Western Governers U, is it worth it? It looks like they don't have classes, but competency units. How would a degree from WGU look on my resume to most employers?
1. The degrees are regionally accredited. If you're an educator they are NCATE accredited and they were the first and only school I'm aware of to be fully accredited by all four regional accrediting agencies, though they've since focused on one of them. 2. My degree got me into UMass, as I didn't put my Northeastern background on the application as a test of the validity of the degree. 3. Employers don't care unless you're attempting to get into an elite (Ivy cutoff) firm. An undergrad is a checkbox. The sole exception is the luddite HR rep and those are slowly disappearing. ITJD
I did about half of an M.A. program with them until my G.I. Bill died. I completed a Masters with CSU Dominguez Hills by distance. The nice thing about WGU is that they pay their professors to maintain contact with you by phone calls. By contrast at CSU only your interaction with fellow students on the internet provided support. I liked WGU, but it's really focused on teaching: if you're looking for non-education jobs, I'm not sure I'd recommend them. Ternahan
WGU has state-level relationships with Indiana, Texas and Washington. You could almost label them a state school now. They are regionally accredited, so their degress should have the same value as degrees from just about any regular local B&M school you could name. The competency units thing is a bit odd, yes, but it's WGU's way of calculating credit hours. I think they have work to do in matching those up to credit hours so students can transfer out more easily if needed, but it's still not unheard of for students to transfer. My recommendation, though, is that if you pick WGU you should stick it out until you finish.
Do they have grades too? Like A-F and you get a GPA? Or does it just show as passed or completed for the competency units?
Those state relationships, at least the relationship with Indiana, is little more than a marketing pact.
My understanding is that the state relationships allow residents to utilize state scholarships/loans/etc. to pay for their schooling through WGU. If this is the case, it's a hair away from being a state school.
It's pretty much pass/fail. WGU considers a pass to be equivalent to a "B". There are a number of other schools in the States with similar systems.
I sometimes wonder if most of those were "honorary" or some other form of accreditation not requiring the whole visit, etc. process. But. . . they carry their current regional accreditation as well as DETC. No issues there.
To be fair, DoE and CHEA list eight regional accrediting agencies with two being subdivisions of one of the original four, now six. Regardless my original post was incorrect.
How do their normal tests work? For example their Geography test which says "Proctored, computer based objective exam" Does that mean you have to goto a center some where that has the WGU tests? If so am I able to see where those are at so I know if I have one close to me. Or is it an online test?
Prometric has a bunch of testing sites outside of the ones known for certification testing-- these are usually located inside Sylvan Learning Centers. This is where you'll go to take these exams.