watched the 6 review videos on double speed (hour and a half total), took the PreA, then scheduled the OA the next night.
  
• Spreadsheets -- DONE: Not really hard, not really easy. I also didn't learn much functional information about Excel. 6 days on this one, due to the time it took to get it approved and scheduled after my mentor went MIA from Harvey (he's back and kicking, thank God).
  
• Database Management - Applications -- DONE: Everything I heard about this class was true. Absolutely horrendous material with no good alternatives, badly formatted coursework, and a lot of ambiguity. To top it off, the Pre Assessment was rather different from the OA, as the PreA focused on theory and the OA focused on SQL. I've got an abbreviated version of the course material in my Drive folder that I'll pass on to whomever has to take it. I still wouldn't call the class hard, just really tedious. 22 days total.
  
• Operating Systems I (Linux+ LX0-103) -- DONE: This was a much easier test than I thought, due to it being very technical rather than theoretical. 17 days.
  
• Operating Systems II  (Linux+ LX0-104) -- DONE: Again, very technical and fairly easy. Just used the CBT Nuggets course + the uCertify practice exams. 5 days.
  
• IT Capstone Written Project -- IN PROGRESS: I've got until 1.31.18 to finish, but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't plan to be done by the end of November.
  

I'm much farther ahead of schedule than I had initially planned. It looks like I'll finish the last course by the end of November, which puts me at about 3.5 months from enrollment to graduation, and about 5 months of studying after community college. I do need to figure out exactly what comes next education-wise. I'm deciding between the WGU MS Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degree, a BSBA with a long-term goal of an MBA, or jumping straight into an MBA.

[jessikalauren]

Thanks for posting! I'm also starting 8/1 and I followed their transfer guidelines and worked very well for me. Keep us posted!

[brucet3]

Great plan man! Chop those credits down and get her done!!

Protip: have a plan for what youre going to do AFTER you finish that last class... it was pretty depressing for me to not have another goal lined up and ready to be tackled!

[Thorne]

Great plan man! Chop those credits down and get her done!!

Protip: have a plan for what youre going to do AFTER you finish that last class... it was pretty depressing for me to not have another goal lined up and ready to be tackled!

I'm with you. I'm torn between a WGU MSCSIA and a more business-oriented focus (Wrap up a BSBA really quickly then go after an MBA). Depending on how well I do at this competency-based thing, it may be a good idea to continue with them.

[jessikalauren]

Great plan man! Chop those credits down and get her done!!

Protip: have a plan for what youre going to do AFTER you finish that last class... it was pretty depressing for me to not have another goal lined up and ready to be tackled!

This is how I'm feeling as well! I promised myself I'd see how I feel after finishing my BSB-HR, but I'm strongly leaning toward running straight into my MBA. If I slow down even a little I'm not confident I'll pick it back up. I've scoured all corners of this forum and other resources, and even though I haven't started with WGU yet I will likely continue with them for my MBA over going to a different school. I'm transferring to WGU right now and it's been a huge headache to get all of my credits and requirements in order.

[FlyOnTheWall4]

Awesome stuff here! I'll be doing the same program next year, I'll be following your progress. What an awesome resource this forum is.

[brucet3]

I'm with you. I'm torn between a WGU MSCSIA and a more business-oriented focus (Wrap up a BSBA really quickly then go after an MBA). Depending on how well I do at this competency-based thing, it may be a good idea to continue with them.

I did my Masters with WGU RIGHT after finishing my degree with TESU BA-CIS(TESC then 2013). Best decision I ever made educationally. I found some of the classes to be easy, other to be very challenging. The coolest thing was that, just being in a masters program got me in the door at the University of Chicago as a Data Security Analyst. Now that I have the Masters Degree, it just opens doors I never knew were there.

[Ideas]

I did my Masters with WGU RIGHT after finishing my degree with TESU BA-CIS(TESC then 2013). Best decision I ever made educationally. I found some of the classes to be easy, other to be very challenging. The coolest thing was that, just being in a masters program got me in the door at the University of Chicago as a Data Security Analyst. Now that I have the Masters Degree, it just opens doors I never knew were there.

Nice! Did you do MSCSIA?

[Thorne]

I did my Masters with WGU RIGHT after finishing my degree with TESU BA-CIS(TESC then 2013). Best decision I ever made educationally. I found some of the classes to be easy, other to be very challenging. The coolest thing was that, just being in a masters program got me in the door at the University of Chicago as a Data Security Analyst. Now that I have the Masters Degree, it just opens doors I never knew were there.

Awesome!
What did you think about the MSCSIA? How long did it take you? What sort of work was involved?

I'm trying to gauge what it's going to be like if I jump into it. Any advice or info you're willing to share will be much appreciated.

[bjcheung77]

Awesome!
What Master's program did you run through? My guess would be MS Data Analytics, but you never know.

Brucet3 did the MSCIA. I've been stalking him for a while, he's one of a few who has entered a very inspirational "I'm Done!" post.
It got me restarted on this journey when I read it in 2015. I took a vacation to Hawaii and decided to "study" the methods on this board.
Got my running pants up and started my process in 2016. I am looking forward to the MBA at Patten as "iwant2stalku" did it in 4 months.