Looking for WGU Info/Reviews

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by Deviant, Oct 8, 2005.

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  1. Deviant

    Deviant New Member

    FYI

    Looks like the degrees have been restructured before I had a chance to enroll.

    Work wouldn't let me sign up for school til their new budget was approved.

    Anyway, some of this information may not be valid now.

    I've sent a couple emails asking for updates and clarification.
     
  2. Arwes

    Arwes New Member

    I hate that they moved to have every IT degree involve certifications. Mainly because I live 100 miles away from the nearest testing center. :mad:
     
  3. Brewster

    Brewster New Member

    Arwes, I understand your frustration

    I think the certification with IT degrees are probably the way they they are because of the rapidly changing nature of the industry. I got an IT degree in 1997 and there is not one thing that I learned in that two years that would eneble me to partition a hard drive or set up a wireles network at home today...isn't that amazing? If you get a degree in business, teaching, psychology, etc., there is a reasonable chance that the principles you learn will still be applicable 20 years from now.

    Not so with IT....nowadays some 5 year olds know more about computers than their parents!

    I encourage you to follow IT if it is your passion...it's an industry that will often share the cost of educating you to keep up with future technological developments....you just need to get that degree and get your foot in the door. As as HR guy, I have a little bit of understanding of both sides of the fence.

    Good luck...I know you'll do well!
     
  4. Lec

    Lec New Member

  5. Xarick

    Xarick New Member

    WOW that is an incredible article.
     
  6. Lec

    Lec New Member

    I thought so also. Just another reason why I'm going to give WGU a shot.
     
  7. Deviant

    Deviant New Member

    Any new updates on this?

    A year later, I think I have work convinced to let me take up school again.

    Projects around here have started to settle down and may have money in the pot.

    Can anyone give any feed back on my original post, anything specific about those classes?

    Any changes in the degree program?

    I filled out the online application, since they have a application waiver code.

    I figured it wouldn't hurt to get an official eval.

    Any updates/information would be great.

    Examples of the class work would be awesome also.

    Thanks,
     
  8. Brewster

    Brewster New Member

    WGU

    I'm graduating in two months. Still love the school, still would highly recommend. Wish I had more info on your degree program.
     
  9. Sweetw1982

    Sweetw1982 New Member

    I started a Bachelors Degree at WGU in Network Administration. I already had my Associates. Upon starting I was a little confused about how the degree actually works. I spoke with the degree mentor every week and the phone calls were pointless. she asked "hows it going, anything i can do to help. whats your goal for the next week?" and that was it.
    Each week she would tell me I'm one week closer to my goal which was getting into the masters degree program in Information Security. I worked my tail off to finish the degree in about a year. That included 5-6 hours a day of studying and every weekend I spent the whole weekend studying. You teach yourself the stuff, there are no teachers. The hardest part was the essays. If you do a perfect essay you are transitioning from one subtopic to another within the essay. However, to get credit you have to go along the grading rubric and state which part of the rubric is in each paragraph at the beginning of the paragraph because its a 3rd party company overseas that grades them and they don't look for what the essay includes, they only look for the first sentence or two in a paragraph.
    Halfway through the degree I inquired about switching from Network Admin to Security because my goal, which you tell them in the entrance essay, was the Masters Degree. The degree mentor AND the academic advisor agreed that switching would add an additional year to my degree but if I dropped the major altogether I could graduate sooner and get into the masters degree sooner. So thats what i did.
    Upon graduating I found out that the month BEFORE they suggested this to me they changed their policy and I was not eligible for the Masters Degree. I called everyone and they wont accept their own degree and by accelerating the program to graduate in less than the normal time I accelerated myself right out of being eligible.
    So, i filed complaints and they went nowhere. Then I started focusing on going somewhere else but no schools will accept their degree. Most schools wouldn't accept anything because there is no GPA. They had to look into the school further and all of them refused to accept the degree. WGU said that they are nationally and regionally accredited but it doesn't mean anything if the military wont accept their degree, other schools wont accept the degree and they don't accept their own degree.

    Go somewhere else. I'm just lucky that i only wasted 1 year and 6000 dollars but now that I have my Bachelors, I dont qualify for Pell Grant and student loans wont pay for a second bachelors after the first one is completed so I'm now paying out of pocket for a bachelors degree.
     
  10. mcjon77

    mcjon77 Member

    Sweetw1982,

    I noticed that they added the BS in IT with a Networking emphasis as one of the prereqs for the MSISA. However, the other option for admission is to just have a CCNA. Have you thought about studying for the CCNA cert to qualify for the MSISA?

    Also, you received a BS in IT, correct? Are you working in the industry now?

    Good luck man!
     
  11. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Ok stop. Your grapes are going sour and you're full of it in general.

    1. The pre-requisite for the MSISA is a bachelors degree of any ilk and significant experience in IT or an undergraduate in IT.
    2. Your student mentor is a cheerleader and there to help you navigate the program. The course mentors are the subject matter experts and accessible through your AAV. There are "teachers" if you want them and choose to use them to answer questions and gain technical focus. Your student mentor is not a SME and it's the first thing a mentor tells you out of the gate if you listen to their schpiel.

    1. The graders are not outsourced. Try that one again. They do use OCR tools though.
    2. Some do suck. That I'll agree with you on. I've had some taskstream assignments graded a little off, fixed it and got graded a little off by a different grader.. the problem is that the process used does not guarantee you'll get the same grader on a revision that you did on the initial evaluation.
    3. The rubric is key. You need to start every assessment by looking at the grading rubric to tune your assignment to the rubric. Once this is done, you have less issue and avoid a lot of the problems in point 2.


    What is this entrance essay you speak of? Is that new or a requirement for people with no IT experience? Next up, why would you switch your degree mid-stream knowing that the cert requirements are different and there's no reason to do so to qualify for the sec masters? I'm NOT saying there's no fault on WGU here, but there's no such thing as a "degree mentor" and "academic advisors" are people I've never had to deal with at all if the position exists so I'm confused.

    You're obviously ignorant to the practices of your own school after spending years there, so that's on you my friend.

    1. All graduating students of WGU have a GPA of 3.0. That's on the back of your transcript.
    2. I got into a state's flagship MBA program with only the WGU undergrad in IT on my application. So your search needs to continue. They've also got alumni going to Wharton and CMU for masters programs in IT.

    You need to go somewhere else. Somehow I managed to do just fine and so have thousands of other people. WGU is one of the better online only places that's fully accredited and I can't argue in your favor based on anything I've experienced.

    Thanks,
    ITJD
     
  12. Petedude

    Petedude New Member

    I'll second that.
    They were outsourced at one point, but they're bringing them back in house. All other advice you gave about Taskstream is on target.
    That's part of the entrance exam, I think. It's not much. I think they also want some write-up as to why you're interested in the program when you apply. I only had the essay portion of the exam.
    Heartily agreed.
    Again, this person has apparently not been paying attention to how the school works. I went into the program full well knowing two key things:
    1. It would be difficult to transfer out midstream given their competency unit-based approach, so I'd have to finish what I started;
    2. There would only be pass-fail grading.
    Anyone who graduates from WGU should be able to get into the majority of master's programs out there. You may not look like a Rhodes scholar on paper, but you are certainly qualified to apply to most RA master's degrees.
     
  13. ComputerDiva

    ComputerDiva New Member

    That's interesting because I had no problem getting accepted into every college I applied for which included Capitol College, Univ. of Md, Penn State or Georgetown.
     

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