Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

sthompson86

One of my worries with an online degree from a non brick and mortor school has been how will would be employers perceive it.

For instance, I told the CIO of my current company that I was planning on getting a bachelor from an online school. The first thing he asked was if it was a brick and morter school, and I said no its not ( talking about WGU ) He then went on a rant on how he hates for profit online schools like UOP and Devry, and how they are all out for peoples moneys, and that there program is horrible..

When he said all that I kinda got scared of all online degrees. Now dont get me wrong the CIO is self admitting that he is old school when it comes to getting a degree.

Anybody else have this kind of trouble?

Thanks in adv.

mikej412

sthompson86 wrote: »

He then went on a rant on how he hates for profit online schools like UOP and Devry, and how they are all out for peoples moneys, and that there program is horrible..

That is kind of correct -- the story has been making the rounds in the evening news about the lies told to prospective students at the top 15 or so for profit schools.

While you may be able to learn at a for profit school if you're motivated, a lot of people realize that they can pass just by (taking the student loans) and paying tuition.

WGU is a non-profit school.

sthompson86

mikej412 wrote: »

WGU is a non-profit school.

Now that I did not know. _ That makes me feel better

demonfurbie

i plan to finish my bs degree at wgu mostly because
it can be done faster than other online schools,
its more creditable than other online schools,
it has good reviews,

in the IT world ive noticed its not all about the degree its about staying current with the certifications/tech

2 people apply for the same job one went to wgu and the other went to a b&m school in the 1980s

the one that went to school in the 80s has a bs from a b&m school but no telling if he is current, thats when certification comes into play. at wgu certification is part of the program so you get the bs degree from an online school but you are also current on the certifications.

erpadmin

sthompson86 wrote: »

Now that I did not know. _ That makes me feel better

Another thing that will make you better is that WGU is regionally accredited (nationally too, but unlike others, I don't (personally) put too much stock into that).

What the regionally accreditation does is makes WGU akin to a no-name state school. (Think of the Division 1 school in your state that EVERYONE knows (edit: Like Ole Miss), then think of the lower Division 3 one in MS no one outside of MS has heard of...that would be WGU [if it had a sports team...lol]). If you were to finish with a degree at WGU, you would be considered a legitimate college graduate. Trust me...it's no diploma mill; you DO have to work to earn that degree.

That's why many of us (myself included) are considering going the B&M route after WGU for a Masters; in part to lessen the "stigma" of the "online school."

However, I will say that by itself, I could sell just a WGU degree to a current or prospective employer based on my experience (work and past collegiate experience). In the end, I'm personally only doing it for that piece of sheepskin that has been long absent.

Jack2

WFV1 - I did some quick review of the books and I did the crammaster and scored 100%. Then I did the skill soft and got a 92 on the first pass.
Should I just request a voucher and do a lil more reviewing and skillsoft?

erpadmin

Jack2 wrote: »

WFV1 - I did some quick review of the books and I did the crammaster and scored 100%. Then I did the skill soft and got a 92 on the first pass.
Should I just request a voucher and do a lil more reviewing and skillsoft?

One word....

YES!

Trust me, it's not even a CompTIA exam, let alone a MS one. Your mentor may make you take a MeasureUp in cert mode to be sure. (It's pretty comparable to the real mckoy.)

Hypntick

I do have a few misgivings already about this. Looking into the school, it seems bulletproof. At least for the IT programs.

However went on their website to get more info. Received a phone call the next day, okay no big deal. Talk to the enrollment guy who seemed slightly clueless (seems common from this thread) and let him know my situation. No chance of starting anytime soon, just doing initial probing to see what they're about. Guy says he understands, tells me what i'll need to do to start and agrees to talk to me closer to the time i'm ready, no rush.

Next day, phone call from admissions wanting me to speak with the enrollment guy again. Didn't answer the phone was just a message. Then I see 3 new emails from WGU in my inbox extolling their benefits and why I need to go with them. Starts to worry me a bit.

Next day, same thing happens. Another phone call and emails from a few other people at WGU. No new information presented pretty much the same thing. Now they're starting to annoy me a bit. The enrollment guy said he understood my situation and that I wouldn't even consider starting this program until other things got worked out.

Now i've requested info from other schools before just to feel them out. This type of behavior tends to come exclusively from for-profit schools and makes me worry about WGU. I know they say they're non-profit and the tuition cost seems to bear that out. However it still makes me slightly nervous. If the calls/emails continue at such a rapid pace that will completely turn me off to even considering them.

Anyone else have the same issues with them? Is this normal? Thanks.

petedude

Hypntick wrote: »

I do have a few misgivings already about this. Looking into the school, it seems bulletproof. At least for the IT programs.
. . .
Anyone else have the same issues with them? Is this normal? Thanks.

Yes, this is normal. No, I don't exactly know why, especially when they have record enrollment currently. Maybe the enrollment counselors are getting pushed hard by their bosses? Possibly lower enrollment right now in the winter than normal?

SteveLord

University of Phoenix is the same, if not worse. Boy did I make the mistake of submitting an online inquiry to them many years ago. First call within a minute no joke...and lots of emails and more calls afterward that I had to unsubscribe to more than once. There was another company that did the same thing. But they were a "certify you in MCSE in no time, guarantee you a job" via braindumps kinda business.

erpadmin

Hypntick,

To add to petedude, do not let the EC's scare you off if WGU is in your plans. I think I had started dealing with them in May, but I had stated I may not enroll until August. I had to get stuff done in between anyway, but I was not going to enroll in July, like they wanted. (Apply for financial aid, get transcripts, etc).

ECs are (for the most part) a bunch of useless tools, and I think if they want to improve enrollment, they need to do a much better job with these guys. If they're enrolling 20000 people, that means they probably could have done 25000-30000 at minimum.

Just keep to your own schedule. Trust me, ECs are (so far) the only negative experience I have with WGU. Everything else is pretty much ok.

petedude

SteveLord wrote: »

University of Phoenix is the same, if not worse. Boy did I make the mistake of submitting an online inquiry to them many years ago.

Same here. They pestered me for weeks before they finally went away.

I'm quite glad I found the Excelsior route, then (re)discovered WGU.

jmasterj206

I agree with the EC's being a pain and useless. I started looking at WGU in May and started in August. My EC would keep calling every few weeks until August for no real reason. When I needed him end of July I never heard a word from him and ended up having another EC help me. Don't base you decision on the enrollment counselors, my student mentor has been great as has everyone else.

JoshD779

Wow, when I was first enrolling, I couldn't ever get my enrollment counselor to call me back. I was really eager to start ASAP too. He was pretty much worthless. My experience with my EC has not been representative of my experience at WGU. Everyone I've dealt with since has been top notch, and I was extremely lucky to get such an awesome mentor.

Excellent1

JoshD779 wrote: »

Wow, when I was first enrolling, I couldn't ever get my enrollment counselor to call me back. I was really eager to start ASAP too. He was pretty much worthless. My experience with my EC has not been representative of my experience at WGU. Everyone I've dealt with since has been top notch, and I was extremely lucky to get such an awesome mentor.

Had the exact same experience--EC wouldn't return emails or calls, and was a no call for the intake interview. I just called the school and got a random EC (not my assigned one) and he took care of me. Really sad they have such shoddy EC's when that is the first taste prospective students have with the school, but it is much better once you're in.

erpadmin

JoshD779 wrote: »

Wow, when I was first enrolling, I couldn't ever get my enrollment counselor to call me back. I was really eager to start ASAP too. He was pretty much worthless. My experience with my EC has not been representative of my experience at WGU. Everyone I've dealt with since has been top notch, and I was extremely lucky to get such an awesome mentor.

What I really like also about Student Services, is that they'll even follow up with you on even the smallest of things. (Like enrolling in a class...had a really late start with the LAT1 and LUT1 because I did it close to the labor day weekend). That was my fault, but they did the best they could under the circumstances. My mentor is really not a bad guy either...he does seem to go above and beyond to get you what you need.

It's really just the enrollment counselors that need work.

SteveLord

Did anyone here use the GI Bill/Post 9-11 GI Bill for WGU?

petedude

Got my flash drive this weekend as the "meeting SAP" gift. It's a 4GB as well. Yay!

RoadwarriorsLive

Hypntick wrote: »

Now i've requested info from other schools before just to feel them out. This type of behavior tends to come exclusively from for-profit schools and makes me worry about WGU. I know they say they're non-profit and the tuition cost seems to bear that out. However it still makes me slightly nervous. If the calls/emails continue at such a rapid pace that will completely turn me off to even considering them.

Anyone else have the same issues with them? Is this normal? Thanks.

I did the hunt for schools before I settled on WGU and most of them bugged me for over a month. Told them I was just kicking tires. and looking around. A couple of them kept calling even after I told them I decided on a school and was already signed up. Figure it this way. Your a lead they didnt have to pay for so their marketing department jumps on you pretty heavy. Seems par for the course now days.

myedjo24

SteveLord wrote: »

Did anyone here use the GI Bill/Post 9-11 GI Bill for WGU?

Yes, I'm using the regular GI bill and I'm getting 1426ish a month. I paid wgu 540ish the first month and 460ish each additional month. If you qualify for both the regular and post 9-11 GI bill I would use the regular one first because once you dry up that you get an additional 12 months of the post 9-11.

Chris:/*

myedjo24 wrote: »

Yes, I'm using the regular GI bill and I'm getting 1426ish a month. I paid wgu 540ish the first month and 460ish each additional month. If you qualify for both the regular and post 9-11 GI bill I would use the regular one first because once you dry up that you get an additional 12 months of the post 9-11.

That is only under special conditions and not everyone qualifies for them. If you have not already used up your GI Bill then you do not qualify for this now. Congress put that provision in to protect veterans who already used their GI Bill not ones who were going to use it.

SteveLord

Last I checked, I am qualified for 50% of the 9/11 bill. As I've been honorably discharged for over a year now too.

Excellent1

I was just informed by my mentor that they are moving away from using MeasureUp pre=assessments and are now recommending we just use the ExamForce pre-assessment that's part of the program.

I had requested my key for the Security+ and that was the response I got via email earlier. I'm interested if others are seeing/hearing the same thing. I've probably missed a post in the communities (I tend to avoid them, for the most part), so this may be something they had planned.

earweed

The COS has had the requirement of Examfarce for a long time. I heard from a lot of people aboutthem getting measureup from their mentors but has the COS been changed???
Unless the COS has been changed then WGU is just enforcing their own policy.

eansdad

For TEV1, TTV1 and TSV1 I was told to just take the practice exam in LabSim and for TPV1 in ExamForce. The only class I had MeasureUp for was WFV1.

Excellent1

earweed wrote: »

The COS has had the requirement of Examfarce for a long time. I heard from a lot of people aboutthem getting measureup from their mentors but has the COS been changed???
Unless the COS has been changed then WGU is just enforcing their own policy.

The pre-assessment has nothing to do with the CoS, to my knowledge. Understand that I am not talking about practice exams, but about the pre-assessment that is taken ostensibly before the CoS is even looked at or the course even assigned to AAV. Previously, these pre-assessments have all been via MeasureUp. Now it appears they are moving away from that, according to what my mentor says.

No big deal, but I was wondering if everyone was seeing the same thing. Perhaps I am the only one even clicking the pre-assessment link and requesting it prior to taking the class. I try to get a true pre-assessment of where I'm at, knowledge-wise, before I start reading the course material. It doesn't matter, just wanted to know what others are being told.

erpadmin

Excellent1 wrote: »

The pre-assessment has nothing to do with the CoS, to my knowledge. Understand that I am not talking about practice exams, but about the pre-assessment that is taken ostensibly before the CoS is even looked at or the course even assigned to AAV. Previously, these pre-assessments have all been via MeasureUp. Now it appears they are moving away from that, according to what my mentor says.

No big deal, but I was wondering if everyone was seeing the same thing. Perhaps I am the only one even clicking the pre-assessment link and requesting it prior to taking the class. I try to get a true pre-assessment of where I'm at, knowledge-wise, before I start reading the course material. It doesn't matter, just wanted to know what others are being told.

I hope to some higher power that you're wrong. Every pre-assessment that I had to take for my certs (CIWv5 and Security+) has been been in MeasureUp. Matter of fact, I'll e-mail my mentor within the next week that I want a MeasureUp in TPV1 (Project+) so that I can get my Project+ voucher. I'm hoping I don't have to take ExamFarce! I'll know soon enough though.

earweed

What I was talking about concerning the COS is that all of the IT classes I've taken (except A+ and WFV1 when WGU didn't use examfarce yet) have staed that completing examforce was required before you could get a voucher. My mentor requires examfarce be completed before approving me to get the voucher. For the A+ and WFV1 we still used measureup for the preassessment. A lot of mentors, for some reason, have used the preassessment to approve vouchers and I think that may be where the change is coming from. I haven't heard anything about them changing preassessments but they may be enforcing the rule of using examfarce to approve vouchers.

themagicone

I've never been asked to prove anything to my mentor to get him to approve my voucher requests. Nor have I had to pass or show a pass on any of my other classes to schedule the finals. I can see why a mentor might require something but I think it all up to the mentor to decide. I'll agree with that Examforce is crap, labsim for the win!

eansdad

Mine doesn't ask me for much either. I ask he says ok. Might take a few days but I haven't had any problems.