WGU Excellence Award?

I recently received an email stating that one of my papers was "selected by the WGU Evaluation faculty for recognition due to the exceptional nature of the work you submitted."

Is this a way WGU motivates students and everyone gets one or two during their program?
FYI, I am in a Masters program and I'm required to write a bunch of papers.

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Comments

albinorhino187

I got one for a database class I took. I submitted what I felt was a well-written paper, with good pictures and diagrams and arguments to back it all up. It was a very "clean" assignment that nailed the requirements.

TLeTourneau

I haven't received one during either my undergrad or masters.

joelsfood

Halfway through masters (assuming paper in evaluation now passes) and haven't gotten one yet. Good job!

DatabaseHead

Really good job to get noticed like that! Writing like that maybe research or proposals are in your future!

catscaps

thanks, I did not intend to toot my own horn, I thought everyone received the awards.
The MSCIA program, while working full time, is tough.
It is nice to see that my time I spend on crafting the papers is recognized.

mgeoffriau

I did not receive one, though I was aiming to finish as quickly as possible...an excellence reward would have been a sign I was taking too much time.

jibtech

How long after your submission did you get the email?

I was aiming for an excellence award, but fear I may not have gotten one.

PJ_Sneakers

I got none during undergrad, and I got several during my masters. I worked really hard on the masters though; I don't think they are all that common according to my mentors and what I've read online.

jibtech

Is it pretty much decided at the time you submit, or do they come back some time afterwards?

PJ_Sneakers

Hmm. It took at least a couple weeks after passing. From what I was told, if the graders like your paper and want to nominate your paper it gets submitted for review. After it's reviewed, if it meets the criteria you will be notified via email. They used to send a paper certificate in the mail, but now it's a a printable PDF. The PDF has a nicer design, IMO.

Edit: Could be less than a week. It's been a while. It's definitely not instant.

nathandrake

I got one on my capstone project a few months back. It took around 6-8 days from the time I submitted it.

DatabaseHead

mgeoffriau wrote: »

I did not receive one, though I was aiming to finish as quickly as possible...an excellence reward would have been a sign I was taking too much time.

For you maybe, but the OP might be a stronger writer and have a higher aptitude than you allowing them to finish quicker on written assignments.

mzx380

Almost done with the program and never received one. Looking back, I feel that most of them wouldn't warrant one but there were definitely one or two that could have been considered.

mgeoffriau

DatabaseHead wrote: »

For you maybe, but the OP might be a stronger writer and have a higher aptitude than you allowing them to finish quicker on written assignments.

Not really the point I was making...I was attempting to finish as quickly as possible. Getting A's when I only need a B to pass would indicate that I could have done it faster.

DatabaseHead

mgeoffriau wrote: »

Not really the point I was making...I was attempting to finish as quickly as possible. Getting A's when I only need a B to pass would indicate that I could have done it faster.

I was going for speed as well and not quality ; ).....

With that said there is really no point in excelling at WGU, either you pass or fail so I hear you and for the most part agree with you...

catscaps

I struggle with that. I have trouble just turning in an assignment, but i do realize there is no A+ to achieve.
It is just my work ethic.

I received notification of the Excellence Awards about a week after completing the taskstream assignments.

DatabaseHead wrote: »

I was going for speed as well and not quality ; ).....

With that said there is really no point in excelling at WGU, either you pass or fail so I hear you and for the most part agree with you...

mgeoffriau

catscaps wrote: »

I struggle with that. I have trouble just turning in an assignment, but i do realize there is no A+ to achieve.
It is just my work ethic.

I received notification of the Excellence Awards about a week after completing the taskstream assignments.

I had to flip the switch after completing my first course. I realized that I spent a lot of time crafting what I felt was a good paper, but then had to revise a couple times because I hadn't explicitly nailed a few of the rubric requirements. I realized that having a really, really good paper that also clearly and definitely hits every rubric requirement would take more time than I had, so I sacrificed literary quality to make sure I explicitly met the rubric.

Again, it just depends on your goals. If you're really looking to learn and improve, and time isn't a concern, by all means spend time writing the best papers you can. If time is critical and you are getting the degree to validate experience or knowledge you already possess, then it's probably wiser to just write to the rubric and literary concerns be damned.

JimmyJangle777

They also have an excellence award for your capstone paper. I was planning to put a lot of work into my capstone so I can hopefully get it :P

shimasensei

Congrats! Got one for my EngComp class.