A couple questions about 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.