Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

LDST

Hello all!
I'm giving serious consideration to enrolling in the M.S. Information Technology Management program with WGU. I have a B.S. degree in Computer Information Systems, earned back in 1999. I'm an IT Manager with 23 years of experience in IT. Did several certifications (CNE, MCSA, ITIL) in my early years but haven't really tried any in the last 10 years.

Anyone here that is in that exact program?

Any thoughts on the M.S. ITM vs. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degrees?

revelated

Wow. It's been years since I was in this thread. I was looking back fondly at my posts of frustration.

For the record, I dropped WGU in September 2015, mostly because of the handling of the course chaos. They tried to retain me, I gave them an offer: drop the Algebra and Physics requirements. They refused.

The issue was the # of CUs. I was already over the number I'd signed up for due to them changing classes over and over again, but they still were requiring me to take 20 more CUs worth of classes. So I dropped them.

Anessa

I just started the Masters in Information Technology Management on May 1st and have a similar background. I have been in IT 26 years, mostly in Networking, recently project management side. I did get my PMP certification so I didn't need the Project Management class. That said, one month in, I'm on my 6th class of 10. If you have that background, are motivated, and have a gift for writing papers, you should easily clear it in a 6 month term.

Best of luck!
Anessa

LDST wrote: »

Hello all!
I'm giving serious consideration to enrolling in the M.S. Information Technology Management program with WGU. I have a B.S. degree in Computer Information Systems, earned back in 1999. I'm an IT Manager with 23 years of experience in IT. Did several certifications (CNE, MCSA, ITIL) in my early years but haven't really tried any in the last 10 years.

Anyone here that is in that exact program?

Any thoughts on the M.S. ITM vs. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degrees?

PsychoData91

revelated wrote: »

The issue was the # of CUs. I was already over the number I'd signed up for due to them changing classes over and over again, but they still were requiring me to take 20 more CUs worth of classes. So I dropped them.

Interesting. I'm working on Signing up for WGU (paying off the last of some cards and then planning to pay for it out-of-pocket, rather than take more loans)

One of the big things that people told me is that once you sign on to a course of study, the classes are locked in and you take those even though the degrees change frequently to keep up for new people joining the school.

Unfortunately, having worked at a college and been mildly familiar with the accreditation process, some of the Academic requirements literally cannot be avoided because they are required. Took physics in High school? if you had a program to get college credit for it you might be set! if you didn't you may still have to take it.

we had about 5 business classes in high school you could get what we called RAVE (Regionally Accrediting Vocational Education, or something like that) credit, and I was really horrible and never got the first four classes forms filled out. No credit. BUT I did make it around to it on the last and highest class. Small Business Entrepreneurship. Was a good pick. It came through as a high level business course and I got to apply it to basically any business course I wanted cause it touched on basically every subject. Now, once my first college (a local community college) was accepted, I was pretty set! Since then every college, including WGU, has accepted it and transferred it in as a high level business course. It was a pretty shitty little HS course, but since the Teach had gotten it approved, my local Comm Coll recognized it, and since they did everyone I've talked to has.


Personally, I'm looking at possibly doing CCENT and CCNA from previous training and just getting off my tail and finishing it, before I apply for my final transcript eval before i start once I register, cause that's 3 classes, basically a whole semester I wont have to pay for. |

now I COULD sign up, pay for the semester and THEN sit for the cert test and there would be vouchers covering it, but if I'm going to be using semester time, I'm hoping to get done with my AS degree and certs transferred in in just a couple semesters, and save some money.

I am hoping that I can knock out the Bachelors pretty quick because the larger employers around here all "require" it and I've gotten no interviews when I apply to those BA requiring jobs with AS cause I dont have the experience to back it up yet.

Eventually I want to continue on to Masters, and maybe even doctorate. There are a lot of doctors in my family, and I just love learning, too, so it might be a point of pride that I do that some time, though I dont know it would ever make much difference to get doctor level over Masters

jenmz

I am a SAHM in my late 30's and a 1st time freshman. Time is not an issue for me as my kids are all in school so I have plenty of hours during the day to commit to my own studies. This week WGU is waving the $65 application fee so applying right now seems the logical choice. I am interested in getting my BS in Marketing. Being my age and having been out of the classroom setting for 2 decades, I am slightly terrified of taking on studies in this manner. I do not doubt my own intelligence or level of commitment, but what if I do not do well? I know everyone has doubts but taking on student debt just to fail holds zero appeal. Realistically, how difficult is it to be completely responsible for your own learning? It seems this is a very self directed mode of obtaining your degree. Is my chance of failure greater due to my never having attended college? Can someone like me, who has not been in school for so long, honestly expect to succeed? I have no previous college experience to draw from so I want to make sure all of my bases are covered before I proceed.

TLeTourneau

jenmz wrote: »

I am a SAHM in my late 30's and a 1st time freshman. Time is not an issue for me as my kids are all in school so I have plenty of hours during the day to commit to my own studies. This week WGU is waving the $65 application fee so applying right now seems the logical choice. I am interested in getting my BS in Marketing. Being my age and having been out of the classroom setting for 2 decades, I am slightly terrified of taking on studies in this manner. I do not doubt my own intelligence or level of commitment, but what if I do not do well? I know everyone has doubts but taking on student debt just to fail holds zero appeal. Realistically, how difficult is it to be completely responsible for your own learning? It seems this is a very self directed mode of obtaining your degree. Is my chance of failure greater due to my never having attended college? Can someone like me, who has not been in school for so long, honestly expect to succeed? I have no previous college experience to draw from so I want to make sure all of my bases are covered before I proceed.

I do not think age is an issue, I was 42 when I started by BS and 48 when I started my MS. I have some previous college experience but it had been more than a decade prior and the WGU model is completely different. The biggest thing I can recommend is to know that a self-directed course of study requires perseverance and dedication. Life will compete for your time and there will be times that it needs to take priority, it's easy to give it priority. The issue then is you find yourself behind and it is up to you to catch up. The school offers assistance and recommended pacing for courses but the primary responsibility is the students.

JCloud

16 down, 8 to go. Hoping to finish this in 1 calendar year. Love the flexible program where I schedule my study time and exams.

JCloud wrote: »

I started the B.S. Cloud and SysAdmin degree on Dec 1st and I'm enjoying it. I was able to transfer in all my GenEd courses, so just working on the IT courses. I haven't taken a certification exam in almost 10 years but I really like the structure of this program. Already passed 3 of the courses with 21 to go. Hoping to finish in 2 semesters.

As far as the mentor goes, we talk every week, but I really don't need someone holding my hand. I work as a SysAdmin now, but eventually want to work in the cloud.

netsechelp

Update: Took admissions 6 weeks or so get the documents they needed (including me re-sending some of them) but I started June 1st. I've finished 2 classes, and am done with all my work for 2 additional classes, but cannot turn the papers in or take the OA because they all need mentor approval. Well thats great but my mentor is AWOL. Missed our last conference call and has not responded to emails regarding giving approval. Thursday afternoon is our next scheduled call, and if she misses that I am going to be pretty pissed off frankly.

This whole thing has been a bit of cluster**** on their part.

ksijur

Get hold of student services. They'll get you squared away (assign a new mentor if needed.)

draught

I have one class left (Data Management - Applications ) until I finally graduate. I'm so tired and done with this. I'd kill to take this final class in a classroom with structure. I hate when the only source material is what WGU provides. I have to force myself to push through this last class.

Regardless I'm going to finish this class just by my force of will and be done with WGU forever. I'm brunt out but I can't even enjoy myself because if I try to do something fun I'm reminded I only have one class left.

I'll be back working on certs eventually but I'm so done with formal education.

As to the people just starting my advice is to get rid of the harder courses first rather than later. I'm stuck with a more longer more difficult course now and I wish had I killed this off early.

RubbberDucky

Do some certifications count as multiple classes? Like the CISSP I would think should be at least 6 credits.

Also, do they accept Continuing Education Certs from CompTIA? I have a Security+ CE that I've had since 2010.

Tekn0logy

RubbberDucky wrote: »

Also, do they accept Continuing Education Certs from CompTIA? I have a Security+ CE that I've had since 2010.

In addition to the cert, you will need to submit a transcript of your CEUs you collected to renew.
I'm in the same boat now, but counselor didn't get my CompTIA link email. My Net+ renewed when I got Sec+, lets see if they ask for any extra detail.

draught

I finally decided to get an outside tutor for that last class. I think this has more to do with anxiety then anything else. I should be graduating in the next month.

netmastr32

They accepted mine just took them to double verify and me showing them I did the CE credits.

netmastr32

Is your last class Capstone?

Squished

I'm working through my capstone right now. Brutal.

rj1790

How hard is it to get re-admitted into WGU? I attended for about a year and then family issues arise and I had to drop out. Are they lenient if you have a valid reason?

Rosco2382

I had a friend who was dropped for academic reasons. He was readmitted and started 10/1 with no issues. I think the CM just keep on you more and set obtainable goals for classes.

Squished

Finished my MBA-ITM. 5 months 17 days to complete it., glad it's done!

amandacooper

nicceee!

Basic85

Is everyone paying out of there own pockets?  

EANx

Basic85 said:

Is everyone paying out of there own pockets?  

Depends on the employer and the student. Not counting students that are unemployed or career-changers, I'd assume there's a significant percentage where the employer will only reimburse after successful completion of the term or even the whole degree. So the student either gets financial aid to cover the gap or they pay out of their own pocket until they get reimbursed.

TLeTourneau

Basic85 said:

Is everyone paying out of there own pockets?  

I paid out of pocket for my undergraduate degree and received tuition reimbursement from my employer. For my graduate degree I am doing student loans with tuition reimbursement. My employer reimburses once the class is successfully completed.

Byronicbluez

EANx said:

Basic85 said:

Is everyone paying out of there own pockets?  

Depends on the employer and the student. Not counting students that are unemployed or career-changers, I'd assume there's a significant percentage where the employer will only reimburse after successful completion of the term or even the whole degree. So the student either gets financial aid to cover the gap or they pay out of their own pocket until they get reimbursed.

Using my TA from the Air Force reserves.  I get 4.5k a year, pays for a semester and a half.  Work pays for the second half of a semester.  

ruthbeck

I studied at another university, but my friends who studied at the WGU were very pleased.

rj1790

Graduated this month. I learned alot from WGU. Starting IT with no experience and no knowledge of IT. I felt like I learned so much!

rajesh_kumar

Thanks for sharing this information

powerfool

So, I teach at a community college.  I have applied to WGU and know some folks that have attended.  Beyond that, my understanding of WGU involves what I have read here.  "Correspondence" courses cannot qualify for financial aid, whereas "distance education" courses do.  What distinguishes them is that "distance education" requires routine and regular interaction between the student and the teacher; also, the student cannot be the primary initiator of interactions.

Would those statements, in the opinion of folks that have attended WGU reflect that WGU is "correspondence" rather than "distance education"?  I have applied for one of their advisor type of roles in the past (but they wanted it to be full-time).

JDMurray

In my understanding, a "correspondence course" is where assignments are mailed to you, you complete and mail the assignments back to the school, and you are mailed your marked-up assignments and grade. (I once attempted to learn Esperanto this way.) You might get supplemental course material form radio or television programs. Modern distance learning is always online, interactive with instructors, and the major DL universities have regional accreditation. I attended a DL Master program back in 2004-07 and I'm in one now (at WGU) in 2020. I would say that WGU is definitely DL and does not involve snail paper at all.

powerfool

So, this comes up due to some certification we must undergo to teach distance courses (I have only taught in-person courses, to date, with the exception of doing it "virtually" due to the pandemic).  This is specifically related to how financial aid works and how the federal government classifies a course as "distance" versus "correspondence".  If it is correspondence, then they are not able to qualify for financial aid.  The definition deems it as correspondence if it doesn't have significant interaction or if the student has to initiate the interaction routinely.  From from I know of WGU, there isn't even an instructor and pretty much everything is student initiated outside of occasional follow up from the "mentor"?

It just has me wondering how much it is the college being overly cautious, as WGU isn't a new thing by this point.  If they were really "slacking" according to standards, it would have bit them already, I am thinking.