Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

Ruminus

manifest3r wrote: »

I can't wait to get started!

I so second that! Looking at a Jan 1 2014 start right now.

slotzero

Ruminus wrote: »

I so second that! Looking at a Jan 1 2014 start right now.

Same here!

Ruminus

slotzero wrote: »

Same here!

I just logged in to the student portal to see if anything was done today. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a bill from school. I'm looking to use FinAid, but even if this was out of pocket, $500/mo is soooooo cheap for what you get.

cutch69

Any one that graduate with there master form wgu i am about to start my last term with only my capstone to go. I was wondering how the whole Finaid roles out being only 4 CU.

Hypntick

With 4 CU left, you qualify for half time I believe, which would still allow for financial aid.

cutch69

Dose the fin aid get cut in half or what as i use the overages for my living

Danielm7

cutch69 wrote: »

Dose the fin aid get cut in half or what as i use the overages for my living

Call the financial aid dept of WGU. It depends on if you're dealing with grants, loans, or both. From what I understand you don't get grants for under full time (12 credits) but really if you call the school they'll give you the most accurate answer.

slotzero

Ruminus wrote: »

I just logged in to the student portal to see if anything was done today. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a bill from school. I'm looking to use FinAid, but even if this was out of pocket, $500/mo is soooooo cheap for what you get.

No doubt! I understand about the bill, I finally got the bill and first month taken care of just a couple days ago. Ready to roll!

BGraves

Orientation is over, waiting for a mentor for Jan 1st start date. Classes look interesting. They sure do cover their @$$ when it comes to making sure the student knows what is expected of them and how to succeed. I suppose that is in case the student flunks or fails miserably?
At any rate, I've been quite happy with the process and am excited to start the MS:ISA program. If anyone else is starting this soon too, happy to set up some communication as the classes begin, etc.

Nobylspoon

BGraves wrote: »

Orientation is over, waiting for a mentor for Jan 1st start date. Classes look interesting. They sure do cover their @$$ when it comes to making sure the student knows what is expected of them and how to succeed. I suppose that is in case the student flunks or fails miserably?
At any rate, I've been quite happy with the process and am excited to start the MS:ISA program. If anyone else is starting this soon too, happy to set up some communication as the classes begin, etc.

Hey BGraves, I started on the MS:ISA this month. I am currently working on Cryptography which I expect to finish very soon. Then I have Vulnerability Assessment, Risk Management and Ethical Hacking lined up for the rest of the term. FYI, there is a boot camp for Risk Management starting mid-January. You might want to ask your mentor about knocking that one out early to take advantage of it.

Best of luck!

Ruminus

BGraves wrote: »

Orientation is over...

I was just trying to get in to my orientation session. Tried Chrome first on Mac OS X Mavericks, then Firefox, same OS. Both ended up with a provisioning window that just sat there for about 10 minutes each time until I finally just killed it. I'll get with tech support in the morning, but I just thought I'd mention this here in the mean time to see if anyone else has had a similar issue or has found a resolution. I'll follow up with what I find out assuming no one puts an obvious fix here first.

ratbuddy

Got me, maybe add wgu.edu to trusted sites?

nerdinhiding

INC1 complete as of yesterday. 6 more courses to go! Term ends May 30th.

Ruminus

ratbuddy wrote: »

Got me, maybe add wgu.edu to trusted sites?

Meh, still no luck with the Mac, but it works fine under Firefox and Chrome on Win7. Go figure.

Nobylspoon

I passed the updated Cryptography pre-assessment and I have my assessment scheduled for this weekend. I need to read up on a couple of additional areas but I feel pretty good about it. Honestly, it has felt more like an undergrad course than a graduate level. I was expecting it to dive a lot deeper into the different areas...

Ruminus

Nobylspoon wrote: »

I passed the updated Cryptography pre-assessment and I have my assessment scheduled for this weekend. I need to read up on a couple of additional areas but I feel pretty good about it. Honestly, it has felt more like an undergrad course than a graduate level. I was expecting it to dive a lot deeper into the different areas...

Great job! Sorry it wasn't as in-depth as you thought it would be. I just received my confirmation that ORA1 is complete and I'm ready to go for 1/1/14.

Jack2

Just Cleared TXP1 with a 4.0, 5 courses to go! Should be complete by the end of April 2013!

sleepyman1

Hello all. Can anyone that has completed MBT2 give me some advice and pointers? I have read all the material and completed all the skillsoft modules. All the material that I printed out and read is overwhelming. Even my highlights look daunting to sort through. Demonfurbie can you provide some advice to get through this course? Thanks to anyone that helps me out.

lrcasey17

Thanks for all the posts here. They have been very helpful.

Nobylspoon

I just passed Cryptography(DGC2). The test was more challenging than the pre-assessment but my score was still about average with what I scored on it and the uCertify tests so I would say they are a decent gauge at progress but make sure you pay attention to the little details the practice material fails to cover.

Now to finish up Vulnerability Assessment (VUT2) before the Risk Management (JIT2) boot camp next month.

mikprat

what did you need to do to get the MTA's waived?

zidian

Usually just talking with your mentor and taking the higher level course. However, keep in mind that you still have to have 120 credits to graduate. I'm fairly certain when they are waived in this manner, they don't count as credit. I talked to my mentor about waiving one of the MTAs and I couldn't because of how the curriculum is structured. I started in October 2012 though, and the people that have been doing it that I've seen all started within the last 7 to 8 months.

ratbuddy wrote: »

That is incorrect. When you waive an lower level class, it goes on your record as if you had transferred in that class/cert. You still get the CU, and it still counts as completed. The only thing you 'miss out' on is the MTA cert, if the skipped class includes one.

ratbuddy

That is incorrect. When you waive an lower level class, it goes on your record as if you had transferred in that class/cert. You still get the CU, and it still counts as completed. The only thing you 'miss out' on is the MTA cert, if the skipped class includes one.

TomkoTech

So I started the enrollment process about 2 months ago. It turns out I haven't progressed because I never sent in transcripts from some school that I never attended, applied to, nor that I have any idea what it is. The school is some place called USF. My enrollment counselor nor the admissions person she spoke with has any idea what USF and suggested that I call both The University of South Florida, and The University of San Francisco and obtain letters from them that I have never attended there in order to have those transcripts excluded before I can be admitted.

That is freaking ridiculous. So much for WGU for me.

slotzero

TomkoTech wrote: »

So I started the enrollment process about 2 months ago. It turns out I haven't progressed because I never sent in transcripts from some school that I never attended, applied to, nor that I have any idea what it is. The school is some place called USF. My enrollment counselor nor the admissions person she spoke with has any idea what USF and suggested that I call both The University of South Florida, and The University of San Francisco and obtain letters from them that I have never attended there in order to have those transcripts excluded before I can be admitted.

That is freaking ridiculous. So much for WGU for me.

That is really frustrating. There are many USFs out there and you couldn't possibly get a letter from all of them.

WGU is growing so fast that the Enrollment Counselors and Admissions are having trouble adjusting and keeping up, and small mistakes become big obstacles quickly. It's probably just a clerical error.

If I were in your situation, I could contact a different department:

BY PHONE: toll-free 1-877-435-7948
For Technical Support: Option 2
For Student Services: Option 7, then 2

I would start with Student Services, and get a new set of eyes on your account. It's a good school, this initial experience you've had isn't typical.

Good luck!

Iristheangel

I finished my final MSISA class the other week. I only have the capstone left for my Masters. I'm going to give myself a couple of weeks to get this done but I'm excited to be completely done with school. I really enjoyed getting my BS but my MS was boring more times than it was fun. More than anything I'm just excited to dedicate my focus on my certifications and things I'm studying on the side of certifications (ISE, Nexus, etc).

First page done. At least I'm writing about something interesting to me:

slotzero

This is so awesome Iristheangel - congrats!

TLeTourneau

Congratulations and good luck on the capstone Iristheangel!

Iristheangel

Heh, thanks. Just glad to be done with this degree. My work has been so crazy and trying to keep up with my certifications is hard enough so the MSISA stuff was always pushed to the back. There were a lot of times I really wanted to quit on this thing in the last 8 months but I was already halfway done so I figured it would be a waste.

demonfurbie

just finished the network management masters ... that was a ton of paperwork