Western Governors University Reviews - Master's in Cyber Security

This school is more focused on students writing papers than them actually learning the material. You spend more time trying to write papers and making sure that you actually pass the grade without understanding anything. I absolutely hated my experience.

I completed my bachelors program through WGU in late 2017, early 2018. I had small gripes here and there about how the college worked but felt my bachelors experience was generally positive overall. I cannot say that for my Masters Degree experience which resulted in me leaving the program 10 days in for the reasons below: 1. The intake process consists of you meeting with a counselor who discusses aspects of the degree you're interested in, telling you about the program courses, financial aid and information WGU needs to get you in the door. The person I was assigned borderline harassed me week after week with unscheduled calls asking me if I had all the information I needed. I felt that process could have been managed better. My reason for leaving the program will ultimately come back to this first point. 2. The bachelors program allows a lot of flexibility with the order of classes you choose as you progress through the program terms which I really enjoyed about my bachelors experience. The masters program provides no flexibility here outside of the first term where your classes are preselected but you may change the first term class order. WGU appears to claim the terms are setup in a prereq fashion to build you up for the next classes which is not only dishonest but just flat out false. There is little to no correlation whatsoever between the classes offered in the program I was pursuing. This inflexible class structure was never discussed in early in take process which would have saved me amount of time and money. It actually doesn't even make any sense that the masters has less flexibility over a bachelors program. It should be the other way around if anything. 3. You are charged and expected to pay tuition starting the 1st day of the month your term starts in, but are typically not assigned a mentor or able to access and start studying for the first 3-5 days of your term. I can't wait to see how WGU screws me over on the refund aspect. Their policy is they do not refund application, program or resource fees. I never enrolled for any classes and therefore did not access and resources or interact in the program. If cost is your driving motivation for obtaining an accredited online degree WGU is a good option. The courses are somewhat challenging and achievable but averagely bland overall. Expect to be routinely frustrated by an inefficient, wonky structure that makes little sense.

This school is meant for people who are extremely self-motivated. If you expect that the school will spoon feed you, you will be very disappointed. Each course is like a big puzzle and, if you can crack it, you will love the courses. I start every course with great fear that I may not be able to complete it but, after making progress by going through all their helping guides and course materials, I will feel little confident and once the course is through, I get all my energy back to start the next one. It is like challenging us to overcome our own fear since the journey is going to be mostly alone and, based on your own personality, either it would be very refreshing or frustrating. After going through the pain, I would recruit anyone from this college as far as cybersecurity goes since these jobs require a commited, self-motivated and very patient persion, which is a rare commodity.

I recently graduated from WGU. My overall experience was great. This is one of the best online school that offered quality education with affordable tuition. Being a IT professional, I found their degree programs are very competitive and allighn with real life/project situation. The information I learnt in his program helped me immensely In solving issues. So program met the quality standard. However, this program is not suited for all individual. This program is definitely for the one who are self motivated, inspirational, dedicated and have good time management skill sets. I was able to complete this program before my term ends. This is because my professional experience helped me get through those course fast enough. People who don't have any experience will face challenges but it can be overcome with hard work and dedication. However, I found course mentors are not as effective as I thought before enrolling in the program. My first semester was little bumpy as I was hoping course mentor would review my paper and point out my problems. Rather they asked me where I need help. I was dumbfaced because I didn't know what I was doing wrong to tell them where I need help. That gave a lesson in positive way. Research and analyze your problem on your own rather waiting for other to help. This analogy helped me to get through my remainder courses because I already knew I am on my own. If one know how to follow the task rubrics and touches the points outlined in the rubrics, paper would never sent back for revision. All My tasks for last three courses, including the capstone were passed in first time. So I never had to work on revision of my task. One thing I hate about WGU is they don't have GPA scale for their courses. I wish if they have it. Most of colleges asses your accedimic standings based on GPA. But WGU has only pass/fail result. Thus, it Is not good approach in showing your true merit. Hope they change this in future. I recommend them to add more video tutorials from any sources in the course to guide the students in right directions.

I love my WGU, and I support the idea of online competency-based education. I have more than 20 years of exp, and I did not want to learn what is IP address, if you are like me then this school is for you. If you are motivated and have the computer with high-speed internet at home and ready to take challenges, go for WGU. I am graduating this year MS (CSIA) and I love it. I am going to finish my term in about 3 months.