What I've Learned So Far in Grad School

[sanantone]

That's a great write-up and summary of information!  I love it, thanks for sharing, congrats on your first month in "year two".
In regards to your first choice (WGU MBA), would you have taken and maybe even complete the program before you got into John Hopkins? The program's completely different than an MA in Government, Security Studies.  I can see that this program may be more suitable than an MBA as your undergrad was in BA/History.

The reason I am asking is that I'm looking into graduate programs.  There are a few that interest me due to their cost/speed to finish and they're competency-based programs.  I think my mindset is "focused on" or thinking that I should do the following.
1) Take the Hodges MPA/MIS programs and try to finish them each in one term or at most two.
2) When WGU gains their ACBSP accreditation, take the MBA/MSML program in one term each.

You and the OP are obviously looking for different things. The OP wants to attend a quality school with quality instructors and classmates. You want something cheap and fast. 

When I was choosing my graduate program, I was in between. I really did not want to attend a for-profit school, and there are no competency-based programs in security studies or international relations. I also needed to find schools that could I get into based on my last 60 credit hours. I had quite a few Fs from not turning in coursework in my early years. 

The biggest restriction was cost. I couldn't splurge on my master's, especially if I was going on to a PhD program. I had already accumulated enough debt at the two for-profit schools I attended. APUS and Angelo State University were about the same cost, but ASU is a public school in my state whereas APUS is for-profit and known as being an online school. It was a no-brainer for me. At ASU, all of the professors were full-time, and there were only four or five of them. The professors knew me by name, and I made friends with classmates because I had them in multiple classes. Customer service was more personable at ASU with it being a smaller school. When you attend an entirely online school like APUS, which has tens of thousands of students, you feel like a number. Another bonus with ASU is that Texas gives grants to graduate students, but only for Texas schools. That reduced the amount of loans I needed to take out. 

I think the classmates at APUS would have been similar to the classmates at ASU, but of slightly lower quality. Most of my classmates were either in the military or retired from the military.  There was one who had a management position at a government agency. I only remember one student who didn't have much work experience. I would go as far as to guess that just about any online government, security studies, political science, or international relations program will have a lot of military and government employees as students. But, at the end of the day, I will always learn the most on my own. I've always been an independent learner. My on-campus PhD classes at Texas State University were mostly interesting, and I liked conversing with my professors and classmates, but I would have been just fine studying by myself. 

Harvard Extension is a good option if you don't have the grades to get into a high-ranking school. Everyone can get into Harvard Extension as long as they pass their first few courses. You may not earn a degree from a ranked school within Harvard, but at least you'll have access to quality courses. Although, I've that most of the instructors at the Extension School don't really teach at the other Harvard schools. With Harvard Extension, the biggest hurdle is paying for the first two or three classes before you can be admitted and apply for financial aid. Several years ago, three Harvard courses would have cost me three months of income. That is simply something you can't afford when you're making less than $12 an hour. If Harvard Extension wants to truly be accessible to everyone capable of doing the work, then they need to do something about the tuition issue. Maybe they could charge a discounted price for the first few courses before admission. Maybe they could fully admit people right at the beginning if they have good GRE scores.