This is an online university and is accredited, so I thought it would be safe, but it is not. I had to relocate my senior year as a biology major at USC, so I was trying to find an online university where I could complete my last semester of college.
WGU seemed like a good alternative to driving a long way to a college and I could stay home with my baby. I had met my borrowing limit with undergrad student loans and I told the school this while still in the enrollment process.
The financial aid dept.'s response was that all I needed was a letter from my loan company saying the loan was closed and it would be fine. The loan company didn't know what the school was talking about and after 2 weeks of a rep at the loan company going back and forth with the school, the school said that the loan company had given them what they needed and everything was fine.
I start classes, if you can call the WGU intoductions to online education course a class. If you have an 8th grade education it is essentially busy work for a few weeks (cutting and pasting things from the school's web site into Word documents to answer questions).
After this course was over I finally get what courses transferred and come to find out out of 115hrs of courses from a well-ranked state university about 12 classes transferred. I was enrolled in their education major to teach high school biology.
I was a biology major at USC (a school that has millions in NIH grants for science research) and all of my grades were As or Bs and NONE of them transferred! Instead I had to go to a local tech school and take online tests in the subject areas. Classes with actual labs taught by PhDs weren't enough to transfer, but a book report and a test was enough to get credit through the school.
My advisor told me that I should be able to graduate in as little as 3 years! I could go to the local community college and graduate in 2 semesters. What's accelerated about a program that doesn't accept core class transfers from other schools (although they will lead you to believe that almost everything will transfer).
I get a letter from the school saying that my student loans had to be returned because I was over my borrowing limit and I had to send them a check in the next few days or I would be dropped.
I decide that this isn't a quality education and doesn't suit my needs and certainly not worth paying out of pocket for when I could get grants at a real school, so I decide to withdraw after the first course.
The school did receive a Pell Grant disbursement and kept the funds. At this point, WGU discloses that they bill in 6 month increments and if you take 1 class or 20 the fee is the same and I owe them $1600 for tuition for the one online "course" that consisted of 2 web chats with other students and a handful of joke assignments.
When I told the school rep that the financial aid department knew EXACTLY how much money I had already borrowed and I told them that I had met the limit before enrolling, her reply was "they must have thought you were going into a graduate program." I know this is a lie for 2 reasons: First, how could WGU have been confused after speaking numerous times to a loan officer at my student loan company to request a letter about my loan limitis? And second, they received a Pell Grant and there are no federal grants available for graduate school.
I believe that this school intentionally decieved me at every step in an attempt to get money. I have never had this problem at traditionally colleges and I feel they are not serious about offering an education to anyone. This school comes across as a diploma mill that makes you homeschool yourself and then gives you a piece of paper. The scary thing is that they are turning out teachers every day that could be teaching your children based on this sorry excuse for a curriculum.
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