On Wed, 1 Jan 2003, The Long and Winding Road wrote: > ""Howard C. Berkowitz"" wrote in message > [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > > At 3:57 PM +0000 1/1/03, Peter van Oene wrote: > > > >I would just like to reiterate that the graduate degree (master's or > PhD) > > >>provides you a whole lot more flexibility than the CCIE ever can. With > a > > >>graduate degree, you can branch out far and beyond network engineering.
Ok, I've been following this thread for a while now. I'm a student currently working on my BS in Computer Engineering and I'll only be on my soap box for a few minutes here. Colleges used to be on the bleeding edge of technology and now they aren't anymore. I'm a network security engineer by practice and I'm having to study programmming and electronic design. Granted this is good and important, because I must understand how the technology works but while I'm learning the 1970s art of electronic design I'm missing out on the latest in network design. Currently colleges are in the mindset that you must be a grad student to even attempt networking and that is killing me. Look at how many universities offer MS and PhD programs in Network Engineering, but find one popular university that offers the same program to undergrads. I walked into a research lab full of grad students that were using out-dated Cisco and Bay equipment to study for their CCNA. They were amazed to find out I got mine while still in High-School almost 3 years ago (Yes I'm due for recert in May). The universities need to work on building programs in networking and computer security at the level of Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Sure you can argue Networking is a subset of both programs and thus a specialization that must be obtained after your BS. However, if thats the logic then therefore a Landscape Architecture student must first major in General Architecture and then work on their MS in Landscape Design. Which is not the case. Another problem is that there are absolutely ZERO Network Security or Computer Security courses at the undergrad level in my school (Virginia Tech). So we are letting all these programmers out the door without ever teaching them buffer overflows, or other security issues. And we wonder why every system built has security flaws out the wazoo. Now I've tried to take classes above my degree program and have been refused admission in all cases and that is so fustrating. Because for me the only way to stay up on technology is to do research on my own for no school credit, or to take a job in the world and forget about school. Colleges are running the shop like a bakery, if you don't fit the cookie cutter you are either thrown away or smashed back into the dough with the rest of the ginger-bread men. I have found one answer....Tutoring, I've started tutoring MS students in Network Applications and hopefully next semester I'll start with some Network Security tutoring. But that only provides person rewards and I'm still paying the same $20K/year to learn stuff I picked up in High-School in three years of Electronics and 4 years of Programming Design. And now with budget cuts its getting worse and they are scratching classes right and left. *Steps down off the soap box* Andrew --- http://www.andrewsworld.net/ ICQ: 2895251 Cisco Certified Network Associate "Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself." Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=60070&t=59481 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
