Today I want to share about my masters program that I completed this summer. Yes, THIS SUMMER. It only took me 4 months to do a program that is 30 credits and supposed to take 2 years.
Here's how.
I did it through Western Governor's University which is an online accredited university. They have both undergrad and graduate programs in business, teaching, healthcare, and information technology.
The amazing thing about WGU is that their programs are extremely affordable, we're talking $3,100 for a six month term. They also have scholarships and financial aid available.
I took a few online classes in high school in order to be able to graduate since I wanted to continue to take french and orchestra and didn't have room in my schedule for everything. I absolutely loved those online classes because of the freedom that I had to do things on my own pace and work through the material in a way that made sense to me.
It was the same thing with WGU! I loved being able to do school at my own pace and set up a schedule that worked for me. It was perfect for this summer because I wasn't working so I had plenty of time on my hands to do school. In fact, I kind of treated it as my job! There was no time wasted walking to and from campus, no pointless lectures, or busy work.
I truly felt like each assignment was a good measure of whether you learned the material or not and prepared you for the capstone project at the end. And because you get to work at your own pace, once you have shown that you have mastered the competencies for each course, you get to move on to the next one! That means I was spending about one week on an ENTIRE COURSE that normally would have taken me 4 months in a traditional school setting. I got to learn the material every day instead of just the two or three times that you would normally go to class.
Another aspect of WGU that is extremely helpful are the mentors and course instructors. You have a weekly call with your mentor where you set goals, ask questions, and discuss what you did that week. This helps keep you accountable and make sure you aren't slacking off! There were a couple weeks where I was actually nervous to talk to my mentor because I hadn't done as much as I should have that week! The course instructors are there if you ever need help in a course and can give you specific feedback on assignments, lead you to resources to find more information, and answer any other questions you might have.
The only thing I didn't love about it was that each assignment is submitted online (obviously) and has to go through a queue in order to get graded. That was fine, except for when you were on a time crunch and didn't have time to wait for them to get to yours!
This mostly became a problem at the end when I was trying to finish by a specific date and had some assignments bounce back or take over 48 hours to be graded.
Other than that, I don't have anything negative to say about WGU and their program.
I loved how the capstone project was directly related to everything I had learned in the program and something that I got to apply directly in my classroom. I did a research project on routines and procedures and how they affect student behavior and it was the perfect thing to be researching at the beginning of the school year. It really helped get my classroom into order and positively affected my classroom management!
I would highly recommend WGU to anyone that is looking for a degree that needs to work with your schedule or who doesn't love the traditional school setting.
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