For years, I’ve been of the opinion that college degrees in IT have been a waste of time and money. Many of the programs I had looked at were so out of date, it was comical. Certifications were current, and relevant to what you were doing. However, the news that my friend was making 30k more, gave me cause of re-evaluate my opinion. So I started looking at IT Degree programs. 

Now, just before I got the shocking news from my friend, I had passed ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional exam (CISSP) (Oct 15th). So, since I just passed that exam, I looked specifically at CyberSecurity  degrees. My friend had just finished up a Bachelors Degree at Western Governors University, and a bunch of my co-workers have also gone to WGU; so WGU was high on my list of places to check.

Once I found that WGU would give me credit for certifications, I was pretty much sold.

I contacted WGU and put in my paperwork for admissions. If you pay attention and look around a bit, you can find a code to apply to WGU for free. That was a fairly painless process.

I was almost immediately assigned an Enrollment Counselor. I don’t know much about the Enrollment Counselors, but mine was less than impressive. I’ll admit that there were several times I was annoyed with her almost enough to  blow off the idea of going back to school entirely. But, I decided not to let the incompetence of the Enrollment Counselor get me down and discourage me. After all, it will be worth 30k to suck it up, right?

I completed the FASFA, and got my old college transcripts sent into the school. That was fairly easy and I got that much done in an hour or two on a Saturday morning.

Then I started working on the Professional Certifications. Microsoft was easy, and so was CompTIA. However ISC2 took forever to get the CISSP information updated on their website. I was seriously concerned that I was going to have to wait until January 1st to start, because ISC2 was being so slow.

However, finally ISC2 got their stuff updated, and I was able to get all the information in, and get approved by the 15th of the month.

Between the college courses I have previously taken (6), and my certifications (28), I received a total of 34 credits already completed in the program.

Then I had to do the orientation… which wasn’t bad, pointless, but not hard. I finished up the orientation in a day.

While I was doing the orientation, I got assigned a Mentor…

It is my role to align my mentoring and coaching to ​ your reasonable timeline expectations. You are responsible for doing the work, but I can help you stay on track and obtain the resources to help you overcome any hurdles. I will motivate you when you are struggling, celebrate victories with you, strategize with you, and be your partner on this journey. Because of my experience, I will also be able to help you know what realistic expectations are, and how to best adapt when “life happens.” This is definitely more of a marathon than a 100 meter dash – and I will be with you the whole way.

Now, my Mentor is awesome. She is bending over backwards to meet my needs and is very responsive to email. I am more than a little bit impatient, and I am rather OCD, especially about deadlines. So for me to be able to say that my Mentor is awesome… is high praise. 

By comparison, I went to  Full Sail University for a semester a few years back, and those people could not meet my expectations. They were too freaking slow and far too lackadaisical about assignments for me. Drove me absolutely nuts, and I had to quit before I went total ape.

So yes, my mentor rocks.

I’ve been assigned four classes for my first term.

• Introduction to IT 
• Critical Thinking and Logic
• Integrated Physical Sciences
• Business of IT – Applications

And classes start Dec 1st…

Categories: Application Fee, Before Starting, Enrollment Counselor, Financial Requirements, Intake Interview, Orientation, Program Eligibility Requirements, Submit Transcripts/Certifications

Tags: Western Governors University