Bad Bad Vibes from WGU (and an Intro of sorts)

[ivythrowaway]

Why would anyone pick WGU for an IT-related grad degree if they could get into Georgia Tech's online CS graduate program?

I understand the overall point you're making, but IT is not CS. If you specifically want a CS degree and can get into GT's program, yeah it'd be pretty hard to beat what GT is offering. But if you're an IT professional specifically looking for IT programs, a CS degree probably isn't the way to go. You might be able to find a better path than WGU, but just picking CS because they're both "tech" related wouldn't be a good move unless you already have a CS background and not just IT.

Agreed, IT is not CS. The Online CS program is an outstanding value that trumps anything WGU could offer comparably. I'd put good money that listing "Master's Candidate at Georgia Tech" for 2 years would carry substantial more weight than accelerating for 6 months at WGU to save, what, 4000 bucks?

"Fast forward to WGU, an online university easy to seduce vulnerable working adults. ... Though I think we need to start calling this industry for what it is: a scam, a predatory human rights violation."

wow .. just wow

exaggerate much ?

"If they had it their way, they'd keep you on a 12 credit semester-semester hamster wheel doling out the $3000 something tuition every 6 months. "

and yet wgu's reddit is full of posts from people who accelerate and complete their term in a few days and sometimes their entire degree in one term

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/dd...it_to_see/

WGU isn't stopping people from accelerating so when you say "If they had it their way" you're really just making stuff up aren't you ?

"Why would anyone pick WGU for an IT-related grad degree if they could get into Georgia Tech's online CS graduate program?"

because they could complete it in 6 months (or even fewer) ?

"We're not interested in being cajoled into paying into a semester-semester system any longer than we have to."

kinda answered your own question there about WGU vs Georgia Tech , didn't ya ?

"Why do we want to do that? This was incredulous at the time. Why? Did he mean: 'Why do you want to save money and not cut me a few dollars more in commission?' "

he possibly meant that -- or he possibly meant stop procrastinating -- stop looking for reasons not to do a degree or 6 months from now you'll be in the same place you are now -- so just enroll and get started

go to reddit's "learn programming" forum and you see people asking "what language is best to start with?"
the answer is always "just pick one and get started .. you're spending more time and energy trying to decide which language to learn than actually learning one"

its the same with getting a degree
so the enrollment counselor could possibly be trying to get your money or he could possibly just be trying to get you started

"I can shatter your illusions about the quality of an Ivy League education (that ultimately led to my flunking and dropping out) but that's another story for another day.
... the first thing you note is the very subtle condescending shepherd-to-sheep like tone. "

with that kind of attitude and view of the world it doesn't sound like the problem is the quality of an Ivy League education or any school's enrollment counselors

Not exaggerating at all. The writing is on the wall. People still graduate sheepishly with degrees that they're paying off a decade and change or much more later. After adjusting for Inflation you could graduate Yale in the 1940s for about 30K in today's dollars: https://www.studentdebtrelief.us/news/ri...ent-loans/

It is a human rights violation. You should look into Alan Collinge and see what Student Loan Justice is all about. In what world is this sensible to you?

So far as my encounter with the WGU rep, that was part of the dialogue extrapolated. The full context of it would reveal that he was in fact booing my interest in maxing out Saylor credits. Note: this degree program would have required 90 credits after my eval. As a case study, Codebueno slaved away for a full 6 months sleep deprived on the Computer Science degree finishing 79 credit units and still had to extend the term to finish the Capstone.

Lastly, sorry Sir. I don't know what world you live in, but any employer anywhere would immediately recognize the value of a Georgia Tech grad degree vs. a WGU grad degree. Acceleration is really not as important here in most cases vs. the value and doors Georgia Tech would open comparably with very comparable price points.