For Harvard Extension School, do you take the admissions requirement courses first?

[mednat]

Thanks so much for your post. I've been eager to talk to someone with experience at HES. Were you able to the Harvard Extension Grant? Have you heard anything about the grant from other students? What is your experience with grading in the courses you've been in? Is the criteria clear?

I noticed that you finished your MBA at WGU. Do you think finishing my BSBA at WGU would prepare me for HES, or should I stick to taking the next year to finish my BSBA at the local state university?

This is the first I've heard of the grant.  Given my current financial situation, it's unlikely I'd qualify.

Course grading is fair, but the expectations are high.  The criteria is usually not clear with alot of professors seeing this as a positive (they believe ambiguity exists in the real world and should therefore exist in their class). I find this lack of detail frustrating at times, but will say most professors are extremely available via teaching assistants, sections or directly.

WGU prep for HES...This depends alot on how you use your time there (same with state university).  I feel well prepared for most classes (i need to work on math for some of the big data stuff..), but most of my preparation came from my working history not academic history.  WGU's MBA has absolutely helped me prepare for massive amounts of writing that comes with graduate level work.  I'm not sure that the undergrad program has this feature.

Switching from state uni to wgu...This is completely a personal decision..I'm not sure your motivations for wanting to switch, but the general advice I'd give for someone wanting to make a transfer so close to the end is to stick with where you are...with that being said, if you have a good reason to switch, I enjoyed my time at WGU.  I don't know that I'd say one prepares you more than another, but local name recognition does have a value in the market place.

The biggest adjustment from WGU to HES that I've found (and sometimes enjoyed, sometimes hated) is class interaction.  I truely missed having a professor and other students to interact with.   The downside to this is, group projects...I HATE them.  Most of the students at HES are type A, which helps alot...but in each of my group projects so far there has been atleast one member who doesn't pull their weight...

I love my experience at HES.  In particular the pre-recorded classes (my least favorite modality is on campus with live internet) option.  The reason for this boils down to instructor quality. The pre-recorded classes are done by literal legends in their field, while the on-campus courses are taught by extremely qualified professors...they aren't usually names I recognize without googling (like the pre-recorded classes).