Suggestion about furthering education

Hey guys,

I'll try to make this quick

. I work for a college in the IT department that lets its employees take degree programs free of charge as one of the benefits of working there. This is great, but unfortunately my work schedule wouldn't allow me to take the degree path that I want and that's not about to change any time soon. I started looking at WGU and from what I understand it can be very flexible with the hours that I can commit to studying, but unfortunately I don't think my employer would be willing to pay to further my education unless I study at my work place.

Does going to WGU make sense from your point of view? How is going to WGU (or any other online university) different from self-studying, i.e just buying my own books and reading them as time permits. I'm sorry for the newbie questions

Thank you.

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Comments

NinjaBoy

loss4words wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'll try to make this quick . I work for a college in the IT department that lets its employees take degree programs free of charge as one of the benefits of working there. This is great, but unfortunately my work schedule wouldn't allow me to take the degree path that I want and that's not about to change any time soon. I started looking at WGU and from what I understand it can be very flexible with the hours that I can commit to studying, but unfortunately I don't think my employer would be willing to pay to further my education unless I study at my work place.

Does going to WGU make sense from your point of view? How is going to WGU (or any other online university) different from self-studying, i.e just buying my own books and reading them as time permits. I'm sorry for the newbie questions

Thank you.

Personally I would considering changing the degree path (if it isn't too different, eg IT instead of CS, etc) as the employer is will to pay for it.

-Ken

eansdad

I would take all my core courses on the colleges dime then transfer into WGU. Even though WGU is cheap why spend the extra money for classes you can get for free. The only difference between getting your own certs and going to WGU is that when you graduate from WGU you'll have a Bachelors degree to go along with the certs. I know where your coming from about the degree path and school having certain classes at certain times. I wanted to go to Rowan University (20 minutes away) to finish a degree in Music Education (<----Sax player that doubles on most woodwinds and some brass and taught a few years marching/music for marching bands) but a majority of the classes are taught while I'm at work and the student teaching hours are my work time.

katierose

Do you work for a for-profit college by any chance? I do unfortunately, but the plus side is they offer a pretty sweet tuition reimbursement.

EDIT: Just realized you said you might be only able to take classes where you work. That sucks, depending on what school it is. Luckily I get a range of dollars per year I can be reimbursed for at any school. Anyway WGU is absurdly cheap. But so is community college. Knock out your core stuff there before WGU I'd say.

erpadmin

loss4words wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'll try to make this quick . I work for a college in the IT department that lets its employees take degree programs free of charge as one of the benefits of working there. This is great, but unfortunately my work schedule wouldn't allow me to take the degree path that I want and that's not about to change any time soon. I started looking at WGU and from what I understand it can be very flexible with the hours that I can commit to studying, but unfortunately I don't think my employer would be willing to pay to further my education unless I study at my work place.

Does going to WGU make sense from your point of view? How is going to WGU (or any other online university) different from self-studying, i.e just buying my own books and reading them as time permits. I'm sorry for the newbie questions

Thank you.

I'm in the same boat as you are (probably not in duties, but everything else). My employer won't pay for tuition unless it's at their institution, which is fine, since WGU is cheap enough as it is. I'm hitting them up for my Masters though. I work over 40 hours a week and I was able to complete 22 CUs (after Friday, hopefully 28..

). It makes sense for me, as I needed a BS in something to get to the next level (management) but I want a MS so I can adjunct teach like the rest of my colleagues. If you can allocate nights and weekends to study, WGU is not a bad deal. Just check out my sig.

By-the-by, reason I didn't get any classes there, even though it'd have been free, is in part, I don't want to be "at work" after work...or have a professor ask me to set up a projector because I work in the IT dept. I won't mind it for my Masters because most of those classes are at our satellite location.