Schrodinger's Kittie

Semester: Fall 2009 Session B	Session Start Date: 10/05/2009	Session End Date: 11/29/2009
Course Info	Registration Type	CourseTitle	Cost Per Sem. Hour	Sem. Hours	Course Cost/Fee	Payment Type
ISSC340 B001	Academic Credit	Local Area Network Technologies	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid
ISSC342 B001	Academic Credit	Operating Systems: Hardening and Security	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid
ISSC361 B001	Academic Credit	Information Assurance	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid
Semester: Fall 2009 Session D	Session Start Date: 12/07/2009	Session End Date: 01/31/2010
Course Info	Registration Type	CourseTitle	Cost Per Sem. Hour	Sem. Hours	Course Cost/Fee	Payment Type
ISSC362 D001	Academic Credit	IT Security: Attack & Defense	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid
ISSC363 D001	Academic Credit	IT Security: Risk Management	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid
ISSC341 D001	Academic Credit	Introduction to Networking	250.00	3	750.00	Federal Student Aid

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Yours truly is heading back to school for her BSIT – Information Systems Security. These are eight week courses taken solely online at APUS. As you can see by the pricing listed, they are very reasonably priced; and, you can’t beat how they handle their books. Essentially the books for classes wind up being free, so long as you can be bothered to get off your behind and mail them back.

This setup has me taking 3 classes every eight weeks. It looks like a lot; however, one class per 8 weeks is what I’m calling a ‘dead head’ class. Something I have a ton of real world experience with – so I should be able to handle the class without too much stress.

The lovely thing about this particular degree is that it shouldn’t require too many papers to be written. I can really only see about two or three classes all told that would be even remotely conducive to a term paper. Definitely an engineer’s degree. Some of the classes even look like they’ll be fun.

I figured since I really don’t have much of a life here in SoCal, I should put all that dead time to good use. What better way than to further my education? Especially with this particular degree. If I can squeeze in a couple of certifications while I’m at it, that would be even better. The certs I’m considering are:

• Linux – generic or RedHat, either one
• CCNA – this is Cisco’s network certification – first level. I might get bold and go after the CCNP instead
• CISSP – a security certification
• ITIL – IT Infrastructure Library – basically codes of practice

Cisco is the name in networking, and having the certifications from them opens a lot of doors that experience alone won’t budge. Add the others in, and it helps quite a bit. I wouldn’t even mind getting a Juniper certification, actually. So, if I can manage to afford to take the certifications, and actually pass and achieve certification – along with finishing my degree. Well, I’d certainly not be shooting myself in the foot. Even if I am a little late out of the gate.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.