Certification and Admissions Requirements

Hi everyone!

I was hoping to start my MSCIA in April, but today, an admissions rep called and told me that I don't have the appropriate career experience to get in, and that I would be good to go if I take one of the certs in the program and transfer it in. My original Bachelor's isn't in STEM, so I suppose it's fair, but I'm still a little disappointed.

I've been working in IT for five years, and I understand that it's different than cybersecurity, I was hoping to get this degree to specialize a bit beyond doing Level 2/desktop support, which I am doing now.

Knowing that, which of the certifications would be the quickest/easiest for someone to get? Here are the ones that transfer in for the MS program. I'm really only familiar with the CompTIA ones, but I don't know the relative difficulty of any of them.

CompTIA

• Pentest+
• CySA+
• CASP+

EC-Council

• Ethical Hacking & Countermeasures Exam (CEH) (312-50)

ISACA

• CISM

(ISC)2

• CISSP or Associate of (ISC)2 with CISSP exam passed
• SSCP or Associate of (ISC)2 with SSCP exam passed
• Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)

Offensive Security:

• OSCP
• OSCE

GIAC 

• GPEN 
• GCIH
• GSEC