Western Governors University Reviews of Bachelor's in Liberal Studies

"I went to CSULB for a few years and did very well. I had some personal issues that kept me from graduating unfortunately. I find WGU to be extremely reasonably priced and is very easy to handle. I currently work a full time job, I'm planning a wedding, I have a 4 year old, and I own a competitive cheer team, and I'm still able to get my coursework done. My mentor is supportive and offers advice whenever asked. I won't lie as I'm not a huge fan of the weekly phone calls, but they are short and to the point. I schedule mine during my drive home from work so that i can make sure i have the dedicated time to talk. My mentor is super awesome and even scheduled my classes around my wedding, Bachelorette party, and honeymoon, so they definitely care about your personal life and success. It really is a competency based program. There are so many classes I was able to fly through because I'm comfortable writing a paper or I'm OK in math, so I could go at a faster pace. Of course, there are course materials available if you don't have prior knowledge to pull from. This program is doable for anyone, you just need to want it and be willing to do the work needed. Good luck to anyone furthering their education."

"These people are only nice when you're enrollment process. When you are enrolled and already have some semester down, they own you forever. These people are helpless and careless. They know that if you try to leave, no other school will take your WGU classes. If you have the money trust me, don't use this school."

"I am a person with a disability under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) and the administration here is truly awful. I requested some simple accommodations for my courses in the College of IT and was laughed out the door. My student mentor was highly unprofessional, calling me at strange hours of the day when we did not have an appointment, and nobody was willing to help me work through my issues when I called several different departments for help. (Yes, I escalated, and the supervisors at Student Services are just as bad!) They KNEW I was struggling with my disability and I was mocked, lied to, misdirected, and put on the back burner. While they may cost you less money, they provide much less value. Western Governor's is an unprofessional and hostile environment for anyone covered by ADA. I have told every single family member and friend to AVOID this place. They want your money, but if you need access to normal learning resources and help (like those found at any serious public University), they will shame you and blame you and make your life hell on Earth. Save yourself some heartbreak and run as far and fast from WGU as you can. If you don't believe me, go read their surprise audit from the Department of Education. You won't believe what they have been getting away with. Shame on WGU. College students, disabled or not, deserve better than this."

"If you know all the classes and just need to do a little studying and then take the tests, this is the school for you. If you every...and I mean EVER...need any help with a class; you are screwed. They don.t help anyone. They never helped me. I hate this school so much now and will never go to another school because of this. This school is the epitome of what is wrong with American Education. It focuses on crap you will never need and does nothing to "teach". The graduation rate is something like 14% for a 4 year undergrad and 7% for a Masters. Save your time and money."

"YOUR CREDITS AT WGU FOR THE MOST PART, WILL NOT BE RECOGNIZED BY MOST UNIVERSITIES. Example, lower level electives are 50-70% ok to transfer from WGU, but all major courses will be given zero credit. SO please understand unlike any other university, you can never leave and go to another school unless you are OK with starting over and paying again."

"I did not graduate from WGU- after a year and a half of blood, sweat, tears, and total frustration in their Bachelor of Arts program for Interdisciplinary Studies (K-8), I decided to transfer to another university. I finished my associate degree with another online university and went to WGU for my bachelor's. From the outside, WGU's competency-based program and cheap tuition seems ideal. Trust me, it's not. Start with the fact that WGU does almost nothing through email. It's all phone calls, weekly phone calls with multiple people. If you need help from a "course mentor" (the expert to help you pass your class) it has to be done through a phone call. You are required to have weekly phone calls with your "student mentor," AKA academic advisor, as well. If you miss these phone calls or just cancel a couple times, you're automatically put on probation. Miss 3 phone calls and they'll kick you out. As a working mother of four with zero free time, these required phone calls became the bane of my existence. Add to that the fact that WGU operates on their own time, not yours. Zero urgency when you're in a hurry to graduate. I wasn't even allowed to technically start my classes until 9 days into my first term because I was required to have a special phone call with my student mentor, even though I'd completed enrollment and set my start date months prior. And the classes themselves are ludicrous. Don't expect to learn anything. You have the occasional "task" (or multiple tasks) that you must complete to pass a class. Submit the tasks and a couple days later you'll get them back graded- it's pass or fail, nothing else. Sometimes I had tasks sent back for something as simple as an incorrect title at the top of the page, as if that was enough to completely derail the rest of the paper. If you're unlucky enough to get an "objective assessment" class (aka a class you pass by testing out), you study your digital textbook and the "course of study" religiously, then take a pre-assessment that has nothing to do with what you just studied. If you pass, it's because of prior knowledge, not because of anything WGU taught you. The teacher licensure program is a joke. None of the other programs I looked into required you to get professional liability insurance just for your observation hours, but WGU does. They also require you to submit a resume just to get approval to start your observation hours, even when you already have approval from a school to complete your hours there, and the resume will get sent back to you for things like..."YOUR REFERENCES NEED EMAIL ADDRESSES!" Isn't including someone's email address on your resume a personal choice? Oh, I was also reprimanded for once jokingly saying to my student mentor that I was willing to "bust my a-**" working on my next class. She threatened to withhold her "recommendation" for my graduation because I was using foul language. My entire WGU experience was a nightmare. I walked into it blindly, assuming that all schools were as honest and upstanding as my previous university. I was wrong. Stay far, far away from this one."