WGU University - Financial Aid and General Questions

thegreatbelow

Greetings,

I was hoping I could pick your brains for some WGU information.

1. What do you think is the fastest time one could complete their bachelors degree at WGU if they had NO prior college experience but do have many of the IT certifications listed as transferable.

2. If I own a home (do not live with parents) am 28 years old and unemployed. What do you think my chances are for attaining Financial aid from the government.

3. Aside from the "apply for financial aid" link on the wgu website are there other avenues for grants/financial aid (instead of student loans)

4. If i have never applied for financial aid, will this help my chances of attaining it? If so how much is generally covered.

5. Really any other experience with the school would be interesting to read about (success or horror stories)

Thanks in advance.

santaowns

Financial aid is based off what you make. Apply and find out your estimated contribution amount, you will be required to apply by the school anyways so might as well get it out of way. How long to graduate depends solely on your time allotment for school and how many classes you have to take to finish. Your mentor can also slow you down but that can be changed by getting a different mentor. My school is fully covered by financial aid, most of which by Pell grant the rest by students loans. Pell grants and other grants are also based on financial need or circumstances. If you are black or Indian you have certain grants that Caucasian and Hispanics do not, so again can't say what you're eligible for. Wgu has a page dedicated to scholarships and grants once you get past enrollment.

Danielm7

santaowns covered it, they really are all just personal questions. No way to say what you'd get in a pell grant, you should be able to get student loans. On the plus side it's just about the cheapest way to go for an accredited BS, even better if you accelerate. There outside of Pell grants I don't think anything else would apply in the ways of actually "free money". You could try searching for and applying for scholarships if you want to try to reduce the cost.

As for how fast, everyone wants to know this, and there really isn't an answer anyone can give you. Some people can do 100 credits in a 6 month term, some can barely handle the 12 credit minimum. No one else can say how smart you are, your experience, how well you study, how driven you are or how well you take exams. You'll find out what you're capable of when your actually taking classes.

Xyro

1. It varies, depending upon how much time & effort you put into it.
2. Assuming you have been unemployed for at least 1 year you should be eligible for a full Pell grant which is, at this time, $5,500/yr.
3. Yes, there are scholarships. There are WGU-based scholarships (check out their scholarship section) & independent scholarships which can be based on many varying items such as ethnicity, gender, and affiliation.
4. It will not increase your chances of attaining it since this will not be a problem to begin with. It is, however, a positive point as you have used none of your lifetime credits yet.
5. N/A

https://fafsa.ed.gov/

thegreatbelow

Thanks for all the info.

I do understand that the school and curriculum are self paced and really can be completed as timely as one can push themselves. Was just wondering if anyone had started with nothing but a few certs and dedicated all their time completing their bachelors in less than 2 years... or even less than 1 year.

Do i need to apply for financial aid / pell grants before i even apply for the school...? or do i apply for the school first.
Is this something the mentor or school counselor can assist with or should this be done solely at my discretion?

I had looked at the scholarship pages on wgu's website and did not see any for the Network Administration Bachelors.

Thanks again.

Danielm7

For the financial aid stuff your best bet is to just call the school. The last thing you want is some stranger here telling you to do it one way and screwing up your chance at grants, they'll walk you through everything. For scholarships I meant more looking everywhere, online directories, libraries (?), the school themselves don't have a lot posted about them.

If you dedicated all your time and already had experience it's possible to finish in less than a year, note "possible".

For actual experiences with the school, there are a few couple hundred page sticky posts on the top of this forum with tons of info. You can also check wgustudents.com forum. As for me, I transferred in 30 something credits, had 100+ but the IT ones expire after 5 years and I was originally a business major so I lost a ton. I did 42 credits in my first term while working full time with a wife and extreme busy/clingy toddler climbing all over me. This semester is going to be slower as I have almost all programming classes left and I don't have much in the way of programming experience.

You really have to budget your time well and stick to schedules of studying. If you aren't working you're going to have a lot more free time than most students, so don't waste it.

santaowns

Again it's all about you in regards to speed I started with 3 credits transferred in to wgu. I've procrastinated a lot and am on par to finish in 2 years or 2 1/2 years depending on if I can get at least 40 credits in this semester.

santaowns

Not that the other guy is wrong but you don't need to be unemployed to get a Pell grant, but you do have to have dependants and low income. Applying for financial aid will answer a few of your questions. The school will not talk about financial aid until your are at a certain point in admission process. If you complete the fafsa you will have an idea of your estimated share of cost. There are some other scholarships available I did not apply for any tho.

Xyro

thegreatbelow wrote: »

Do i need to apply for financial aid / pell grants before i even apply for the school...? or do i apply for the school first.
Is this something the mentor or school counselor can assist with or should this be done solely at my discretion?

My experience is that the sooner you apply, the better. This is usually because of the "first come, first served" allocation of state-based grants; however, state-based grants do not apply in this scenario. State-based grants "run out" and also have application deadlines. For the Pell Grant, you will still want to be as early as possible to secure your position in order to be able to obtain full alottment, especially in your case since your EFC should be 000000, which would qualify you for a full Pell Grant.

thegreatbelow wrote:

I had looked at the scholarship pages on wgu's website and did not see any for the Network Administration Bachelors.

Thanks again.

I see that their scholarship information page has changed since the last time I looked at it last year. There used to be womens' and minority scholarships. I do not see those anymore.

Also, I did not specify you would get FA because you are unemployed. I assumed that those who read my words would understand that no employment = no income, my error. After age 24 you are considered, in reference to FA, an independent whether you live with your parents or not. You are an independent with no income. You should get the full Pell alottment ($5,500/yr).

thegreatbelow

Well i went ahead and applied for FAFSA. EFC was a bit unexpected

Estimated Expected Family Contribution (EFC)= 09579

The EFC is a measure of how much you can contribute to the cost of your education. Schools use your EFC to determine your federal student aid eligibility.

The EFC is not how much aid you will receive or how much you have to pay for college.
Based on the eligibility criteria you may be eligible for the following:

Direct Stafford Loan Estimate - $9,500.00
(Do you think this means that pell grants or any grants are out for me?)

---

They pulled info from 2012 from the IRS which stated that I made around 40k.

I think i may have to try and apply for some scholarships from external sites (has anyone had any luck with these, or a specific site they could recommend)

I also paid the application fee (60 bucks). After i paid this i did some more research and found that if you are recommended you they can waive the fee. I know it's after the fact, but I may contact the Enrollment Counselor and see if they can refund if someone is willing to "refer" me from the forums. Let me know if anyone is willing to fill those shoes.

Thanks again for all the help guys. I know a lot of information is available on the internet, and i have done a lot of independent research. But sometimes asking direct questions to people who have participated in the program is invaluable.

Xyro

Errrr you applied for the 2013-2014 year? I assumed you would be applying for the 2014-2015 year, waiting until the Fall to attend WGU. This is too bad. I hope you find other options aside of just the Stafford.

santaowns

My efc was 0000 thus I got the grant. I don't know if Pell is out of question for you or not. Financial aid will review everything and then send you a summary before you accept it. I can refer you if you want I don't know what's involved I can look tomorrow when I'm done with studying for vcp5 and take the test finally at 9am.

Xyro

Yes, a salary of $40k/yr could potentially qualify a student for approximately $1100/yr (I am calculating 40K precisely, not far above) under a Pell; however, what throws the EFC off here is that WGU is so inexpensive to attend.

Also, I must update my information and state that a maximum Pell award would be $5550, not any longer $5500. There was a $50 increase since I last checked.

In this position, I would simply wait for Fall because only 2013 would be taken into consideration for income. That is just me though.

Good luck OP.

santaowns

Yea it depends on how many dependants you have as well. I have 4 dependants and made 43k last year and was awarded full Pell grant. That's why we keep telling OP that he needs to find out for himself. Either way it's ~$7k to attend one year which still beats majority of the other options.

Xyro

Yes, and unfortunately it looks like he did not make it. I also fully agree about WGU being extremely economical. I am glad we have this option.

joemysterio

I finally got something going with WGU, after months of waiting, they finally accepted me and when it comes to financial aid, I'm completely ineligible for a pell grant.... I made 36K for the 2012 tax year. I'm stuck with loans.