Hey guys, I'm not sure if this is on the right board but wasn't sure where else to put it. I finished my bachelor’s degree last year in network communications and management. I've wanted to pursue IT security or cyber security for a few years, my goal is government work. I've spent the last few weeks researching masters programs in cyber security but am having the hardest time finding anything that has consistently good reviews. I'm a bit frustrated and was hoping to get some information on personal experience from anyone that has gone through a cyber security program or recommendations. My searches have brought up schools like Capella, university of phoenix, James Madison, Virginia College, utica college, umuc. Some of these schools look great, but again, the reviews have been bad.

I'm not sure if this is the right path to go down or not. Would you recommend a master’s program in cyber security or the cert route? Unfortunately, I don't have any certs yet. I've been in IT for 3 years. Just kind of did my studying and never took the exams.

Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I know what you mean. It's tough finding the right school. What makes you recommend Nova Southeastern though? Just that it has an online info sec masters and is nsa certified? I saw mixed reviews on it but most of the bad reviews were from PhD students.

I know NOTHING about Nova Southeastern Univ. I only recommended it because the only schools you mentioned in your initial post were online schools, and to my knowledge, NSU is the only one of the NSA Centers of Academic Excellence that offers purely online degrees.

If you already have a handle on the technical side, consider Capitol College in Laurel, MD.  I did the Information Assurance program there and came out of it much stronger in the compliance and auditing side of things.  While it is online, the lectures are live using centra.  I'd also look at doing CISSP to get DoD 8570 compliant.

I went through the course details and found that a lot of Certifications are associated with the course. Also see that the student can complete the course earlier based on the commitment and involvement.

Any idea on how fast one can complete if the student is already in possession of the listed certification with pretty good real life industrial experience?

Nope, I'm wrapping up a psychology degree at the University of Minnesota. I'm leaning towards an MSIS at Nova once I complete that.

Amusing that I am mentioned in a thread on a topic that I was searching through EH-Net for  

I'm attending WGU for my BS in Network Design and Management. I'm really unsure what I plan to do afterward for a Master degree, much less where I plan to attend.