Decided on Fort Hays State University

So, after much thought, lots of research, and the disappointment of WGU not accepting the majority of my 90 completed hours, I have decided to enroll and finish at Fort Hays State University. The cost of fees + tuition is $161 per credit hour, and their preliminary review has them accepting 89 of my 90 hours. I don't think I could get a better price at an RA school and get the same amount of transfer credit—maybe with TESC and CLEP/DANTES, but I like finishing the traditional way. I am going to get my Bachelor of General Studies with a concentration in Business. I have already finished the concentration so I just have a few general ed and upper-division arts and sciences classes to take. They offer an option to get an MBA in a year after the BGS with Business concentration that is tempting me, but more research required on that.

So far, what I will say about FHSU is this: The enrollment process in the virtual college is a bit confusing. Unlike for-profit or other bigger RA schools I researched who started hounding me the second I applied, FHSU did not hold my hand through enrollment. I submitted the application, and then got nervous that I didn't hear from anyone right away. I went ahead and had all of my transcripts sent to the registrar, and fumbled my way through figuring out how to create and log into TigerTracks, the online student portal. I am glad I made myself figure it out, because once I got logged in the system told me the name of my advisor, and all I had to do was email her and the door was opened to getting the answers to all my questions. Fort Hays has been extremely helpful once I found the right people, it was just a matter of needing to be a bit self-sufficient in reading and following the application and enrollment directions.

Once they received all three of my transcripts, my advisor replied promptly with my tentative degree summary, and I am all ready to pre-enroll for Spring 2009 semester on October 21st.

All in all I am quite happy with the experience, and getting maximum credit for my previous coursework.

I considered AJU and sponsored tuition, but they actually accepted less of my transfer credit, and I wanted maximum future utility, so for me personally, RA is better. Good luck to all you AJU'ers thought--they provided excellent customer service and I really liked them.

More updates as I progress with my studies at FHSU. Thank you to all of you who sent me PM's and replies with advice. I'll let you all know how my progress continues.

Justin

 

This is either the second or third post I can recall in which an FHSU student has referred to their experience as confusing. Perhaps they would benefit from making their virtual college experience a bit more user-friendly. Still, for the price and the apparent benefits of their credit-transfer policy, I think you made a good choice.

 

Good choice.

And - looking to the future - I think that the Fort Hays MBA is a good value, as it is AACSB and cheap, IIRC.

Go forth and prosper.

 

FHSU was very helpful to me. Some of that might be the fact that I e-mailed and called the person over the BGS program several times.

I feel your pain on the tigertrack thing.

 

Good analysis and decision, best of luck to you.

 

Fort Hays is not AACSB; the cheapest AACSB school with a DL MBA is most likely Jacksonville State University.

 

They're expecting to receive AACSB accreditation in May 2009.
http://www.fhsu.edu/cob/Documents/COBL_Report_Card/2007_Scorecard.pdf

 

Wow, it is almost 5 years.

 

That must be why I thought they might be AACSB. Not quite there yet.

 

Sweet... I'll be graduating next fall with my degree, and adding a couple of certs as well (Internetworking and HRM) - may go back for a Masters but haven't decided yet.

My overall experience at FHSU has been very good - good profs, challenging courses (which is why it'll be even more rewarding once I'm done) and overall satisfaction is high (with the exception of my former advisor who rarely responded to e-mails, let alone timely responses - he's since been replaced and am quite pleased with my new advisor).

Justin - Welcome aboard - if you have any questions re FHSU, go ahead and pm me.

 

Who do you think you're kidding?

 

I changed my mind and went back with FHSU. I was back and forth between Roger Williams and Fort Hays State University.