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

miked5656

If you have an assocaites degree do they accept alot of the credits toward your degree?

nelson8403

yes, they will go over that with you though during enrollment, but expect to bring over most, if not all of your gen ed classes, math/english etc

Cisc0kidd

Some of the requirements are satisfied by having the Associates even if you don't have the correct class.

DeiGratia

This was a really great response. I was kind of scared reading that the beginning replies were in 2010. I am in the process of becoming enrolled. I just passed my Security+ and am taking Network+ in about 10 days. I have taken classes at my local cc to prepare for Linux+, Sec+, Net+, CCENT and I'm pretty excited about doing the WGU thing.
The accredited bit helped clear things up and getting work after also.
Really loving this site for all the help it has provided and thank you to all who help in the forums too!
Cheers!

kurosaki00

So far I dont enjoy having to talk to my mentor every week even if there are no updates.
Besides that, having a good experience.

Souljacker

I've had a mix of good and not so good experiences. When I first applied, the enrollment rep wanted to argue with me about my phone number rather than listen to what I was telling him. I use a landline phone so that unwanted calls aren't coming to my cell phone and he just couldn't understand that I wanted to be in control of calling him. (I am not home during the day when he wanted to call and was not going to give him my cell phone number. I eventually requested a different rep, and she was able to work with me and get me set up.

Fast forward to my second term, and the courses themselves can be good and bad. The tech courses are certification based and laid out really well, because they just follow established methods adopted by vendors specializing in creating certification preparation materials.

The gen-ed courses are not so great and often are overloaded with materials that are either redundant, or just aren't structured in a way that makes sense. I ended up spending nearly three days on just figuring out exactly what I was supposed to be doing in the math and biology courses. The course mentors are often unresponsive, so I mostly gave up even asking them for any help. There's only a handful of professors that are really dedicated to their students. Perhaps I was just unlucky.

I also question the validity of my particular program as an IT Security degree. They have based an entire degree around maybe two or three courses that are actually related to ITSec. When I first started the program Sec+ wasn't even a part of the degree plan. It is now which is a good change, but that basically means the entire degree is built around that cert and the CCNASec cert which I already had anyway, and I'm loosely including the LPIC topics under the security umbrella. I had really expected more courses taught by experts in the field that delved deeply into the topics of security. If that's the kind of in-depth education you are looking for, this might not be the school for you.

Their test-taking procedures are a little heavy-handed as well. I understand that it adds to the value of the degree, but sometimes you can take a test without any interruptions, and then the next time you take a test you can have the camera in exactly the same spot as it was the last time and whoever is proctoring it will spend 15 minutes giving you a hard time about its placement, etc. It's really luck of the draw.

In all, I guess I wouldn't really recommend this university to anyone unless they are looking for an inexpensive degree that will net them a few certs along the way. In the IT industry at least, the certs seem to be worth more and if you already have them, get a degree from a university that will offer you a stronger foundation in ITSec. I am going to complete this degree here, but as the masters apparently does CEH certifications instead of advancing into the CCIE level, I may pursue the rest of the cisco certs on my own and do a masters somewhere else.

matai

olaHalo wrote: »

Has anyone taken DJV1 Software Development Fundamentals lately?
Seems a little odd and a quick search shows that MS may have changed this exam a lot lately.

Yes, I hated every second of it, the study material is crap.

olaHalo

matai wrote: »

Yes, I hated every second of it, the study material is crap.

What did you use to study?
Ill send you a pm

IIIMaster

I just spoke to a recuiter and I felt like they had no clue. They blew up my phone for 2 weeks to pass me off to someone else that stated I needed a degree in security,have a security cert, or work a job in security. And she actually told me not as a guard or police offer lol, to be accepted in the program !!!! I tried to tell her that I have to complete a security cert before I wrap up my b.s. but she had selective hearing. She said she have others to speak to and email me several other IT programs. I was like huh? So i look at the programs and none had courses that really interest me or was courses i have already taken. Im like ok I see why some people post discussion about dropping out.

hurricane1091

So is it possible for me to give them an unofficial college transcript and tell them the certs I have and get an idea of what classes I would then need?

arwes

Today has been fun, turned in everything I've got left, but I'm hoping my tech writing & capstone don't come back for revision. In working on the competency matrix today, I found that the networking competency that best matched my proposal was BIV1 (MS 70-647, Enterprise Administrator). Well, WGU saw fit to delete all the BIV1 competency info in the CoS and replace it with a notice that MS retired the exam. Since the school was closed today for Christmas, I pulled what I could out of the program guide PDF when I first started at WGU and put a lengthy note in for the evaluator. I really think they could've handled that better, knowing full well that people have to go back to look at the competencies for their tech writing & capstone.

Edit: Just in case anyone else runs into this issue due to a retired course, I found the competencies in a different location than where the capstone folks had me looking. Go to the Course of Study, and click the Assessment tab. Underneath that there's a button labeled Competencies.

earonw49

hurricane1091 wrote: »

So is it possible for me to give them an unofficial college transcript and tell them the certs I have and get an idea of what classes I would then need?

Unfortunately no.

I recently attempted to do this and discovered that their policy states that you have to have the official transcripts from your previous college institution if you want them applied towards your program (xfering credits).

As a side note for future reference, you have to wait at the end of your semester but more specifically, after your final grades are applied in order to send those transcripts. They want the most current/up to date transcripts before proceeding.

bugzy3188

These Labsim videos for the A+, Security+ are beyond dry...lol...I have to actively keep myself from drifting off in to lala land while watching to stay foused on the material. Cmon guys! throw some humor in to the mix! even if it is corny and unfunny...at least it shows that you are attempting to keep your audience engaged. **End of rant**

Nemowolf

Hey all, been a while since i posted so i wanted to give a quick update that I complete Term 4 at the end of this month. I finally had another 100% complete term which is awesome.

I am not 91 CUs completed in my program! 30 more to go. Next term is Data Base Fundamentals, Database I and Web Programming which i know will be the pain class for me. Hope you are all doing well!

arwes

Good luck on your next term! I am officially finished as of today! Capstone evaluation came in very early this morning, followed by my graduation application. Got that turned in, and decided I'm going to walk in Orlando in February. Anyone else going? It's a shame the hotel that's hosting the ceremony is full up (Disney's Coronado Springs Resort), but I think a lot of the hotels are going to be packed due to the national high school cheerleading competition that Disney is hosting. Anyways, I'm really thankful for this forum as any time I started a new course that I wasn't sure about, I knew I could come here and search for the course code and see how others dealt with it. I'm taking some time off from studies, but I'm contemplating heading back for the MBA in IT Management soon.

creativesoul2015

Has anyone taken FNC1 (fundamentals in Finance, Accounting, & IT) recently? Advice on plan of action or study guide to get through this one? It's going to be a tough term for me this go around with work and caring for my mom. Insight/advice/suggestions are appreciated!

revelated

So I have 26 CUs left to finish. And it appears my cherry picking was perfect - to my detriment.

UBC1, which is now known as ZBC1 or C164, is absolutely ridiculous. Intro to Physics, yet on the pre-assessment I can't seem to get past 60% despite being quite confident in the answers, at least as far as the course videos describe the material. So either the videos are wrong or the pre-assessment is. I haven't even touched the Performance side yet and as described in TaskStream, seems ridiculous too.

I've half a mind to just tell them to just let it roll to next term so I can get other courses that actually are relevant to my job. Like Software Development Fundamentals, or English Comp II.

srabiee

I uploaded my UBC1 physics notes in the following thread. Might help you if the curriculum hasn't changed much in the past 10 months.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/102635-wgu-ubc1-physics-notes.html

earonw49

srabiee wrote: »

I uploaded my UBC1 physics notes in the following thread. Might help you if the curriculum hasn't changed much in the past 10 months.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/102635-wgu-ubc1-physics-notes.html

Thank you so much!

I am starting to prepare myself for my Intro into Physics class and these notes really help!

Nemowolf

arwes wrote: »

Good luck on your next term! I am officially finished as of today! Capstone evaluation came in very early this morning, followed by my graduation application. Got that turned in, and decided I'm going to walk in Orlando in February. Anyone else going? It's a shame the hotel that's hosting the ceremony is full up (Disney's Coronado Springs Resort), but I think a lot of the hotels are going to be packed due to the national high school cheerleading competition that Disney is hosting. Anyways, I'm really thankful for this forum as any time I started a new course that I wasn't sure about, I knew I could come here and search for the course code and see how others dealt with it. I'm taking some time off from studies, but I'm contemplating heading back for the MBA in IT Management soon.

Did you happen to post on the WGU Facebook group!?

revelated

srabiee wrote: »

I uploaded my UBC1 physics notes in the following thread. Might help you if the curriculum hasn't changed much in the past 10 months.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/102635-wgu-ubc1-physics-notes.html

Thanks. I'll take a look at these.

My issue, I think, is that the pre-assessment speaks ambiguously to the concepts. There's no real attachment between the material delivery method and the pre-assessment. I've noticed this on more and more of the GE classes especially after they made the program changes late last year.

For example, say if I were teaching a math class. I tell you that 12 x 12 is 144, and I tell you that the reason it's 144 is because if you took 1 bag of 12 beans and added 11 bags of 12 beans each, then opened the bags and counted all of the beans, you would end up with 144.

If I were to test you on the concept of what I put above, I would ask something like, "suppose there are 12 students in 12 schools that get merged into two schools. How many students would be in each school?"

What WGU does is, they'll tell you 10x10 = 100 because 10+10+10+....etc = 100. Fine. But then on the pre-assessment they'll ask something like

"A plane traveling from Newark, NJ to Boise, ID travels at a speed of roughly 400MPH. The plane contains 200 passengers, each weighing an average of 150 lbs and has 2,000 lbs of carry-on luggage. If the plane makes three nonstop flights to Boise, how much total weight will the plane have carried?"

Totally off the rocker from the learning material and designed to throw your brain off, rather than asking questions that confirm that you understand the basic math, such as:

"If a plane is able to carry 3,000 lbs per trip and makes 275 trips, what's the total weight carried by the plane?"

If I get that wrong, I don't understand addition OR multiplication. If I get it right, I clearly understand at least one of them. This is an oversimplified example, but you get my point. It's the one thing I can't stand about the way WGU is set up.

romeo1808

Hey guys,
I'm a Canadian, and was interested in the Masters of information security assurance program. I was wondering if anyone knew if its worth it to go through this program or should i look for reputable programs? I was unable to find any info about how reputable this program is and if its looked as a highly recognized masters program. Any help would be appreciated, and private messages are more than welcomed. Thanks

CybWhtKnight

Explain "reputable". Whenever I read something where someone wants something "reputable", how do you quantify that? NSA's Center for Academic Excellence? Some boss's opinion? Prestige? Glory? Free Lunch?

Romeo: Explain what it is that you really want from a university.

My opinion: WGU offers a degree program which utilizes industrial examination-level standards on many of the courses it offers in the IT realm. Many employers are looking for degrees, but mostly certifications. Why not have both for roughly the same price as another master's program (or less, it seems by others' views in this thread).

romeo1808

I mean I've heard of universities that offer programs that are not recognized. I know they're regionally recognized in the US, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about them in Canada, thanks

xengoreth

After getting all of my transcripts and certifications sent in I was denied acceptance to WGU because I work overseas as a contractor and am not active duty military. Supposedly, this change was made several weeks ago.

To clarify, I have a ton of transfer credits and 17 years of IT experience, in addition to my Security+, so it isn't an
issue of not meeting their "readiness" requirements.

I am quite disappointed but plan to use this an opportunity to move on to something bigger and better. Ultimately, I suspect I'll finish up a BS in Computer Science instead.

zidian

That's really disappointing xengoreth, I feel for you man. Have you started looking at other colleges yet for the CS degree?

ajs1976

xengoreth - take a look at Charter Oak and Thomas Edison.

xengoreth

Thanks for the good words, guys. I am looking into Thomas Edison State College right now. Their BA in CS might be exactly what I need! I appreciate the suggestions.

Chadius

I hope this is the right thread. So cliff notes version of my experience so far.

I started January 1st, BSIT-Security. First classes use Labsim. I was using it for a week or so, but I really like to read out of books. So I bought the companion book and kept reading. Last week, I asked my mentor to move our call to a later time, because of work stuff. She couldn't. Then this week she calls, but our VOIP phones at work, were having crap time working. She emails the course mentor saying I've missed two calls, and haven't made any progress on Labsim recently (about a week). So he wants to talk with me, to come up with a way to make me excel. Jesus Christ!

I email both of them, and tell them I cannot look at Labsim or the online book for hours at a time. My process is to read, and then do simulations if I need them. The whole point for me, she told me the simulations would not be a judgement on my progress, but that the assessment and passing the certifications would be. Just really urks me. You can't expect every persons process to be the same. And the phone thing is basically what set her off on the path of saying I am behind. I plan on taking two certs in the first part of Feb. Then my third class in march. Then I will add more classes in.

Anyways end rant.

ratbuddy

Sounds like a terrible mentor, Chadius. I'd call student services and request to switch.