Regarding Western Governor's University: I need some help, opinions (please)

Ok, if anyone here has attended WGU, I need some guidance: I kinda understand the whole "competency unit" thing they offer, but as an individual who has no work experience that could be used as reference to the field I wanna get into for my degree, how does WGU work? regarding courses and whatnot...do they give you a list of books/materials to study and then you study them and take tests? is it asynchronous? And most importantly...these "competency units"...would they be accredited as equivalents to credits if I wanted to do a masters at a traditional instution? Anyone knows?

I am basically in a position in which I can dedicate anything from 5-10 daily hours to study, (probably even more) , and I want to do my bachelor's in as little time as possible; I hear WGU is a solid institution for Distance Learning, but I just can't find lots of reviews anywhere...


Thanks so much for any help...

 

Another possible route is testing out via CLEP, DANTES, DSST, etc. and having all the credit hours transferred into a degree at one of the Big Three. You might be able to wrap it up in 4-6 months given you can dedicate 5-10 daily hours to study.

 

How do I do that? How do I choose which courses to test out?

I mean...it's confusing...

And the key is that I want to do a Master's in a B & M, cuz I want to Master in Social Work, and in order to get ahead smoothly, the Masters HAS to be accredited by the NCSW, and they don't accredit online degrees... I have a headache...

 

Lawrie Miller put together a web site detailing the process.

 

I am a WGU grad. The competency unit is a college credit. You have to actually demonstrate that you know something about the subject before moving on.

Most cases are writing papers. You write much at WGU. The second way is a test. As an example a math class may have two credits of writing out an assignment. Usually in area of 5-7 papers which can be short as two pages. Then one unit that is a test.

Here is an example from an education class:

Where experience comes in; I had three years of teaching experience so when all the questions on behavior came up and what would you do it and do this or do that they were a slam dunk for me. I did not have to invent a hypothetical situation, I had an event in mind.


I did my (second) BA in one year. I also put in 8-10 hours a day 5-6 days a week. Being unemployed at the time helped.

 

HI! Thanks!

You did your degree in a year...did that involve a lot of previously acquired credits, or did you do the whole WGA thing in that year, just by applying yourself and studying hard?

And a very important question: Do Graduate schools have a problem with "competency units"?

If I wanna continue post=graduate work, you think I might be able to have those credits transferred to a traditional institution?

 

Here are my caveats:

1. I already had earned a BA from a RA B&M school. So I had no general ed. classes to do.
2. I did Social Studies Education. At the time, you would take the PRAXIS tests which is the teacher qualification test which tests what you should have learned in four years of college. I took one every two months. I raked up credits quickly this way. There are no more Praxis tests for credit. However, the nice thing there is that I would not be limited and could work on many at one time.
3. If you did not finish you had 30 days to finish. I started one class with two weeks to go in my term. I had the 30 days to finish, really 14 days with counting for grading time. I am one of the reasons you cannot do this anymore, sorry. From what I understood as I was leaving, hence I did not care, you cannot start any classes if you are two months or less from term.
4. I had three years of teaching experience which made the education classes a cakewalk.
5. I worked 8-10 hours a day for 5-6 days a week, I had a very PT job of fixing TVs and computers.
6. I am an adult (40+ yo) who was highly motivated. You need to be highly motivated and a self starter to do it this fast.
7. I never failed a test WGU or PRAXIS.

The day I started was bad. When we first got our timelines for finishing, mine was to graduate in 2011 or 2012.

If i had to start from ground zero, I would take as many CLEP tests as I could. I would think WGU would take me an extra six months to do.

Grad school: Not a problem so far. I have been accepted by one and am currently applying to FHSU

 

This is gonna sound so dumb, but remember I am a 40 year old man who never went to college when he was "supposed to" and I am absolutely clueless as to how these things work: If someone has already completed a BA and say, decides to some day do another BA, he/she doesn't have to retake GE courses?

And does that mean that if say, I had a Social Work BA and one day want to do a Sociology one, the classes that those two things have in common will be accepted in the new degree? Just wondering (and sorry for sounding like a fool....

 

You normally have to complete somewhere approximately 30 additional credit hours in the new area of study or major. This is very school specific but basically there is no need to take any more general education credit hours in terms of how you would have taken them towards the first undergraduate degree.

Another school worth looking into is Athabasca University which offers a Bachelor of General Studies (90-credit hours) with no academic residency requirement - all credit hours can be transferred into the BGS or taken through Athabasca University. Their courses run on a 6-month calendar though you can finish courses faster if you are highly motivated.

If you have no credit hours at this time, maybe earning a AA in General Studies through testing out might be a good way to start towards earning a BA or BS or BGS.

Asking questions means you are most certainly not a fool.

 

First hang around and you will pick up the lingo.

When I did my first BA, I already had a years worth of credits built up. I did not have to repeat those. I had to finish off the rest of General Ed classes.

Fast forward 6 years, I started WGU, I did not have to repeat any general ed classes. YEAH.

This is school specific. I am thinking somewhere like Rutgers or Princeton does not allow people to transfer in many credits. This is very rare. As far as getting a new degree that is up to the school. The rules are various and somewhat complex and are very school specific.

The real question is what do you want to do with your degree? What will your degree be in? If it is teaching, I highly recommend WGU.