I've been working on my associates degree for a little more than a decade now. I graduated High School in 2000, immediately starting Community College with no direction, little discipline, and too much ambition. Unfortunately, the whole "you don't *have* to go to class" combined with far too many credits lead to a poor few first semesters, and eventually I stopped taking classes. In 2008, I restarted at the same college, taking their online classes 6-7 credits at a time, which worked very well, but slowly.
It was by chance that I saw a tweet from mubix about his first semester at WGU that lead me into looking into WGU. I discovered a few people I knew were also starting (and a coworker who was finishing his masters), so I decided to go ahead and sign up. I partially want a degree just to tick that box (and to encourage higher education in children/young adults in my family), but also because at this point it will open "management" doors, for the future. I figure at some point I'm not going to be able to keep my tech razor sharp and up to date forever (we're not all DaKahuna), so I'm not hurting myself by finally finishing my degree.
The two main selling points for WGU were competency-based vs time-.based learning, and the generous credit transfer system that let me utilize both certs I've recently acquired and old community college credits (for classes that I didn't particularly want to repeat -- I'm looking at you, Database Fundamentals). The latter allowed me to transfer 33 credits (26% of the way to graduation already!), and the former will allow me to speed through the tech and security classes.
The enrollment procedure was quick and painless, thanks to my Enrollment Counselor, John C. I was then handed off to my mentor, Oraib Z, who has been super helpful. Initially, I thought the weekly schedule call with her was going to be unnecessary, but I find even the "nothing to report" calls helpful, primarily because it allows me to ask the little questions where I would normally not want to bother someone about.
My only complaints thus far have been technology related, and very minor:
Finally, one of the larger concerns I have was discovered while traveling internationally. One of the courses used a third-party provider (TestOut LabSim for C393 and C394), which provided video-only based learning materials and didn't seem to have any non-US content delivery in place. Despite having amazing local internet speeds, the video content would take a minute to buffer to play 3 seconds of video. I realize this is a U.S. school, but as a 100% online school geared to working professionals, not including those who may road warrior outside of the US is a little disappointing.
I'll get to my "semester review" post once my first semester is completed next month. So far, so good!
It was by chance that I saw a tweet from mubix about his first semester at WGU that lead me into looking into WGU. I discovered a few people I knew were also starting (and a coworker who was finishing his masters), so I decided to go ahead and sign up. I partially want a degree just to tick that box (and to encourage higher education in children/young adults in my family), but also because at this point it will open "management" doors, for the future. I figure at some point I'm not going to be able to keep my tech razor sharp and up to date forever (we're not all DaKahuna), so I'm not hurting myself by finally finishing my degree.
The two main selling points for WGU were competency-based vs time-.based learning, and the generous credit transfer system that let me utilize both certs I've recently acquired and old community college credits (for classes that I didn't particularly want to repeat -- I'm looking at you, Database Fundamentals). The latter allowed me to transfer 33 credits (26% of the way to graduation already!), and the former will allow me to speed through the tech and security classes.
The enrollment procedure was quick and painless, thanks to my Enrollment Counselor, John C. I was then handed off to my mentor, Oraib Z, who has been super helpful. Initially, I thought the weekly schedule call with her was going to be unnecessary, but I find even the "nothing to report" calls helpful, primarily because it allows me to ask the little questions where I would normally not want to bother someone about.
My only complaints thus far have been technology related, and very minor:
- The VoIP system the staff uses, presumably to mask their home numbers, tends to have enough latency to make conversation difficult.
- The my.wgu.edu logon seems to be unusually slow, as the site itself seems plenty fast after authentication.
- On day I was to have my first scheduled at-home exam, their system was having issues and I had to reschedule the next day (and it worked without issue).
Finally, one of the larger concerns I have was discovered while traveling internationally. One of the courses used a third-party provider (TestOut LabSim for C393 and C394), which provided video-only based learning materials and didn't seem to have any non-US content delivery in place. Despite having amazing local internet speeds, the video content would take a minute to buffer to play 3 seconds of video. I realize this is a U.S. school, but as a 100% online school geared to working professionals, not including those who may road warrior outside of the US is a little disappointing.
I'll get to my "semester review" post once my first semester is completed next month. So far, so good!
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