Before I begin, let me give you a little info on
myself for those that have not read my previous blogs. I have an Associate degree in IT
and a Bachelor degree in IT with an emphasis in Network Administration. I do not currently work in the IT field other
than my volunteer work. My overall goal
is to get into a company's IT department and work my way up to manager. Because of this, I decided to work on an
MBA. I found Capella University's MBA
and enrolled. On the 6th of last month,
I withdrew from Capella University's MBA program. I had already taken 5 classes and was
currently holding a 4.0 GPA. Thing was,
I just didn't feel right in the degree.
I felt that the degree was not going to get me to my professional
goal. Yes, an MBA is a management
degree, but it is an overall management degree.
It presents to the student the company as a whole and how it works with
each aspect; accounting, economics, finance, marketing, so on and so
forth. I really don't want anything to
do with that.
I started looking for schools with an IT degree that I was
interested in. Since I have the network
side of computers, I decided that I wanted to work on the security side of
computers. I immediately found Bellevue
University's Master of Science in Cybersecurity degree. Awesome curriculum! This made me start researching all the other
online schools that offered Cybersecurity degrees. With the help of people from eLearners.com, I
was able to hook up with several other Universities in which I was unaware of that also offered some type of Cybersecurity degree. I spoke to schools such as American Public University (APU), Utica, Virginia College, Florida Tech, University of Maryland University College, along with many others. I took a couple of days to call them all and
gather information on their cost, curriculum, credit hours, and their
accreditation. I started knocking the
schools out of my list one by one, and in some cases, pretty quickly. Cost was my number one priority, which made
me keep coming back to Bellevue University.
How can you beat $475 a credit hour and under $18,000 for the entire
program? Only one beat them; APU. Thing was, APU's curriculum just didn't look
right to me.
I started reaching out to Bellevue. I found their Facebook page and posted on
their page. I asked for info on the
degree from any current student. Low and
behold, the Director of Cybersecurity at Bellevue (Ron Woerner) contacted me
through my Facebook messages. He gave me
his school email and told me to contact him via that to discuss the
degree. Over the next 24 hours, we
exchanged several emails. I expressed my
interest in the degree by asking many questions. Ron took time out of his day to read them all
and answer them all. I realized that if
he was willing to give me, a non-student, the time of day, I could only imagine
what kind of help I would get as a student.
At that point, I decided to apply.
On April 19th, I applied at Bellevue. That same day, I logged into my FAFSA, took
Capella off of it and added Bellevue. I
also filled out a Master Promissory Note (MSN) and done the Entrance Counseling
for Bellevue. I contacted my previous
schools in which I had received my Associate and Bachelor degrees, and
requested transcripts be sent to Bellevue.
I wanted everything in place so that when I was accepted, I wouldn't
have to do anything but set back and wait for my classes. I realized I didn't have everything in order,
though, when Bellevue's FA team contacted me and told me that they wouldn't be
able to proceed without a Prior Withdrawal Clearance letter from Capella
stating that I was no longer a student and no longer getting loans sent
there. I was still not an official
student at this time. I submitted a
request for this document to Capella on April 25th. On April 27th, my transcripts came in. At that point, they require a resume be sent
in so that they can send it to the director of the department you wish to
enroll in so that they can look it over and accept it. This Monday (4/30), I received an email from
Ron telling me that he had accepted my resume and requested the school to
enroll me into the MS in Cybersecurity degree.
On May 1st, I received word that I was officially accepted
into Bellevue University's MS in Cybersecurity.
Also, my Prior Withdrawal Clearance letter came in from Capella, and I
was able to accept my Financial Aid packet late yesterday afternoon. Today, I contacted Financial Aid to find out
how to use my FA to buy my books. What
they do is they cut just enough money (up to $500) from your FA (as long as
there is enough money to cover your tuition) and send that money over to the
book store as a book voucher (waiver).
This will be done Friday of this week.
At that point, I will be able to buy my books with my FA monies. Classes start June 4th. I am setting pretty until then. There is nothing left for me to do. I am so excited about my upcoming journey
with Bellevue.
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