Western Governors University Reviews of Bachelor's in Computer Science

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Bachelor of Science course work with WGU. I have been enrolled for 18 months and will finish this year. My experience with WGU has been a very positive one. I have seriously enhanced my resume with various mini certificate programs that I receive during my studies as part of their Curriculum. They are focused on Competency not sitting in a chair for N hours. If you can pass the test because you know the material all the better. I will say I do benefit from being fast... Read More reader and love to just be able to read through the material. Every professor calls you to ask what they can help you with (who else does that?) Mentors keep you focused on doing the required work each week but calling you and marshaling any resources you may need to successfully accomplish. Some people I have mentioned they are not diligent enough to put the time in, but if you are serious about an great education, you cannot go wrong here. Remember this is a non-profit college so it's not just about the money. Have a child who is going to Lehigh, 78K a year and he is now using my study materials to help him with his classwork. Just saying there is a marked difference between how WGU gets you to learn and what other "Traditional" schools do NOT do. High praise for WGU! So glad I found them. Masters Degree candidate 2022.

They constantly pushed my withdraw date back in order to charge me out of pocket, the class they had me in was taken directly from freecodecamp.org. if you want an education with computer science go anywhere else as they don't teach you, they say they do but in reality you're doing the same thing you would online for free by yourself. They lied about two things, I asked to be placed in a lower tier math to practice since I needed to do so, they said it was absolutely fine but instead they forced... Read More me into calculus and told me nope can't do that. Second lie was I could do it at my own pace, they started calling nonstop to the point I had to block their numbers in order to focus, I told them what I needed but instead they refused. This school lies to get you in and uses resources from online that you can find for free. S*** school.

I have worked in IT for many years, now in management I went from an associates to B.S. and I can say after going through WGU I would never want to hire any person with this on their resume and advise anyone going there to transfer somewhere better. I would advise any manager in any position to question these degrees heavily. If you have a lot of knowledge in the field already, WGU will let you speed through courses to get a degree you already have the knowledge for but are lacking the paper. If... Read More the person does not have the work experience already, and only has a degree at WGU I will not hire them because I know the education they received has no real value and they are not ready to work in the field in anything above entry level that a few CompTIA certs would have worked just as well. There are several WGU alumni working here and every single one of them agrees that WGU lets you show what you already know, but their classes do not teach you anything useful in areas you do not know. TL;DR If you have knowledge in field and just need a degree on your resume but already can do the job, WGU is fine. If this exact scenario isn't you, then do not waste your time/money on WGU because you will learn nothing.

This is the college for you if you want zero interaction with a competent teacher (or a teacher at all). If you enjoy being told to buy extra books by those mentors as they tell you that you won't pass unless you buy them, and spending days studying old and outdated information in a loaned information system that the mentors have not read and don't understand. If you like spending weeks updating and sending notices to the actual suppliers of the information you are renting about blatantly incorrect... Read More information, only to have no response and and then to take tests that are auto-graded but have zero ability to just if "This Word" and "this word" are the same because one has capitalization. This is the school for you if you enjoy wasting money and love having someone checking up on you (that has no ability to do anything and exists only to tell you to work harder) every week like you are a toddler. Let's not forget having a test giver from India who confuses a bookshelf in an office for a computer, telling you that you must unplug the bookshelf or she will not allow you to take a test. Or ones who don't know that Edge is the browser you are using to take the test, so prevent you from taking it because they don't know what browsers are when they scan your running Processes before a test. This is not a school. This is the most expensive library in the country with books that have information as old as 10 years, with information that is so outdated that it would be SHOCKING if it were on any actual certification test or had hardware ever seen in a corporate environment. The mentors are jokes, and the course I went through often had students trying to help each other through chat as our mentor was not able to understand the material we were taking. It was filled with large amounts of complaints from "This information is wrong" to "The website that hosts the material is down." with the mentors unable to do even the most basic of things to help. Do not go here unless you really are just a sucker, or really need a piece of paper and have no care or need to actually "learn" things. The last straw for me was when the course was set the entire time to require a calculator - specifically the Windows calculator - and when i tried to use it during the exam I was told that I can only use the white board they provide. When I messaged the "mentor" about this, they advised I set an appointment so I can ask questions that I appeared to have confusion about in the material. Aka: They had not even read my complaint, and were not capable of realizing that my understanding of the information was not at fault but their blocking of being able to use the tools their OWN material spent an entire course working with. This place is a joke and a waste of money to the extreme.

Like a lot of other aspects of life, a degree only matters when you don't have one. I was highly successful in the field of software development. At the peak of my career, I was earning over $21,000 per month. After I left school, I completed 2 years of a BSc in mathematics and computer science. Bored out of my mind, I dropped out to earn money. Earn money I did. I have worked at over 40 corporations worldwide. So why did I choose WGU? Well, at every interview I attended, I would have to overcompensate... Read More for not having completed a degree. In many instances I would beat out PhDs because I knew what the organisations wanted to accomplish and I would promise to do it in half the time they estimated for a project to be completed. I decided in 2005 that WGU made it possible for me to test out of all the examinations. At WGU, you are only required to show that you have mastered the competencies. There is no need to waste many hours at a brick and mortar institution. Being a software developer I chose to complete the degree in Computer Information Systems. I can tell you that the proctored assessments were not easy. Twice I had to retake assessments. The exams are set by non-WGU academic staff and graded externally. WGU is not for just anyone. You have to be exceptionally mature because the mentors are in general quite useless. If you are not able to learn independently and think critically, you will not do well at WGU. There is NO instruction. That's why it's so cost effective. This makes it very difficult for ordinary high school graduates to succeed at WGU. It is an institution targeted at mature learners. There is no hand holding of any kind. The mentors usually refer you to study materials and resources, but they are not qualified to give you any tutoring whatsoever. If you can't find information and study resources on your own, you will not succeed, because often the information given to you by the mentors is insufficient. Your level of English proficiency must be extremely high. WGU's entrance tests are not easy. I would recommend WGU to mature individuals. There may be the exceptional high school graduate who will succeed at WGU, but I have known lawyers, engineers and doctors, who have failed to complete their degrees at WGU. The real benefit is that you get to complete your degree as soon as you pass all the assessments and assignments. I do not think of WGU as a university, but rather as a para-academic body with a specific purpose of serving those in similar situations to mine. I am glad they are there! I would recommend WGU to any suitable candidate in a heartbeat. Do employers still express concerns over my degree status? Not any more. A degree only matters when you don't have one.