WGU Advice - Bachelor's or Master's in Education?

[nykorn]

Education I currently have:

- Associate's in Integrated Studies, from the US
- Bachelor's in a foreign language, from Europe
- A few diplomas from ENEB Business School (Europe)
- 120 hour TEFL certificate (Europe)
- Around 2 years of verifiable (via copies of my work contracts) work experience in education

Why I don't currently have an awesome job: Disability preventing me from getting a driver's license. So I need to REALLY outshine the pack in order to get hired anywhere as I am usually automatically rejected as soon as they learn I can't drive.

I am debating whether to get a Bachelor's or Master's in Education at WGU, or even both:

- Currently enrolled in a UoPeople M.Ed but realized any degree at WGU would be cheaper and faster, in part due to 1) scholarships at WGU, 2) you can resubmit or retake exams if you fail at WGU but at UoPeople you have to redo the entire course and pay again, 3) UoPeople puts a "class per term" limit so a 1 year degree turns into 2 years unless you have a high GPA and get special permission to take a full course load.
- A WGU Master's or Bachelor's includes "observation hours" which ends up in getting you a teaching license, UoPeople does not. You can still apply for a license after graduating from UoPeople but some countries do not accept degrees or teacher training that did not involve in-class internship hours.
- A Master's at WGU would be faster than a Bachelor's, and a WGU Master would be faster than a UoPeople Master's.
- If I ever were to return to my home country in Europe it looks like I would need a Bachelor's in Education to teach. I am planning on teaching in Japan, not Europe, but I can't tell the future.
- The USA gov doesn't know I have a Bachelor's as mine is foreign and I never applied for FAFSA or student grants etc from the US. So I could theoretically claim to not have one and get FAFSA and scholarships to pay for my entire Bachelor's at WGU. Meanwhile I hear there is far less monetary support for Master's studies. No my workplace will not pay for or reimburse me for education.
- I am at below poverty level (income of $300 or less per month most months). So price is really a factor. Not willing to take out any more student loans as I'm still in debt from my Bachelor's.

The real situation in the real world:
- With my current Bachelor's alone, I could pay $2,000 or more to go through a teaching preparation program that gets me a state license, however that license and preparation program is not transferrable to other countries so if I weren't teaching in the US it'd be money down the drain.
- My local schools aren't hiring, so for any teaching job I would already need to move.
- With my current Bachelor's alone, I qualify for assistant teaching jobs abroad or even head teacher positions in certain states and countries which only require high school graduation for a license. However in my personal experience these have all been terrible in every aspect (working conditions, living conditions, salary, treatment, etc) which is why I am looking into getting a degree in Education so I can get a decent job, above minimum wage salary, and so on.
- I feel like a Bachelor's in Education, based on the WGU course list, would prepare me more for teaching any subject than the Master's would. The reason is the Bachelor's includes a ton of courses like "teaching elementary school math" when the Master's is more like "teaching disabled students in the classroom". At the same time I can also teach myself the aspects in the Bachelor's not included in the Master's. If I personally were to look at a school transcript as a recruiter, I feel the course list of the Bachelor's would be more impressive than the one from the Master's, but I also know some people automatically think a Master's is more impressive than a Bachelor's no matter what.

What I am currently thinking is, I could even get the Bachelor's at WGU, hopefully on full scholarship, while also getting the Master's at UoPeople, where there is no financial aid. Then I could have the best of both worlds - if I'm lucky I may even be able to transfer in UoPeople courses to WGU. However I have already failed one course at UoPeople, my total degree cost at this point there is going to be $5,300 and take over 2 years if I continue - whereas I could get a Master's at WGU for less than that. The WGU courses also seem like they would be easier to pass as you could just marathon them and not have to drag things out. Really not sure what to do here. My parents are telling me I don't need a Master's at all and I definitely don't need a second Bachelor's. However I'm not getting jobs or interviews with my current credentials. Right now I'm pretty set on a WGU degree but am just not sure about if it should be a Bachelor's or Master's.

EDIT: WGU called me and I asked them all these same questions while giving them my information. They said in the Education world it usually doesn't matter if you have a Bachelor's or Master's but if you already have a Bachelor's they advise getting a Master's instead of two Bachelor's. They require foreign degrees to be evaluated by a FCE and they will take all credits at any education level into consideration, all the transcripts must be sent directly from the institution or FCE to WGU (they will not accept anything from the student, not even as preliminary for before you get accepted). It is currently January, they said their next enrollment date would be March 1st. They also seemed to think I would qualify for grants. So I have decided to try cutting my losses at University of the People and switching to the WGU Master's.

[bjcheung77]

"So I have decided to try cutting my losses at University of the People and switching to the WGU Master's." And that's the recommendation I have for you as well... UOPeople seem great as they're 'tuition free' but with all the other things that go on at the institution, they're going to be more costly, lengthy than WGU...

[Ghostwill]

In addition WGU offers scholarships and financial aid for eligible students, which can reduce your tuition costs. Try looking for that also.

[RachelB]

With my current Bachelor's alone, I qualify for assistant teaching jobs abroad or even head teacher positions in certain states and countries which only require high school graduation for a license.

As I'm going into education, as well, I'm curious as to what subject(s) you are looking to teach, and in what places you could be a head teacher without a degree.

[nykorn]

Update: After conferencing with WGU staff, I went for a Master's for licensure. Money is tight and I haven't found full-time work but I'm making it work by working 4 part-time jobs. I should finish within 2 terms. Here is my thread on my WGU progress: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ess-Thread

In addition WGU offers scholarships and financial aid for eligible students, which can reduce your tuition costs. Try looking for that also.

There are no scholarships for Master's students. I also tried applying at many 3rd party scholarship sites but no luck. The US gov doesn't give Pell Grants to Master's students either, despite that I didn't get a Bachelor's in the US so haven't used up any Pell Grant funds. And I have never had an employer who would reimburse for education.

As I'm going into education, as well, I'm curious as to what subject(s) you are looking to teach, and in what places you could be a head teacher without a degree.

I taught ESL to kids and adults for around 3 years in different countries, and through that (more precisely: through reading, applying to, and interviewing for countless jobs for that field) I came to learn that the most in-demand degree is, by far, some equivalent of Elementary Education. Like it or not, the vast majority of teaching jobs are teaching kids in mandatory school. Occasionally you can get a university teaching job but they normally want you to have experience teaching younger years first.

The great thing is if you want to teach high school, ESL, a foreign language, or anything else, you can just take a few tests to get that added to your teaching license, which is what I plan to do after I have the Elementary license. Say for example you want to move to Hawaii. You aren't finding job ads for Elementary Education, but there are a lot for Secondary Math. You can probably just take the exam to get the Secondary Math endorsement on your license and off you go. So Elementary Education seems like a really safe bet to me.