I have made a mistake in my life, and I offer my story to you, that you may learn from my error. It all started, as many things do in this life, with me having trouble advancing in my career. I was in my mid 30s and thought about my high school friends who have respectable careers.
No, I was not digging ditches or breaking rocks; but my avancement options were slim without a college degree. It seemed that I was training college graduates who would soon become my bosses. It led to much frustration, with me KNOWING that I had what it took to get a degree. I had after all graduated from college in Africa before coming to the States.
I was contemplating this problem, when I had what seemed at the time to be a bright idea. "Hey! This is about my life and my future, right? So why don't I just eliminate the degree barrier, and then my career will take off like a rocket!" I said to myself. It is a statement that will go down in history with a lot of other regretted statements. "How many Indians could there be?" said by General Custer. "Looks like a good day for a drive!" by JFK. "There! America On-Line now has complete Usenet access!" by some idiot system tech. Such was my decision of joining Western Governors University.
I navigated WGU's bureacracy and enrolled. Despite having a degree from Africa, only 15 CUs transferred. My enrollment counselor reassured me that it didn't matter how many CUs I had transferred. "Since you know the material, you will quickly take assessments and move on,"she reassured me. I believed her, smiled, rejoiced, and thanked the creator of the universe who led me to WGU.
Little did I know.
Two weeks later, I received my financial aid package and noticed that I did not received pell grant despite the fact that I was an undergraduate student. WGU had decided that my degree from Africa was an equivalent of a Bachelors degree here. That disqualified me from pell grants. Again my mentor reassured me, reminding me that a little over $6,000 could get me my bachelors degree if I completed it in a year. "That would give you your US credentials to advance,"she said. It was only after I had spent my five terms there that I started to realize that my dream of getting a degree was leading me to the shadow of despair. The classes were getting harder to pass, and the study materials were just a bunch of one link after another. You might be better off going to a public library and read real books. It became frustrating to deal with their crazy rules about retaking assessments, and I decided that this was not worth getting a heart attack.
As if that wasn't enough, I am now enduring further torture. I accumulated over $18,000 non-recharge loans that will soon be charging me crazy interests. WGU doesn't have scholarships to offer, and all the money that I owe was for their tuition. I now feel like like a gambler in Vegas who kept playing knowing he was losing. Their CUs are not transferrable to any schools, and I'm left to with transcripts that will only remind me of my foolishness. Their graduation rate (according to the US Department of Education) is 22% and that's not a good number for a college with credentials that you can't transfer to any other colleges. As anyone who has ever suffered this kind of loss knows, mourning will always be with you as you pay back those debts. Well, that is what I am dealing with now. It is a hellish torture, and there are many times when I just look out the window and contemplate why I shouldn't just jump out and get it all over with in one fleshy splat, rather than endure this constant agony.
This school is a scam. In my last term at WGU I had one course left to take which i could retake as many times until I pass. however they said if I do not pass this course on my first try they will add four more extensive courses to my degree program and to top it off I would likely have to take these courses next term because they are new courses and they dont have the material or time frame for courses yet.
When seeking help for such unfairness they kept writing notes in the system against me and would talk rudely relpying well deal with it with your school mentor who was unreachablel. I find this school to be really unfair and by Law they can do this to Students there is no law against it. Since they know that, they take full advantage of such by making students stay for additional terms.
This company is setup to make money. But not by providing a decent college based experience ending in a credentialed learner. They make money by forcing the learner to take endless repetitive poorly constructed assignments. Their course based structure is logistically poor also, so learners find themselves taking a math course followed by a second math course the following year and repeating the tuition and having to re-revise for both courses, instead of optimizing and putting them together, or better yet only having one course which meets both sets of conditions. The college advertises as a US institution, yet does not understand statewide laws. This also is not helped by them pairing up a mentor from Montana who did not take a state based exam like Praxis, and pairs up with a learner from Minnesota who has to take degree level standard based material in order to pass the MTLE which now has been in place for 2 years.
Again content is drawn out quite deliberately to extend the learners time with the college. Each credit breaks down into multiple assignments, of which some have 20 tasks to complete.
The specific course taken was an educational degree with accreditation to become a school teacher. Failing State requirements places the degree on hold which lengthens out the whole duration. The final course components have to be taken within a local school and it is incumbent on the learner to find their own placement. If they cannot find a willing school, they cannot complete the degree program. This was not mentioned at the start of the degree, or the fact that State based exams are needed and not administered by the University.
WGU should have a standing agreement in place with local schools, otherwise they are selling a product that will never conclude. If I was to purchase anything as a consumer with flaws like this in the design, laws would protect me and I could return the faulty product, not so for a degree it seems.
I believe retention is very bad and the success rate is around 20%. Of the advertised 50,000 students WGU has on their books, 40,000 will not pass and be in the same position.
This has cost $50,000 so far and fully government loaned money. 5 years of lossed earning potential + $50,000 with little chance of completion. I would ask how many other learners there are in a similar position? Is there enough here to look at litigation against WGU? How many students have failed due to poor administration, impossible to pass courses, had retaliation and harassment if they dare complain?
Again this is government loaned, is there some audit body that governs this sort of situation? At this point I have contacted my local senator for direction also and I am thinking of pusuing my legal options as I am very sick of this company and the way they have dealt with this.
I began my tenure at WGU in January 2012. I already had an associate's degree in computer science but wanted to move into business, hence matriculating for a B.S. in business management. The matriculation process was straightforward. My enrollment counselor gave me all the information necessary to get started.
Before going forward, it is important to understand how WGU works, because it's different from other school. We do not have professors directly; we have course mentors, who purport to be experts in their fields. (Based on my interactions with a few of them, I question this.) We also have a student mentor, a person who partners with you to get your classes scheduled to ensure that you are doing enough to continue to meet financial-aid requirements and remain in school. The rest of the departments are like other schools: financial aid, student services, etc.
Coursework functions a little differently, too. You have tasks that you submit to third-party graders who, if they find errors in it, they send it back to you for revision. This concept is unique, because you don't feel like you're submitting and praying for a good grade. If you make mistakes, you get minimal guidance on how to work through the mistake. It does strike me as a little intellectually dishonest, because you essentially get to submit revised tasks as many times as you want until you get it right. This is not how business works.
WGU transferred in a significant amount of my credits from A.S., so I only had to do half my coursework starting out. I was paired with a stellar mentor, and through her motivation, I finished all my competency units, referred to as CUs, within four months, earning my bachelor's degree and walking away with a project-management certificate. Not bad.
I decided to continue my education for my MBA. Seeing where I am now with this school, this was a serious mistake. For my graduate studies, I experienced the following:
Four mentor changes in less than one year
A glut of inaccurate information, causing me delays in my studies
An overall unprofessional, less-than-educated staff
The reason I am writing this review, however, is the issue that I am facing. I took a break from WGU due to family issues, resulting in my not completing any CUs for one term. When I came back, I was under a financial-aid warning, and rightfully so. The goal, then, is to come out of the warning by catching up and doing all the assignments.
When I came back, I had a new mentor. (See my bullet point above about this ridiculousness.) She knew I was under a warning and made it a point to tell me repeatedly what I needed to do to qualify for financial aid for my next term. She scheduled my classes, and off I went--writing dozens of 20-page papers, dealing with revisions, and piss-poor course mentors who really don't seem intelligent in the least.
I worked hard and completed all my coursework with two months to spare in my term. I had some time to focus on my family and work, right? Wrong. Two weeks before the end of my term, I get a notification from my mentor that I would not qualify for financial aid for the next term because I had not completed sufficient CUs. Considering she scheduled my courses for me, you could understand how angry I was. What made me angrier was in her e-mail notification, at no point did she take responsibility for the issue. She just gave me directions on how to appeal.
And that's when the issues got worse. I started loudly complaining about how I was put in a terrible situation due to incompetence of the mentor and the rest of the staff. Yes, I came into the term with the warning, but I did everything I was told to do to get out of that warning. I wouldn't even have to submit an appeal had the mentor known how to do her job.
The appeal process was ridiculous and really struck me as the school's way of doing whatever it can to compel a student to leave. I was told that I needed to submit documentation showing extenuating circumstances on why I did not complete my current term. When I retorted that it was the mentor's fault, they replied that that was not a valid reason. I ended up speaking with a program manager, someone in the liaison department, and even on the appeals team, and they all were obstinate and refused to take accountability for how they caused this issue. And what's worse: They didn't seem like they cared.
During the appeal's process, I was told by several people that I just needed to submit documentation for the CURRENT TERM to justify why I didn't complete it. There weren't any impediments to my success; I completed all my courses. I wrote that in the appeal letter, and they pended it and requested documentation. (A look into my account notes can clearly demonstrate that the mentor set me up for failure.) They said that reason wasn't justifiable; they needed something else to protect them from the Department of Education in case of an audit. They knew that there was nothing else that I could offer--BECAUSE I COMPLETED MY COURSES. This doesn't take rocket science to understand.
After I began to post call-outs on social media about my treatment, the assistant director of financial aid got in contact with me again to see what they could work out. It was THEN that the goal post had moved. They weren't actually looking for documentation for my current term; they were actually looking for it for my last term in which I did not complete any CUs. Interesting how I was speaking with up to six people on the appeals process, they were all requesting that I submit evidence for my current term, only to find out that I really needed something for a different term. Interesting how the goal post continues to move. The assistant director told me that she would do some additional research and requested that I submit documents for that timeframe. She also committed to call me back that following Monday, three days away.
On Saturday, I submitted documentation showing stress I was under for work that essentially forced me to quit work to look for another job. I also submitted the offer letter for another position nearly six months later. THAT information was denied as unacceptable justification. Unemployment affecting family finances and causing substantial stress aren't justifiable reasons for why I did not complete the CUs. (Keep in mind that all of this would be moot had my mentor set up my term correctly.)
It should go without saying that the assistant director did not follow up on her call. I had to call the school and spoke with a CSR in financial aid whose customer service was an aberration and offense to anyone in the field. She connected me with a financial-aid supervisor whose customer service was just as poor. She connected me with a liaison officer who told me that my appeal was denied. Not the assistant director. Of course, the liaison officer didn't have details, which I wouldn't expect. It was not really her department. (I will say that she was very nice to talk to.) The liaison officer did say that she was going to do some research and call me back tomorrow to see what she could do to help. (Obviously, I am not holding my breath.)
Shortly after I got off the phone with the liaison officer, the assistant director conveniently called me to follow up and let me know that the appeal was denied for insufficient evidence. Although she was apologetic, she still did not seem as if she cared about the situation. It was as if this was just another business interaction for her. The apology was incredibly stiff and sounded forced.
Here's the reality: I can't afford to pay the upcoming term, which is more than $3,000; this is why I seek out financial aid. I have all of TWO courses left, one of which I already have completed and am waiting for my next term to start, which would be November. I have made plans for graduation in Orlando, including booking hotels with nonrefundable terms. I have family out where graduation will be held that I won't be able to see now. I have to embarrass myself by explaining to the rest of my family why I won't be getting my MBA as planned. And I'll have a mark on my student record, with two classes shown as withdrawals. All because I have to disenroll because of WGU's intransigence and unprofessionalism.
And all of this was avoidable had my mentor set me up properly for this current term. At that point, whatever happened in my prior term was irrelevant; it would have been corrected for this term, anyway.
I was initially angry about this entire situation, but I am actually happy that I went through this. Life is a learning process, and you really start to understand the necessity of 1) compassion when dealing with others, 2) professionalism in the workplace, and 3) having a solid understanding of what you're doing, because it affects your customers.
The concept of WGU is notable. The execution, however, is far from it. I would warn anyone against attending this institution, if that word is even appropriate for it.
And for anyone thinking that I am simply being difficult or making any of this up, please provide your e-mail address. I'd be happy to show you EVERY e-mail interaction
Western Governors University has two main enrollment pages which are advertised to teach you ""what to expect"", and list a sort of step-by-step and detailed requirements of the enrollment process. The general admissions requirements page lists only a GED requirement. The IT courses admissions requirements page lists the option of showing prior college, OR certifications, OR a resume with 3+ work experience in IT.
I was able to provide them with my GED where I scored in the upper 80 percentile. I also gave them my Resume showing more than 6 years of work in IT. Their IT department approved my resume, so I had met the requirements which were shown on their website.
However, they promptly denied me admissions. My enrollment counselor, Michael Cox, told me via phone that I had been denied primarily due to lack of prior college transfer credits. He said there is a campus-wide requirement at WGU that all students must have prior college transfer credits.
I then spoke with Summer and Alison, both who work at IT, and they told me that prior college is NOT required. But they wouldn't tell me why I had been denied. Only Michael Cox was willing to tell me. So they told me he couldn't be my admissions counselor anymore. Apparently they don't like it when their secret requirement of prior college actually gets told to students.
Anyway, I wasted a whole month taking not only the lengthy admission exam, but then further wasted time appealing three times as I tried to reason with them that it was unethical and probably illegal to deny me primarily or even partly for reasons which were intentionally not disclosed on their admissions requirements page.
To clarify:
1) ""False Advertising"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to intentionally withhold key details of a product or service which would increase the likelihood of a sale. This applies in my case, as I would not have taken the exam nor paid the fee had I known prior college would be reason for my denial. So they withhold key details that resulted in damages to me.
2) ""Bait and Switch"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to advertise one thing, then require something else after a person has begun the transaction. This applies to me, as I was told a GED was required, then got denied for lack of college transfer credits.
3) ""Fraud"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to misrepresent in a way that costs people time and money.
I respect WGU's right as a private organization to have its own admissions requirements. But if a requirement such as prior college exists, which is a key detail that materially affects the admissions service that I paid for, then I have the right to know it before I pay a fee and spent time taking admissions tests. In the case with WGU's IT program, the disclosed terms of IT admissions include only a requirement of a GED and a resume. Beyond that, other factors such as transfer credits are ""considered"". But because those considerations are not listed as requirements, they may be used to strengthen an application, but cannot be used as reasons for denial.
I will be posting this complaint on every complaint website, including the BBB. Then I will forward this situation of non-disclosure to the state governor of the various states who may have an interest in this university. I will also be contacting some of the lawyers who work here at my office to see if this case should be escalated to a lawsuit. I believe I have incurred considerable damages in loss of time as a result of their misrepresentation of their service. I have read online that others have been denied for lack of prior college as well, and some others were angry about this. So I am willing to be the lead witness if this case is viable for a class action lawsuit, so that those others can be represented as well.
Note: WGU refunded my admissions fee. However, this is not enough, because I lost a lot of time as well.
Western Governors University Reviews
I have made a mistake in my life, and I offer my story to you, that you may learn from my error. It all started, as many things do in this life, with me having trouble advancing in my career. I was in my mid 30s and thought about my high school friends who have respectable careers.
No, I was not digging ditches or breaking rocks; but my avancement options were slim without a college degree. It seemed that I was training college graduates who would soon become my bosses. It led to much frustration, with me KNOWING that I had what it took to get a degree. I had after all graduated from college in Africa before coming to the States.
I was contemplating this problem, when I had what seemed at the time to be a bright idea. "Hey! This is about my life and my future, right? So why don't I just eliminate the degree barrier, and then my career will take off like a rocket!" I said to myself. It is a statement that will go down in history with a lot of other regretted statements. "How many Indians could there be?" said by General Custer. "Looks like a good day for a drive!" by JFK. "There! America On-Line now has complete Usenet access!" by some idiot system tech. Such was my decision of joining Western Governors University.
I navigated WGU's bureacracy and enrolled. Despite having a degree from Africa, only 15 CUs transferred. My enrollment counselor reassured me that it didn't matter how many CUs I had transferred. "Since you know the material, you will quickly take assessments and move on,"she reassured me. I believed her, smiled, rejoiced, and thanked the creator of the universe who led me to WGU.
Little did I know.
Two weeks later, I received my financial aid package and noticed that I did not received pell grant despite the fact that I was an undergraduate student. WGU had decided that my degree from Africa was an equivalent of a Bachelors degree here. That disqualified me from pell grants. Again my mentor reassured me, reminding me that a little over $6,000 could get me my bachelors degree if I completed it in a year. "That would give you your US credentials to advance,"she said. It was only after I had spent my five terms there that I started to realize that my dream of getting a degree was leading me to the shadow of despair. The classes were getting harder to pass, and the study materials were just a bunch of one link after another. You might be better off going to a public library and read real books. It became frustrating to deal with their crazy rules about retaking assessments, and I decided that this was not worth getting a heart attack.
As if that wasn't enough, I am now enduring further torture. I accumulated over $18,000 non-recharge loans that will soon be charging me crazy interests. WGU doesn't have scholarships to offer, and all the money that I owe was for their tuition. I now feel like like a gambler in Vegas who kept playing knowing he was losing. Their CUs are not transferrable to any schools, and I'm left to with transcripts that will only remind me of my foolishness. Their graduation rate (according to the US Department of Education) is 22% and that's not a good number for a college with credentials that you can't transfer to any other colleges. As anyone who has ever suffered this kind of loss knows, mourning will always be with you as you pay back those debts. Well, that is what I am dealing with now. It is a hellish torture, and there are many times when I just look out the window and contemplate why I shouldn't just jump out and get it all over with in one fleshy splat, rather than endure this constant agony.
This school is a scam. In my last term at WGU I had one course left to take which i could retake as many times until I pass. however they said if I do not pass this course on my first try they will add four more extensive courses to my degree program and to top it off I would likely have to take these courses next term because they are new courses and they dont have the material or time frame for courses yet.
When seeking help for such unfairness they kept writing notes in the system against me and would talk rudely relpying well deal with it with your school mentor who was unreachablel. I find this school to be really unfair and by Law they can do this to Students there is no law against it. Since they know that, they take full advantage of such by making students stay for additional terms.
This company is setup to make money. But not by providing a decent college based experience ending in a credentialed learner. They make money by forcing the learner to take endless repetitive poorly constructed assignments. Their course based structure is logistically poor also, so learners find themselves taking a math course followed by a second math course the following year and repeating the tuition and having to re-revise for both courses, instead of optimizing and putting them together, or better yet only having one course which meets both sets of conditions. The college advertises as a US institution, yet does not understand statewide laws. This also is not helped by them pairing up a mentor from Montana who did not take a state based exam like Praxis, and pairs up with a learner from Minnesota who has to take degree level standard based material in order to pass the MTLE which now has been in place for 2 years.
Again content is drawn out quite deliberately to extend the learners time with the college. Each credit breaks down into multiple assignments, of which some have 20 tasks to complete.
The specific course taken was an educational degree with accreditation to become a school teacher. Failing State requirements places the degree on hold which lengthens out the whole duration. The final course components have to be taken within a local school and it is incumbent on the learner to find their own placement. If they cannot find a willing school, they cannot complete the degree program. This was not mentioned at the start of the degree, or the fact that State based exams are needed and not administered by the University.
WGU should have a standing agreement in place with local schools, otherwise they are selling a product that will never conclude. If I was to purchase anything as a consumer with flaws like this in the design, laws would protect me and I could return the faulty product, not so for a degree it seems.
I believe retention is very bad and the success rate is around 20%. Of the advertised 50,000 students WGU has on their books, 40,000 will not pass and be in the same position.
This has cost $50,000 so far and fully government loaned money. 5 years of lossed earning potential + $50,000 with little chance of completion. I would ask how many other learners there are in a similar position? Is there enough here to look at litigation against WGU? How many students have failed due to poor administration, impossible to pass courses, had retaliation and harassment if they dare complain?
Again this is government loaned, is there some audit body that governs this sort of situation? At this point I have contacted my local senator for direction also and I am thinking of pusuing my legal options as I am very sick of this company and the way they have dealt with this.
I began my tenure at WGU in January 2012. I already had an associate's degree in computer science but wanted to move into business, hence matriculating for a B.S. in business management. The matriculation process was straightforward. My enrollment counselor gave me all the information necessary to get started.
Before going forward, it is important to understand how WGU works, because it's different from other school. We do not have professors directly; we have course mentors, who purport to be experts in their fields. (Based on my interactions with a few of them, I question this.) We also have a student mentor, a person who partners with you to get your classes scheduled to ensure that you are doing enough to continue to meet financial-aid requirements and remain in school. The rest of the departments are like other schools: financial aid, student services, etc.
Coursework functions a little differently, too. You have tasks that you submit to third-party graders who, if they find errors in it, they send it back to you for revision. This concept is unique, because you don't feel like you're submitting and praying for a good grade. If you make mistakes, you get minimal guidance on how to work through the mistake. It does strike me as a little intellectually dishonest, because you essentially get to submit revised tasks as many times as you want until you get it right. This is not how business works.
WGU transferred in a significant amount of my credits from A.S., so I only had to do half my coursework starting out. I was paired with a stellar mentor, and through her motivation, I finished all my competency units, referred to as CUs, within four months, earning my bachelor's degree and walking away with a project-management certificate. Not bad.
I decided to continue my education for my MBA. Seeing where I am now with this school, this was a serious mistake. For my graduate studies, I experienced the following:
Four mentor changes in less than one year
A glut of inaccurate information, causing me delays in my studies
An overall unprofessional, less-than-educated staff
The reason I am writing this review, however, is the issue that I am facing. I took a break from WGU due to family issues, resulting in my not completing any CUs for one term. When I came back, I was under a financial-aid warning, and rightfully so. The goal, then, is to come out of the warning by catching up and doing all the assignments.
When I came back, I had a new mentor. (See my bullet point above about this ridiculousness.) She knew I was under a warning and made it a point to tell me repeatedly what I needed to do to qualify for financial aid for my next term. She scheduled my classes, and off I went--writing dozens of 20-page papers, dealing with revisions, and piss-poor course mentors who really don't seem intelligent in the least.
I worked hard and completed all my coursework with two months to spare in my term. I had some time to focus on my family and work, right? Wrong. Two weeks before the end of my term, I get a notification from my mentor that I would not qualify for financial aid for the next term because I had not completed sufficient CUs. Considering she scheduled my courses for me, you could understand how angry I was. What made me angrier was in her e-mail notification, at no point did she take responsibility for the issue. She just gave me directions on how to appeal.
And that's when the issues got worse. I started loudly complaining about how I was put in a terrible situation due to incompetence of the mentor and the rest of the staff. Yes, I came into the term with the warning, but I did everything I was told to do to get out of that warning. I wouldn't even have to submit an appeal had the mentor known how to do her job.
The appeal process was ridiculous and really struck me as the school's way of doing whatever it can to compel a student to leave. I was told that I needed to submit documentation showing extenuating circumstances on why I did not complete my current term. When I retorted that it was the mentor's fault, they replied that that was not a valid reason. I ended up speaking with a program manager, someone in the liaison department, and even on the appeals team, and they all were obstinate and refused to take accountability for how they caused this issue. And what's worse: They didn't seem like they cared.
During the appeal's process, I was told by several people that I just needed to submit documentation for the CURRENT TERM to justify why I didn't complete it. There weren't any impediments to my success; I completed all my courses. I wrote that in the appeal letter, and they pended it and requested documentation. (A look into my account notes can clearly demonstrate that the mentor set me up for failure.) They said that reason wasn't justifiable; they needed something else to protect them from the Department of Education in case of an audit. They knew that there was nothing else that I could offer--BECAUSE I COMPLETED MY COURSES. This doesn't take rocket science to understand.
After I began to post call-outs on social media about my treatment, the assistant director of financial aid got in contact with me again to see what they could work out. It was THEN that the goal post had moved. They weren't actually looking for documentation for my current term; they were actually looking for it for my last term in which I did not complete any CUs. Interesting how I was speaking with up to six people on the appeals process, they were all requesting that I submit evidence for my current term, only to find out that I really needed something for a different term. Interesting how the goal post continues to move. The assistant director told me that she would do some additional research and requested that I submit documents for that timeframe. She also committed to call me back that following Monday, three days away.
On Saturday, I submitted documentation showing stress I was under for work that essentially forced me to quit work to look for another job. I also submitted the offer letter for another position nearly six months later. THAT information was denied as unacceptable justification. Unemployment affecting family finances and causing substantial stress aren't justifiable reasons for why I did not complete the CUs. (Keep in mind that all of this would be moot had my mentor set up my term correctly.)
It should go without saying that the assistant director did not follow up on her call. I had to call the school and spoke with a CSR in financial aid whose customer service was an aberration and offense to anyone in the field. She connected me with a financial-aid supervisor whose customer service was just as poor. She connected me with a liaison officer who told me that my appeal was denied. Not the assistant director. Of course, the liaison officer didn't have details, which I wouldn't expect. It was not really her department. (I will say that she was very nice to talk to.) The liaison officer did say that she was going to do some research and call me back tomorrow to see what she could do to help. (Obviously, I am not holding my breath.)
Shortly after I got off the phone with the liaison officer, the assistant director conveniently called me to follow up and let me know that the appeal was denied for insufficient evidence. Although she was apologetic, she still did not seem as if she cared about the situation. It was as if this was just another business interaction for her. The apology was incredibly stiff and sounded forced.
Here's the reality: I can't afford to pay the upcoming term, which is more than $3,000; this is why I seek out financial aid. I have all of TWO courses left, one of which I already have completed and am waiting for my next term to start, which would be November. I have made plans for graduation in Orlando, including booking hotels with nonrefundable terms. I have family out where graduation will be held that I won't be able to see now. I have to embarrass myself by explaining to the rest of my family why I won't be getting my MBA as planned. And I'll have a mark on my student record, with two classes shown as withdrawals. All because I have to disenroll because of WGU's intransigence and unprofessionalism.
And all of this was avoidable had my mentor set me up properly for this current term. At that point, whatever happened in my prior term was irrelevant; it would have been corrected for this term, anyway.
I was initially angry about this entire situation, but I am actually happy that I went through this. Life is a learning process, and you really start to understand the necessity of 1) compassion when dealing with others, 2) professionalism in the workplace, and 3) having a solid understanding of what you're doing, because it affects your customers.
The concept of WGU is notable. The execution, however, is far from it. I would warn anyone against attending this institution, if that word is even appropriate for it.
And for anyone thinking that I am simply being difficult or making any of this up, please provide your e-mail address. I'd be happy to show you EVERY e-mail interaction
Western Governors University has two main enrollment pages which are advertised to teach you ""what to expect"", and list a sort of step-by-step and detailed requirements of the enrollment process. The general admissions requirements page lists only a GED requirement. The IT courses admissions requirements page lists the option of showing prior college, OR certifications, OR a resume with 3+ work experience in IT.
I was able to provide them with my GED where I scored in the upper 80 percentile. I also gave them my Resume showing more than 6 years of work in IT. Their IT department approved my resume, so I had met the requirements which were shown on their website.
However, they promptly denied me admissions. My enrollment counselor, Michael Cox, told me via phone that I had been denied primarily due to lack of prior college transfer credits. He said there is a campus-wide requirement at WGU that all students must have prior college transfer credits.
I then spoke with Summer and Alison, both who work at IT, and they told me that prior college is NOT required. But they wouldn't tell me why I had been denied. Only Michael Cox was willing to tell me. So they told me he couldn't be my admissions counselor anymore. Apparently they don't like it when their secret requirement of prior college actually gets told to students.
Anyway, I wasted a whole month taking not only the lengthy admission exam, but then further wasted time appealing three times as I tried to reason with them that it was unethical and probably illegal to deny me primarily or even partly for reasons which were intentionally not disclosed on their admissions requirements page.
To clarify:
1) ""False Advertising"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to intentionally withhold key details of a product or service which would increase the likelihood of a sale. This applies in my case, as I would not have taken the exam nor paid the fee had I known prior college would be reason for my denial. So they withhold key details that resulted in damages to me.
2) ""Bait and Switch"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to advertise one thing, then require something else after a person has begun the transaction. This applies to me, as I was told a GED was required, then got denied for lack of college transfer credits.
3) ""Fraud"" law states, in summery, that it is illegal to misrepresent in a way that costs people time and money.
I respect WGU's right as a private organization to have its own admissions requirements. But if a requirement such as prior college exists, which is a key detail that materially affects the admissions service that I paid for, then I have the right to know it before I pay a fee and spent time taking admissions tests. In the case with WGU's IT program, the disclosed terms of IT admissions include only a requirement of a GED and a resume. Beyond that, other factors such as transfer credits are ""considered"". But because those considerations are not listed as requirements, they may be used to strengthen an application, but cannot be used as reasons for denial.
I will be posting this complaint on every complaint website, including the BBB. Then I will forward this situation of non-disclosure to the state governor of the various states who may have an interest in this university. I will also be contacting some of the lawyers who work here at my office to see if this case should be escalated to a lawsuit. I believe I have incurred considerable damages in loss of time as a result of their misrepresentation of their service. I have read online that others have been denied for lack of prior college as well, and some others were angry about this. So I am willing to be the lead witness if this case is viable for a class action lawsuit, so that those others can be represented as well.
Note: WGU refunded my admissions fee. However, this is not enough, because I lost a lot of time as well.