Important Educational Choice

Hello All,

My name is Andrew Pessia and I am months away from graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology w/ a concentration in Computer Forensics. Upon speaking with a successful seasoned investigator, I would like to ask anyone who has been in a similar situation or just any or all comments. My degree has covered a decent level of almost all aspects of the IT field, ie(Visual Basic, Database w/ macros, Security, Microsoft Systems, Networking, etc). My computer forensic classics are giving me a strong foundation and mostly theory and legal aspects of digital forensics. I feel this is still quite useful because in my own research supported by my school curriculum, I am gaining a lot of awareness and some skills in applying this towards some practice images and challenges. I also am just diving in to Harlan Carvey's book and DVD toolkit 2 edition. I am struggling a little on actually performing the file carving and stenography necessary skills. Therefore, I feel it almost a requirement I take all my knowledge I have thus far, and sign up for a hands on boot camp to attain a certification and gain the confidence of having strong theory and skills with a Bachelors degree plus a complete hands on training of a respected organization. So here is my situation, I have family near the DC area.. which I am told is a CF hotspot.. so I have no problem with being willing to relocate there. What are your thoughts on SANS 408 and GCFE and possibly meeting some networking contacts or recruiters in the DC area where I want to move to, or Champlain, which is government listed as an academic school of excellence and going for their CCE bootcamp and is even a little cheaper than SANS. With these courses not being cheap but I am sure well worth the money, I would just like some input to help me weigh up some pros and cons. Thank you for anyone taking the time to read through this, I greatly appreciate any and all opinions and comments.