BY Sydney LakeJuly 01, 2022, 1:36 PM
The Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Middle at Brown College in Windfall, April 2019. (Lane Turner—The Boston Globe/Getty Photographs)
Cybersecurity is turning into one of the in-demand industries within the U.S. Certainly, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tasks that the variety of cybersecurity jobs will develop 33% within the subsequent decade—greater than 4 instances the common charge of all occupations.
Whereas it’s not at all times essential to earn a grasp’s diploma in cybersecurity to enter the sphere, it may well definitely repay. The typical base wage for staff with a grasp’s in cybersecurity is about $91,000, in line with Payscale. However many high applications see graduates nab $200,000 base salaries, just like the College of California, Berkeley, for example.
For those who’re in search of an East Coast–primarily based program or have at all times dreamed of incomes a level from an Ivy League college, you could have a couple of choices. Three Ivy League faculties supply on-line grasp’s diploma applications in cybersecurity: Harvard College, Brown College, and Columbia College.
“Cybersecurity threats are continually evolving,” Ernesto Zaldivar, adjunct affiliate professor of the observe of pc science and deputy director of graduate research for Brown’s grasp of science in cybersecurity program, tells Fortune. “One thing that’s thought of an modern risk right now will possible not be as problematic a couple of years from now. Brown offers its college students the mental instruments and framework to strategy the issues that adversaries haven’t created but.”
Fortune rounded up the small print for these three on-line grasp’s applications together with curriculum info, class profiles, and utility necessities.
Brown College
Brown’s on-line grasp’s diploma program in cybersecurity is obtainable via the varsity’s cybersecurity division and is taught by the identical college that instructs on-campus college students. Some required programs are additionally provided completely on-line, together with Cybersecurity Regulation and Coverage and Human Components in Cybersecurity. College students select one in all two tracks throughout the grasp’s diploma program: pc science or coverage, every of which have required programs.
One of the vital necessary abilities that cybersecurity college students ought to depart this system with is the power to defend towards unknown threats, Zaldivar says. To assist college students develop this ability, he conducts an train through which he offers them with restricted details about a Fortune 500 firm after which asks college students to work in groups to find specifics a few new enterprise technique.
“This in-class train is designed to offer them expertise conducting open-source intelligence gathering, but it surely additionally teaches them to function beneath a fast deadline and to fill in main info gaps,” he says. “Workouts like this assist college students construct consolation encountering and deciphering new info.”
Brown first provided its on-line grasp’s diploma program in cybersecurity in fall 2021, so the varsity doesn’t have any profession end result statistics but accessible. This system takes 4 semesters to finish.
To use, candidates should submit a transcript, private assertion, and two letters of advice. Brown provides three deadlines for entrance in fall 2022 and one deadline for spring 2022.
“Curiosity and curiosity in collaboration are two essential qualities for fulfillment in cybersecurity,” Zaldivar says. “We additionally search for college students which can be robust writers as a result of we imagine that cybersecurity practitioners want to have the ability to articulate challenges and options to each technical and nontechnical audiences.”
Harvard College
Harvard Extension College, which hosts lots of the college’s persevering with schooling diploma applications, provides a web-based grasp’s program in cybersecurity to professionals who already know methods to use object-oriented programming languages like C++, Python, or Java. The varsity additionally requires that candidates enroll in and earn no less than a B in two programs: Techniques Programming and Machine Group and Communication Protocols and Web Architectures.
This system was designed by an advisory board that features chief info safety officers from massive publicly traded corporations, Bruce Huang, director of Harvard Extension College’s cybersecurity graduate program in info know-how, tells Fortune.
“Our purpose is to create a cybersecurity expertise pool to deal with the tactical want and the long-term strategic want in cybersecurity,” Huang says. “By strategic want, we imply the necessity to have material leaders who can assume strategically and proactively when crafting cybersecurity plans and methods for his or her organizations.”
At Harvard Extension College, future college students need to “earn” their manner in—solely college students who’re enrolled of their second prerequisite course can apply to the cybersecurity grasp’s program.
“Why? As a result of we all know that standardized take a look at scores and former transcripts don’t at all times precisely mirror our grownup learners’ present tutorial capabilities and drive to succeed,” Harvard Extension College’s admissions web site reads.
Registration opens for college students interested by enrolling in fall 2022 on July 18. The diploma program contains 12 programs; a three-week, on-campus pre-capstone expertise at Harvard; and a last cybersecurity capstone undertaking. College students work with an business associate on both an innovation or enchancment cybersecurity undertaking.
“Since we launched this providing, our cybersecurity program continues to satisfy the elevated demand from each employers in search of expert expertise, in addition to the expectations of our college students who need a superb schooling and studying expertise,” Nancy Coleman, dean of the Harvard Division of Persevering with Training and College Extension, tells Fortune.
Columbia College
Columbia College’s on-line grasp’s diploma in pc safety is obtainable via the engineering college, the Fu Basis College of Engineering and Utilized Science. A number of the core curriculum for this system contains working programs, pc safety, and an introduction to cryptography or intrusion detection.
College students additionally need to take what are known as “breadth programs,” which embody matters like engineering software program as a service, algorithms, and machine studying idea.
To use to Columbia’s on-line grasp’s in pc safety, you need to have an undergraduate GPA of no less than 3.3, and GRE scores are required. Three letters of advice, transcripts, a résumé, and a private assertion are additionally wanted to use.
