WGU - Western Governors University Avis 3 890

I graduated with a Master's in Educational Technology and Instructional Design in October of 2025. Like most people, I was drawn to the flexible, self paced format that lets you blow through what you already know. However, the job market reality has been disappointing. I've applied to approximately 36 instructional design roles since graduating, including two instructional designer positions at WGU itself, and have not received a single interview. It feels as though a WGU master's carries an incredibly limited weight in the field, even with WGU themselves. WGU promotes itself as a respected, accredited university with strong employer recognition, yet if their own hiring teams don't appear to value their alumni enough to grant an interview, it raises true concerns about how well anyone, including WGU themselves respect this degree. If I could choose again, I would likely pursue a graduate degree from a different institution, ideally one with a more traditional reputation in instructional design or educational technology. The competency-based approach worked for completing the program quickly, but it hasn't translated into the career advancement I was hoping for. I still feel like I wasted money, time, and effort. Prospective students should go in with eyes wide open...weigh the affordability and flexibility heavily against your specific career goals and the hiring realities in instructional design. I would say WGU is only for people who aleady have a job, and just need to check a box for education requirements for a promotion. That was not my case, and I have not seen success. If things change, I may update this, but as of right now, not even WGU themselves will hire me. What does that tell you?

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Affordable, flexible, competency-based, and regionally accredited college program ideal for working adults who do not need a stereotypical "college experience." I came in with an Associate's Degree and wrapped up my Business Management Degree in 1.5 Years. I recommend WGU to those who are already working/interning/connected to their field and just need that diploma to give them the competitive edge if it's been holding them back. I will probably go back for my MBA in a couple of years... because why not?

So far, this university has been one of the best decisions I've made. I'm so glad I was able to come across this school in order to continue with my career.

I had an amazing experience with Western Governors University. As a full-time mom and student, flexibility was everything for me and WGU made it possible. The self-paced structure allowed me to accelerate through my degree, and I was able to complete my Bachelor’s in Marketing faster than I ever imagined.

What really stood out to me was the support system. From my mentor to course instructors, I always felt encouraged and guided, even during late-night and early-morning study sessions. The competency-based model truly rewards what you know, not how long you sit in a classroom.

WGU gave me the opportunity to break generational barriers and show my children what consistency and determination look like. I didn’t just earn a degree I built confidence, discipline, and a future.

If you’re self-motivated and ready to take control of your education, WGU is absolutely worth it.

Self-paced model works if you’re completely independent. The moment you need real answers from anyone at the institution, expect vague responses, contradictions, and deflection. Questions go unanswered, escalations go nowhere, and the gap between what’s marketed and what’s delivered becomes very clear very fast.
Keep records of everything. You’ll need them.

I Love WGU! The staff is amazing and the support you get from them is unbelievable. I was nervous about going back to school but WGU made it no only easy but they made me feel like I am not alone.

I enrolled in WGU's MSITM accelerated IT program based on their website's explicit promise of "Two degrees in one fast-track program", earning both a bachelor's and master's in IT. After completing all of my coursework and reaching the final requirements, I discovered that the master's degree was never actually included in my program and has always required a completely separate enrollment, separate term, and separate tuition.

I was never proactively informed of this. I only found out by asking questions myself. When I did ask, I received three different answers about program end dates from three different WGU representatives — my program mentor, her manager, and student affairs — none of which matched each other.

When I raised these concerns I was told the confusion was on my end. My student portal still shows the old program. My specific questions about whether students were formally notified of program changes have never been directly answered.

I have filed a formal complaint and am escalating to the Student Ombudsman. WGU's own website still advertises this program as "two degrees in one" while telling enrolled students the reality is something very different.

Do your research before enrolling. Ask very specific questions about what degrees you will actually receive and get everything in writing. The gap between what is marketed and what is delivered is significant.

I’ve had a frustrating experience with Western Governors University (WGU), mainly due to a lack of consistency and communication across the program.

One of the biggest issues is the disconnect between course instructors and OA (Objective Assessment) evaluators. The guidance provided by instructors often doesn’t align with what evaluators are actually looking for, which makes it difficult to prepare effectively and leads to unnecessary retakes.

Additionally, general student information is not consistently communicated across departments. I received conflicting answers multiple times when asking about the master’s program, which made it hard to trust the information being provided or plan my next steps with confidence.

Surprisingly, I found online forums and student communities to be more helpful than the course instructors themselves. That shouldn’t be the case in a structured academic program.

Overall, while WGU’s flexibility is appealing, the lack of alignment and clear communication significantly impacted my experience.

I never write reviews for anything. Good or bad. I was in the RN-BSN program. Worst educational experience I’ve ever had. The requirements for placement to complete clinical hours are ridiculous. I have tried for over a year to find a clinical facility that will accept a student for preceptorship. The only thing WGU does is “help” you find places. Like I can’t do that myself? I’ve tried everywhere and get ghosted or rejected. I finished every course in 4 months. But now that I can’t find a preceptor, they blame me and charge me 1400$ for a new semester to complete this ONE class. Im a single income household and have to work well over 40 hours as an RN to support my family in this price gouging era we’re currently in. Why am I expected to pay 1400$ for a course when everyone in my region won’t accept me? Again, the only “help” they gave was giving me locations that could POSSIBLY accept me and I was always met with apathy or confusion because it’s an RN-BSN PROGRAM for goodness sake. This place is very much part of the racket that’s taking advantage of nurses that want a useless nursing bachelors degree. If some WGU rep reads this, here’s my advice: Stop punishing students who can’t find preceptors in time. We pay YOU to provide a service. YOU should be making the calls and finding the sites for the students.Full-time working Students shouldn’t have to go through the work of going door to door or making countless cold calls to be rejected for a “preceptorship” outpatient clinics while the school sits back and does nothing but act as the middle man when emailing administrators of these clinics and writing up some cookie cutter contract to cover yourselves. Anyone who reads this, DO NOT ENROLL in this school. They will find a way to scam you out of money. It’s a lazy, copy and paste, cooker cutter, pathetic excuse of an educational system.

Working full-time and being able to do classes on MY schedule is EXACTLY the system I needed to succeed. The courses themselves were well laid out and pertinent to what you needed to know. I appreciate that there aren't many boring lectures and, on the contrary, many YouTube videos from other teachers that are upbeat and interesting (Jacob Clifford's Econ series). I did not have many interactions with my instructors, but when I did they were very helpful.

The alumni event and ceremony blew me away. I had the best time of my life. Every detail was well planned and executed. Over-the-top and fun for every age. I never expected to be so impressed.

DO NOT GO TO THEIR NURSING SCHOOL…I REPEAT DO NOT GO HERE .THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND ONCE YOU GET TO 60% OR MORE THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER .

Truly the best ROI for anyone seeking a truly affordable and autonomous path to elevating your academic achievements and earn a legitimate degree from a formally accredited education program. At the end, the wealth of knowledge and experience gained is better than any in-person university.

In my humble opinion, graduation weekend it one of the best experiences I ever had. From the alumni celebration to the graduation ceremony WGU made the moment special. Everything and everyone was so kind, helpful, and thoughtful. Graduation for me are memories for a lifetime and it was possible because of WGU.

I’m a student here now i wouldn’t recommend they have student services but they are not for the student , once i am done with my bachelors degree i wont be coming back here . Taking my proctored exam using a computer that did not belong to me and something was running in the back ground never knew until i called to find out what and the nice guy helped me figure it out . Got a late test which made me late to work this minting because i was up taking a test that was scheduled well before i needed to be in bed . The proctors are rude the people and wgu are rude it’s a lot that’s going on that shouldn’t be going on i don’t recommend that you attend this university run far away !

Honestly, if you're looking for a quick degree, then go here. That being said, the mentors treat you like toddlers, and the instructors are nonexistent. I set up a contact-as-needed plan with my mentor, which she agreed to in an email. Next thing I know, the school is trying to unenroll me (I was active, had just completed a course, and was on track time-wise). I had to reach out to my mentor, who went off on me when it was her fault for telling them I wasn't active. She said I should have responded to her email confirming activity (she never sent one). To reiterate, I had just completed a class and was enrolled in another. To confirm my enrollment, the school made me enroll in ANOTHER class that I wasn't scheduled to take for at least a month.
Financial aid is extremely rude and crooked. They changed my loan amount by a few thousand without notifying me (I didn't sign off on it) during my second term. I contacted them when I got notified by FAFSA, and they tried to tell me I did okay it (I have paper proof that I didn't). I couldn't do anything about it since the loan had already been taken out.
It is possible to learn the stuff on your own, but if you need someone to teach you, this isn't the school for you. Most colleges are a scam anyway, so you might as well go to one that's quick.

Got my IT Bachelor's and Master's in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from WGU, and I would not recommend. The staff are extremely apathetic and could care less if you lived or died as long as you log in and pay your tuition. The Academic Review Team offered to expedite my assessments if I agreed to sign up and pay tuition for a second Masters, and when I escalated to the Ombudsman to report this, he genuinely didn't care. WGU wants your money and that is all.
EDIT: Just got an email from TrustPilot--WGU flagged this review to try to get it taken down. That is a statement in and of itself.

WGU has literally changed my life! I was able to finish a degree in one term by leveraging my transfer credits, and previous knowledge and skills.

I was able to take classes as I was ready, and on demand with no arbitrary stops or breaks. Thankfully, I never had an issue with the proctored exams, although I admit I only had a few due to my transfer credits. Most of my classes were tasks, which were based on real world scenarios and relevant to the degree focus.

I was immediately able to use my degree to secure a 22% raise in a new industry. All this at a price that was significantly lower than one semester at my local State college.

Do your research, make sure you understand the WGU model, and ensure that it is a good fit for you! This is the only way I could have ever finished college, and I will be forever grateful to WGU.

I currently attend the school and they advertise how it’s half the price of any university that’s first their first mistake because it’s not they’re charging me $9000 a semester to take four classes maybe 3 or 4 classes so that’s the first problem second problem is no one knows what they’re doing. You will never get a straight answer and you will get 5 different answers to your same question. All of which are wrong. There is no dean of academic affairs. There is no one you can go talk to if you have a major problem that is keeping you from continuing your education there is no one to go to because I’ve tried. I’ve searched high and low for someone to talk to because most universities provide that a Dean or a you know advisor of academic affairs, but not here no you get to talk to student support services, which is probably a teenager that’s going to answer my questions and help me with my problems. The next issue is my mentor that is assigned to me told me to do something and if I did what she asked me to do, I would be able to go forward to the next semester and continue on with my education. Well, I did successfully complete what she asked of me, only to find out because they didn’t have someone within their resources to assist me with my clinicals they weren’t able to move me forward basically meaning they only have very few people that are willing to do these clinicals with nursing students or any Allied health program so if they can’t find one for you, guess what you just get to sit there and wait until they do that is not how a university or a college act or treats their students. They talk down to you, they have talked down to me as if I am trashed but yet if you raise your voice, you will get reported to this officer. I guess you can call it Who will send you a nasty gram and then tell you you only have a couple more times or you’re going to be in big trouble for reacting so you can’t say anything to anyone but they can definitely talk to you as if you’re the dumbest person on this earth. I just find WGU to be nothing more than a a Crooked money mill that’s about it I mean it is. It’s so sad. It’s pathetic. I haven’t learned a single thing. Everything I do is on my own. There is no instructor there is no teaching at all. These people literally get paid to sit home and answer emails. There is no instructor teaching your class basically you are paying 9,000 to teach yourself your just using their books. I really can’t believe that nothing is being done about this. I don’t know about you but if I am going to teach myself how to be a nurse I am not going to pay WGU for it. Do not waste your time or money