Western Governors University Review

I have read a lot of good and bad reviews of Western Governors University. I’d like to take a moment to share my experience with you.

First some background information. Western Governors University was establish by 19 former western governors, as a non-profit university. Yes you heard that correctly, non-profit! These governors put together $20,000,000 to establish the university as a way to educate the non-traditional student. The original school was developed in Utah, but WGU now has universities in Indiana and soon will be in Washington State. That said, location only matters to those trying to obtain financial aid from their state. Being an online university a qualifying student can be anywhere and take classes. Accessibility to a quality education is in my opinion the main attraction of WGU.

As a non-profit university WGU’s goal is to educate you as quickly as possible so that you can move on with your career. This is accomplished with minimal fees and accelerated learning while maintaining high educational standards. Accelerated learning with stringent standards. Sounds like a new approach doesn’t it. Opposed to traditional universities WGU requires that you master a course subject before you can advance. I’ll shed some light on this in a moment. First a bit on my experience with Western Governors University.

As a non-profit university WGU’s goal is to educate you as quickly as possible so that you can move on with your career. This is accomplished with minimal fees and accelerated learning while maintaining high educational standards. Accelerated learning with stringent standards. Sounds like a new approach doesn’t it. Opposed to traditional universities WGU requires that you master a course subject before you can advance. I’ll shed some light on this in a moment. First a bit on my experience with Western Governors University.

I decided to apply to WGU after butting heads with the financial aid department of the local university. After a futile trip to handle their inquiries face-to-face, I came home and googled “cheap online colleges”. I found an article about Western Governors University and thought that this might be for me. I gave them a call and this is what transpired.

Upon calling WGU I was assigned an enrollment counselor who would take me through the process of applying to WGU. I thought that this was a bit odd. After all the colleges I had attended just sent a catalog, application, and their best wishes. Not WGU! They wanted someone right there guiding me through the application process. My enrollment counselor, let’s call him Hank, was a great asset. He educated me as to the requirements of attending WGU, as well as the application process and available financial aid. He streamlined the process for me and tracked my progress. Most importantly he kept me informed. We had scheduled conversations through the entire process.

In my situation I was applying to the Teachers College and had to fulfill some requirements before I could attend. This was a simple matter of picking up a course through straighterline.com, which would be transferred with my other credits. This was the one odd thing I found about western governors university. They want you to have previous college experience. I had already earned 159 credit hours, but I was required to have passed college algebra with a c or higher to transfer the credit. For my program this course was a prerequisite so I had to retake it. Not a big deal. $130 and 30 days later I had passed college algebra and was ready to continue my application with WGU. My enrollment counselor Hank tracked my progress the entire time. He helped me establish deadlines so that I could meet my goal of attending WGU on January 1^st. He also tracked my enrollment application and financial aid so there wouldn’t be any hiccups in the process.

Well the day finally came when I was accepted by Western Governors University and Hank kicked me out of the nest into the skillful hands of my mentor “Kelly”. Now Kelly is a well-educated individual whose sole purpose is to keep me on track. The first thing Kelly did was to help me develop my Degree Plan and helped me set my goals for the semester. She quickly got a feeling for my interests and strong suites then tailored courses to meet my needs. This was refreshing as I’d always been assigned courses and was told to “deal with it,” if I didn’t like the choices or compilation. At WGU your mentor’s job is to assist you in making viable choices and achieving your goals. They are also responsible for tracking your progress. Each week I have a scheduled phone call with my mentor during which we set my weekly goals. Not semester goals, weekly goals. We accomplish our semester goals one week at a time.

At the beginning of the semester my mentor (Kelly) and I schedule 12-15 credit hours. If I accomplish this goal early I can complete other courses and draw them into the semester. After all you have 6 months to complete your course work, why not double the load. That is what’s great about WGU. You are paying for the semester, not the credit hours. This semester I plan on completing 40 credit hours. At $2945 for the semester that’s only $74/credit hour. That is substantially lower than any four year school I’m familiar with. Now I know you’re thinking how could I pass 40 credit hours in one semester. Good question.

The curriculum at WGU is either task oriented (performance assessments) or mastery based (objective assessments). For example to pass class x I may have to complete five tasks. As I am not sitting in a classroom with set goals, I can complete these tasks at my leisure. I do the research, I complete the tasks demonstrating my competency, I pass the course. Did you notice the word competency. You have to demonstrate competency in a course subject before you can pass and move on. There are no c’s or d’s at WGU. You have to complete a course with a 3.0 equivalence or higher to pass a course. If you can’t, then you have to change programs or leave Western Governors University. Sounds harsh? There’s that stringent standard we spoke of earlier. WGU is a pass or fail school, there is no middle standard.

Now let’s look at class “y”. Class “y” requires that I take a comprehensive exam demonstrating my mastery of a subject. There are a couple of approaches to this. First you can go through all the course work and take the pre-assessment for the final exam. If you pass the pre-assessment you are allowed to schedule your final exam. If not, you go back and study those areas you are weak in. This is great if you are already proficient in a subject. Say for example you are a natural sciences nut like me. I’ve taken 5 courses related to the natural sciences and pre-assessed high enough in each to take the final. This shaved 20 credit hours off my degree plan in a hurry.

Western Governors University has established a program that allows you to excel and achieve you goals at your pace. They are affordable and success oriented. If you are interested in earning your degree online this may be the place for you, but I will say that WGU is not for everyone. If you want to sleep through class and earn a “passing” grade, you may want to look elsewhere.

Do you enjoy writing? Would you like to make residual income from your work? Hubpages are a great place to do just that. Why not sign up and give it a try. From personal experience it's almost addicting.

Join Hubpages Today!