WGU transcript appeal

[rvm]

So my neighbor decided to go ahead and apply to WGU for his BS in Data Management / Data Analytics.  He was very upset when he received their transcript evaluation.  He realizes all his credits won't align with WGU. They only accepted 16 of his 46 credits.  Bummer!

He spoke with his enrollment counselor to discuss an appeal.  The counselor told him to submit either course syllabi or course descriptions for the courses he hopes to gain credit for.  This may be somewhat difficult as some of his courses were taken a few decades back.

Has anyone attempted and been successful with a transcript appealed at WGU?  Were the credits similar to any of the DSST's (or similar exams or courses) in John's list?

Here are John's credits and what WGU said they will accept - in green text.  


Aleks:
Principles of Statistics  - WGU: Applied Probability & Statistics, 3 cu
College Algebra 1 - WGU: Applied Algebra, 3 cu
Trigonometry - should work for critical thinking & logic


DSST: 
Intro to World Religions - WGU: Intro to Humanities, 3 cu
General Anthropology - should work for other physical science if they took World History as a science (below)
Ethics in America - should work Ethics in Tech ethics are ethics regardless of whether they are personal or professional or technical
Intro to Computing - WGU: Intro to Computing, 4 cu
MIS - should be accepted for Business of IT, IT Foundations or IT Applications
Health/Human Dev - should be accepted as the science lab if they will World History as science
Personal Finance - could possibly be akin to spreadsheets but that's a reach
Principles of Supervision - ?
History of Soviet Union -  ?


B&M:
World History to 1500 - WGU: Physical Science, 3 cu  ** He'll take the credit but how is World History a physical science?
History of World after 1500 - should substitute for American History & Constitution considering World History is not a science
Library Science - ?
PE (Found PHYE Lab) - ?
Survey Data Processing (circa 1985) - ?
Software Applications  (circa 1985) - same as Excel spreadsheets. 

If the transcript evaluation isn't successful & if he chooses to move forward with WGU, he will lose 30 credits.  Would John's credits be better suited to a different degree at WGU?  Should he try to get an AA or AS from a community college and re-submit transcripts?

He spent almost $100 to submit 7 transcripts to WGU and doesn't know what to do - other than appeal and pray for a better result.

He wants the BS in Data Mgmt / Data Analytics degree. I suggested TESU but he doesn't want to deal with statistics.com because their courses are not on-demand.  He would have to wait for each courses respective start date.  

Any suggestions?  

Thanks for helping!

[quigongene]

Trig is definitely NOT going to work for their Critical Thinking course. It's more of a philosophy course than a math course. It's also relatively easy, and can be completed in a few days. I think the physical science is a typo, and I personally took the Astronomy DSST for the credit in that one.

The science lab is also VERY easy. I had it done before I started (you have 2 weeks of access to course material and instructors after orientation) and submitted the paper on my first day.

They screwed up on one of my evals and said that the Institutes course would come in as critical thinking. When I challenged it on another eval, they admitted the mistake.

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Oh, and the MIS DSST WILL work for Business of IT.

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Also, WGU will not take any IT related credits older than 5 years.

[dfrecore]

Never be upset by the lack of transfer to WGU - they only have about 30cr of GE for most degrees, and are fairly specific about them, so it shouldn't be a complete surprise.

I agree with quigongene that Trig is not logic (philosophy). World History got slotted incorrectly and should be fixed (It should have gone to Am History/const). MIS SHOULD go to Business of IT if it was taken less than 5 years ago.

Ethics in America should count towards Humanities, but won't count as Ethics in Tech, which they specifically want.
Pers Finance is certainly not spreadsheets (I took it)
Health/Human Dev is not a lab science.

Here on this forum, rather than looking backwards at what a school will or won't take (so what might be "lost"), you need to take a look forward - what is REMAINING to take, how much will it cost to take those courses, and how long will that take to complete. Do a spreadsheet for the WGU degree and the TESU degree, and determine which is the better one to get. I"m going to guess that WGU will still be cheaper and faster than TESU (which I think will take about 2 years just to do the courses in the major, because of when they're all offered).

The other key with WGU - balance out how many courses you think you can complete in a single term, and how many courses will you need to take to get to that point - and then how much that will cost. You want to not take so many courses before enrolling that you're WAY ahead and have very few courses to take, but not leave too many causing you to go beyond a term (or 2 terms if you decide that's the way to go).

[mysonx3]

You can't simply say "World History counted as a science, therefore anything I want to count for a certain spot should count there". I don't know WGU's policies, but the only one that you're upset about that seems to me like it should count how you want it to is MIS.

[rvm]

Trig is definitely NOT going to work for their Critical Thinking course.  It's more of a philosophy course than a math course.  It's also relatively easy, and can be completed in a few days.  I think the physical science is a typo, and I personally took the Astronomy DSST for the credit in that one.

The science lab is also VERY easy.  I had it done before I started (you have 2 weeks of access to course material and instructors after orientation) and submitted the paper on my first day.

They screwed up on one of my evals and said that the Institutes course would come in as critical thinking.  When I challenged it on another eval, they admitted the mistake.

---

Oh, and the MIS DSST WILL work for Business of IT.

---

Also, WGU will not take any IT related credits older than 5 years.

Thank you quionegene!  I thought I saw another post with info concerning the MIS (DSST exam) would work for one of WGU's IT-related courses.  Maybe that was your post.  Anyhow... all John's DSST exams are within the last year or two so he should be good there.

His spreadsheet course is way older than 5 years.  I see spreadsheets as more business than IT.  Of course, WGU may not see it that way.  Hopefully, if he can get a syllabus or course description from his college, WGU will take it for spreadsheets.  Even if it's an easy course, I think this is a mental thing.  No one wants to lose 2/3 of the courses you've worked so hard for.

It had not occurred to me that credit for World History credit as a science was simply a mistake.  I just wasn't thinking about it in those terms.  I think the eval was done over the holidays so perhaps the person who completed it was over-worked or a newbie.

[ztkerls]

Thank you quionegene!  I thought I saw another post with info concerning the MIS (DSST exam) would work for one of WGU's IT-related courses.  Maybe that was your post.  Anyhow... all John's DSST exams are within the last year or two so he should be good there.

His spreadsheet course is way older than 5 years.  I see spreadsheets as more business than IT.  Of course, WGU may not see it that way.  Hopefully, if he can get a syllabus or course description from his college, WGU will take it for spreadsheets.  Even if it's an easy course, I think this is a mental thing.  No one wants to lose 2/3 of the courses you've worked so hard for.

It had not occurred to me that credit for World History credit as a science was simply a mistake.  I just wasn't thinking about it in those terms.  I think the eval was done over the holidays so perhaps the person who completed it was over-worked or a newbie.

I do not think that they messed up on the evaluation for World History. According to the official transfer guidelines for that major, One physical science credit can be a history course. In the degree plan, Intro to Geography would be the class taken for this at WGU.

Here is a link to the guidelines: https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSDMDA.aspx

Anthropology is usually considered to be a social science which also fits into only that one spot. I would appeal human/health dev and see what they say. I was told they rarely allow transfers for spreadsheets when my mom started with WGU so I doubt you would get that.

[davewill]

 ... Even if it's an easy course, I think this is a mental thing.  No one wants to lose 2/3 of the courses you've worked so hard for. ...

He needs to get over that, or fall into a rathole that will derail his effort. That's why it's a good idea to do what @dfrecore suggested and do a side by side of WGU and TESU. He will learn to see the positives of just moving forward.

As far as the spreadsheet course, it would be easy to spend a bunch more time trying to get it accepted when he might just be able to finish it in a day if he just got started.

[rvm]

Never be upset by the lack of transfer to WGU - they only have about 30cr of GE for most degrees, and are fairly specific about them, so it shouldn't be a complete surprise.

I agree with quigongene that Trig is not logic (philosophy).  World History got slotted incorrectly and should be fixed (It should have gone to Am History/const).  MIS SHOULD go to Business of IT if it was taken less than 5 years ago.

Ethics in America should count towards Humanities, but won't count as Ethics in Tech, which they specifically want.
Pers Finance is certainly not spreadsheets (I took it)
Health/Human Dev is not a lab science.

Here on this forum, rather than looking backwards at what a school will or won't take (so what might be "lost"), you need to take a look forward - what is REMAINING to take, how much will it cost to take those courses, and how long will that take to complete.  Do a spreadsheet for the WGU degree and the TESU degree, and determine which is the better one to get.  I"m going to guess that WGU will still be cheaper and faster than TESU (which I think will take about 2 years just to do the courses in the major, because of when they're all offered).

The other key with WGU - balance out how many courses you think you can complete in a single term, and how many courses will you need to take to get to that point - and then how much that will cost.  You want to not take so many courses before enrolling that you're WAY ahead and have very few courses to take, but not leave too many causing you to go beyond a term (or 2 terms if you decide that's the way to go).

That's all good advice, Dfrecore.  John is going to have to decide if he can accept the loss of those credits and move forward with BS-DM/DA from WGU or look at other options.

I think TESU is no longer an option for him unless he chooses a different major.  They really limit people who are trying to get a BS in Data Analytics quickly due to their relationship with statistics.com.

Even if WGU only requires only 30 ged ed credits, it's still fairly difficult for John. No one wants to lose 2/3 of the credits they've worked so hard for.  

Even though my neighbor and I have similar backgrounds and we're both trying to find a way to get a 4-year degree in Data Analytics/Science, we're in diffierent places in our respective educational journeys.  He's a bit younger than me and has basically just started collecting credits in the last few years.  Since he's younger and doesn't mind putting some time toward his goals, though he wants to finish somewhat quickly, he has more options than I do - or at least that's how it feels for me. 

For me, based on this experience, I'm completely reconsidering WGU for Data Analytics.  I'd be better off finishing my last few credits of my BSBA and subsequently finding at a graduate certification in Data Analytics at a uni that will accept those grad credits toward a MS in degree.

When I originally asked for help for John a few weeks back, and you all came through with so much advice.  He has asked me to tell you all how grateful he is!  Thank you!

[rvm]

You can't simply say "World History counted as a science, therefore anything I want to count for a certain spot should count there". I don't know WGU's policies, but the only one that you're upset about that seems to me like it should count how you want it to is MIS.

You are correct and I am aware I shouldn't make a blanket statement of our wants as it is irrelevant to what WGU will decide.  It was based on what I saw as a ludicrous decision to accept World History as science as it is clearly not a science.  If they accept WH as a science, then why not the accept the others as outlined above b/c at least everything I outlined has some relevance, even if each course/exam didn't have a direct correlation?  

It has now been pointed out that World History as science was an error by the WGU transcript evaluator and WGU should be notified so they can correct their error.  

For the MIS issue, I hope you are correct, as well. 

Thanks for helping.   

[ztkerls]

You can't simply say "World History counted as a science, therefore anything I want to count for a certain spot should count there". I don't know WGU's policies, but the only one that you're upset about that seems to me like it should count how you want it to is MIS.

You are correct and I am aware I shouldn't make a blanket statement of our wants as it is irrelevant to what WGU will decide.  It was based on what I saw as a ludicrous decision to accept World History as science as it is clearly not a science.  If they accept WH as a science, then why not the accept the others as outlined above b/c at least everything I outlined has some relevance, even if each course/exam didn't have a direct correlation?  

It has now been pointed out that World History as science was an error by the WGU transcript evaluator and WGU should be notified so they can correct their error.  

For the MIS issue, I hope you are correct, as well. 

Thanks for helping.   

World History being slotted into a science slot is not a mistake. According to the transfer guidelines, the first Physical Science is "One course in geography. This requirement can also be satisfied by one course, equivalent to 3 units, in the behavioral or social sciences (i.e. history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics or political science). " 

The second course for Physical Science is "One course, equivalent to 3 units, in a Physical Science (Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Astronomy)."

Basically, they want a social science and natural science to fulfill the 2 requirements.