Hey everybody!

I’m looking at starting a program at WGU, specifically their elementary education / special education program.

I know someone who went to WGU for accounting, and swears up and down by it. I’m not concerned about their regional accreditation, as that seems dependable and to have been so for a while. It’s unlikely to go away, though I recognize if it does before I graduate, I’ll be a rough spot.

A close friend is concerned that WGU may be fine for IT and accounting type stuff, but for education it’s probably better suited for people alreasy equipped with experience in the field.

I have been working as an engineer/IT person for about 5 years now. However, it just sort of happened, and I didn’t mean to be here this long. My passion has always been for teaching and helping others, as well as TESL. (IT is nice-ish, because I get to help co-workers grow their “tech savvy.” I joke to them that if I do my job well, I’ll teach myself out of a job.)

I have gotten myself operatingly-debt-free (if I ignore my student loans until I’m done with school, I went for some years for an English degree when I was fresh from high school, but wasn’t in a mentally healthy space to consistebtly be a good student. Spent a lot of the government’s/my future money doing that.) and feel secure taking the pay cut to switch to being (not that my current IT job pays too much more than) a para-educator.

I feel that working that job will give me experience and a place to apply what I’m learning as I study it. However, maybe I am still not in a place to grasp/retain what I go through at WGU, without a foundation for the fast nature of the classes to build upon.

So to my question:

How was WGU for you, in their education undergraduate level courses?

Did you feel like it was effective and that you really acquired the skills/concepts if you went in kind of fresh vs. already being a teacher in some capacity?

Is this a degree you feel like you got something out of at the WGU “you can go as fast as you can go, so long as you check yourself” pace? Or did you more-or-less end up with a piece of paper and need to learn some of what you mighr have otherwise already known when you found your education position?

Did the graduation-requisite, time needed effectively interning negate that worry altogether, allowing you to pick up what you’d need later as a full-fledged teacher?

Are there things I’m not even considering?

My friend is worried I am not the type of person who will thrive with WGU’s structure, and now I am questioning my decision. They’re saying I might be better off in a regularly scheduled school setting, online or brick-n-mortar, at least so that the pacing is regular and there are peers I can benefit from.

What sort of regrets, worries, or satisfaction do you have coming out of the education programs at WGU?