Hello, I will start by introducing myself. My name is Chris and I work as an Information Security Administrator in Northern New York. I'm married and have 2 wild boys that keep me going all day long. I had tried online schools before, and they weren't for me. Then I started looking again about 1.5 years ago and found WGU. There were a couple of things that attracted me to WGU. One being that the cost of attendance was less then any other school I looked at. The second and main deciding factor was that I would earn industry standard certifications and my BS all at once for the same cost!
I started the trek through school one and a half years ago. It had been a long time since I completed a semester, by long time I mean 2008 when I graduated with my A.A.S in Computer Information Systems. This time I was determined that I would finish and earn my BS. I was actually very lucky during the enrollment process and acceptance. I transferred in 44 CU's, pretty much covering all but 3 general education courses!
I have completed 78/126 CU's in 3 semesters including transfer credits. Most of the classes were the intro IT courses so I was able to move through then with general ease, having worked in IT for a while. Just recently I started getting into the harder more advanced classes. At first I didn't need to put in the full 20 hours a week they recommend. This past semester proved I needed to put more time in. I had to take a couple second attempts on finals.
My 4th semester starts on June 1st. I will be taking my final general education course! The down side it requires me to write a paper. The up side is that the other courses are Networks, a scripting course and application development course.
I am going to try and write a post after each course and update my CU's as they are completed. Hope this can help others in their journey!
- Chris(Eag1e3y3)
Monday, May 25, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Getting Started at WGU
CU: 009 out of 122
First, let me start by introducing myself, friends call me Thomas, I am a network security engineer at a bank in New England. Army veteran and father of 4. I have tried college a few times but never seem to finish. Life gets in the way, I need to make money, not be in class all day, etc… Anyways, I have heard some great things about WGU. Their class format is designed for someone like me who tends to get bored after I know the material and just wants the class to end. Their cost of attendance is really great also, less than $3K every 6 months at the time of this post. This includes most, if not all, of your materials, as well as any certifications that I need to get along the way!
I just got accepted a couple weeks ago, this was a fairly painless process and mostly typical of any college you apply to. You apply, send in transcripts and in my case, supply a work history, similar to a resume. WGU has a pretty high graduation rate and they want to make sure you can do the coursework before they admit you.
My first day of class will be on June 1st. I have already done orientation, which went over how the classes are structured, how to go about taking the exam to finish each class, setup my school e-mail and designed a study plan. At some point in the next few days they will assign me a student mentor, who is responsible for helping me stay on track and help design my degree plan. The beauty of WGU is that you only do 1 class at a time, and tuition is only due every 6 months. You are required to complete a minimum of 12 “competency units” every term (6 months) but you are free to complete as many as you can in that time frame with no extra fees. At the top of each of my posts I will keep track of how many "CU's" I have, as well as how many I have left.
I plan on writing posts after knocking out each class I have to do. I only had 3 classes that were eligible for transfer, but luckily English Comp I was one of them, that means I only have 1 English writing class to knock out! w00t!
First, let me start by introducing myself, friends call me Thomas, I am a network security engineer at a bank in New England. Army veteran and father of 4. I have tried college a few times but never seem to finish. Life gets in the way, I need to make money, not be in class all day, etc… Anyways, I have heard some great things about WGU. Their class format is designed for someone like me who tends to get bored after I know the material and just wants the class to end. Their cost of attendance is really great also, less than $3K every 6 months at the time of this post. This includes most, if not all, of your materials, as well as any certifications that I need to get along the way!
I just got accepted a couple weeks ago, this was a fairly painless process and mostly typical of any college you apply to. You apply, send in transcripts and in my case, supply a work history, similar to a resume. WGU has a pretty high graduation rate and they want to make sure you can do the coursework before they admit you.
My first day of class will be on June 1st. I have already done orientation, which went over how the classes are structured, how to go about taking the exam to finish each class, setup my school e-mail and designed a study plan. At some point in the next few days they will assign me a student mentor, who is responsible for helping me stay on track and help design my degree plan. The beauty of WGU is that you only do 1 class at a time, and tuition is only due every 6 months. You are required to complete a minimum of 12 “competency units” every term (6 months) but you are free to complete as many as you can in that time frame with no extra fees. At the top of each of my posts I will keep track of how many "CU's" I have, as well as how many I have left.
I plan on writing posts after knocking out each class I have to do. I only had 3 classes that were eligible for transfer, but luckily English Comp I was one of them, that means I only have 1 English writing class to knock out! w00t!
End of Semester 1
CU: 023 of 122
I finally got through this:
Anyways, C393 and C394 were pretty easy. They were just studying for the 2 part (hence the two classes) test for the A+ certification. I say they were easy probably because I spent most of my "formative years" building desktop machines and trouble shooting everything for networks to printers and back again. I will say, as most have, that the printer portions are the hardest to remember and get right on the test.
ORA1 was just Orientation and done as soon as I started. An easy zero credit class ;-)
Integrated Natural Science though put my resolve to the test. It's A LOT of fact remembering and understanding. Most of the notes I've found online say that the normal time to complete this course is 10 weeks at WGU. I definitely went over that time, but lucky for me the other two classes (A+) I had baked in less than a month.
One thing to note about INC1 is that the pre-test does not align to the final test. Some of my studying was very specifically aligned to making sure I could pass the pretest and I only remember one question that was at all similar on the final test. But, the quiz questions for each module did include the questions for both the final and pre-test so study those often.
That's it for Semester 1. Next up is:
Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon!
I finally got through this:
- 4 IT Foundations - C393 - O
- 0 Education Without Boundaries Orientation - ORA1 - P
- 4 IT Applications - C394 - O
- 4 Integrated Natural Science - INC1 - O
Anyways, C393 and C394 were pretty easy. They were just studying for the 2 part (hence the two classes) test for the A+ certification. I say they were easy probably because I spent most of my "formative years" building desktop machines and trouble shooting everything for networks to printers and back again. I will say, as most have, that the printer portions are the hardest to remember and get right on the test.
ORA1 was just Orientation and done as soon as I started. An easy zero credit class ;-)
Integrated Natural Science though put my resolve to the test. It's A LOT of fact remembering and understanding. Most of the notes I've found online say that the normal time to complete this course is 10 weeks at WGU. I definitely went over that time, but lucky for me the other two classes (A+) I had baked in less than a month.
One thing to note about INC1 is that the pre-test does not align to the final test. Some of my studying was very specifically aligned to making sure I could pass the pretest and I only remember one question that was at all similar on the final test. But, the quiz questions for each module did include the questions for both the final and pre-test so study those often.
That's it for Semester 1. Next up is:
- Introduction to IT - C182 O
- Foundations of College Mathematics - C457 O
- Elements of Effective Communication - C132 PO
- English Composition I - C455 P
Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon!
Monday, December 1, 2014
First day of school
CU: 007 of 122
It kinda sucks not having a parent present to wish you luck and send you on your way when you start school. The things you miss as an adult. Oh well ;-)
First class is "IT Foundations - C393" which seems to be basically study up to my first certification: A+
I'll update this post later with how it goes.
It kinda sucks not having a parent present to wish you luck and send you on your way when you start school. The things you miss as an adult. Oh well ;-)
First class is "IT Foundations - C393" which seems to be basically study up to my first certification: A+
I'll update this post later with how it goes.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Orientation
CU: 007 of 122
Starting Orientation today (15 days before your scheduled start date). Some of the activities you have to complete is a 7 module walk though of some of the cool things that WGU has available to students. You sign the code of conduct, make a detailed study schedule and watch a bunch of videos about WGU's resources (FREE ACCESS TO LYNDA.COM w00tw00t)
Anyways, pretty excited to start. I really hate that I have a bunch of English classes and Math classes to complete but I didn't think I could have gotten out of that no matter which school/undergrad program I attended.
Like my friend did before me I will keep the list of my credits/"Competency Units" at the top of each post as sort of a progress bar.
I've already reached out to a few other Infosec students that are starting Dec 1 (which is actually part of Orientation) so it will be cool to have study partners even though this is a self study/paced online thing.
Hitting close to my TL;DR length so I'll let you go. Remember December 1st is when you can start throwing Shmooballs at me if I slack behind. Once I meet with my mentor I'll give you all a schedule and probably make a specific page on this blog for reference.
Starting Orientation today (15 days before your scheduled start date). Some of the activities you have to complete is a 7 module walk though of some of the cool things that WGU has available to students. You sign the code of conduct, make a detailed study schedule and watch a bunch of videos about WGU's resources (FREE ACCESS TO LYNDA.COM w00tw00t)
Anyways, pretty excited to start. I really hate that I have a bunch of English classes and Math classes to complete but I didn't think I could have gotten out of that no matter which school/undergrad program I attended.
Like my friend did before me I will keep the list of my credits/"Competency Units" at the top of each post as sort of a progress bar.
I've already reached out to a few other Infosec students that are starting Dec 1 (which is actually part of Orientation) so it will be cool to have study partners even though this is a self study/paced online thing.
Hitting close to my TL;DR length so I'll let you go. Remember December 1st is when you can start throwing Shmooballs at me if I slack behind. Once I meet with my mentor I'll give you all a schedule and probably make a specific page on this blog for reference.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Accepted!
I have been accepted to WGU! Pretty excited, and we moved the start date up to December 1st. My enrollment counselor was transitioning to another position at WGU so my enrollment decision was delayed a bit longer than the 10-bizday standard.
One negative that I learned during the enrollment process is that for most of the WGU classes they only accept industry certs for class transfer credits. Even though I did have a few credits from previous college attempts they weren't accepted. So if you have credits from other colleges and are expecting to transfer a large amount of those you may be slightly disappointed.
One positive is when they initially told me that for my BS there will be 13 certification that I'll be needing to get I was take aback. Many of those certifications are costly so I was fearing the "hidden" costs to the very inexpensive WGU fees. I was very happy to learn that all of the certifications they expect you to get for course credit are on a voucher system (aka "Free", aka already part of the cost of attendance)
One negative that I learned during the enrollment process is that for most of the WGU classes they only accept industry certs for class transfer credits. Even though I did have a few credits from previous college attempts they weren't accepted. So if you have credits from other colleges and are expecting to transfer a large amount of those you may be slightly disappointed.
One positive is when they initially told me that for my BS there will be 13 certification that I'll be needing to get I was take aback. Many of those certifications are costly so I was fearing the "hidden" costs to the very inexpensive WGU fees. I was very happy to learn that all of the certifications they expect you to get for course credit are on a voucher system (aka "Free", aka already part of the cost of attendance)
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Welcome
A friend of mine made a blog specifically for his experiences and journey through Western Governor’s University. I found it invaluable while trying to decide if it would be a good fit for myself. Hopefully by performing the same actions I’ll be able to help someone else make their decision for or against like he helped me.
As a reader of this blog you are signing up to yell, scream, make fun of, and berate me if you think I’m slacking behind, give no quarter.
My twitter handle is @mubix
You can find me on facebook here: https://facebook.com/mubix
Email me: mubix@room362.com
And pretty much anywhere else as “mubix”.
I start in January of 2015. Wish me luck.
Rob
As a reader of this blog you are signing up to yell, scream, make fun of, and berate me if you think I’m slacking behind, give no quarter.
My twitter handle is @mubix
You can find me on facebook here: https://facebook.com/mubix
Email me: mubix@room362.com
And pretty much anywhere else as “mubix”.
I start in January of 2015. Wish me luck.
Rob
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