I am attending a 4 year college and have been taking classes like the ones you wrote about. I actually changed my major from CIS to a B.S. in Computer Networking (the CIS dept. lives on COBOL!) I am in the process of taking an MCSE class and have been taking the exams as I go. 50% of our grade in the class is determined on if we pass the exams (or practice exams if students can't afford the real ones) and the other 50% is based on labs that are assigned to us. I have been lucky enough to have an instructor who will assign challenging labs that give excellent hands on experience. Over the last 6 months I have had extensive experience with all of the NT 4 products, which I would greatly attribute to my success on the exams. I can't say enough for hands on experience, and that is one of the things my instructor pushes. Not only does he cover the material in the books (we use Sybex), he also goes over what to expect on the exams and always gives excellent study materials. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be an MCSE, I already have 4 done, and I will also have accumulated 9 credit hours with an A grade.

Not only does the degree cover the MCSE, it also covers the A+, CCNA, and Linux. The department is a Cisco Local Academy and should soon be a Regional Academy, probably offering the CCNP in the spring. Next semester they go to Windows 2000 also. I came from a CIS department that was years behind in technology and came to the Electronics Department to find exactly the kind of program I have been looking for. It has and will give me a chance to learn about the technology I love and will give me an opportunity to learn things that a lot of students will not learn until they get in to the real world.

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What school do you attend and where is it? That sounds like a very good school to attend.

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Jason,
What state you live in? and is it hard to
enrole to the program? I'm looking for that
type of school in GA, but the thing is the
college system here is really **** ...I used to live in CA and the school system there is
really easy for anyone who wants to get back
to school, but in GA they require so many paper work, etc....I can only go to continual
education that type of school but they offer
short time and their fee is too high.

Iron.Mask
MCSE

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I attend Central Missouri State Uneversity. The degree is a specialized degree that I had to make myself and get approved by various people, it also has a minor in Business Administration. There is some paperwork, but you can customize the degree to tailor your needs. It is something you can do regardless of what you want to do, i.e. art, business, engineering, math, etc. If you are attending a 4 year school you might look further into the curriculum to see if you can do something similar.

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I didn't know Central Missouri State had
that type of program. Maybe I should have
transfered there. Orginally I attend Missouri
Western majoring in CIS for a BS degree where
their computer program is way outdated.Their
program contains Fortran, Cobol, and not really
much of today technolgy classes available.
Also, I hated all the snow and cold long winters
coming in MO. So, I decided to transfered back
home to Tx and enrolled into a Jr college that
offer Mcse class for credit and other good
computer classes such as Unix, Java, Webdesign,
& etc. I hate to leave cause now there getting
Cisco class next Fall. But once again I am
transfering back to a 4yr university to finish
my BS degree this time I am going to Georgia
to attended University of West GA majoring in
Software Engineering which seem to have a
better selection of technology class than
there CIS program. Their CIS program program
tends to focus around classes such as Finance,
Management, Marketing, and other business like
class with little programming, networking or
information focusing on current technology kinda
like Missouri Western Program. So I look into
there Software Engineering program which fit
with some of what I was looking for. Jason122
like yourself, I was looking for a BS program
that will prep me with current technology and
prepare me a little for the real world. I
obtain a real world work experience while
attending jr college take computer class which
help a great deal. I am also pursuing
certification, because I think
it will only help when I graduate from college
in 2yrs with my BS and u 2 too so
keep going the route your going and u will
recieve your rewards in the end. I have only
attempted one Mcp certifcation test so far
and passed (Knock on wood). Since I have
limited time before the rest of the MCSE 4
exam expire I am only going to take 4 more
mcp exams and call it quits and upgrade to
2000 mcp status later in the future.

Iron Mask,

I agree with u on the process GA schools
take u through to attend there schools.
There making me retake immunization shots
I have already done. With more tests & school
entrance exam for writing,history, gov't for
class I have already passed. It is a pain in
the a** as a transfer student. I can see this
for if you a first time freshman the point for
taking all these test before enrollment cause
I had to go through that in MO as a first time
freshman attending college. But the bright side
of it is a least they are not making take more
test such as sat's or act. I really hate those
test, they are so boring and a pain. But anyways,
I have to agree with u on that, I am trying to
fine a school in GA on the side where I can
go take take class on the side while I am
attending Uni of West GA. I have found
a few schools but I don't know if there computer
programs are as good as the ones here in TX.
Most of my classes in Tx where teached by
Microsoft Engineers who actually
works at MS down the down the street. So
give us a light of insight on the problems
u will face when working as a engineer
supporting MS products and what duties are
expected as admin. And setup challeging labs
and assignments for us to do. And the price was
right unlike these Training centers and bootcamps
that u see that are commonly avertised today are
way to expensive $800 oreven 1500 for a class that
only lasts a week or even two days. Pesonally I
think it is a waste of time and money. There is
to much to know and learn about an operating
system or product. While attending the Jr College
here in TX, I paid about 300 dollars for each mcse
classes I took here and it include the books.
I think it definitely worth the money.

Anyways here are the list of schools I have
found around the Altanta area 1.)Gwinnett
Tech, 2.)Lanier Technical Institute
3.)Clayton college & State University (with whats
on their website is looks like they have a lot
to offer) 4.)Georgia Perimeter college (cisco
only, I think) 5.)West Georgia Technical college
6.)Kennesaw State University 7.)Morris Brown College
8.)Oglethorpe University
9.)Southern Polytechnic State University.

But I don't know how cheap these schools, My guess
is the University Class will be the most expensive.
The 2yr college(jr colleges) are decent if u are
paying in-state tution.The cheapest a the Technical
schools I think I saw on one website the price
was $26.00 per credit hour but I don't know how
good there programs will be. I may just have to
wait until a year goes by so that I can be
able to claim in-state residency because the out
of state tution prices are outrageous. I will
already be paying to attend one University and
another one on the side with out of state tution
rates is too expensive. But let me know if you
find any cheap decent programs Ironmask


Thanks

Lena

[This message has been edited by lena0 (edited 07-24-2000).]

[This message has been edited by lena0 (edited 07-24-2000).]

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I am taking the MCSE class at a local collge here in St. Louis also. I looked at all of the MCSE classes that the typical cram your butt off places had to offer you, and to be quite honest with you I don't understand how you can learn in that type of enviroment.

The MCSE is about a 9 month course, and my best friend has just gotten through the whole thing for NT4.0 and I am taking the 2000 version of the course. We decided that he would take the NT4.0 course and I would take the 2000 course seeing that I learn newer technologies faster, and then have the ability to reteach what i learned to the people near me.

He has passes all of his exams with the exception of IIS right now, and he just got out of class 3 weeks ago. In my opinion, this is alot smarter way to do the MCSE course.

The costs are relatively steep in comparison to the standard CRAM shops. To do a MCSE at Micro Hard Technologies in St. Louis ( Cram Shop ) is about $5000, plus tests. To do the same thing from SLU is $10,000. 100% increase in costs, but here is the kicker. With the tuition you get a laptop computer to keep at the end of the course. I know you think that this is a great scam, but i tell you it is worth it. We get to literally do anything we want on the systems and not worry about it, plus take it home and work on your system more if you have problems. This is something that the CRAM SHOPS cannot touch.

I think the college route is an aweseome way to go about the MCSE. I have spoke to many people in the IT field and they all agree with me, that they would hire a person coming out of this type of program over anyone coming out of a CRAM shop. The college route is slower, but you gain alot better working knowledge of the systems you are dealing with.

Comments, feel free to e-mail me directly @ bigfishy@bigfishy.com

Rob

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Clayton State college has an IT program that has been a big focus recently. They also have a separate Associate Applied Science degree in Computer Networking Technology http://tech.clayton.edu/cnet/AAS.htm that is pretty well-rounded. I went through it and I was pretty satified. If you want a bachelors degree, you have to go through the IT program.

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