A couple questions about WGU

[sharsharky]

I've been doing tons of research on the big 3 to determine which I should choose to complete my degree. In the end, I was surprised to see that WGU might actually be my best bet. My main reason is purely financial. It's structure would allow me to use a whole lot more of my Pell Grant towards it. The savings for me would be massive. I do have a few questions though.

• I understand that, once enrolled, you can not send any more credits or transcripts to them. If I were to apply now (so that I can see how they are applying the credits I currently have), but then wait to enroll, would I still be able to send them more transcripts?
  
• I currently have 83 credits and have taken pretty much all of what most colleges would consider core requirements. However, WGU seems to have some very different Gen Ed. required courses than I've seen before (geography, spreadsheets, probability & statistics, etc). I read something on their site that made it sound like if you had an associates degree, that they would consider your general ed. req. fulfilled. Is that accurate? I'm wondering if it would be worth it to me to first get an associates degree before enrolling. I'd appreciate hearing any of your experiences with this. It's so hard to know exactly what's even definitely needed. I wish they had stuff broken down on their site like TESU does.
  
• Has anyone found a good resource that shows what alternative credit they accept? I found an equivalency page for Saylor, but haven't found anything else.
  
• And lastly, if any of you are completing your degree with WGU, I'd love to hear about your experience so far. How difficult is this path in comparison to study.com/clep tests, etc?
  

Thank you so much!! 

[mysonx3]

I know that they accept some stuff that is very much NOT geography for the geography requirement, though I can't recall exactly what. I would guess you'd have that covered. What degree would you be looking at?

[walkingbyfaith]

I don't know the complete list from all course providers, but if you go to the Straighterline website, then choose partner colleges and chose WGU, then choose your equivalency guide it will show you which SL courses fulfill their particular requirements. It really gives you an idea of how flexible they are (as mentioned by mysonx3 above)...for example, the geography can be fulfilled with psychology, criminal justice, us history, anthropology, us govt, etc.

Perhaps other providers have similar lists if they partner with WGU as well.

[dfrecore]

When I did your degree plan, you wanted a BALS. Unfortunately, WGU doesn't have BALS degrees. You have the option of a BSBA, IT, Nursing, or Teaching degree.

If you wanted to switch to a different degree, then you could. But much of your credits will be lost because they only have about 25-30% of the degree as Gen Ed's, which you have a lot of. And, it would not be better to get the AA unless you are like 1 step away from getting one at your local CC or something. Otherwise, you're taking a long expensive road to get through a pretty short and inexpensive area. It's not worth it.

Another option is the Northern Arizona University's Personalized Learning program. It's competency-based and has a BSLA, allows 90cr of transfer, and accepts ACE (max of 64cr combined of ACE and CC's; the remaining 26cr could come from 4yr schools). Their cost is $3,000/6-mo term, and they take Financial Aid. https://nau.edu/online/bs-liberal-arts-pl/

[allvia]

I've been doing tons of research on the big 3 to determine which I should choose to complete my degree. In the end, I was surprised to see that WGU might actually be my best bet. My main reason is purely financial. It's structure would allow me to use a whole lot more of my Pell Grant towards it. The savings for me would be massive. I do have a few questions though.

• I understand that, once enrolled, you can not send any more credits or transcripts to them. If I were to apply now (so that I can see how they are applying the credits I currently have), but then wait to enroll, would I still be able to send them more transcripts?
  

It is free to apply and have them evaluate.  Applying is not the same as enrolling, so once you apply and get your evaluation you may transfer in more credits up until to enroll to start.

• I currently have 83 credits and have taken pretty much all of what most colleges would consider core requirements. However, WGU seems to have some very different Gen Ed. required courses than I've seen before (geography, spreadsheets, probability & statistics, etc). I read something on their site that made it sound like if you had an associates degree, that they would consider your general ed. req. fulfilled. Is that accurate? I'm wondering if it would be worth it to me to first get an associates degree before enrolling. I'd appreciate hearing any of your experiences with this. It's so hard to know exactly what's even definitely needed. I wish they had stuff broken down on their site like TESU does.
  

Some courses will be required for the program - Geography is a gen ed, and can be filled by another science gen ed they feel aligns. However, statistics is likely a requirement - so you would have to transfer it in to them or take it through them (I'd recommend transferring it in, but if you don't have it now you can take it after the evaluation of your existing credits). Based on how many credits you already have I would say would NOT be practical to get an associates first. I saw your list of credits in another thread and it is unlikely that you'd be missing anything that an associates degree would 'buy you'; and if you were missing something it would be cheaper and cheaper to earn the missing credits than to manage to gain an associates degree. Note that WGU is quite quick in doing their credit evaluations so you would not have to wait long once they receive your transcripts to see where you stand. It seemed many of your existing credits would fit a business degree nicely - management or marketing (as you had listed a few marketing/advertising courses), but they would be helpful in letting you know which your existing credits fit which best

• Has anyone found a good resource that shows what alternative credit they accept? I found an equivalency page for Saylor, but haven't found anything else.
  

For alternative credits they do take ACE (but I have heard that like TESU, they do not accept Shmoop). They do not accept NCCRS (so that eliminates options such as onlinedegree and Davar)

• And lastly, if any of you are completing your degree with WGU, I'd love to hear about your experience so far. How difficult is this path in comparison to study.com/clep tests, etc?
  

I did not do my Bachelor through them in the end (although I applied, and went through the process), as I wanted different schools listed on my resume for bachelor and masters (it was a personal preference, and I will be getting my master through WGU).

[sharsharky]

When I did your degree plan, you wanted a BALS.  Unfortunately, WGU doesn't have BALS degrees.  You have the option of a BSBA, IT, Nursing, or Teaching degree.

If you wanted to switch to a different degree, then you could.  But much of your credits will be lost because they only have about 25-30% of the degree as Gen Ed's, which you have a lot of.  And, it would not be better to get the AA unless you are like 1 step away from getting one at your local CC or something.  Otherwise, you're taking a long expensive road to get through a pretty short and inexpensive area.  It's not worth it.

Another option is the Northern Arizona University's Personalized Learning program.  It's competency-based and has a BSLA, allows 90cr of transfer, and accepts ACE (max of 64cr combined of ACE and CC's; the remaining 26cr could come from 4yr schools).  Their cost is $3,000/6-mo term, and they take Financial Aid.  https://nau.edu/online/bs-liberal-arts-pl/

Thank you so much for telling me about NAU! I had never heard of this program before, but it seems like it could be a really great option for me. My only hesitation is that, after some searching, I haven't found many first hand experiences from students that went through this program. I wonder how it's difficulty level stacks up to other options. I'm really hoping to complete courses quickly so that I can be all done in just 1 term. Thanks again!

[Jenniferinfl]

I'm starting WGU tomorrow, I wish I would have just applied immediately to them. I did kill off a bunch of CLEP credit, but, honestly I probably could have taken those classes almost as quickly on WGU.

It is helpful to have an AA, but, still, there aren't that many Gen Eds in WGU's degrees anyways. I have an AA, but, it was seriously overkill for what I'm doing. I'm studying accounting and there really weren't that many gen ed's.

I got access to my course materials back on the 15th and am already ready to take the finals on 4 classes. If you are really, really motivated you can knock things out really quickly. I probably could have done even more, but, realistically, the information for 4 classes was the most I could hold in my brain at any given point. It feels like anything else I add in is just fogging the other information. I plan to take two finals tomorrow evening and two finals on Tuesday. I did very well on my preliminary assessments, so, I could very well have 13 credits two days into my enrollment.

I was just at the point where anything I took was going to be $60-$150 per class for alternative credits. I'm only going to pay $1200 out of pocket for 6 months. I will definitely be finished with more than 10 classes, so, it made sense for me to skip right to WGU.

[jamshid666]

I've been doing tons of research on the big 3 to determine which I should choose to complete my degree. In the end, I was surprised to see that WGU might actually be my best bet. My main reason is purely financial. It's structure would allow me to use a whole lot more of my Pell Grant towards it. The savings for me would be massive. I do have a few questions though.

• I understand that, once enrolled, you can not send any more credits or transcripts to them. If I were to apply now (so that I can see how they are applying the credits I currently have), but then wait to enroll, would I still be able to send them more transcripts?
  
• I currently have 83 credits and have taken pretty much all of what most colleges would consider core requirements. However, WGU seems to have some very different Gen Ed. required courses than I've seen before (geography, spreadsheets, probability & statistics, etc). I read something on their site that made it sound like if you had an associates degree, that they would consider your general ed. req. fulfilled. Is that accurate? I'm wondering if it would be worth it to me to first get an associates degree before enrolling. I'd appreciate hearing any of your experiences with this. It's so hard to know exactly what's even definitely needed. I wish they had stuff broken down on their site like TESU does.
  
• Has anyone found a good resource that shows what alternative credit they accept? I found an equivalency page for Saylor, but haven't found anything else.
  
• And lastly, if any of you are completing your degree with WGU, I'd love to hear about your experience so far. How difficult is this path in comparison to study.com/clep tests, etc?
  

Thank you so much!! 

I'm in my third (and should be last) term with WGU.  I've found the experience to be awesome, I've earned like 14 or so certifications in the program and I was able to accelerate it a bit, though not as fast as some people due to the work schedule I had during my first two terms.  Some thoughts to align with your questions:

• I actually delayed my start date while I was doing through the enrollment process to finish up some classes with StraighterLine.  You can keep pushing the start date back if you need more time to get additional transcripts in.  I really wouldn't delay too much though, as the general ed classes are easy to accelerate.  For example, the spreadsheets class is easily finished in 3-4 days if you work a full-time job, faster if you don't.
  
• Here is a link from StraighterLine that shows WGU equivalencies: https://www.straighterline.com/colleges/...niversity/  WGU is quite liberal about what it accepts for various general education requirements.
  
• I'm going to speak on this one from the IT point of view, I'm taking the Network Operations and Security track.  All of the classes basically have just one assignment at the end that you have to get through in order to pass the class.  For most of the IT classes, this means sitting for a certification exam.  For the classes that didn't have a certification exam, I had to sit through 3 proctored exams and the last three classes that I need to do are all written assignments.  For the certification exams, you can take two attempts using school-issued vouchers, so you only have to pay for the exams yourself if you end up needing a third attempt.  All of the degree programs have very active groups on both Facebook and Reddit where the students help each other out with advice on whether to use the school-provided study materials or if outside material is more effective at passing a given class.  This is crucial if you want to accelerate to get as many classes completed during each term as possible.
  

Overall, I've enjoyed the past 16 months that I attended WGU and I plan on applying again to get my master's degree from them.  By the way, if you decide to enroll, let me know and I can get you a referral code so you don't have to pay for the enrollment fee.

[jsd]

The enrollment fee has been "free this week!" since 2016 when I enrolled

it's been a long week.

[Jenniferinfl]

I can't see an option to edit my post- just wanted to add a couple quick thoughts. You may want to do CLEP instead of WGU for classes that don't just have a final. One of my business courses requires essays and if there would have been a CLEP I would have done that for that class instead of turning in several papers. CLEP takes forever to get your transcript sent. It was 21 days for my transcripts to show up from CLEP.

It took a few days for my mentor to get all my assessments opened. There are a couple speed bumps- if you want to take a bunch of tests in one day, you cannot book another exam for when your previous exam is still supposed to be happening. I took my spreadsheets test and since it has 4 hours allowed- well, that wiped out any possibility of taking another test yesterday. I finished Principles of Accounting, Organizational Behavior and Spreadsheets yesterday because I've been studying since the 15th. You can access the information for any of your courses as soon as you do orientation on the 15th. Have to wait and take Global Business tonight. By this evening though, should have the first semesters worth of work knocked out- 3 days into the term. Didn't have to drive anywhere- I was driving over an hour for my CLEP testing.