Degree Plan Help - WGU Teachers College

[varJosh]

Hello everyone. I need help with a degree plan for my wife, who wants to be a teacher. She has just completed a semester at the local state college, but she doesn't like the format of the classes. She says she doesn't enjoy the pace and deadlines. When she finishes a lesson, she cannot move ahead course schedule and then there are times she is behind and will not receive credit for late assignments. I suggested for her to try WGU and she talked to an advisor today and really thinks this is the best method of learning for her.

Being a Army veteran she wants to use her G.I. Bill and with me paying out of pocket for my own degree, we are on a limited budget and can only afford a few courses at a time with Straighterine, Study.com, Aleks... etc.

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Background
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Seeking B.A. Interdisciplinary Studies (K—8)

Credits Earned:

Psychology 3
English I 3
Human Development through Lifespan 3
Psychomythology 2





Thanks in advance for the help.

[dfrecore]

I know nothing about the GI Bill, so I can't help you there.

What I do suggest though, is taking at least 4 courses through SL, so that you can get the SL/WGU scholarship. It's $500 per term up to $2000.

I also think that if your wife can take CLEP/DSST exams for free as a vet, that might be a good option as well. She just has to weigh the best combination of options for her. I have a spreadsheet she can use, and she needs to look at all of the options and really map it out to take the best advantage. For instance, for English Comp II, she can take the CLEP or DSST or SL. BUT, if she takes the SL course, it will not only count towards English Comp II but also Communications Foundations. So she should do that (it's the only way to get that requirement.

I would take the best combination of courses that get her as many of the Gen Ed's as possible, because she will want to finish WGU in as few terms as possible - if she takes every single class there, it will probably take too long to get finished.

Have her figure out the balance between cost of Gen Ed's and speed in finishing. Also, SL will probably give her a better start into WGU's process. It's not exactly the same, I don't think, but it's much closer than B&M courses at her local college. CLEP/DSST exams will also help her get used to the testing - again, not exactly the same, but start her in that direction, because WGU has lots of assessments as part of their program.

[varJosh]

I know nothing about the GI Bill, so I can't help you there.

For instance, for English Comp II, she can take the CLEP or DSST or SL. BUT, if she takes the SL course, it will not only count towards English Comp II but also Communications Foundations. So she should do that (it's the only way to get that requirement.

First, thanks for the reply.

Did I read that correctly? The SL English II course will satisfy both the WGU Eng II and Communications Foundations courses? Do you know if that's only the SL course that will satisfy both or if Study.com would satisfy both as well? (I really prefer SL tbh)

I will probably read through some of Rowan's threads and posts, but I am thinking maybe my wife could apply for Guardian Scholarship for Study.com and take ALEKS math courses, if they will transfer.
She has an advisement call on Monday, but her advisor is not an expert on Straighterline and says he is far less knowledgeable concerning Study.com. I want to help her prepare so that she and her advisor can be on the same page and so the process can be so much easier for them both.

[dfrecore]

SL has very good transfer guide for WGU on their website. WGU also shows what will work for CLEP & DSST. I don't know about ALEKS, but it certainly is worth $20 to try.

Study.com doesn't have a published transfer guide that I've seen for this degree. They do have a transfer guide coming, but so far, they've only done the Accounting degree, which is helpful for a few Gen Ed's, but not all of them. For instance, Accounting doesn't require Communications Foundations - so they don't show the English Comp II course satisfying that. Accounting doesn't require College Math, so it doesn't show if MATH 102: College Math will satisfy that. It does show that you could take a variety of science courses to satisfy the Natural Sciences area. But, it's really difficult to figure out what is going on with that transfer guide, it's terrible and impossible to follow from the top down to the bottom summary section.

The math requirement for the Teacher's College is not College Algebra or even Intermediate Algebra - so she might be able to take something even lower like the CLEP College Math exam. But ALEKS would be an easy one to get credit for, and would help study for any other math courses she might need.

When I talked to WGU myself, the advisor was NOT at all knowledgeable on transferring courses. She could not tell me one single thing that would transfer in. Not SL, not Study.com, not DSST, nothing. No clue what was going on with that over there. So don't be disappointed if you don't get great answers.

It's worth a shot to get the Study.com scholarship, even if you use all of the free courses on the EDU section there. If they were not accepted for transfer, she would still have a big head start on those courses at WGU, and probably need far less time because of it.

With SL, there are so many coupons and things you can use that it seems worth it to me to take at least 4 courses there to get the scholarship. Same with CLEP/DSST if you can get them for free. WGU has published exactly what they will accept from those 3 providers, so I would err on the side of caution and use those to be 100% certain that things are going to work.

[teacher2]

I am currently enrolled at WGU but here is the link to my thread of my experience: http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...gress.html

Personally I would go ahead take thru Study.com Foundations of Education(Mainly because I hate dealing with ordering transcripts from DSST folks and it is a 2 hour drive from where I live) Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction and Early childhood education. I had no problems at all transferring my Study.com courses. You can see what all I transferred. My Special Ed course I took after I had enrolled.

Also the Foundations of Mathematics course will be waived if you complete College Algebra or above:This is a excerpt of what my enrollment counsellor told me but you will need to verify with yours:
Also as long as you pass your Pre-Calculus course with a C or better, your Foundations of College Math and College Algebra courses should be waived. Therefore, you’ll not want to take either class.


Basically I agree with dfrecore!

[varJosh]

Okay, I will start developing a plan now for them to go over on Monday. Thanks your help, guys.

[rowan555]

Straighterline is the way to go - their transfer guide makes the process so easy, and if you take 4 classes with them you get $200 off the first term's WGU tuition and the possibility of a $2,000 scholarship. My son just enrolled in WGU's business program, but you can see in my sig line below that he transferred quite a few SL courses. He received the scholarship in addition to the $200 discount, which was amazing.

[varJosh]

I was actually studying your sig to help develop my wife's plan. heh heh.

I know you guys have built up the credits so that your son will complete his degree in only 1 semester and I am hoping to go as far as possible with my wife's plan as well.
The Straighterline scholarship is great and it was another factor in me convincing my wife that this is the way to go.

[varJosh]

Does anyone know if Straighterline Business Statistics, Aleks Int. Algebra and Precalculus will fulfill the math requirements at WGU?

She asked her advisor, but he doesn't know.

Thanks.

[Thorne]

Does anyone know if Straighterline Business Statistics, Aleks Int. Algebra and Precalculus will fulfill the math requirements at WGU?

She asked her advisor, but he doesn't know.

Thanks.

I'm in the IT school, but SL Business Stat and ALEKS Int. Algebra met Intro to Stat and Int. Algebra (respectively) in my program.
I already had College Algebra from my CC, so they didn't care about PreCalculus through ALEKS.

Here's WGU's official SL equivalency:
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...755&pid=57

They were wishy-washy on ALEKS, to be honest. I think they would have covered my Int. Algebra with my AAS even without ALEKS, so they may have just written it in to placate me and stop my questions.