WGU certs

zackmax

So I am looking at BS IT Network Admin and it has several certs.

Now is there a way to substitute them for a course or something as I am not really interested in most of them. Reason is that I already have many other certs (for which I did not get any credit from WGU).

Or is it absolute requirement to write and pass these to graduate?

TLeTourneau

Attaining the certificates is the course and what you get the course credit for, there is no substitution.

Also, unless things have changed, there is no course work beyond passing the certification exam.

stryder144

I am pretty sure that you will need to take the exams in order to pass the classes. I would speak to your student mentor about it, just in case they do actually have alternative courses you can take.

Tyb

The cert is the final for the classes that have them. That is one of the benefits of WGU, the only bleh cert is Project+ (info is good, it is just a very dry subject). What certs do you already have?

goatama

When I first looked into WGU, I thought I would be able to substitute things since I had certain interests and they were different from the classes listed, I also already had a few certs. Unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you look at it) WGU is setup so there are no electives; you take whatever classes your transcripts/certs transferred in don't give you credit for. The program itself is pretty rigid (yet dynamic because they are constantly changing the requirements for the degree, the good thing is that *supposedly* you'll never have a program change that will require you to take longer). The stuff I was really interested in was what I'm taking now in the Master's program.

This is probably clear as mud, so let me know if you have any questions.

zackmax

goatama wrote: »

When I first looked into WGU, I thought I would be able to substitute things since I had certain interests and they were different from the classes listed, I also already had a few certs. Unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you look at it) WGU is setup so there are no electives; you take whatever classes your transcripts/certs transferred in don't give you credit for. The program itself is pretty rigid (yet dynamic because they are constantly changing the requirements for the degree, the good thing is that *supposedly* you'll never have a program change that will require you to take longer). The stuff I was really interested in was what I'm taking now in the Master's program.

This is probably clear as mud, so let me know if you have any questions.

Hmmm... are you saying they can change the program on you after you have started it??
I would understand it being changed for people who havn't been admitted yet but this doesn't sound right.

Danielm7

They can, but typically you are grandfathered into the program you started in. Either way, you have to take the cert exams for the classes in your degree plan unless you have another cert that somehow covers the class/test.

goatama

zackmax wrote: »

Hmmm... are you saying they can change the program on you after you have started it??
I would understand it being changed for people who havn't been admitted yet but this doesn't sound right.

That's correct. I had my program change no less than four times while doing my Bachelor's. It sort of worked in my favor each time, but I ended up with a "not passed" on my transcript for College Algebra because I suddenly "met the requirements" and no longer needed to take it after the last change to my program. Some changes I liked, I got rid of the silly Windows 7 MCDST and got Linux+ instead, which is what I wanted, and then I got to drop one of my programming classes. So, for the most part, it worked out. But having it change frequently was definitely confusing.

goatama

Danielm7 wrote: »

They can, but typically you are grandfathered into the program you started in. Either way, you have to take the cert exams for the classes in your degree plan unless you have another cert that somehow covers the class/test.

The programming requirements for my degree were frustrating. My AAS was Computer Programming, I had 8 programming classes at all different levels. When I got into my degree they said they only accepted programming certifications, even though the classes you were required to take weren't giving me a certification. It was frustrating, but there was nothing the records folks would do, the only way you could get credit was if you had a Java cert.