Western Governors University: Thoughts? Opinions?

I’m a Registered Nurse with an Associate Degree. (For those who don’t know, it is possible to be an RN with “only” an Associate - the licensing exam is exactly the same whether you have an Associate or a Bachelor.) For the last nine years I worked for a major health care system in the DC area. Well, a couple of years ago they mandated that all RNs must have their BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) by the end of 2019. After some procrastination, I earned a few more credits toward that goal.

This fall I moved to Florida for a plethora of reasons, one of them being that my new employer does not require a BSN and has no plans to do so. I still intend to complete it, but this gives me a little more breathing room (though realistically it should be eminently doable within a couple of years, even part time).

One school I’m leaning toward is Western Governors University, which is enthusiastically recommended by several of my co-workers. The program is entirely online, which is ideal for me. You pay a flat fee every six months, and for that fee you can take as many or as few credits as you want. It’s self-paced, and as you complete courses you can add more. Reviews by students are almost universally glowing.

Once I’ve earned my BSN I want to move back to DC and, ideally, work for my former employer again. My question is whether a degree from WGU is actually worth anything, or is it a “joke” school like Phoenix?

Nurses are so much in demand that, in general, if you’re a warm body with an RN license, you’re hired. Some employers in some parts of the country are moving toward the BSN requirement, but my hunch is that they don’t much care where you got it, as long as they can tell the Powers That Be that you have it. But I don’t want to take the chance that I’m wrong, and waste my time and money earning a degree that’s scoffed at.

Can anyone “in the know” advise me?

After typing up my reply, I realize that it is quite lengthy. TLDR version: The school is great but certainly has its flaws. Look into every detail of your program before jumping in as the differences between this and a typical in-person degree program are quite large.
Background:
I got my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from there in 2015. Due to the nature of the nursing field, your program will likely be quite different from mine, so YMMV of course. I can only speak in generalities about my experience.

First the pros:
You get hooked up with your own mentors – one general mentor that sees you through your entire program and several other course-specific mentors. Without exception, each mentor I encountered was friendly, helpful, and very knowledgeable about their field and the programs. They all truly want you to succeed and will bend over backwards to help you do so.

All coursework – for me at least – was completed online. This meant that I could get my work done on my own schedule. Being a teacher with two small children, this often meant that I was up late working on assignments. But that’s what fit my schedule. Not having to drive to classes that inevitably wouldn’t fit my schedule was a huge pro for me.

You will learn a lot – at least I did anyway. The assignments were mostly set up in a way that I had to relate the coursework to my daily life as a teacher. So I wound up applying a lot of what I learned right away.

And now for the cons:
While the mentors are all wonderful, there were definitely times that I wished I had someone I could talk to in person. All the phone calls in the world just can’t replace a face-to-face meeting at times.

Other than the one multiple choice exam I took, all coursework for me consisted of papers or projects that were graded through a third-party website. I never got to talk directly to any of the graders. Many, if not most, of the assignments had rather vague directions and grading rubrics. I spent a lot of time just being frustrated over what they were actually looking for. This was by far the biggest complaint I would have, the quality of the assignments and rubrics. Phone calls to mentors usually helped; but, in my not so humble opinion, that should not have been necessary if the assignments and rubrics were better written.

The programs are very time consuming. They say you should expect to devote 20 hours per week to school work (at least at the Masters level) and they’re not kidding. So if you already have a full time job, keep that in mind. As I said above, I spent a lot of time up late at night working on my assignments. I can’t tell you how many submissions were made at 3am only to nap for a couple hours before getting up for work the next day.

Most assignments (again just IME) revolve around reading hundreds of pages of material then distilling that information down into papers or PowerPoints. A typical class for me involved reading approximately 300 or so pages of material then writing 2 papers of about 10-20 pages each then one final culminating paper of 20+ pages. If writing isn’t your thing, you should seriously reconsider this program. As always, YMMV and it looks like it does at least to some degree when perusing your program.

With all that said, overall I greatly enjoyed the experience and learned a lot. I now know just how hard I can work as I put in probably close to two thousand hours to complete my program (20 hours/week * 104 weeks give or take). The pay bump is nothing to sneeze at either.

Just be sure you are exceedingly clear on what you’re getting into here. You have to be excellent at time management, working independently, and reading between the lines for all assignments. You want to be honest with yourself upfront if you have the amount of time needed to devote to getting your degree on your own. No one is watching you like they would be if you were in a class (though mentors do call on a regular basis). So you alone are responsible for carving out that time and sticking to it.

I wish you luck with whatever decision you make. I recommend that you call up their admissions department as they have a wealth of information to share. Please feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions.

Sorry for the double-post but I just missed the edit window.

Here’s a link with some other helpful reviews. I just searched for “Western Governors University Reviews” and it was among the first hits.

http://www.gradreports.com/colleges/western-governors-university

Thanks, DoperChic! It actually sounds kind of ideal. I’ve taken several online courses, so that’s right up my alley; I learn by reading, writing and doing, not by being lectured. Time management and discipline aren’t a problem.

That said, I saw the bit on the website about allotting 20 hours per week for schoolwork. My question is, is that per class? Or is it based on the assumption that you’re taking more than one class at a time?

For my program I took one class at a time. Once one is finished you move on to the next. So the 20 hours per week is just for taking one class at a time. They can be that intense, especially those that require a lot of reading or longer papers.