Quitting school and not finishing my bachelors degree...Maybe WGU is an option?

Armymanis1

So I found out just now I have two more years of my bachelors degree left because of some unfinished "traditional" pre-requisites. I am in tears right now because I don't have the extra money to take anymore classes because my financial aid wont cover them since I already took the maximum amount of credits at my community college. I am not going to waste my money anymore when I am going in debt every month. I have only 1 cert and 1 AA in Technical support and 2 years of help desk experience. How many of you guys have had success with doing the WGU bachelors degree and getting certifications from that? Do you find managers look at you different because you have that degree? I also am wondering what are the benefits of doing WGU? I work best when I am doing work by myself and not on a set schedule.

Any help would be appreciated. I am going to get a couple beers and hamburgers from mcdonalds and calm myself down. I am really thinking about doing WGU and working. Right now I have been out of work since July 2013 and quit my job in IT after being at the help desk for two years.

Danielm7

Definitely look into it. I had a ton of college credits but never finished, then I finished at WGU. No complaints at all, sure it isn't ivy league, but its a fully accredited non-profit school and you likely won't find a better deal financially. If you're actually unemployed now you'd probably get the full pell grant and that's about as close to free as you can find.

Just started a new job at a fortune 500 company today, one of the interviewers knew about WGU and was very interested in my experiences there.

Armymanis1

Daniel,

I just did the application process which was really easy. I called the enrollment office because i accidentally charged my card twice and the lady gave me a free waiver fee code for both of the times i accidentally charged my card. She said i will have to callback monday because thats when they are open again but it will be worth it. This was the nicest enrollment person I have delt with thus far. Bellevue Community College enrollment people were so mean and so was EWU's enrollment people. So glad I am getting out of EWU and moving onto WGU. I am still finishing this quarter strong at my last college but I think I made the right choice.

This also gives me the oppurtunity to get back into the Help Desk Environment which is where I liked to work at and go to school without the schedule conflicts. I am also going to get certs out of it to which is why I choose wgu. Very happy camper now

anhtran35

WGU is accredited school. HR only cares if you HAVE a degree. They don't really care where. HR will book a phone interview and then you will talk to a manager or supervisor. If they like you...they will bring you in for face to face. IT is all about certifications and experience. You can have a degree in MASSAGE THERAPY and still make $$$. I know plenty overseas when I was in Afghanistan that had degrees in blah blah blah but had MCSAs and CCNAs making 6 figures.

JB3

REMOVED UNNECESSARY QUOTED REPLY FROM PREVIOUS POST
Not necessarily true.

Iristheangel

@=JB3

True but in probably 90-95% of the cases that I've seen in the realm of IT, it's having a degree, experience and certifications, not where you go to school. In terms of IT Management, then it can start to matter more when you're getting to upper management but even then, I've seen some high achievers without Ivy League educations (CIO of NASA comes to mind with his WGU degree: www.linkedin.com/pub/jerry-davis/12/3b6/343)

Doyen

Armymantis1, returning to help desk while being enrolled at WGU might be your best choice. From your college transcripts, you may get a decent amount transferred over for your new degree.

JB3, I've also seen people in the field with various degrees like business, psychology, and English majors. They usually made their transition through certification and other forms of experience. The degree shows that you are college educated and teachable. However, I do agree that having a major is just any field might be pushing it unless it is backed up with a lot of experience.

Iristheangel, thank you CIO of NASA link It is quite promising to see that schools that I have an interest in (WGU & Capitol) are widely accepted. He has been in the intelligence field for quite a long while and probably needed the degrees to move up to management. Unless WGU didn't offer graduate degrees then, he may have chosen Capitol for known network of government employment. It was quite encouraging to view.