4 ms·

> Many WGU students HATE these types of articles, because they undermine the legitimacy of WGU. What is "these types of articles"? How does this one "undermine

> Many WGU students HATE these types of articles, because they undermine the legitimacy of WGU. What is "these types of articles"? How does this one "undermine the legitimacy of WGU"? Even a cursory skim-through of the article would show that the author worked hard and learned all of the material that they then passed exams on at WGU. They don't make it out to be a "degree mill" in any way whatsoever.

sandworm101 5y ago
A headline stating that a 4-year degree can be earned in 3-months? That alone is a huge red flag suggesting a degree mill. Lack of national accreditation is red flag #2. I don't mean to say that this is a degree mill, but the nature of the article does raise reasonable suspicions. Alumni are rightly critical of such articles that make their school sound like something it probably is not.
- AviationAtom 5y ago
  Read about national accreditation elsewhere in the comments. It is not what you think. Regional accreditation is more desirable.
  - skeeter2020 5y ago
    Only in the USA. The word "University" means absolutely nothing there.
    - SamBam 5y ago
      Yes, well the school in question is in the USA, so the specifics of USA's accreditation system are clearly what's relevant...
- suresk 5y ago
  The speed at which you can get a degree can look like a red flag, but you are mistaken about the accreditation. Regional accreditation is actually what you want, not national. Most universities you think of are regionally accredited, whereas the for-profit ones that you can't transfer credit from are nationally accredited. Ie, Stanford = regionally accredited, DeVry = nationally acccredited. WGU is accredited by NWCCU, which is the same as the University of Utah, University of Washington, etc.. See: https://nwccu.org/member-institutions/directory/ https://nwccu.org/member-institutions/directory/
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    Thanks. My knowledge of accreditation is mostly from law schools, for which national v. regional is a huge deal.
  - bdavis__ 5y ago
    How about the gold standard for engineering and computer science(s), a program accredited by ABET? Is WGU?
    - kingaillas 5y ago
      At the bottom, the article says they are not ABET accredited.
    - suresk 5y ago
      It is not, but I didn't think ABET accreditation was a big thing for CS and was more common in engineering? CMU and Stanford, for example, do not have ABET-accredited CS programs, although MIT does.
      - bdavis__ 5y ago
        A lot of CS programs are ABET accredited. CMU and Stanford don't need anyone or any organization to tell the world they do a good job educating CS students. Not so clear if the CS dept is at the Small Town Liberal Arts College and Seminary. But the other 4,999 schools CS programs, like the one being discussed at WGU, the source of the accreditation is a valuable signal.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Lack of national accreditation is red flag #2. No, having national accreditation would be a red flag. Regional is the gold standard. (Yes, the names make it sound backwards; it is what it is.)
AviationAtom 5y ago
More pointing to the clickbait title they chose. It implies that WGU is a cakewalk, that can be breezed through. Very few people complete their degree there in a very small timeframe. It takes great dedication to complete it rapidly. That said, those that have ample available time, and are driven, can benefit greatly from the flexibility of the model. You only pay for the amount of credits you enrolled in for the semester, but when you complete those classes you can accelerate your other classes, without paying extra. It must be done with care though, as you could find yourself with all the classes you were versed in already knocked out for the next semester, and only tougher classes left over. I found that out the hard way.
light_hue_1 5y ago
These types of article that show how shallow the education at WGU is. It is a degree mill. The difficulty and material of the courses does not in any way compare to what you would get at a real university.
- triyambakam 5y ago
  Haha, a real university? Unless you mean a handful like MIT and Stanford, most no name colleges are not going to be any better.
  - robbedpeter 5y ago
    Some perspectives still hold that degrees are critical, but unless it's from less than a handful of the top programs in a field, the degree is barely worth the paper it's printed on. Degrees are useful to get into corporate work, but having industry experience, a competent body of work, recognition from your peers, and a demonstrated work ethic can get you into almost any type of job at a competitive rate of pay. In some cases, degrees can be harmful by elevating incompetent, ignorant, entitled graduates to positions they shouldn't have, particularly in middle management. Getting a degree is not paying your dues or putting in time toward something useful. It can be, but it depends on the individual, so degrees fail as a shibboleth for utility.
    - DeathArrow 5y ago
      Always construction workers feel smarter than architects and civil engineers. Nurses feel smarter than doctors. YouTube watchers feel smarter than PhDs in physics.
      - strken 5y ago
        If you're referring to Dunning-Kruger, it doesn't work like that. Go read the paper. More educated people feel they know more than less educated people, they just underestimate the degree.
      - 5y ago
mdasen 5y ago
It might have to do with the title. "I got a Computer Science degree in 3 months" makes it sound like it isn't serious. As you note, reading the article shows that the author worked hard, learned the material, already had an associates degree in the field, already did a semester in CS at a major university, and took 4 study.com CS/IT courses and 3 Sophia Learning CS/IT. So the headline makes it sound like "look, here's an easy way to get a piece of paper that says you have a CS degree" when the reality is that they'd already done a lot of the work before enrolling and as AviationAtom notes, WGU works off demonstrating that you have the knowledge. This isn't "go from zero to CS degree in 3 months". This is "if you already know a lot of your CS stuff, you can work really hard filling in the remaining gaps and showing that you know what you're doing and get a degree in 3 months." Between the associate's degree, a semester at Concordia, and the pre-WGU online courses, they'd probably spent 2-3 years learning. I think the issue is that the title makes it seem like it's easy. It probably isn't the hardest program, but a decent amount of the author's ease comes from the fact that they had already filled most of the requirements - and just needed to demonstrate their competency. Which seems like it's part of the point according to AviationAtom.
- sophacles 5y ago
  Random data point - my first thought reading the title was "what sort of scam is this?"
  - formerkrogemp 5y ago
    That's exactly the sort of reaction folks at WGU would want to avoid. I'm sure.

sandworm101 5y ago

A headline stating that a 4-year degree can be earned in 3-months? That alone is a huge red flag suggesting a degree mill. Lack of national accreditation is red flag #2. I don't mean to say that this is a degree mill, but the nature of the article does raise reasonable suspicions. Alumni are rightly critical of such articles that make their school sound like something it probably is not.

AviationAtom 5y ago
Read about national accreditation elsewhere in the comments. It is not what you think. Regional accreditation is more desirable.
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  Only in the USA. The word "University" means absolutely nothing there.
  - SamBam 5y ago
    Yes, well the school in question is in the USA, so the specifics of USA's accreditation system are clearly what's relevant...
suresk 5y ago
The speed at which you can get a degree can look like a red flag, but you are mistaken about the accreditation. Regional accreditation is actually what you want, not national. Most universities you think of are regionally accredited, whereas the for-profit ones that you can't transfer credit from are nationally accredited. Ie, Stanford = regionally accredited, DeVry = nationally acccredited. WGU is accredited by NWCCU, which is the same as the University of Utah, University of Washington, etc.. See: https://nwccu.org/member-institutions/directory/ https://nwccu.org/member-institutions/directory/
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Thanks. My knowledge of accreditation is mostly from law schools, for which national v. regional is a huge deal.
- bdavis__ 5y ago
  How about the gold standard for engineering and computer science(s), a program accredited by ABET? Is WGU?
  - kingaillas 5y ago
    At the bottom, the article says they are not ABET accredited.
  - suresk 5y ago
    It is not, but I didn't think ABET accreditation was a big thing for CS and was more common in engineering? CMU and Stanford, for example, do not have ABET-accredited CS programs, although MIT does.
    - bdavis__ 5y ago
      A lot of CS programs are ABET accredited. CMU and Stanford don't need anyone or any organization to tell the world they do a good job educating CS students. Not so clear if the CS dept is at the Small Town Liberal Arts College and Seminary. But the other 4,999 schools CS programs, like the one being discussed at WGU, the source of the accreditation is a valuable signal.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Lack of national accreditation is red flag #2. No, having national accreditation would be a red flag. Regional is the gold standard. (Yes, the names make it sound backwards; it is what it is.)

AviationAtom 5y ago

More pointing to the clickbait title they chose. It implies that WGU is a cakewalk, that can be breezed through. Very few people complete their degree there in a very small timeframe. It takes great dedication to complete it rapidly. That said, those that have ample available time, and are driven, can benefit greatly from the flexibility of the model. You only pay for the amount of credits you enrolled in for the semester, but when you complete those classes you can accelerate your other classes, without paying extra. It must be done with care though, as you could find yourself with all the classes you were versed in already knocked out for the next semester, and only tougher classes left over. I found that out the hard way.

light_hue_1 5y ago

These types of article that show how shallow the education at WGU is. It is a degree mill. The difficulty and material of the courses does not in any way compare to what you would get at a real university.

triyambakam 5y ago
Haha, a real university? Unless you mean a handful like MIT and Stanford, most no name colleges are not going to be any better.
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  Some perspectives still hold that degrees are critical, but unless it's from less than a handful of the top programs in a field, the degree is barely worth the paper it's printed on. Degrees are useful to get into corporate work, but having industry experience, a competent body of work, recognition from your peers, and a demonstrated work ethic can get you into almost any type of job at a competitive rate of pay. In some cases, degrees can be harmful by elevating incompetent, ignorant, entitled graduates to positions they shouldn't have, particularly in middle management. Getting a degree is not paying your dues or putting in time toward something useful. It can be, but it depends on the individual, so degrees fail as a shibboleth for utility.
  - DeathArrow 5y ago
    Always construction workers feel smarter than architects and civil engineers. Nurses feel smarter than doctors. YouTube watchers feel smarter than PhDs in physics.
    - strken 5y ago
      If you're referring to Dunning-Kruger, it doesn't work like that. Go read the paper. More educated people feel they know more than less educated people, they just underestimate the degree.
    - 5y ago

mdasen 5y ago

It might have to do with the title. "I got a Computer Science degree in 3 months" makes it sound like it isn't serious. As you note, reading the article shows that the author worked hard, learned the material, already had an associates degree in the field, already did a semester in CS at a major university, and took 4 study.com CS/IT courses and 3 Sophia Learning CS/IT. So the headline makes it sound like "look, here's an easy way to get a piece of paper that says you have a CS degree" when the reality is that they'd already done a lot of the work before enrolling and as AviationAtom notes, WGU works off demonstrating that you have the knowledge. This isn't "go from zero to CS degree in 3 months". This is "if you already know a lot of your CS stuff, you can work really hard filling in the remaining gaps and showing that you know what you're doing and get a degree in 3 months." Between the associate's degree, a semester at Concordia, and the pre-WGU online courses, they'd probably spent 2-3 years learning. I think the issue is that the title makes it seem like it's easy. It probably isn't the hardest program, but a decent amount of the author's ease comes from the fact that they had already filled most of the requirements - and just needed to demonstrate their competency. Which seems like it's part of the point according to AviationAtom.

sophacles 5y ago
Random data point - my first thought reading the title was "what sort of scam is this?"
- formerkrogemp 5y ago
  That's exactly the sort of reaction folks at WGU would want to avoid. I'm sure.