Is a WGU degree valued less in IT employment in Higher Education?

I am graduating an AAS in Computer Information Technology from my local Community College. From what I have been told and read that it may not be enough to have an AAS, certifications, and a work experience; one day I may need to have a 4 year degree in Information Technology or Computer Science. With that being said, I am considering going to an in state university or completing the BS online at WGU. However, I want to work in higher education or libraries. I am also looking into going to work for the government, K-12, or not-profit sectors. I am worried that if I go the WGU route, I will be labeled as “not going to a real school.” Is there some truth to this or am I worried about nothing?

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Comments

Jon_Cisco

You run that risk with any program. I think the people that choose WGU make the choice based on cost and learning style. In the end you will have to decide if this is the better option compared to whatever alternatives you come up with.

Good Luck!

NinjaBoy

To be honest, you may find that with any school/college/university that you attend. As long as it's a legit school (eg not a degree or diploma mill) and within your means, that's the best anyone can do.

srabiee

WGU is non-profit and regionally accredited. If anyone has a problem with it, tell them to kindly go **** themselves.

AverageJoe

I think some of your concerns will certainly be realized if you're pursuing employment in higher education. Degree source can be a big deal in those circles, and you're putting yourself at a disadvantage with a non-traditional degree.

On the other hand, federal government employment is very "checklist" oriented, and for the most part a degree is a degree as far as being considered qualified for a position or level. Once you're "in the running" for a position, hiring managers and supervisors still have influence on who gets hired, which means their subjective opinions regarding your degree source could come into play, but the federal government in general is probably the least concerned with where you got your degree as long as it's accredited.

Let's look at it a different way, though. Suppose you knew that some managers consider it more professional for their employees to wear white shirts with a tie. Other managers don't care at all as long as you wear a tie.

So you're getting ready to go to an interview. You know you're wearing a tie. Do you wear a white shirt or a blue one? You have both, they're both ready, and it's completely up to you. You have no idea which your interviewer will prefer, and you tell yourself the interviewer probably won't care at all (and that's probably true!). But do you say, hey, if he does care then I don't want to work there. Or do you say, hey, I'm going to wear white just in case he does care.

Wearing the white shirt won't get you a job. But not wearing a white shirt might be a distracter. If you really want the job you'll probably do everything you can to impress (and not distract). Wouldn't you do the same when it comes to investing in your degree? Pursue the one that is the most in line with your career goals, which may mean opting for the most prestigious one that fits in your budget.

After all, after a couple of botched interviews you can change what shirt you wear, you can practice interview techniques, and you can tighten up your resume, but you'll be "stuck" with the degree you choose for a long time. Choose wisely.

Just an average Joe's opinion.

PS: I have a friend who left the military years ago and works in the banking industry. Suit and tie position. He was very skilled, top of the heap, and beat the competition hands down, so got hired, but he really did get talked to about wearing non-white shirts. If he wasn't the hands-down best pick would the shirt have made a difference? Don't know, but who wants to take a chance over something stupid. Control what you can and hope for the best.

WilliamK99

srabiee wrote: »

WGU is non-profit and regionally accredited. If anyone has a problem with it, tell them to kindly go **** themselves.

I have limited experience with WGU but there are a ton of shady regionally accredited schools...This fact alone does not mean much...There are a ton of other factors involved.

I will say WGU has more "fan boys" than most other Universities online... I am not saying WGU is not a good fit for the OP , but he should practice due diligence and do some heavy research and refrain from telling people to "go f**** themselves"

srabiee

List some "shady" regionally accredited schools that are also non-profit. Since there are a "ton" of them, it shouldn't be difficult for you to do so.

I stand firm on my opinion. If someone has a problem with my regionally accredited degree that was earned from a non-profit university that was founded by 19 U.S. state governors AND is a state school in at least 5 different states, they can piss right off. Got it?

WGU gets so much praise on Techexams because so many of us are either students of WGU or graduated from WGU. There's a reason for that. I don't think it's a fanboy thing. WGU's model caters to adults who work full-time and have families to support and not a lot of money to spend. It was quite literally the reason I was able to go back and obtain a degree at this stage of my life.

At any rate, there will always be people out there with old school mentality that don't agree with the idea of distance learning and will try to give people a hard time about it. They are wrong. Times change, and education is evolving with the advent of the Internet. Don't let these people give you ****. Stand firm and be proud of your accomplishments. That was my message in a nutshell.

N2IT

I tend to look at the output from the degree. What I mean is who has this degree and what are they doing. I, like a lot of people are huge skeptics when it comes to online education. I'll be the first to admit WGU isn't perfect, every University has it's warts. With that said what it does bring to the table is this.

- Regionally Accredited
- Flexibility to work around YOUR schedule
- Accepted by HR departments as a degree they accept, both Bachelors and Masters
- Affordable, the idea of paying another 20 years for a degree made me sick. (Yes it took me 20 years to pay off my bachelors which was from a state school)
- Accessible virtual library after graduation, which I use all the time. I get Lynda.com and other resources for free, I use this service all the time.

With all the items listed the biggest one I have noticed is how many successful people on this forum have the degrees from WGU. Some of the roles held who are on this forum are listed below.

- Security professionals
- Network professionals
- Database/ETL developers
- Developers
- Business and other forms of analyst (Raises hand)
- Managers, Supervisors up to Directors
- System Administration
- Help desk
- Desktop support

This list goes on. I find that WGU really lends itself well to the IT community.

Overall you get great value and a solid degree.

@OP - Sorry for the rant. IMO, you should call up the school district or government agency and ask their HR department if they honor the degree.

I know that every government organization, healthcare organization and fortune 500 company I applied for over the last 3 years all honored a Masters from WGU.

Qord

All good points raised here, and I'll say that it varies from employer to employer. Are you looking to get a job for a Stanford or Columbia, or would you be content with a small arts college or community college? I would expect more hesitancy in the bigger for-profit institutions than in the smaller non-profits. I currently work for a non-profit community college, and so far everyone has been very supportive of my decision to go to wgu. (Like you, I currently only have an AS) In fact, people at my job have asked me to tell them all about how it works, what works and what does not, and any feedback at all that I can share about my experience.

Higher education is in the middle of a paradigm shift, attitudes are changing and minds are becoming more opened. Many institutions are looking to increase enrollment without increasing tuition, and online and competency based offerings are becoming more of a viable option. From a business standpoint, many colleges are afraid to fully embrace these, and at the same time, afraid of being left behind if they don't. Along with this change in attitude comes the acceptance of people with degrees from these kinds of institutions.

DonDeal

It's an employee's market in IT security. Employers can fiddle all they want. It's their systems that are vulnerable while they wait for that perfect Ivy league grad.

My WGU masters has attracted a few interviews from community colleges and not to teach but to manage their IT security.

Raisin

I was a little worried about what employers would think about a degree from WGU too. What swayed me was that after doing the math I realized that if I ran into trouble with my WGU degree I could still go to a brick and mortar and pick up a second bachelors degree. After all the time and money I save on going to WGU the two degrees would cost me about the same for both compared to just going to a state school. Since WGU is regionally accredited they'd recognize the degree from WGU and I'd be enrolling as someone seeking a second major and would only need maybe 30 credits.

With that being said, I've never had an issue with how employers treat WGU so I see no reason to go after another bachelors degree. When I go back to school I'll be better off doing a masters program.

Iristheangel

In my time since graduating, I've only had one interviewer really look down on my degree and I was still offered the job in the end. I've been working at only large companies since I graduated including a Fortune 100 right now. Your question is different though. I know that government doesn't really look down on it based on the number of people here working in government with a WGU degree but when it comes to working for higher education, I'm not sure. I know that other graduate programs accept a WGU undergrad degree but working for them would probably be different. I suppose it depends on the institution and how open minded they are because I'm sure your degree will be more than a check box there.

Mr. Meeseeks

You should look at the wgustudents forum. They had a thread specifically for WGU grads that have landed teaching jobs. I believe most of them were K-8 but really, I cant imagine community colleges treating them any differently when someone wants to teach there. You figure they have online classes, they require a degree from an accredited college/university, it seems pretty backwards for a higher education institution to look down on it when it meets all the requirements...

Polynomial

I know lots about higher ed. What kind of higher ed institutions are you trying to work at?

Lots of the best schools are knee deep in the MOOC craze right now.

tjb122982

Polynomial wrote: »

I know lots about higher ed. What kind of higher ed institutions are you trying to work at?

Lots of the best schools are knee deep in the MOOC craze right now.

I'm fairly open. I think I would prefer a medium to large state school. I really want to work somewhere I can go to graduate school at. The social sciences and history are my other passions.