Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

This thread is intended for students to write about their experiences at Western Governors University.

Please keep it civil, and do not spend your time bashing the school, and its policies. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you have a problem you need to take it up with your professor or mentor. Please no Flaming on this thread.

You can ask for help with a referral (used to avoid paying the application fee) on the following thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/55634-wgu-refer-friend-thread-those-seeking-referral.html

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Comments

NOLAJ

Anyone else receive the email about the DFV1 errors? Luckily DFV1 isn't in my program. I would've hated to be one of the people studying the wrong material.

natv

I'm in DFV1 now (taking exam this weekend - wish me luck!!).

The jist of the email that went out is basically "...exercises in the text were written for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express and not for Visual Studio 2010"

The course instructions had us downloading and using Visual Studio 2010 (or Developer 2010 I guess). Not 2008.

I did run into a couple of issues that thinking back now were probably are related to the version difference, but all-in-all I was able to do most of the exercises without issue so it wasn't a huge issue. But yeah probably I pulled my hair out on those times I just couldn't find something in the application where the book said it was. At least now I know why

It really didn't hinder progress that much though.

NOLAJ

natv wrote: »

I'm in DFV1 now (taking exam this weekend - wish me luck!!).

The jist of the email that went out is basically "...exercises in the text were written for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express and not for Visual Studio 2010"

The course instructions had us downloading and using Visual Studio 2010 (or Developer 2010 I guess). Not 2008.

I did run into a couple of issues that thinking back now were probably are related to the version difference, but all-in-all I was able to do most of the exercises without issue so it wasn't a huge issue. But yeah probably I pulled my hair out on those times I just couldn't find something in the application where the book said it was. At least now I know why It really didn't hinder progress that much though.

Best of luck on the exam!

natv

Thanks! This is my first WGU course (yeah I know this wasn't the recommended order to do this class first...), but I had started studying for it about 10 days before the start of my semester, mainly because I wasn't familiar at all with ASP.NET and Visual Studio and felt I wanted to get a head start on learning the material. So decided to stick with it as my first course. At least the IT Fundamentals class I'm doing next will be super easy after this

NOLAJ

natv wrote: »

Thanks! This is my first WGU course (yeah I know this wasn't the recommended order to do this class first...), but I had started studying for it about 10 days before the start of my semester, mainly because I wasn't familiar at all with ASP.NET and Visual Studio and felt I wanted to get a head start on learning the material. So decided to stick with it as my first course. At least the IT Fundamentals class I'm doing next will be super easy after this

Nice!! Welcome to WGU!

SephStorm

How do you guys feel about what you have learned? I know many people had prior knowledge/experience. Can you take the information learned from your WGU classes and put it to work in the lab/work?

NOLAJ

SephStorm wrote: »

How do you guys feel about what you have learned? I know many people had prior knowledge/experience. Can you take the information learned from your WGU classes and put it to work in the lab/work?

Absolutely. Given that most of the coursework on the technical side is all relevant to the IT world. The management courses, well they speak for themselves.

Somnipotent

Bit the bullet today and applied to finish my degree. I achieved an AS back in 2005 and due to financial constraints was not able to complete my BS degree at the local college. I had to get a job to support my family and you know what happens then... bills, bills, bills... realizing that even with my certifications and experience, some places still require a BS to even get in the door, the government mostly. I need a higher paying job as well as the security of knowing I have the trifecta needed to succeed (DEGREE + CERTIFICATION + EXPERIENCE) I can't afford not to do this. I'm still working hard on my CCIE studies, hopefully I'll be able to fit it all in through the course.

Can anyone explain to me how the certification transfer works? My AS degree is from the same accreditiation region as WGU although it's not in IT. Wonder how many of those credits will transfer...

Drovor

Somnipotent wrote: »

Bit the bullet today and applied to finish my degree. I achieved an AS back in 2005 and due to financial constraints was not able to complete my BS degree at the local college. I had to get a job to support my family and you know what happens then... bills, bills, bills... realizing that even with my certifications and experience, some places still require a BS to even get in the door, the government mostly. I need a higher paying job as well as the security of knowing I have the trifecta needed to succeed (DEGREE + CERTIFICATION + EXPERIENCE) I can't afford not to do this. I'm still working hard on my CCIE studies, hopefully I'll be able to fit it all in through the course.

Can anyone explain to me how the certification transfer works? My AS degree is from the same accreditiation region as WGU although it's not in IT. Wonder how many of those credits will transfer...

I'm starting at WGU in July and my AS in Business covered all the general courses. I would think with your AS and certs you should have most of the degree completed. As far as transferring the certs, the enrollment counselor should give you instructions. For my certs I logged into Comptia/Microsoft portal and emailed the transcript to my enrollment counselor.

spiderjericho

You'll probably waive most of general education courses with the A.S. and the Net+, A+ and CCNA, you'll waive like four or five courses.

TheIr transfer policy is pretty good.

NOLAJ

@ Somnipotent & Drover

Welcome to WGU!!

NOLAJ

spiderjericho wrote: »

You'll probably waive most of general education courses with the A.S. and the Net+, A+ and CCNA, you'll waive like four or five courses.

TheIr transfer policy is pretty good.

Hey Spider...I see you're in Tampa. I work in Tampa & Orlando and live just outside of Tampa!

spiderjericho

NOLAJ wrote: »

Hey Spider...I see you're in Tampa. I work in Tampa & Orlando and live just outside of Tampa!

Si, just moved here due to my daughter medical issues. Still not very familiar with the city, since work, school and travel.

It seems more humid than South Florida. Good lawd. Also love Babe Shore.

spiderjericho

So, my initial 15 days have been pretty slow and not very productive.

My laptop and desktop's motherboard are currently RMA'd. I'm also waiting for the blasted WGU webcam. All I have at the moment is a iPad and phone.

I've been attending ITIL OSA class and will be testing tomorrow.

And the bigger dark cloud hanging over my head has been my daughter's medical issues. She has congenital heart disease and has been in the hospital for three weeks due to heart failure. The doctors are recommending heart transplant and were awaiting final evaluation/consideration to make sure she's a good candidate.

I was going to postpone my term, but it just seems like her heart condition is going to be persistent and something she will deal with all of her life. I'm hoping I can somehow balance work, fatherhood and school. Luckily, I only need seven classes to graduate, but things are pretty overwhelming.

afcyung

Anyone have suggestions for a good tablet for WGU?

tekalon

I have an Asus Transformer and it works for my needs (study, edit basic files, web browsing, work). A lot of times when it comes to tablets it's not so much the actual make (though it helps) but the tools (apps). CourseSmart has an app that lets you read the material, Kingsoft allows editing of files, Dropbox allows access to files, etc.

WGU

Hi themagicone,

Completed SJT2. Did you still want to discuss? If so, drop me an e-mail.

Courses Completed at WGU: JIT2, LYT2, TFT2, SJT2, FTX2, BFC2, JFT2
Courses Required For Me To Graduate WGU in MS: IT Network Managment: TGT2, LZT2, MAT2, MBT1, MCT2, MDT2, MNT2
CU Done this term: 14 Total CU Done: 14
Currently working on: TGT2, MDT2 Graduation Goal: 5/2013

swild

@Spiderjericho: That's a lot to handle at once! I'm very impressed to see you pushing along in the face of all those challenges. Which classes do you need? Let me know if you have any questions about any of them.

I have had to deal with medical issues in my family and I really think that is the worst stressor of anything I have had to deal with in my life. My own health issues don't bother me as much as the rest of my family's.

spiderjericho

Thanks, Swild. I actually broke down crying recently out of fear of losing my daughter. She's so adorable and, as a parent you want only health and happiness for your child. I have to drive to the hospital soon, so hopefully they have word on whether she is eligible for a heart transplant.

Well, I just came back from taking the ITIL OSA exam. It's an eight multiple choice question exam. The questions and answers are pretty long. And there isn't too much margin for error. My job is offering another intermediate exam in a month, I plan on taking it. I'm sure an employer would find it favorable for a prospective hire to have the intermediate ITIL certification (I'm not going to bother for expert).

Hopefully, I cam get back on track next week and start knocking classes out. I have to complete MGC1, CUV1, BOV1, BNC1, the dreaded DFV1, technical writing and capstone. Honestly, the only bumps in the road I foresee is with the web-related certs since i have 0 experience. I just need my PC and the webcam to do MGC1 and BNC1. Tech Writing and Capstone shouldn't take more than two days minus Taskstream nonsense.

boredgamelad

Started my enrollment process thanks to a referral from Sledge on TE. I had the first phone call with my enrollment counselor yesterday and... he didn't seem very interested. Not that I needed much from him--I haven't gotten my transcripts in yet and I told him I had read extensively about WGU and was familiar with their offerings so there wasn't much for us to go over--but he seemed very distracted while we were talking and didn't sound very professional. Not a big deal, just a little weird.

We have another call scheduled for next week once my transcripts are in. I'm really excited to find out how much is going to transfer over.

KeithC

Unless the policy has changed the enrollment counselors other then reading scripts . . . do not do anything with the transcripts. Back in June of last year it took the transfer evaluation department eight days to go through mine.

spiderjericho

Boredgamerlad,

If he didn't seem interested then he wasn't doing his job. I recently switched my mentor because of the quality of his mentoring. I need someone who is going to work with me, care about whatever process they're responsible and ensuring they assist me in any way possible and practice good customer service tenants.

The enrollment counselor I had was good; however, my enrollment process ended being six or seven months due to my daughter's medical situation. He seemed to be less personable and enthusiastic as time goes on. It could be because of the volume of students they have to process/enroll. There's a lot loss by not being a face-to-face organization like traditional schools (though they can fall into this malaise also).

I'd say something next call, so he can see his behavior is affecting your enrollment experience.

I know you could waive three or four courses based on your certs. If the degree is your goal and quick completion time, I'd recommend the regular IT degree. If you don't mind spending a few semesters, then one of the tracks would be cool, as you get a few certs along the way like A+, Project+ and the Microsofts.

cpierce

I'm just finishing my enrollment process with WGU.

After the transfer evaluation of my A.A.S (Computer Network Technology) and A+ Cert, I have 56CU left. Here are the classes: (BSIT-Network Administration)
IWC1- Literature, Arts and the Humanities
IWT1- Literature, Arts and the Humanities: Analysis and Interperatation
BNC1- Organizational Behavior and Leadership
BOV1- Web Programming
TPV1- Project Management
CSV1- Operating Systems
CTV1- Security
CUV1- Web Technologies
COV1- Fundamentals of Interconnecting Network Devices
CQV1- Interconnecting Network Devices
AHV1- Directory Services
AIV1- Network Design and Management
AJV1- Server Administration

I'm excited to get started!

boredgamelad

KeithC wrote: »

Unless the policy has changed the enrollment counselors other then reading scripts . . . do not do anything with the transcripts. Back in June of last year it took the transfer evaluation department eight days to go through mine.

That's good to know. Maybe he didn't know what he was doing because he made it sound like we'd be going over my transcripts for our call next week. Best not to get my hopes up then. It did sound like he was reading from a script and quite lazily at that.

I'd say something next call, so he can see his behavior is affecting your enrollment experience.

If he still sounds distracted I might bring it up. It's possible he was just having an off day and it was late in the day so maybe he'd been on the phone a lot. I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I know you could waive three or four courses based on your certs. If the degree is your goal and quick completion time, I'd recommend the regular IT degree. If you don't mind spending a few semesters, then one of the tracks would be cool, as you get a few certs along the way like A+, Project+ and the Microsofts.

Yeah, I've already planned on doing the regular BS-IT. I don't see any reason to needlessly complicate things; anything I feel like drilling down and learning more I can always do on my own time. I'm not exactly in a hurry since I'm already working in IT (and recently interviewed for a promotion) but I would like to get it done with sooner rather than later.

Psoasman

Took the CUV1 today and passed! Onwards to the RIT1, then BOV1.

kgb

Psoasman wrote: »

Took the CUV1 today and passed! Onwards to the RIT1, then BOV1.

Congrats on the pass!

I actually just passed CUV1 on Friday. Passed GAC1 this morning. Working through BOV1 right now.

themagicone

Nope. I got it passed. Working on BFC2/TFC2 right now. Should have those finished by end of the week. That'll put me at 14 like you. Then going to tackle of the other risk management class. That'll leave me with 4 classes plus the 2 finals.

Psoasman

I wrote up the first 2 papers for RIT1 and taskstream had them graded in less than 12 hours, on a Sunday no less. Nice, I was expecting to wait a week to hear back.

Iristheangel

Just submitted my capstone. I'm sure it'll get kicked back to me at least once since I wrote it during the middle of the night and I was tired. Fingers crossed that I revise and complete my capstone by the end of the week!

swild

It totally depends on your evaluator. Hopefully it will take you less submissions that it took me