Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

demonfurbie

nosoup4u wrote: »

Thanks I'm planning retest in late May once I get switched over to network admin and knock out a few easy classes to get my head right

i dont blame ya ... every time i look at jobs for microsoft they just say mcitp not often EA just mcitp so SA would work in most cases

xocity

Hey demonfurbie , hows that M.S. Network Management going for you? I was looking into going that route after my B.S. since i've always been in the management side of things. I love Security as well though, would it make sense to get 2 masters? lol anyway I would love some input on what kind of work those courses require and is it worth it?

demonfurbie

i like it , its alot of research and papers ... well all but one classes are papers or projects of sorts.

Most of it is management or project management based situations (at least so far)

i like sec as well but i think it would be better to get this and cert out the sec how you want not with the ones wgu puts out there, like networking masters then a cissp after

xocity

True, since there really isnt (or i dont know of) a management cert since management duties or theory or w/e wont really change every 2 years like I.T or security it does make sense. Im switching to the B.S. In security next semester then may take on the MS network management after the B.S, want to get the masters out the way before I get married, im sure I wont have time after.

Anyway, thanks for input.

Nemowolf

PurpleIT wrote: »

Yeah, that one sucked. Not so much because the test was hard, but the material was all over the place and I never really knew why I was doing what I was doing in that class. IMHO replacing that class would be a good thing; not just because I disliked it, but more because it is hard to see how it added value to my education.

What i dont understand is that the material glosses over HTML to cover ASP, Databases, Data Connections, lite SQL Server and bits of C#/VB ...

My test barely covered these items and thankfully i knew enough HTML to get a passing score.

Hypntick

demonfurbie I see you finished up JIT2, congrats on that. I see you're working on TFT2 right now, if you have any questions on it just let me know.

demonfurbie

Hypntick wrote: »

demonfurbie I see you finished up JIT2, congrats on that. I see you're working on TFT2 right now, if you have any questions on it just let me know.

thanks will do ... im already starting on task 1 and task 2 seams to be shorter as well .... im not looking forward to task 4

demonfurbie

Wow 4 hour turn around on taskstream.. I like

arwes

I get to do DFV1 Saturday morning, I sure hope I pass this thing the first try. I won't have time to mope or celebrate either way, because BHV1 is next Wednesday afternoon. My usual testing center is backed up a few weeks for some reason, so I'm trying a different place in Camden, AR. There's another testing center in Jackson, MS but those old school 14" CRT's gave me a awesome migraine headache last time.

Update: Yeah that sucked, I got a 54. Checking with my mentor to see if I can possibly put this off till after the course revamp in a few weeks. At least with that, I can take the exam from home instead of driving 120 miles round trip. On the plus side though, the person who runs the testing center said she's in the process of getting set up to do Prometric exams too. I'd rather drive 120 miles round trip than 200 like I've been doing.

Chitownjedi

Does anyone know about the split payment option? I've put in my paper work and everything and for my account balance it list the full term amount, not the agreed upon first payment amount? Should I just manually enter that and make that payment, or have them update the amount show in my portal?

milieu

I do the split payment, and also have a discount that I apply. The online payment almost always has the wrong amount. In the past, they just told me to enter the agreed upon payment amount.

I would suggest you do that, and follow it with an email to the bursor's office. I've found them to be very responsive and good at fixing these things.

emerald_octane

ugh these guys are already starting to worry me. WGU of course has the promo for the waived resource fee if we enroll by June 1st. Naturally I wanted to take advantage, so when I emailed them about it, they basically called me a liar and asked for proof?

We need proof of this one time "promotion" to our office.

Come on guys it's listed on your own damn website :
Make 2013 Your Year | WGU | Western Governors University

Make 2013 Your Year
If you enroll by June 1, 2013, we will:

• Waive your first term’s $145 resource fee

arwes

Hmm, well my mentor said they're trying to push everyone currently enrolled in DFV1 to get it done before 5/1, but I hate to tell em that it ain't happening. I'm in the middle of a long overdue PC deployment project and trying to get a QNAP box up & running as our new file server. Plus, given the choice between a 120 mile round trip through the backwoods of Arkansas (I swear I heard banjos playing) versus coding up a project and turning it in, I'd rather do the project and save money on gas.

nosoup4u

I'll need to ask my mentor as well because it's still on my to do list, I'd honestly prefer the MTA, the rest of them were jokes...

flashoverride

So I'm a little late to this party.. I see DFV1 in my course list, but not for this term. They're deep-sixing it?

Bundiman

they are revamping it "DFV1 (Web Development Fundamentals) will change from a Microsoft exam to a WGU exam plus a student project on May 1st."

PurpleIT

Bundiman wrote: »

they are revamping it "DFV1 (Web Development Fundamentals) will change from a Microsoft exam to a WGU exam plus a student project on May 1st."

Without knowing exactly what the new course will be I am certain it will be better than the old one.

ITdude84

Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have been looking into WGU for my BS and I spoke to the enrollment councilor, and he stated that WGU recently dropped there Regional Accreditation ( the type that major universities use) and are now only nationally accredited ( such as University of phoenix, and other online schools) which in turn means that if you wanted to transfer over to a Bigger school, such as ( MU, WVU, UFL etc etc) the credits will not be transferable... this is discerning considering I was gung ho about starting the BS in Network Administration tract you guys may want to look into this.... I just found this info out, today!

thegoodbye

ITdude84 wrote: »

Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have been looking into WGU for my BS and I spoke to the enrollment councilor, and he stated that WGU recently dropped there Regional Accreditation ( the type that major universities use) and are now only nationally accredited ( such as University of phoenix, and other online schools) which in turn means that if you wanted to transfer over to a Bigger school, such as ( MU, WVU, UFL etc etc) the credits will not be transferable... this is discerning considering I was gung ho about starting the BS in Network Administration tract you guys may want to look into this.... I just found this info out, today!

I can't find any evidence to corroborate this. WGU's website still lists them as regionally accredited - WGU Accreditation | Accredited Online University | Western Governors University Online . I also don't see anything in the news about this, though I don't understand why an enrollment councilor would lie. I guess we'll wait and see if there's any truth to this.

ITdude84

I spoke to the enrollment councelor today by the name of "Marcell" I asked about the certification one more time, because I too seen that the school was regionally accredited as well on there site and by others here who verified this information. He stated " No, we are only nationally accredited now, we dropped the regional accreditation they did not give me any info as to why they decided to go this route.

Big let down considering this is one of the only online schools that lets you work with your certs, and has a good transfer policy was "was" accredited regionally. Maybe somebody else can verify this as well?

demonfurbie

ITdude84 wrote: »

Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have been looking into WGU for my BS and I spoke to the enrollment councilor, and he stated that WGU recently dropped there Regional Accreditation ( the type that major universities use) and are now only nationally accredited ( such as University of phoenix, and other online schools) which in turn means that if you wanted to transfer over to a Bigger school, such as ( MU, WVU, UFL etc etc) the credits will not be transferable... this is discerning considering I was gung ho about starting the BS in Network Administration tract you guys may want to look into this.... I just found this info out, today!

still listed on the site that does it

NWCCU Institutions W - Z

called student services and they have confirmed that they still are ... the enrollment people arent always the best ya gotta call student services

ITdude84

demonfurbie wrote: »

still listed on the site that does it

NWCCU Institutions W - Z

called student services and they have confirmed that they still are ... the enrollment people arent always the best ya gotta call student services

Thanks for verifying, I am still skeptical though... I dont know why he would state something like that. This has happened to me in the past at another school it was real "hush hush" and my credits would not transfer over anywhere after that. we may need to do some more further digging into it. Supposedly this enrollment guy has been there for awhile.

JoJoCal19

Ok so multiple people are getting different stories and even different people at WGU are saying different things? I was all set to go with WGU for my MSISA but between the program changes and now this, I'm kind of second guessing that. I don't want to have to deal with this half way through my degree.

milieu

I cannot imagine for a second that WGU would "drop" their regional accreditation. Maybe the person was confused, and got it backwards, and they are dropping DETC? That might make some sense...it's never been very well regarded.

Also, if you look on their page: WGU Accreditation | Accredited Online University | Western Governors University Online, the national accreditation, DETC, is not mentioned once. The regional one is the first one they mention.

thegoodbye

milieu wrote: »

I cannot imagine for a second that WGU would "drop" their regional accreditation.

Unfortunately it's not WGU's decision to make, though it's in their best interest to ensure they stay accredited, as any accredited school receives federal funding for doing so. The NWCCU makes this decision.

emerald_octane

If this is serious news then there will be problems. They still state (on their site) that they are regionally accredited and everything seems to be progressing as normal. I start the MSISA on the 1st!!!!!! lol this would destroy my May.

Rivka

This is in answer to both wayers22 and fly351. I just graduated at the end of Feb from WGU. I am an older adult who had a PMP but no degree, and with my family and all, I chose to go this less expensive route. I took 96 credits from community college, but with the way WGU bundles courses, I still had to take 46 more...there was some overlap. But, I was able to know all of those credits off in 1 six month term...

As for the program, yes, one of the enrollment persons was amazing, but the one in IT was clueless -- as for the actual courses, the courses are all real material, from real textbooks, and I gained a great deal. What was disappointing was the exams which seemed to be written by a 6th grader. I do not like online exams with vague questions. Or 7 questions on the same extraneous point after you studied 100 pages of operations management terms and procedures.

As far as a job -- the jury is out....at least I can put a BS degree on my resume....

arwes

Squeaked by today on BHV1 but a pass is a pass. It was funny taking the test next door to the Arkansas Police Training Center. Midway through the test I hear a lot of fully auto gunfire and nobody bats an eyelash about it LOL. Anyways, I'm moving on to QBT1 and I had a talk with the DFV1 course mentor on my way from from taking BHV1. The DFV1 revamp sounds like it's going to be pretty good, though I'm going to see about taking the MTA test again in a week or so. I found out that a lady I went to church with is a Certiport proctor at a high school down the road from my office, but they didn't show up on the Certiport site. She says as long as I give her a few days notice and show up with a voucher I'm good to go! That's a lot better than driving 120 miles.

tekalon

Why would they drop it now, when they could still have accreditation until fall? If you check the NWCCU site (linked in above responses) the renewal period isn't until the fall. I think the enrollment councilor might have been very mistaken/misinformed, no school WANTS to drop regional accreditation.

Sirbloody

I was just on the phone with my enrollment counselor and he told me they are dropping their national, not the regional. Take that with a grain of salt, I am going to do some research on my own about it too.