WGU : Western Governors Univ ?

[grauwulf]

There are 18 assessments to completed. Compare than to other colleges where you need only 8-10 courses. How are you to do that in 1 term ?

Go hard, or go home :-D

Joking aside. With my certs factored in I'm only on the hook for 11 assessments. Two of those are for the capstone project, for which I'll use an existing project from work (this was recommended by the adviser).

So that brings it down to 9 required assessments. If you average a class/assessment every two weeks you can finish all the course work in 1 6-month term and still leave yourself a solid month to prepare for your Capstone Defense.

Tight? Absolutely! Hard work? You bet! Do-able for folks that have experience in the field? I certainly think so.

I really look forward to a resume with my Associates, Bachelors, and Masters degrees all dated within 1 year of each other. I look forward to the promotion interview where I'm asked "can you work under pressure?"

Yes. Yes I can.

[grauwulf]

Check out this article that compares WGU to the big three

Are Life Experience Online Degrees Fake? - Life Experience Degree | GetEducated.com

That's a nice little article. I would have liked to see a review of the education provided by each option too. Are these programs actually working for people? Were they prepared to go out and do those jobs when they got their diploma?

It was good to see a positive evaluation of WGU, if only to settle my mind a bit *grin*

thanks!

[Chebasaz]

A bit more information about this school. Resurrecting this thread since it's the last one that addresses the school name in the title.

Just got off the phone with their admissions and she helped clear up a few questions I've always had about WGU.

1. There is a hard limit for the amount of transfer credits WGU will accept. She quoted 75 as that limit for the business degree, but she had to do some working in the background to get that number.

I asked, "So no matter what, you're going to be taking roughly 60 (BSBA = 132 CU) credits through WGU?" Her response was "Yes". She did clarify that those 60 credits are done through WGU's assessments and exams. If you start a class and already know the material, there's nothing stopping you from skipping it all and going straight to the exam.

2. Exams are proctored. You either take them at a testing center (she didn't specify VUE or Prometric) or you can take them with a webcam the school provides at no cost.

3. WGU's general policy is that no upper level credits are transferable. It says that in quite a few places on their website and she confirmed it when on the phone. I did ask if upper level DSST's would be accepted as upper level credits towards a WGU degree. She said they would if they matched up to the degree requirements. I'd want more confirmation than that if you're on the fence.

4. You must be in the US to enroll. Active Duty Military can get a waiver for this, but government employees and contractors cannot. I get the feeling this could be worked around either by waiver or by giving them a home base address in the US. They don't care if you're in the US full time, but to actually enroll you need to be there. The reason given was that since the exams are proctored by internet, if the internet goes down you need to be close to a testing center. Since the student is the one who schedules the exam, I'd just make sure your internet is reliable when the test date comes up.

I still think it's an interesting school. They've got a few degree programs that the Big 3 doesn't and I really, really like the self-paced environment. It's sort of like Penn Foster or Straighterline... with a degree from a RA and NA accredited college at the end.