Western Governors University Questions and Answers / Threads related to WGU

darkerz

Hey everyone; I talked to my boss and a few others about this WGU plan. The first reaction from each person was "What the hell is Western Gov Univ" followed by a lot of skeptical remarks and sarcasm. I was advised each time to go with a B&M school, and save something like WGU for a masters later on after I have a stable reputation and career. Part of me feels they are right.. With a BA/BS being a core for most professionals these days, I may take the safer road.

erpadmin

darkerz wrote: »

Hey everyone; I talked to my boss and a few others about this WGU plan. The first reaction from each person was "What the hell is Western Gov Univ" followed by a lot of skeptical remarks and sarcasm. I was advised each time to go with a B&M school, and save something like WGU for a masters later on after I have a stable reputation and career. Part of me feels they are right.. With a BA/BS being a core for most professionals these days, I may take the safer road.

Actually, and this is with the respect of your colleagues, I have seen the opposite as being true; going for a degree with WGU and then doing a Masters at a (respected) B&M. Western Governors University is comparable with the worst state school in your state, and that school and degree from whatever state gets respect because it's a state school and regionally accredited. Yes, WGU isn't a "state" school, per se, but it was founded by 19 US Governors and it is regionally accredited.

The strength in the degree will lie with you being able to get accepted into a bona-fide Masters program that isn't a For-Profit or WGU. Folks are getting in those schools and the alumni office has records of students who go to such and such universities (that are B&M).

In my most humble opinion, the "safer road" would be going to WGU, if only for the expense.

darkerz

erpadmin wrote: »

Actually, and this is with the respect of your colleagues, I have seen the opposite as being true; going for a degree with WGU and then doing a Masters at a (respected) B&M. Western Governors University is comparable with the worst state school in your state, and that school and degree from whatever state gets respect because it's a state school and regionally accredited. Yes, WGU isn't a "state" school, per se, but it was founded by 19 US Governors and it is regionally accredited.

The strength in the degree will lie with you being able to get accepted into a bona-fide Masters program that isn't a For-Profit or WGU. Folks are getting in those schools and the alumni office has records of students who go to such and such universities (that are B&M).

In my most humble opinion, the "safer road" would be going to WGU, if only for the expense.

Hmm. Thank you for the insight, I'm hearing 50/50 after a little more investigation. In the end, I'm already done with an associates and all of my skillsets, proficiencies, etc. have been gained through work, self study and self home labs- I can safely say the majority of the things I work and deal with on a daily basis came from self educating, the associates is sort of "meh". I'm starting to think the same is true for all colleges, tbh.

flash23

I thought the same as you Darkers but with the university being accredited and all I don't see how you can go wrong. I'm probably going to start the school in 2-3 months once I get the bachelors I'm gonna get my masters locally. My decision is based on the amount of time it's gonna take plus the certs you will get. I went to a charter high school when I was younger. Alot of people would tslk bsd sbout the school. One person even told me it wasn't a real diploma. But the army accepted it as a real diploma the college I went to accepted it also.

westward

In regards to the last 3 comments. I agree with erpadmin, firstly because I'm at WGU and finishing soon.

Secondly, I've been scoping out job listings for requirements. What I'm seeing is the "entry level" jobs (of which are 5% of IT jobs listed...) may require experience in Networks, or X years of Java etc, or a particular cert... but most of them do NOT say you must have a Bachelors at all.

Therefore, getting the certs included within a Bachelors prepares you for some jobs, but also a future Masters. Which I would (and someday will) do at a university where I can network with students and employers.

erpadmin

darkerz wrote: »

Hmm. Thank you for the insight, I'm hearing 50/50 after a little more investigation. In the end, I'm already done with an associates and all of my skillsets, proficiencies, etc. have been gained through work, self study and self home labs- I can safely say the majority of the things I work and deal with on a daily basis came from self educating, the associates is sort of "meh". I'm starting to think the same is true for all colleges, tbh.

I did not need a degree, tbh. I was able to gain experience in IT without so much as a A+ cert. (The CompTIAs I gained years later, and I was already well into my career when I got it.) You will find, or perhaps will start to find, that your career will hit a glass ceiling without so much as a Bachelors. However, if you really want to see more doors open, a Masters is really the way to go.

As more people are going back to school, online degrees are gaining more and more legitimacy. This is the product of a bad economy, because people want to upgrade their skillsets. I don't entirely know (yet) if I will be going for my Masters online, but I haven't ruled it out. I do know that if I do go online, it's gotta be from a B&M. A lot of MBA programs that are part time can be done in 2-3 years. I haven't entirely ruled out other Masters programs like a Masters in IT Management or something like that. The MBA I want has to have an IT focus, though.

Just do your homework and weigh out what you feel will be best. I had to do my own research on WGU before I gave it the green light. What sold me was the regional accreditation and that others have gone to "real" schools after obtaining the degree. You may find that the value exceeds the expense.

nhpr

Besides the book for ORC1/LET1, are any other books worth buying?

earweed

nhpr wrote: »

Besides the book for ORC1/LET1, are any other books worth buying?

For the CompTIA cert classes the books WGU provide aren't very good.
Buy the Mike Meyers All in One for A+and Darril Gibsons book (Sec+ get Certified Get Ahead available only on Amazon.com)for Sec+. There are others also but can't think of them at the moment.

demonfurbie

nhpr wrote: »

Besides the book for ORC1/LET1, are any other books worth buying?

the sybex book for project+ (how ever ya can get it free on books 24/7)

NickDog

So I'm a little bummed. I was looking through documentation for WGU and noticed that in order for my degree to transfer it had to be within the last 5 years. The problem is I received my Associates in 2004.

jktwardos

earweed,

did you need the book for MGC1 or did you get by with skillsoft?

jmasterj206

NickDog wrote: »

So I'm a little bummed. I was looking through documentation for WGU and noticed that in order for my degree to transfer it had to be within the last 5 years. The problem is I received my Associates in 2004.

Your degree can transfer from any time. If you are transferring certifications they have to be from within 5 years. That section is poorly explained.

erpadmin

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Your degree can transfer from any time. If you are transferring certifications they have to be from within 5 years. That section is poorly explained.

That's affirmative. My certs were within the 5 year mark (A+ and Network+) but the classes transferred in were done in 1997-1998.

The degree counts.

demonfurbie

jktwardos wrote: »

earweed,

did you need the book for MGC1 or did you get by with skillsoft?

i passed mcg1 with skillsoft

Thxlbx

Just passed my first online proctored test! (CLC1) I did well enough on the pre-assessment that my mentor encouraged me to go ahead and take the final..but I had some family stuff come up, and was not able to to do it till tonight. I have to say, it was pretty cool to take a test at my dining room table in a t-shirt and sweats at 9:30 pm at night!

nhpr

My enrollment councilor told me that you can only take one class at a time. Does this mean that even if I'm ready to take all the CompTIA tests, I have to go through the process of adding the class to my queue, waiting for the voucher, scheduling the test, and driving to the assessment place for every single one?

Also, I'm looking to get a head start on the LAT1 and LUT1 assignments. Can anyone tell me the specifics of what I need to write/talk about? Or even better: could anyone post the COS's for those?

westward

nhpr wrote: »

My enrollment councilor told me that you can only take one class at a time. Does this mean that even if I'm ready to take all the CompTIA tests, I have to go through the process of adding the class to my queue, waiting for the voucher, scheduling the test, and driving to the assessment place for every single one?

Also, I'm looking to get a head start on the LAT1 and LUT1 assignments. Can anyone tell me the specifics of what I need to write/talk about? Or even better: could anyone post the COS's for those?

Here's how it works.

At the start of your 6 month term, you select at least 15 CU's (maybe it's 12?) of classes you want to complete.

The completion dates (just a goal, not a requirement) are staggered, for instance 1 month away for one, 2 months away for the next class, etc...

So you go, one by one knocking the ones you chose for that term.

If you complete them all and have more time for more classes that term, you signup (pretty instantly) and can start another.

You could just as well start a bunch of classes all at once, and schedule yourself to take all your exams all at the end of the term...

..I tend to think the brain works WAY better one-by-one with no "finals week" freakout.

Hypntick

EWB - how long does it take? Doing it tomorrow and want it out of the way ASAP. The least amount of screwing around the bettter.

Excellent1

Hypntick wrote: »

EWB - how long does it take? Doing it tomorrow and want it out of the way ASAP. The least amount of screwing around the bettter.

Takes 4-6 hours, probably, maybe longer, maybe shorter--depending on how fast you want to blow through it. The thing is, most people are so keen on flying through it and getting to the real part of the degree that they miss a lot of really good info in the class.

My advice would be to set up a spreadsheet, onenote page, or something to record all of the different learning resources and ways to access them. Also, pay attention to the details on end of term dates for objective vs performance assessments, etc.

I found myself going back to the mindedge details for EWB a couple of times because I didn't take any notes and realized that there were some good details there. Of course, most of what you learn is covered in other areas such as the student handbook, along with being available from your mentor if you have any questions.

Good luck with it, I'm sure you'll have it done in no time.

erpadmin

westward wrote: »

Here's how it works.

At the start of your 6 month term, you select at least 15 CU's (maybe it's 12?) of classes you want to complete.

The completion dates (just a goal, not a requirement) are staggered, for instance 1 month away for one, 2 months away for the next class, etc...

So you go, one by one knocking the ones you chose for that term.

If you complete them all and have more time for more classes that term, you signup (pretty instantly) and can start another.

You could just as well start a bunch of classes all at once, and schedule yourself to take all your exams all at the end of the term...

..I tend to think the brain works WAY better one-by-one with no "finals week" freakout.

If you are a veteran in a GI-Bill-like program, I believe the number of CUs is 18 CUs a term. I read that somewhere, but can't remember where...otherwise I'd pull it up. Otherwise, for everyone else, it's 12 CUs a 6 month term (which is really 5 months, because the last month is considered "dead time"...HOWEVER you spend the deadtime, working on your next classes, but can't turn anything in until the start of your next term).


Everything else about this is correct. What I highlighted in red is pretty much how I attack my classes. I tried very much to do them concurrently, but I have had more success knocking out a class one by one. I may enroll in, say 5 classes (LET1, ORC1, MGC1, QLT1 and QLC1) and will work one by one on knocking them out, giving myself a month to complete them (which has actually happened... ).

jtoast

NickDog wrote: »

So I know Ive already asked, so this will be the last time. Promise! Would anybody be interested in allowing me to use them as refer a friend? There is a $50 Amazon gift card through WGU in it for you if you have not done so before.

WGU Referral thread
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/55634-wgu-refer-friend-thread-those-seeking-referral.html

If no one helps you, shoot me a PM and I'll refer you. I'm saying post in the thread because I've already got my $50 card for the year and would hate to have someone else miss out on it.

earweed

jktwardos wrote: »

earweed,

did you need the book for MGC1 or did you get by with skillsoft?

It's changed since I took it. We didn't have skillsoft for the class then. I just used the book.
Courses here at WGU change quite a bit over time. It's always best to get advice from people who have taken the course recently.

cisco_certs

Is there a certification other than CIW certifications that can waive all the CIW classes/subjects?

thanks

petedude

cisco_certs wrote: »

Is there a certification other than CIW certifications that can waive all the CIW classes/subjects?

thanks

Nothing will waive CIW Foundations, that I know of, even though there may be overlap with certs such as the ones CompTIA offers.

The only thing that might waive the other CIW exams would likely be actual prior college coursework in those same areas.

The CIW exams are not that difficult-- usually it's best just to grit one's teeth and push through them.

Hypntick

The wait for my webcam is killing me. Ready to do the CLC1 assessment and want to try and knock out BBC1 this weekend. According to my mentor it won't be here until middle of next week. Gives me more time to go over the material I suppose.

Pishof

Hypntick wrote: »

The wait for my webcam is killing me. Ready to do the CLC1 assessment and want to try and knock out BBC1 this weekend. According to my mentor it won't be here until middle of next week. Gives me more time to go over the material I suppose.

I'll likely be a similar situation. I'm not taking a class that requires the webcam for a while seeing how my first few will be certification exams. However, I've already studied and am confident I'm in good shape for Security+ but will likely have to wait longer than I want to before I can get a voucher and exam scheduled.

erpadmin

Hypntick wrote: »

The wait for my webcam is killing me. Ready to do the CLC1 assessment and want to try and knock out BBC1 this weekend. According to my mentor it won't be here until middle of next week. Gives me more time to go over the material I suppose.

The webcam didn't take that long for me to receive it. I was able to take BBC1 a good few days after (HINT: I posted on the exact date when I passed....it was on August/2010...the only date I remember was when I passed Security+... )

Man, I so remember when I was in your shoes....just a bundle of nervous energy. You're gonna do fine, man. Believe me. You are going through what most, if not all of us are going through...you'll calm down some after your feet have been wet and you get into your rhythm.

Hypntick

erpadmin wrote: »

The webcam didn't take that long for me to receive it. I was able to take BBC1 a good few days after (HINT: I posted on the exact date when I passed....it was on August/2010...the only date I remember was when I passed Security+... )

Man, I so remember when I was in your shoes....just a bundle of nervous energy. You're gonna do fine, man. Believe me. You are going through what most, if not all of us are going through...you'll calm down some after your feet have been wet and you get into your rhythm.

I am cruising through the BBC1 stuff so far. I am a little nervous about BAC1, I am not a math person. I did want to go ahead and knock out BBC1 and CLC1 so I have only BAC1 and BRV1 to focus on. I've been studying for the CCENT for over a month now so i'm fairly confident on that one. Funny that the simple math scares me more than CCENT.

erpadmin

Hypntick wrote: »

I am cruising through the BBC1 stuff so far. I am a little nervous about BAC1, I am not a math person. I did want to go ahead and knock out BBC1 and CLC1 so I have only BAC1 and BRV1 to focus on. I've been studying for the CCENT for over a month now so i'm fairly confident on that one. Funny that the simple math scares me more than CCENT.

If it's like BBC1, if you fail BAC1, you'll probably have to do math drills. You'll do good on those and then you take BAC1 again. That's what my mentor told me if I failed BBC1 (do some BS English homework). Thankfully, I did LAE1 first and went through the COS like I learned in EWB.

I'm kinda glad I did, but if I had known that I had to only write some BS essay, I would have been done with LAE1 sooner....but doing LAE1's "homework" prepared me for BBC1... (which I'm sure I'd have passed on the first time anyhow...)

drew726

omg, this labsim security+ practice exam...I keep getting 84%. I got 90% on darril gibson's book but the mentor wants me to get 90%+ on the labsim one. Do I only get a maximum 3 attempts at the labsim pre-assessment?