Western Governor's University- Legit or no?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I posted this in the Online Degree section too, but it might be best suited for this forum.</p>

<p>Has anyone ever heard of or attended this school? It seems like one of those "too good to be true" type of scams. Good enough to where you'll dive in only to find out it was a mistake later.</p>

<p>Apparantly you can earn a degree as quickly as you want, as long as you pass each assesment test that proves you know everything about that particular subject. There are no credit hours, and your past experience/college credit can be used towards your Academic Action Plan (what they call a degree plan).</p>

<p>I'm interested in becoming a teacher, so they're B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from their Teachers College is appealing to me. But I can't tell if this thing is legit or not. I've read some less than appealing reviews on the web, but I've found some good ones too.</p>

<p>I don't really care how a degree from WGU or anyplace for that matter looks. I'm just interested in getting my bachelor's quickly from a properly accredited school, and then getting certified to teach. What I mean is, I don't think it matters where your degree is from when becoming a teacher as long as you're certified to teach in that state. The cost seems to be significantly lower than all my other options. That's really the only reason it's grabbing my attention.</p>

<p>Any thoughts? Below is some info on WGU from their site and a link.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wgu.edu/education/teacher_certification.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wgu.edu/education/teacher_certification.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The WGU Advantage </p>

<p>You know how important a college degree is to you. But you lead a busy life. How can you fit college into a schedule that already includes work and family? </p>

<p>Western Governors University is specifically designed to help adults like you fit college into your already busy lives. WGU's programs are delivered online to allow learning to occur more on your schedule. Working with a faculty mentor on a regular basis, you'll follow a personalized Academic Action Plan that builds upon what you already know in the field. You may be able to accelerate your degree depending upon the competencies you already possess and still juggle the demands of school, work, and family. </p>

<p>Understanding the competency-based approach </p>

<p>WGU is the leading regionally-accredited university that grants degrees based completely on competencies—your ability to demonstrate skills and knowledge through a series of assessments carefully designed to measure your knowledge of a field of study. The programs are not based upon required courses. Instead, you earn your degree by demonstrating your competence through a series of carefully designed assessments. This approach allows for extensive personalization.</p>

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<p>As I understand it -- it is legitimate. I looked at it for the same reason -- getting my teaching degree. However, I chose not to attend because after doing some research I found that it does matter where your teaching degree is from (and where your student teaching is done). Many, many school districts will favor students from certain schools (usually an excellent local school) over all others. I know that you can always get a job as a teacher -- but I wasn't interested in just any teaching job. Some schools/administration/students are horrible. Plus, some schools have the "connections" to get you the good jobs -- and WGU doesn't.</p>

<p>If you really want to teach, do you know where you want to live when you teach? Try contacting some of the local districts -- I think you would find that with multiple applicants for a teaching job, they will select the applicant from a local or better known school than from WGU. That was what I found out when I did my asking.</p>

<p>The exception is rural areas or high need areas -- in these cases, they don't usually have multiple applicants and so they will accept you. I wanted more flexibility in a job -- I was also told that even after teaching for several years, they still consider where the degree was from. For instance -- WGU degree plus five years of experience teaching in a small, rural school district vs. Flagship U degree and five years teaching in a good, well-performing school district -- the second person would be chosen 99% of the time.</p>

<p>Also -- the better teaching jobs also pay more and have better benefits.</p>

3

<p>I see what you mean. I live in Texas in the DFW area and I'm interested in teaching in districts around here. I do have a call in to my first choice district to the HR director. I was planning on asking her just that.</p>

<p>My only choices for school (because of my situation) are evening and online programs. So far Letourneau University seems to be the front runner for me as far as fitting my schedule and being a highly regarded program. The cost just seems high compared to WGU but it looks as if with everything else in life, you get what you pay for.</p>

4

<p>Yes -- I am glad I did my research since it really seems to make a difference. What I ended up doing is attending community college for about 70 hours and then transferred to my local uni. I am actually getting my undergrad in Geography and then doing a one year master's program in elementary ed where you also get the teaching license. When I originally figured it all out, the local uni suggested I do their 4-year undergrad program -- but what I found out is that most kids end up doing 5 years because of student teaching and class availability (and this is typical of most teaching undergrads). I could do a 4 year undergrad and a one year master's for the same time and essentially the same money -- but teacher's with master's degrees are paid more and hired more -- so I went that route. Check it out and see what all your options are.</p>

5

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p><bump></bump></p>

6

<p>Another bump.</p>