Bad Review for WGU: Dishonest, Incompetent, and Unreliable

[Merlin]

Sorry to hear this, from what I understood, WGU is supposed to take up to like 20-30 transfer credits.  Depending on the program.
Clearly they are not on the same page as the big 3!

No, WGU isn't as generous as the TESU and EC in terms of how many credits you can transfer, but they allow up to 90 credits in transfer (30 credits of residency) which is pretty good overall. On par with COSC for people who want to base their degree on alt. education credits, since COSC only accepts 90 alt. ed. credits as well. That said, WGU is more generous than the Big 3 since they will accept ACE credits, RA credits, and NA credits. The Big 3 will only accept ACE and RA credits (well EC used to accept some NA credits, but I don't know if they still do, the other two don't accept NA at all).

The problem with them is we dont have much data from folks that have used them.  Very little info on these boards have been brought up about them. They are good for computer degrees and thats I all i know about them.

If you go back through this forum there are hundreds of posts about WGU, and there are even more if you go back through the archive. They just haven't been as popular until recently.

One nice thing about WGU though is that they are more transparent than TESU and COSC about what they will and will not accept... at least from StraighterLine and Study.com. Their pathway agreements specify the course equivalency and are kept up to date for the most part. It seems like TESU and COSC have been changing their acceptance policies quite a bit lately.

I knew a coworker that got stuck on a English class with them for a computer degree. I always wondered why he didnt do straightline or something equivalent to bypass the basic/core stuff.
Apparently their transfer policy has some issues.

People get stuck on courses all the time. It isn't exclusive to WGU. However, people also need to understand that WGU isn't an easy school. The courses are just as rigorous most other colleges. They're not on the same level as an ivy league or elite school, but for some reason people expect WGU courses to be easy. Sure, some are... especially for people with prior knowledge or strong study habits and plenty of free time. But in some ways, they can be harder than normal because you're expected to have prior knowledge or learn on your own without the handholding you get in a lot of in-person colleges.

As for the transfer policy, most people who have trouble with transfers generally have the problems because they make assumptions based on the name of the courses or assume that if a course is similar it will work for transfer purposes. That is not how evaluation works. It isn't the name that matters, but the content of the coursework. Incoming courses have to meet the same exact competencies as the course you are trying to replace at WGU. This can be challenging at WGU since many of their courses are unique to their programs, or are based on certifications, which means that incoming courses are unlikely to match. This sounds like what happened to the person who had the problems earlier in this thread.

You can transfer up to 90 credits with WGU.  With a business degree, it's easy to transfer 90 credits.  With a computer degree, it is next to impossible to reach 90 credits using alternative credits.

That isn't exactly true. With all the courses available from Study.com I'm pretty sure you can find more than 90 credits worth of transfer credits. I recently had my TESU BSBA-CIS transcript evaluated for the WGU BSCS. My TESU transcript is almost completely based on alt. credits, and between what I have now and about a half dozen additional courses from Straighterline and Study.com, I could enter WGU with like 96 credits completed, though only 90 could be used due to residency requirements. That said, having a prior IT degree allowed me to waive like 45 credits at WGU without even looking at specific courses.

I have seen people report some courses that are much harder than other classes.  With the 70% passing grade on the all or nothing final test, there is a lot of pressure on each course.

I'm pretty sure it is like every other school in that way. Some classes are just harder by nature. Math courses come to mind. The certification courses also tend to be very tough. At the same time, many of the Gen Ed courses are mostly rehash of content from high school and are generally pretty easy in comparison for people who have retained that knowledge. It also goes back to where people's strengths are. I do really well in technical courses while I know many others who struggle with those. YMMV. Btw, not all OA's have a 70% pass requirement... as I recall, they vary from 62% to 77% depending on the specific course. It is harder to see what the cutoff is now though since they hide it. At one time it was listed on each OA.

Worst case you can transfer your credits out and go to TESU/COSC later on.

Personally, I think that is a terrible idea. The worst of both worlds... at least in terms of cost and time. You'd be better off completing the bulk of your credits from ACE providers and transferring to either WGU or TESU from the start. TESU also is relatively unknown so other than being a state college, it doesn't have any name recognition. At least if you're doing IT or CS, the WGU degrees are well regarded in the tech sector.

At least COSC would be a bit cheaper, assuming you can transfer in at least 27 credits taken directly at WGU.

Another thought might be you could go to WGU, then transfer to a traditional brick and mortar school.  That would save time & money yet still give you the experience of drinking and chasing tail (I mean enlightened social experience) of the brick and mortar schools.

Unless you're pretty young (which is the minority of people on this forum) chances are that drinking and chasing tail are not the top of your list of priorities when coming back to complete a college degree. But if it is, then all the more power to you!  You should definitely not be looking at online schools though.