University of Maryland Global Campus Reviews of Bachelor's in Cybersecurity

"UMGC is the WORST SCHOOL you can get a cyber security degree!! I did 2 years and it's very easy to graduate but they teach you nothing!! I failed 4 security analyst interviews and I dont know even basic principles of cyber security, unfortunately. Please work hard and go to a different college OR if you want just degree, then this college is perfect and you can do certifications on the side. I feel horrible that I am part of UMGC and embarrassed to represent them! Their image is extremely low-class amongst the professionals and this school is just do suck your money out hand you a 4 year degree."

"The Cybersecurity division of this school is really bad. I've gotten good grades but quality of education is poor and professors take forever to grade. Most of the courses outsource textbooks/labs to ucertify which constantly has issues. Also, they still reference Windows 10 in all of the readings, when Windows 11 has been out a couple years now. It shows that they do not update the text to the newest changes in the industry. At UMGC, you essentially pay for a degree and class flexibility. If you want to be prepared for a career, UMGC is not a good choice."

"UMGC, formerly UMUC, or University of Maryland Global Campus is a great institution for those adults who are willing and able to self-learn. There is no doubt that the overall material can be rather ambiguous and some instructors are 'absent', however, majority of my instructors were some of the best professionals who helped mold me to be better at this craft. Example - During my PenTest course, the instructor reached out and had discussions with the class via virtual calls, teleconferences, and even posted update videos of what we need to focus on. This made learning offensive security fun and intriguing while also shedding light on additional sources to research for my own profession. This degree program WILL NOT be a one-stop shop to just get a degree and land a job without any work from the student. The students must be willing and able to also take their educational studies and cross-reference with other online sources to continue building their background. Additionally, you get to choose majority of your courses for the CS degree... For example, I was able to learn video game programming in Java as an elective for my minor while still working through CCNA, Net+. Ethical Hacker and PenTest work for my major. This school WILL give you the building blocks to be successful, and this degree program is one of the best in the country for online students and military affiliates. I would recommend this school to anyone who needs a place to start with their IT transition."

"This school does not prepare you for a job as a cybersecurity professional. There was never a day that I was challenged in a constructive way. The only "challenge" presented by the school was the long list of arbitrary assignments that have little to no application in the real world. The "teachers" are absent and are only there to collect a paycheck, there is ZERO original material, and you get stuck with incompetent "success" coaches. I am not just someone complaining to complain I love learning and challenging myself in the past two years I earned net+, sec+, CySA+, GCIH, and GAWN while still attending classes at UMGC and none of the courses came CLOSE to preparing me for the exams they were supposedly preparing you for. Take for example the capstone, this is supposed to be a time where you take all of the material you learned and then put it together and make a final project/paper on it right? Guess again you are redoing assignments from the cloud class (the material you purchased is likely expired by the time you take the capstone) and you are then asked to write a white paper about SDN/IBN which you didn't learn about until that class. How does that make any sense? Then when you look at the writing classes you must take for your degree they are nothing but a waste of time. Technical writing second assignment writing instructions for how to use a website. What a waste of time and money while inducing stress on multiple assignments that lack any real-world impact."

"Overall UMGC is a solid school and is a type of school where you get as much as you put in. If you take the time to read and understand the labs, you will have a great learning experience. One of the big things that UMGC does that not many other colleges do is have excellent scheduling and cost. With UMGCs 8 week course interval set up, you can work full time or even just enjoy life while also being able to attend college full time. For the past two years, I have been able to build my experience in my field while at the same time build my education up at the same speed. Another huge plus is that UMGC is not crazily expensive. With scholarships, I have found that I only pay around $3,000- $6,000 thousand dollars a semester. Compared to my co- workers and friends who now have a some 10,000- 60,000k in debt and are at the same level as me in the job market or similar."

"Did you know that some of UMGC’s departments will keep you on the phone longer, because it looks better for their end of month metrics? Did you know that UMGC will contact you sometimes as much as 10 times in a week? They will call it checking in on their students, but really, they are just pestering you to pay remaining account balances that sometimes aren’t even close to being due yet. Did you know that UMGC has a “Do Not Contact” option that can exempt hard working professional students from receiving the incessant emails and calls that are sent to them on a daily basis? But UMGC will not tell students about this option, because then they couldn’t fake the number of students they are supposedly “reaching out to”. Did you know that UMGC is a business where the bottom line is money? So, they will recommend programs that are not beneficial to the students they are advising and UMGC will also recommend financial options that will put the students in a disadvantages position from the start. Did you know that when looking at things from a pure number’s standpoint, there are multiple other institutions whether they be community colleges or universities that provide both a better educational experience and better financial options than UMGC? Did you know that there are other institutions that you could receive a degree from, that would be looked upon better than UMGC? Did you know that UMGC within the past few years became a part of the University of Maryland system which provides them with more opportunities to exploit students and make more money for themselves? Well, if you didn’t know now you know"

"UMGC provided me with easy to access classes and nearly zero cost coursework and applications for class. Being a "online" school I found the majority of my instructors to have a laissez-faire attitude. Since the majority of instructors and professors are on a part-time basis and have much higher real-world priorities assignments are lazily graded and easy to excel at. If you are already working in the field you are striving to get a degree in, this is a great school to get that degree check in the block. If you are attempting to break into a new field with little prior knowledge of it, you may find your skills to be lacking in the real world."

"I had a great experience with this school. Like all education, you get what you put into it. I began my studies here to complete a BS degree; the transfer process was really easy and most of my transfers were accepted. I never had any issues registering for classes, and I was able to always take the ones I needed. I have seen a lot of really poor reviews of this school, and I don't know why. The degree I got from UMUC had enough teeth to get me into graduate schools such as Penn State, Purdue, Johns Hopkins and Georgia Tech."

"After many years of classes with this school, here is a review for anyone considering this one. The instructors don't care about the students here anymore. Many are now worried about getting paid, since they get paid so little. The administration doesn't care about the students anymore here, since they are worried about lying for to school to maintain their own tuition reimbursement. The school will cheat you out of once earned credit now, when you become to close to graduation to try and make more money. Stay away from this one, and look elsewhere!"

"The beginning of UMUC was a headache only because the Financial Aid department did not communicate with me regarding my aid. It took them awhile to confirm to me that they received my transcript from a community college. I kept getting different information and email when i contacted that department. Somehow, I had an SAP issue and wasn't able to get aid from a class i drop in 2009 way before class started. I kept bothering them until someone lift that SAP issue and I was able to get aid to take classes, which happen in summer versus me taking it in spring. My overall experience with the online classes and professors have been really good. It's fast pace with a high demand of work to be completed but it was convenient for someone like me working and taking care of family full-time. I'm still attending UMUC with only 2 semesters left. I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO STAY ON TOP OF FINANCIAL AID DEPARTMENT BECAUSE THEY TEND TO MAKE CHANGES AND YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET THE EMAILS REGARDING THE CHANGE."

"I started in Okinawa and the instructors were amazing, great teachers. Once transferred to the US everything went down hill. The financial department/SCCU is an absolute nightmare with VA benefits and reimbursing monies paid. If using GI AVOID AT ALL COST!!! almost a year in the process to get them to correct the the issues with money being placed into collections. Once the VA corrected and paid UMUC for the debt owed , UMUC has not done anything to reimburse the money I paid to SCCU. SCCU claim it cant do anything unless UMUC sends them an adjustment of over payment. None of these two entities are willing to take responsibility and have wiped their hands of the matter. Apologize for the sporadic thought process but it is extremely frustrating that they can not and have not assited me in any way except in wasting my time. AGAIN IF YOU ARE A VET DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY HERE ESPECIALLY IF YOU WORK AS A CONTRACTOR OR ARE ACTIVE AND DEPLOYABLE"

"IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GOOD AND QUALITY EDUCATION, THEN UMUC IS THE SCHOOL TO ATTEND. IT MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER COLLEGE; IT THE BIRTH PLACE OF GREAT IDEAS AND GREAT PEOPLE. YOU WANT TO BE COUNTED AMONG THE PACE SETTERS? YOU WANT TO BE COUNTED AMONG THE TRIAL BLAZERS; THEN COME HOME TO UMUC."

"UMUC is a wonderful school, and the top for Cyber Security. Yet, since 2016 the cyber security program has a new program called labsim by testout.com where you have to purchase the program for the class and do all the labs, and quizzes for the chapters on it. It is kind of like an online textbook. Yet the site has many glitches, and doesn't work with all web browsers. For example, a lab would tell you everything is correct in the results summary, then when you go back on and double check in a few minutes, or the next day it will give you a wrong result. Also, the final exam of the classes that use testout.com are timed. That is fine, yet the amount of time is a bit short. Hopefully they would extend it up to two hours."