WGU--Too good to be true??

[b819]

Hey all, 
I promise I've read quite a bit here and on Reddit looking to quell my concerns that an accelerated bachelor's degree through WGU seems too good to be true. I have a little bit of credit (18 cu) that will transfer and have mapped out with an enrollment counselor to do a large portion of the Bus. Mgmt degree through Sophia.com/Study.com. I am self pay so this will be affordable for me and I like the ability to accelerate. I'm just nervous to put in the effort/money and then find out in 5 years that my degree is not respected in the business world. I can't find evidence of that happening, but also can't find evidence of graduates who are successful in the long run due to their degree with WGU. Thoughts??

[bjcheung77]

WGU is good in my books, you may want to take a look at some other institutions such as PUG, UMASS or UMPI, but they're not "too good to be true".  You might want to review this thread post, but I'll copy/paste the last reply details I have: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid355817

Hey, I understand how you feel, SNHU and WGU are regionally accredited, non-profit, they're not going to go the way of University of Phoenix for a few reasons, they are large but they're continuing their non-profit ways, affordable education for the middle class or lower, they have a specific niche and people including the government support them, accreditation agencies are fine with them as well.

I would do the following, choose the school, either stay or go, I usually suggest the Big 3 and competency based degree providers, SNHU and WGU both have been suggested by me before. I love SNHU's College for America option, students get this free if their employer pays the $5000. WGU is inexpensive as well, I usually recommend them for grad school. Decide fast, don't stall.

If you want, you can follow my "plan" of getting 2 Associates and 2 Bachelors for under $9K USD, I've written it before a few times about obtaining these from a State University - TESU. I recommend taking everything you need with Sophia.org/Study.com and then finishing the 16-18 credits at TESU. You can then go to Walden for your Masters, really cheap/easy/fast there as well.

[MNomadic]

1) regionally accredited. This is the most important fact. Also non profit, which helps. By no means is it prestigious, though.
2) I've met people who were successful from various programs at WGU(mostly IT programs) and some were very successful by moving on to high paying careers.
3) in 5 years, your degree will matter much less and mostly be a "checkbox" while you and your experiences will be much more important. To be fair, I don't know your goals in the business world, but I haven't seen WGU degrees be a hindrance for anyone yet.

[b819]

1) regionally accredited. This is the most important fact. Also non profit, which helps. By no means is it prestigious, though.
2) I've met people who were successful from various programs at WGU(mostly IT programs) and some were very successful by moving on to high paying careers.
3) in 5 years, your degree will matter much less and mostly be a "checkbox" while you and your experiences will be much more important. To be fair, I don't know your goals in the business world, but I haven't seen WGU degrees be a hindrance for anyone yet.

Thanks!

---

WGU is good in my books, you may want to take a look at some other institutions such as PUG, UMASS or UMPI, but they're not "too good to be true".  You might want to review this thread post, but I'll copy/paste the last reply details I have: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid355817

Hey, I understand how you feel, SNHU and WGU are regionally accredited, non-profit, they're not going to go the way of University of Phoenix for a few reasons, they are large but they're continuing their non-profit ways, affordable education for the middle class or lower, they have a specific niche and people including the government support them, accreditation agencies are fine with them as well.

I would do the following, choose the school, either stay or go, I usually suggest the Big 3 and competency based degree providers, SNHU and WGU both have been suggested by me before. I love SNHU's College for America option, students get this free if their employer pays the $5000. WGU is inexpensive as well, I usually recommend them for grad school. Decide fast, don't stall.

If you want, you can follow my "plan" of getting 2 Associates and 2 Bachelors for under $9K USD, I've written it before a few times about obtaining these from a State University - TESU. I recommend taking everything you need with Sophia.org/Study.com and then finishing the 16-18 credits at TESU. You can then go to Walden for your Masters, really cheap/easy/fast there as well.

Thanks for your response and thoughts!

[dfrecore]

It's definitely not too good to be true; it's generally for people who already have years of experience in the business or IT world, so the "prestige" of the degree matters not a whit, they just need a check-the-box degree. For those people, they can usually get through the degree in 1-2 terms, and fairly easily since they already know a lot of the material.

I had a friend whose kid went through straight out of high school, knowing not much at all about CompSci - he took 5 terms, but that was still far less time and money than it would have cost him to go through a traditional program via CC/4yr state school. He was very happy with the program, and is currently using the knowledge he learned to create a video game with a friend.

As far as what it will do for you - it really depends on what your experience is, and what you plan to do for a career.

[SweetSecret]

Try going on LinkedIn and looking up the school, from which you will be able to see the alumni and what roles they are in professionally. I'm regularly come across WGU grads on LinkedIn who are in great roles. They might not be hanging out on Reddit complaining though...

[rachel83az]

They might not be hanging out on Reddit complaining though...

So true. You're more likely to find the 10 people complaining about how their degree didn't land them a high paying job instantly and automatically after graduation than you are to find the 1000 people who are satisfied about the results. The satisfied people are going to be quietly minding their own business. The angry people probably have something else going on (bad resume, not presenting themselves well in an interview, etc.) to keep them from landing a job, let alone a high-paying one.

[HogwartsSchool]

Hey all, 
I promise I've read quite a bit here and on Reddit looking to quell my concerns that an accelerated bachelor's degree through WGU seems too good to be true. I have a little bit of credit (18 cu) that will transfer and have mapped out with an enrollment counselor to do a large portion of the Bus. Mgmt degree through Sophia.com/Study.com. I am self pay so this will be affordable for me and I like the ability to accelerate. I'm just nervous to put in the effort/money and then find out in 5 years that my degree is not respected in the business world. I can't find evidence of that happening, but also can't find evidence of graduates who are successful in the long run due to their degree with WGU. Thoughts??

A degree from WGU is from a unranked University, that's not good nor bad. It's just unranked. It's not viewed as a diploma mill if that's what you are worried about. I went to WGU and got accepted into a T14 law school. People don't worry about going to a small unranked state university but a very small minority worry about WGU, I honestly don't understand why. Between a small unranked state university and WGU, the business world views no difference, it's a degree. In five years, 97% of your resume will be based on your experience, not where you went to college and what degree you got.

Hope that helps.

[ss20ts]

Try going on LinkedIn and looking up the school, from which you will be able to see the alumni and what roles they are in professionally. I'm regularly come across WGU grads on LinkedIn who are in great roles. They might not be hanging out on Reddit complaining though...

They're probably busy working. I see plenty of positivity about WGU on various Facebook groups. Reddit seems like a place for people to complain.

[ArielB74]

I hire a lot of people, and I don't even look at where they went to school unless this is their first job right out of college.