How to Get Bachelors Degree in Cybersecurity: Full Guide

| Updated on March 27, 2024

Cybersecurity is in demand now more than ever. With the rise of technology and advancement, protection against attacks and information theft is vital. As companies and sensitive information shifts into the digital world, we’re only increasingly making ourselves vulnerable. This is the ultimate way of protecting our information online, whether financial, medical, or proprietary information.

Cybersecurity professionals handle everything from safeguarding data to cyberattacks.  According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybersecurity jobs have grown by 350% in the last 5 years. The same projection is anticipated for the next five years. Hence, many industries are opening more job opportunities for professionals to defend themselves from cyberattacks. It’s safe to say that you’ll find a position within the job market if you’re good at it. 

In this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about obtaining a degree in cybersecurity, including reasons to pursue it and what to expect.  

What to Expect from Cybersecurity Undergraduate Degree

We all know what a hacker is, right? Obtaining a degree in cybersecurity teaches you how to be a hacker but in reverse. Hence, instead of stealing sensitive information from networks, you’ll be working on defending them. 

You’re also likely to be expected to write a literature review throughout your bachelor’s degree. However, you’ll eventually be looking to have someone write a literature review for me, as your course load will be pretty extensive. When you’re off to college studying cybersecurity, you’re going to be facing numerous hurdles from various aspects, as you’re required to learn an ample amount of information to be successful. Moreover, there are multiple different areas you’ll dabble in and learn from. Cybersecurity entails various other objectives, as you’ll see below. 

Risk Management

Risk management is evaluating all risks together and identifying the required method of tackling them. Cybersecurity means forecasting potential threats to determine which ones should be addressed first. Why would someone want to do that? You cannot eliminate trivial issues at first when major ones are at hand. Hence, you’ll learn how to evaluate the importance of upcoming risks to get rid of the risky ones first.

Communication

You might be thinking, “well, why do I need to learn communication when working with data?” No matter what you’re studying, effective communication is required. You’ll most likely be working closely with a group of other IT personnel to fend off attacks daily. Hence, effective communication with your colleagues is a must. 

Programming

You’ll need extensive knowledge of programming languages to be an effective cybersecurity professional. Not only will you be working on computer networks to secure them and protect them, but you’ll eliminate bugs and fix software to ensure the safety of the data. 

Data Analysis

Data analysis obtains large quantities of data and transforms them into much more helpful information. Hence, it makes your job easier and makes it simpler to explain your points to others. Data analysis comes in handy when you need to project the potential threats you’ll face. This mainly gives organizations a much more comprehensive understanding of the risks one could meet. These can be fraud, unusual network traffic, or even network breaches. 

Requirements for a Bachelor’s Degree in Cybersecurity

You’re expected to fulfill three main conditions like any other bachelor’s degree requirement. The school you’re applying to will look at 3 items. These are your GPA, experience, and your test results. 

The average required GPA for admissions in cybersecurity undergraduate degree is 3.0. however, this is often waivered according to other test results. Moreover, the requirements will widely differ according to the school you’re applying to. The more competitive the school is, the higher the GPA required and vice versa.  

As for your professional or academic experience that could be a list of multiple things. For instance, if you’ve previously taken any courses or programs outside of your high school curriculum, these must be listed here. Also, if you have any experience working outside of the school during an internship, it’s vital to highlight such experiences. Let’s not forget about any projects, whether you performed them in school or outside, in line with cybersecurity. If you have experience with programming languages, networks, or software, mention that.

Last but not least, some schools will require more test results. For instance, most will require your SAT scores and possibly other exams. Suppose you’re looking for a bachelor’s degree outside of your country. In that case, you might have to sit for a language proficiency exam. 

Why Study Cybersecurity

If you’re yet on the fence about whether you should pursue a bachelor’s in cybersecurity, here are a few pointers to help you out with your decision:

Information Security Analyst is the US’s number 1 best technology job in 2022. Hence, if you’re still worried about your salary or whether you’re going to find a job position, don’t fret anymore. However, keep in mind to be eligible for good jobs, you should perform well in your college or university.

Cybersecurity is much less redundant as compared to other jobs. Let’s think about it this way. Technology is evolving by the day, which means the threats you’ll encounter will constantly shift.  

As a cybersecurity professional, your position within the company is one of the most vital ones. Without these professionals, the organization has the potential to collapse as its networks would be subject to possible threats.

Conclusion

All in all, rest assured that your salary as a cybersecurity professional is quite an impressive one. Moreover, you’ll have multiple job positions you can fill, including information analyst, security administrator, or even a security software developer. Hence, throughout your years as an undergraduate student, you’ll have ample time to study various fields and discover which one appeals to you. You won’t have a scarcity of options you can choose from, which opens up multiple opportunities for you. Moreover, you’ll rarely get bored working as you’ll always face new threats to conquer.





Akansha Singhal

EdTech Writer


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