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

themagicone

Office is only $79 for students so make sure you go that way.
Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010

petedude

themagicone wrote: »

Office is only $79 for students so make sure you go that way.
Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010

But that's $79 more than OpenOffice costs!!!

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

But that's $79 more than OpenOffice costs!!!

I would pay double the $79 to not use OpenOffice.

Think about that; if OpenOffice was that good, you would see more of it used in enterprise environments.

It just doesn't work well with documents that are already out there.

demonfurbie

erpadmin wrote: »

I would pay double the $79 to not use OpenOffice.

Think about that; if OpenOffice was that good, you would see more of it used in enterprise environments.

It just doesn't work well with documents that are already out there.

to cut costs at the state level we switched to openoffice

if all you do is word process and spreadsheets its good

erpadmin

demonfurbie wrote: »

to cut costs at the state level we switched to openoffice

if all you do is word process and spreadsheets its good

I have seen terribly erratic behavior from opening docs that weren't created in OO. Believe me, I tried making it work, but I just never could. MS simply has too much of the Office-suite game on lock for OO to be of any real use.

But hey, all I'm saying is, if $79 is not cutting into groceries, or any other important bill...go the MS Office route.

NickDog

erpadmin,
How do we gain access to dreamspark and msdna through wgu?

nhpr

I went to take only a couple of CompTIA tests today since WGU allows a maximum of two outstanding vouchers at a time. I'm actually glad they do this now, because I probably wouldn't have been able to concentrate for the next exams.

I also learned that uCertify and LabSim are, indeed, harder than the actual exam. I scored about 7% higher on the actual exam as compared to practice tests.j

themagicone

NickDog wrote: »

erpadmin,
How do we gain access to dreamspark and msdna through wgu?

www.dreamspark.com You need to sign in with a Microsoft Account (i.e. hotmail, msn, etc) then add your .edu address to verify you're a student.

MSDNAA you need to be enrolled in once you start the program. They will send you a username/password.

erpadmin

nhpr wrote: »

I went to take only a couple of CompTIA tests today since WGU allows a maximum of two outstanding vouchers at a time. I'm actually glad they do this now, because I probably wouldn't have been able to concentrate for the next exams.

Let me understand you right...based on your sig and post...

You took Project+ and Security+ in one day? Wow....

Congrats on that...Security+ was easy enough (though I prepped harder than I needed to), but Project+ I probably didn't prep enough. I would have been a little happier about passing if I got at least an 800 (six points shy of that).

NickDog

themagicone wrote: »

www.dreamspark.com You need to sign in with a Microsoft Account (i.e. hotmail, msn, etc) then add your .edu address to verify you're a student.

MSDNAA you need to be enrolled in once you start the program. They will send you a username/password.

So do I need to be in the Net design program to get in with MDNAA? Im in Sec.

themagicone

NickDog wrote: »

So do I need to be in the Net design program to get in with MDNAA? Im in Sec.

No. I forgot where I got signed up for it. May be under resources in your portal? Email your mentor, they will point you in the right direction.

petedude

themagicone wrote: »

No. I forgot where I got signed up for it. May be under resources in your portal? Email your mentor, they will point you in the right direction.

I received a memo a few days after my start date with the details. Touch base with your mentor if you don't see this in the first week.

MiikeB

EruMais wrote: »

I do have some experience. I build my own PC's from the ground up both for myself and for friends/family. I have a decent knowledge about software, but I'm really interested in network/server administration. I also work as tech support/help desk for a major retailer (our registers are still using XP pro) and have experience in troubleshooting, editing information using M$ SQL, standard network troubleshooting at the store level, and now I'm involved in a project to convert all our stores to a having a back office 'server' which has gotten me off the phones for a significant period of time. I've worked with our developers and tier III guys while doing the project and learned quite a bit about a variety of topics. I would just like to move my career to something more advanced and get off the phones permanently.

I was wondering about Office and was considering buying it. Open Office is nice because it's free... but it's little quirks tick me off.

I'm going to buy a laptop as well and the decent machines on newegg seem to all have home premium on it. If I'll have access to Win7 Pro anyway, then I won't have a problem with that.

Thanks for your help! I'll definitely heading back here frequently.

If you buy a good enough laptop you can probably save yourself a lot of money and create your "lab" in virtual machines. IMO you do not gain that much more by using physical machines for each component of the lab, especially if you already have some experience hands on with the insides of computers. If you go this route, just make sure you get a lot of ram, like 8Gb and probably a i7 processor. But this way, when you don't need to be using your lab, you can power the virtual machines down and have a top of the line laptop

Hypntick

MiikeB wrote: »

If you buy a good enough laptop you can probably save yourself a lot of money and create your "lab" in virtual machines. IMO you do not gain that much more by using physical machines for each component of the lab, especially if you already have some experience hands on with the insides of computers. If you go this route, just make sure you get a lot of ram, like 8Gb and probably a i7 processor. But this way, when you don't need to be using your lab, you can power the virtual machines down and have a top of the line laptop

I can flesh out a VM lab for way cheaper than a i7 laptop with 8 GB of RAM. Not to mention having a dedicated box you'll be using ESXi rather than workstation etc. which is what tends to be used in the field a bit more often.

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

I have seen terribly erratic behavior from opening docs that weren't created in OO. Believe me, I tried making it work, but I just never could.. . .

But hey, all I'm saying is, if $79 is not cutting into groceries, or any other important bill...go the MS Office route.

I was teasing when I started this line of conversation, but truth be told, I get a lot of mileage out of OO. I use it nearly all the time at home, even though I have Office products available to me. I draft certain docs at work with it. I even built a presentation for work once using OO and exported the final version to PowerPoint. Once you get used to certain quirks in handling MS docs, you learn how to work around them. I do keep the free MS Word viewer handy, though, to check certain WP docs before sending them out.

I'm glad WGU (at least when I started with them) didn't specify Office, they said "an office suite" as a computing requirement. I imagine students in the other majors may get more mileage out of OO than IT students might, and I can certainly envision folks on a tight budget having to use OO on at least a temporary basis.

All that being said, though, a $79 copy of Office isn't a bad idea if you can afford it. Heck, even a used copy of Works with bundled MS Word would be more than enough for some students.

erpadmin

jmasterj206 wrote: »

erp,
It looks like Sybex has R2 books coming out as well this month.

Amazon.com: MCTS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Complete Study Guide (Exams 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643) (9780470948460): William Panek: Books

Interesting that 3 exams are covered in one book.

The Hardcover book will be available on April 26th if there are folks who don't want the Kindle version now.

Dear Amazon.com Customer,
Customers who have purchased or rated books by William Panek might like to know that MCTS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Complete Study Guide (Exams 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643) will be released on April 26, 2011. You can pre-order yours at a savings of $41.31 by following the link below.

petedude

Hypntick wrote: »

I can flesh out a VM lab for way cheaper than a i7 laptop with 8 GB of RAM. Not to mention having a dedicated box you'll be using ESXi rather than workstation etc. which is what tends to be used in the field a bit more often.

There are certainly cheaper ways to lab, but a newer maxed laptop with VMs could make a killer portable portfolio, wouldn't it?

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

There are certainly cheaper ways to lab, but a newer maxed laptop with VMs could make a killer portable portfolio, wouldn't it?

Portfolio?

There isn't going to be anything that impressive you're gonna show off in a lab on your laptop. At best, it will show that you're familiar enough with virtualization and may put you ahead of a couple of other candidates who might not have thought to showcase their labbing skills. Personally, I would concentrate more on verbally addressing what I can do in an infrastructure.

Also, even if I did want to showcase a lab, I would rather do it based on an application, as opposed to something like Active Directory. If it were me interviewing, I don't and wouldn't care that you installed DNS on a lab (you'd have had to do that for AD anyway), for example. I want you to tell me what DNS is, what it does, why it must be installed, etc. All the lab will show is that you can follow instructions.

Portfolios are better suited for web folks, programmers, and the like...not admins.

erpadmin

MiikeB wrote: »

If you buy a good enough laptop you can probably save yourself a lot of money and create your "lab" in virtual machines. IMO you do not gain that much more by using physical machines for each component of the lab, especially if you already have some experience hands on with the insides of computers. If you go this route, just make sure you get a lot of ram, like 8Gb and probably a i7 processor. But this way, when you don't need to be using your lab, you can power the virtual machines down and have a top of the line laptop

I have an i3 processor with 8GB on my HP ML110 G6 with 2x500GB. Sometime soon, I will max out that box to 16GB and add 2 more 500GB. I have W2K8 R2 on it now, and will soon start playing with Hyper-V. With monitor, the thing didn't even break $800 (more or less). I got that money back anyway when I did my taxes this year....it counted as an educational expense.

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

Portfolio?

There isn't going to be anything that impressive you're gonna show off in a lab on your laptop. . . .

Portfolios are better suited for web folks, programmers, and the like...not admins.

Aspiring enterprise admins, enterprise architects or managers might also benefit. I can see how some DBAs/ERP types might benefit as well.

Imagine this. . . You've built a laptop with directory services (e.g. AD), an E-mail system, an ERP, a DBMS, a web server and possibly some reporting tools (e.g. Crystal Reports)-- if you're careful, you can probably build all this within 4-6GB. Populate the systems with randomly generated, but somewhat realistic looking data. Show a fully functional small-to-medium business configuration, from data entry to operations reporting to accounting to customer ordering from the Web and tie all that back to integrated E-mail integrated with directory services. What isn't there to like (except all the work setting it up :: grin:: )?

It would be easier on a laptop with 16GB of RAM, admittedly. I'm having trouble finding those for sale lately, though.

demonfurbie

ya could always make an itx comp lab to show off if you wanted a portfolio

something along this size
XION XON-810P-Red Micro ATX/ITX Computer Case - Micro ATX, 450W, PSU, USB, 80mm Fan, 5-in-1 Card-reader, Red at TigerDirect.com

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

Once you get used to certain quirks in handling MS docs, you learn how to work around them. I do keep the free MS Word viewer handy, though, to check certain WP docs before sending them out.

I'm glad WGU (at least when I started with them) didn't specify Office, they said "an office suite" as a computing requirement. I imagine students in the other majors may get more mileage out of OO than IT students might, and I can certainly envision folks on a tight budget having to use OO on at least a temporary basis.

All that being said, though, a $79 copy of Office isn't a bad idea if you can afford it. Heck, even a used copy of Works with bundled MS Word would be more than enough for some students.

Believe me; I'm not trying to start a skirmish, let alone a war over this. My thing is simply that if I have to "get used to certain quirks," then I don't need to waste my time. I've been an Office user since Office 95, and before that was WordPerfect (5.0, 5.1 and 6.0). I tried OO once just to see if I could stop obtaining (at the time) not-so-legal versions of Office, but it just got to feel like a full time job. Time (for me) is just too much of a valuable commodity to waste on something like OO. But everyone's situation is different...

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

Aspiring enterprise admins, enterprise architects or managers might also benefit. I can see how some DBAs/ERP types might benefit as well.

Imagine this. . . You've built a laptop with directory services (e.g. AD), an E-mail system, an ERP, a DBMS, a web server and possibly some reporting tools (e.g. Crystal Reports)-- if you're careful, you can probably build all this within 4-6GB. Populate the systems with randomly generated, but somewhat realistic looking data. Show a fully functional small-to-medium business configuration, from data entry to operations reporting to accounting to customer ordering from the Web and tie all that back to integrated E-mail integrated with directory services. What isn't there to like (except all the work setting it up :: grin:: )?

It would be easier on a laptop with 16GB of RAM, admittedly. I'm having trouble finding those for sale lately, though.

PeopleSoft uses Crystal Reports (checks and other reports in Crystal). I guess I'm not partial to one because I've never needed it, but I plan on building my own updated PeopleSoft lab in between WGU and my Masters (I feel that will also help me for my DBA 2008 studies).

I can promise you though that you're not going to have an ERP and something like Exchange on one laptop....though you could potentially use two laptops with 12-16GB. (Only from the perspective of Memory...) For something like a demo...16GB would be somewhat more ideal, but more is always preferable.

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

. . . before that was WordPerfect (5.0, 5.1 and 6.0).

You had me at WordPerfect. :O

For some strange reason-- probably that I was born a writer first, then a computer nerd later-- I am a connoiseur of word processing programs. I keep some old ones around because for whatever reason I really like working with them, and one I miss is. . . LetterPerfect, which was a stripped-down version of WordPerfect. I actually owned a copy once, but for some stupid reason (e.g. I had to get on the GUI WP bandwagon) I got rid of it. I'm eyeballing a copy of LetterPerfect on eBay, but I have to wait until I have $20 I don't have something more important to spend $20 for.

I have WordPerfect for the Mac floating around someplace, but since I currently don't have Classic OS running it's moot. I briefly owned WordPerfect for the Atari ST before giving it away-- I actually preferred some other WP products on that platform and would likely fire those up under emulation instead.

Lately, of all things, I use WordStar for Windows running under Wine to draft sections before pasting them into large OpenOffice documents. . .

. . . and now, back to the thread. . .

Lemonade727

Does anyone have the name of the printed book that WGU used to provide for the 1D0-435 exam? Trying to get it from my mentor as she enrolled me in the course today but she doesn't know the name of the book and is only seeing materials for the 635 supposedly available.

demonfurbie

Lemonade727 wrote: »

Does anyone have the name of the printed book that WGU used to provide for the 1D0-435 exam? Trying to get it from my mentor as she enrolled me in the course today but she doesn't know the name of the book and is only seeing materials for the 635 supposedly available.

pm me so i dont forget but ill take a pic of it tonight

Lemonade727

demonfurbie wrote: »

pm me so i dont forget but ill take a pic of it tonight

PM sent and thanks!

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

I can promise you though that you're not going to have an ERP and something like Exchange on one laptop....though you could potentially use two laptops with 12-16GB. (Only from the perspective of Memory...) For something like a demo...16GB would be somewhat more ideal, but more is always preferable.

The more I think about it, yeah, you've got me there. ERPs have gotten staggeringly big, as has Exchange. But maybe you could still load on an industry-specific accounting app, a database server associated with that and some sort of E-mail (an older version of Exchange, maybe)? I've run SQL Server 2008 in VMs with less than a GB of RAM. . . carefully.

For a Linux-oriented or web-oriented shop, you could shoehorn most of that stuff with LAMP or what-have-you as you wouldn't need as much memory-hogging GUI.

Lemonade727

Well I was unsuccessful in my journey to getting the printed material for the 1D0-435 exam. My request was routed through my mentor, the course mentor, and student services. They say they don't have any copies of the book that can be sent out since they stopped receiving them a while back due to it being phased out of the WGU programs because it's expiring. The course mentor did send me a copy of the Cram Session study guide to go along with the mcmcse.com guide and w3schools tutorials.

jmasterj206

Lemonade727 wrote: »

Well I was unsuccessful in my journey to getting the printed material for the 1D0-435 exam. My request was routed through my mentor, the course mentor, and student services. They say they don't have any copies of the book that can be sent out since they stopped receiving them a while back due to it being phased out of the WGU programs because it's expiring. The course mentor did send me a copy of the Cram Session study guide to go along with the mcmcse.com guide and w3schools tutorials.

I didn't even use the books. I used the MCMCSE, W3Schools, thenewboston javascript tutorials on youtube, and I picked up Ucertify practice tests which are in line with the test.

EDIT: Here is the link to the Youtube vids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm7qdJX6eCc&feature=BFa&list=PL3418F3B205D517D2&index=1