(10-23-2019, 08:05 PM)Jenniferinfl Wrote: I haven't been here much since I originally popped in and asked a pile of questions about degree paths- but, I thought I would stop in and say that I finally finished my BS in Accounting from WGU. It's been an utterly grueling 10 months, I worked full time up until a week ago. I quit last week when my boss decided to start requiring 55 hours per week and I was freaking out that I wouldn't be able to finish my capstone on time. (It was a call center, sales job) So, I did have a week off from work to do my capstone, but the rest was done with a full time job and family obligations. I did one term at WGU, but, got a 4 week extension to finish my capstone. 

I took some CLEP, some Straighterline and then the rest through WGU. You can see the breakdown in my signature. My brick and mortar college credits were from years ago, but, everything else was since December of last year. 

I'm not completely sure that a college degree will actually help me out all that much unless I relocate- I've applied to hundreds of jobs over the last several months. Actually went in for an interview for an inventory manager position today and was offered a part time cashier job at $9 an hour. But, I digress. lol I will say that I am getting a lot more interviews now, most of them are just rubbishy bait and switch where I'm supposed to be interviewing for a management role or clerk role and then it turns into a $9 an hour secretary offer, but, I am getting a lot more interviews. So, should be able to land something decent eventually. 

Just thought I'd share in the event that someone else wanted to attempt. Doing the bulk of an accounting degree in one term was definitely a lot. I had no experience in accounting, but, my time spent in lower level retail management did come in handy for some of the general business courses. I'm thrilled to be done, but, I'll be starting the masters in accounting at WGU in December, also with the goal of being finished in one term.

(10-23-2019, 08:47 PM)rquesenberry Wrote: Congratulations,  Very impressive.  Are you planning to take the CPA exam?   Recommend WGU?

(10-23-2019, 11:32 PM)Jenniferinfl Wrote:

(10-23-2019, 08:47 PM)rquesenberry Wrote: Congratulations,  Very impressive.  Are you planning to take the CPA exam?   Recommend WGU?

I am planning to take the CPA exam- I will need to finish most of the masters program to have the right mix of credits to qualify. : I will say that if you look at first time pass rates, WGU isn't particularly stellar. Their master's program graduates do a lot better on their CPA pass rates. I think a lot of the difference in pass rates is that the master's program comes with access to Wiley CPA test prep. That alone makes the MACC worth taking for me. 

I recommend WGU if you have the ability to motivate yourself to accelerate. I live in Florida and if you aren't going to accelerate, you might as well go to one of the state colleges where it's around $100 per credit hour and you have local recognition for whatever it's worth. You also really cannot have severe test anxiety and attend WGU. I don't mind testing at all, so WGU was a good fit. For most classes, your entire grade is based exclusively on your score on the final exam. If you get horrible test anxiety and rely on extra credit work to pass classes, WGU will be a bad fit. I was thinking about that the other day, when I attended a brick and mortar college, there were usually a bunch of extra credit opportunities for people who didn't test well. I attended Daytona State years ago and had mostly A's. But, so did a lot of other people who got B's on tests but did extra credit work. Then there were other people who got low C's and did extra credit work. I've had people next to me in class who didn't pass a single test, but, still passed the class because of extra credit work. You don't get that at WGU. You have to be able to motivate yourself, figure out your study method and determine what you need to take more time with. It's a lot like homeschooling your way through college.. lol I mean, you do have course instructors, but, if you have to spend too much time waiting for appointments with them you won't accelerate very well. You have to be cool with being your own instructor 90% of the time, at least, to accelerate. I definitely got a very good value for my money. I qualified for a pell grant. I got my CLEP testing for free through Modern States. After the Pell grant, my out of pocket was around $1500 or so for my 109 credits. It was a really rough year though, emotionally and mentally exhausting. 

I would do it again- part of me wants to go back and do cyber security or IT. 

I've occasionally considered that I should have just attended UCF- I would have had connections for internships and so on. BUT, fact of the matter is that I couldn't attend UCF. I had to work fulltime, their accounting classes aren't online. The classes are mostly during the day, it would have taken me 5+ years to complete my degree, best case scenario. I would have owed a lot more, if I finished at all. 

I don't know- it was this way or not at all. I couldn't even really afford to do the TESU or Excelsior methods with alternative credit because I couldn't afford the alternative credit.. lol If you qualify for Pell grants and can motivate yourself, I definitely recommend WGU. It just really depends on what your other options are. I had very limited options. I will say that my WGU degree has already had value- I don't know if I will ever actually land an accounting job, BUT, I've gotten more interviews the last couple weeks then I've had in the last 3 years. It's the difference between being able to check that box. If you can take a week, study for a CLEP and pass it on the weekend and then take a week to study for the next one and pass that the next weekend, well, you probably can kill it at WGU. If you are thinking of WGU, I would try doing a few CLEP's and see how long it takes you to push yourself through them. 

There aren't really shortcuts- there were some classes where I could skim the textbook instead of reading the textbook. But, I still at least had to skim the whole book. Most classes I read the whole text. Some classes, like Intermediate Accounting II I read the assigned sections of the text 3+ times and took 100 pages of notes AND that still wasn't enough. I failed by one question, wrote another 100 note cards out, redid ALL the practice problems and passed on my second attempt 3 weeks later. Your still doing a whole class worth of work, instead of reading a chapter per week or something, I read the whole text in a couple days for some classes.

(10-24-2019, 01:30 AM)dfrecore Wrote: To get a management job with no accounting experience and a degree is not going to be easy to do - it's one of those fields where you have to start, maybe not at the bottom, but lower than management level to get the experience to move up.  I've never heard of anyone who came straight out of school with an accounting degree and made more than about $50k.  Even with a Master's, if you want to be a CPA, you're going to have to work a bazillion hours at a local firm to get those hours in, my friends who did that traveled extensively for about 2 years as auditors at medium-to-large sized companies before they got to make the big bucks.

So, my advice would be to maybe set your sights a little lower, think accounting analyst or something there - middle of the road, above AP clerk but below any type of management role, and you may be more successful in landing something.

(10-24-2019, 09:03 AM)Jenniferinfl Wrote: I haven't managed to land a single accounting interview here. Even an accounts payable role where you aren't even doing real accounting still wants three years of experience and a degree and pays $12 an hour. Realistically, I would have to move to break into accounting. It's not for lack of trying- I've applied to 236 jobs in the last 3 months. I'll keep applying- but, there just isn't a place for me.