US Veteran Brandon Phelps enhances his cybersecurity career with a Duke Cyber online degree

Brandon Phelps is a first-year online student pursuing a Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity at Duke University. A veteran who served in the Cybersecurity branch of the US Army, Brandon wanted to earn a graduate degree in the field where he has been working for the past five years. “I came to Duke to attend a school with an excellent reputation. I was also drawn to the Duke program’s flexible curriculum. I wanted to be able to combine technical classes with leadership classes to match my military experience,” Brandon told us. Brandon is one of the six US Army active duty or veteran students in the Cybersecurity master’s program. Duke University is a Yellow Ribbon school, which means it has an agreement with the Department of Veteran Affairs to fund tuition expenses exceeding the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate. Duke can waive up to 50% of the costs, and the VA will match the same amount.

Brandon is from the Raleigh-Durham area. He is working full time while studying online for his degree. And, because he is not far from Duke, he can also participate in campus events and conferences. The Duke Cybersecurity Online master’s program – ranked one of the best three online Cybersecurity master’s in the country – is completed in 2 to 5 years. “The only Cybersecurity course I have taken so far is CYBERSEC 500 – Introduction to Cybersecurity Perspectives. I really enjoyed listening to Professor Richard Biever’s perspective. Even though I have 5+ years in the field, I could still take a lot away from the class,” Brandon told us. One of the things he likes most about the Duke program is that most of the professors come from industry instead of being in Academia for their entire careers. “They have real-world examples and aren’t just reading out of a textbook. It is interesting to see how they would take different approaches to problems than I would.”

While students in the on-campus program must complete an internship during the summer term following their first year of study, online students, typically practitioners, executives, or cyber entrepreneurs, work on a real-world project for their organization. Brandon is now in the process of choosing his summer project. He shared the excitement of having colleagues with diverse backgrounds and cultures and of living in different places around the world.