Husband wants to go to WGU, I'm totally ignorant, any input from grads of WGU?

My husband just informed me that he wants to attend Western Governors University. He already has some college credits for tech stuff (I obviously know nothing about tech things lol) and I'm just very concerned that this is some school I've never heard of, saying they do things differently, making all these wonderful claims and yet I've never heard of it. He's 29 years old so I need to be sure this school is legit, we don't have the time or the money to screw around with these fly-by-night schools. I read some things on this site but I only found info from people who are currently students, I'd really like to hear from people who already graduated from this school so I can know if there's actual potential for finding a job upon graduating. I'll feel much better if I know the degree is worth more than the paper it's printed on lol

Thanks in advance for the help!

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Devilry

worriedwife wrote: »

My husband just informed me that he wants to attend Western Governors University. He already has some college credits for tech stuff (I obviously know nothing about tech things lol) and I'm just very concerned that this is some school I've never heard of, saying they do things differently, making all these wonderful claims and yet I've never heard of it. He's 29 years old so I need to be sure this school is legit, we don't have the time or the money to screw around with these fly-by-night schools. I read some things on this site but I only found info from people who are currently students, I'd really like to hear from people who already graduated from this school so I can know if there's actual potential for finding a job upon graduating. I'll feel much better if I know the degree is worth more than the paper it's printed on lol Thanks in advance for the help!

Do what I did, read through both of the stickies on this forum, its about 175+ pages of material, after you read through it all, you will not have any doubts about WGU.

erpadmin

worriedwife wrote: »

My husband just informed me that he wants to attend Western Governors University. He already has some college credits for tech stuff (I obviously know nothing about tech things lol) and I'm just very concerned that this is some school I've never heard of, saying they do things differently, making all these wonderful claims and yet I've never heard of it. He's 29 years old so I need to be sure this school is legit, we don't have the time or the money to screw around with these fly-by-night schools. I read some things on this site but I only found info from people who are currently students, I'd really like to hear from people who already graduated from this school so I can know if there's actual potential for finding a job upon graduating. I'll feel much better if I know the degree is worth more than the paper it's printed on lol Thanks in advance for the help!

Ignorance comes from a lack of knowing. Sometimes it's confused for stupidity; ignorance can be more easily corrected.

I'm a current WGU student, but I'm gonna spare you a testimonial, other than WGU is nowhere near a "fly-by-night school." Instead, I will simply point you to a couple of links. From those, you should be able to do your own research on whether or not WGU is legitimate or not. [Note: If there's an underlined phrase, that means it's a hyperlink for you to click on. My apologies in advance if you knew that, but I figured since you "... know nothing about tech things," figured I'd mention that.]

Regional accreditation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (read this one...this is important...note that WGU is in Utah and would be covered by Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities this explains why colleges are legitimate and not "fly by night.")

NWCCU Institutions W - Z

(Wester Governors University should be on that page...this shows that WGU is accredited today.)

Finally, once you are convinced that his degree will be legitimate, then you can read both of these threads in their entirety (if you are really concerned for your household finances and don't want to impede your husband's earning potential, it will behoove you to do so)

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/51715-western-governors-university-questions-answers-threads-related-wgu.html

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/52825-student-experiences-western-governors-university-wgu.html

You don't need to be technical...you only want to learn about how the school works in general. Both of those threads will give you better idea of how that works. I trust you've already read the WGU site, so I didn't bother putting that there.

If you have any questions, ask here.

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

I graduated last year in December. The degree is regionally accredited and I've never had any problems in any of the interviews I've had.

With that said, getting a job in IT requires a little more then just a degree. Every interview I've been to, my degrees were kind of just looked at and were noted that I had them while my past experience is what was brought up and discussed. I've seen other Alumni in places like Linkedin state that they were able to continue on to grad school at other private and public universities with no issue. Using this information and information found here, Search Institutional Accreditation System you can see that accreditation isn't an issue.

Now, since it is an online institution, you're bound to meet closed-minded individuals that may look down on the degree because of the stigma attached to an online education. My response to this is, I paid way less then they did to obtain a degree that holds the same accreditation as theirs does (I completed in one semester and paid only 3k to finish my BS) and because of this I have no student loans to pay back. I also earned several certifications in the process as a plus. I know I worked hard to finish my degree and I learned a lot in the process. Employers have accepted my degree.

I say let the naysayers say what they want. I let my lack of debt and my paychecks do the talking...

Pishof

The state of Indiana has made WGU an official state charter school and it's recognized here now as a state school for FAFSA. I believe another state (TN?) is also in the process of doing a charter-school partnership with WGU.

You wouldn't see fly-by-night or for-profit toilet paper degree mills get picked up and recognized as state schools.

That being said WGU is obviously not going to be recognized as MIT or Harvard of course, but the stigma for online programs is being reduced.

Well-known Indiana State universities like Ball State are creating online only programs and it's very common for those getting their master's or completing a B.S who work full-time to attend online classes.

Note: I'm a current WGU student but I've already been employed the last few years as a system administrator for a couple small school corporations so I can't offer insight on how a graduate from WGU will fare without experience.

However, I know that having a B.S along with the tech certifications from WGU will grant me a guaranteed raise where I'm at. The golden combination of experience, education, and certification secures jobs.

WGU will provide two of those. The rest is getting a foot in the door.

erpadmin

Pishof wrote: »

The state of Indiana has made WGU an official state charter school and it's recognized here now as a state school for FAFSA. I believe another state (TN?) is also in the process of doing a charter-school partnership with WGU.

The only three states that have a direct parterships with states (for purposes of obtaining state financial aid and as of today) would be your state of Indiana, Washington and Texas (as of 8/3/2011 (TODAY). (WGU-Indiana, WGU-Washington and WGU-Texas)

If one lives in either of those states, they can qualify for state grants/loans from their respective state higher education authorities. Not a bad deal...

cyberguypr

Welcome to the forum. It is great to see that you are researching instead of forming an uneducated opinion. You will soon find that many of those who speak badly of WGU have either never enrolled, or enrolled and discovered they didn't have the discipline to keep up and needed a lot of hand holding. If your husband is an independent learner who loves the ability to work at his own pace while balancing school, work and family, he will succeed.

Even though I am not a student at WGU I have been researching it for a while and it is in my short list of institutions for my MS Information Assurance in 2012.

eansdad

It is one of the only schools that when completed you have both the education, degree and certs for the IT field. Since it is regionally accredited and accepted for graduate studies and some of the best colleges/universities around along with being the most affordable B.S. I've found made it my choice.

With that you really need to have the drive to finish at WGU. At your own pace can get messy when you lose focus or other things start popping up. All in all though it is a good choice.

Devilry

Although some have pointed out state aid is available in Washington and Indiana, if you are not in those states it is still open to federal aid, pell/fseog/stafford. They are a Title IV school.

it_consultant

My wife attends WGU and they seem to genuinely care about the students, which puts it WAY ahead of other online schools. There are definite downsides I would point out. They don't allow concurrent enrollment at say, a community college, which hurts with subjects like math where the student may do better in a structured environment. I also find that the grading is sometimes less then informative. Depending on the rater, some feedback you get is very good, others are vague to the point of wondering if they even looked at the assignment.

Rappeller

To those 2 states add Texas as of today

erpadmin

Rappeller wrote: »

To those 2 states add Texas as of today

WOW!! Confirmed....Texans can now get state aid (grants or loans) to attend WGU-Texas.

Texas Online University - Texas Online Degrees - WGU Texas (I'm going to fix my other post to reflect that.......)

N2IT

I know a security professional who did his associates in network at a community college and then received his bachelors from WGU. He makes well into the 200,000's and keeps ASCENDING.

I have no desire to do WGU because I was a poor smuck who jumped right into a University not knowing what I wanted to do and blew 45,000+ on an education that I rarely use.

I guess the good part is I graduated lol

kiki162

Have you guys explored other options locally? I know that WGU is all online, but there are other online schools out there like UMUC. As far as potential for finding a job after graduating, now that does vary. It really doesn't matter what you did it school, how good your grades are, or how fast you got through school, it doesn't gurantee you a job but it certainly does help you in the long run, especially when going on interviews.

I'm working on finishing my degree in class and online, which helps because of working 40 hours along with the drive time. Going to school has helped me in job interviews, and helped get me the job I have now. For me personally, I have to drive at least an hour for my job, which sucks since there's really no IT jobs around my area. I know several people that have had to do that within the past few years because of the economy and they can't afford to move.

There's other factors that you have to consider besides school, like where you live, are there IT jobs in the area, or elsewhere? Other things to consider is working towards certifications if he doesn't have them already. That will certainly help him along the way in getting a job. Is there anything in particular that he wants to get into degree/career wise that could help point him in the right direction?

Michael.J.Palmer

I know you wanted insight from a graduate, but being a current student who is using government financial aid to attend I figured I'd throw this out there for.

As mentioned before, WGU is a regionally accredited college, this means that the degree does come with accreditation and much like a normal state college/university's degree would. This accredidation also allows for government financial aid as well such as PELL.

PELL is only given to students who are going to an actual college/university, this school will have a national FAFSA ID number for it as well, this is one of the many things that sets WGU apart from a "fly by night school" as you called it. My upcoming year is almost all but paid for with my government PELL grant, this combined with the dozens on top of dozens of testimonials here (most of the student experience posts would be considered from graduates at this point, that topic is extremely old and a lot of those earlier posters have graduated onto bigger and better things.

I would like to stress what another individual stated earlier as well. No degree in IT will get you a job by itself, it's a combination of a degree, any industry recognized certifications, and devotion to continually learning new technologies along the way that will help you get a job. Getting a job isn't just the first step either, it's easy to get a low level help desk job without a degree, typically if you're shooting for a degree in IT then you're probably wanting to move up somewhere past help desk into a Sys Admin job of some sort. At that point you'll need a wealth of work experience combined with the degree to actually land those types of jobs.

The above holds true for any degree from any college, not just WGU, WGU just allows you to safe money on your path to earning a degree as well as help give you some industry recognized certifications along the way.