Cleared to Begin.

Just got an email stating that everything has cleared (transcripts/financial aid) and that I'm good to begin my program on November 1st.

I have to do orientation next, which I can't access until the 15th of the month before I start classes, in 17 days.

My next phone meeting with my enrollment counselor is the following day, the 16th, so I don't expect there to be any more blog updates until then.

Aid Update #4

Officially accepted the aid amount today. Should be all set and be able to do the orientation soon. In just a little over two weeks I went from applying, getting accepted, and loans taken care of. I think that's pretty awesome.

Aid Update #3

Everything has cleared so far so now they asked how much aid I wanted. I requested the option to get exactly what is needed to cover 1 year (2 terms), no more, no less. Their department seems to be processing all this pretty quickly!

Aid Update #2

Checked the schools site and it shows they finally got my FAFSA. I didn't get notified via email which is kind of a bummer, so glad I've been actively looking. Also wasn't told the next step but figured it out. Had to complete loan entrance counseling and sign the master promissory note. Doubt I'll find out how much aid I'll get till next week.

Financial Aid Update

WGU called me once again to say they still haven't received my FAFSA information. We finally got to the bottom of it, either I gave them the wrong SSN or they inputted it wrong. No big deal though, it has been corrected. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll finally get my aid information. Getting closer!

Accepted into WGU!

Woke up this morning to an awesome email from WGU stating that I'm in!

Had a meeting with my enrollment counselor already scheduled for today at 10:45 as well. The call lasted a 18 minutes and she just went over some standard stuff and confirmed my address. Nothing major.

WGU still haven't processed my FASFA but she said they are busy right now finishing things for students that start on October 1st. Once that's done in the next week or so, I should get more information on what financial assistance I'll get. Though at this price....it's not a make or break for me, personally.

I should be getting an email for orientation soon which she said is a 6 hour process to complete, module based. No, they don't have to be done all in one long sitting, thankfully!

So yay, I'm going back to school!

FASFA, Grants and a Transcript

After submitting my FASFA on Friday, September 11th, it was processed and sent to WGU on Monday, the 14th. Great turn around time!

I found it odd that I received a "general scholarship application" submission e-mail from WGU. I first filled out the form last week and applied for one grant advertised by WGU. Today's e-mail said the general application was good and now to go back and apply for grants/scholarships. Since I already did one, the only one that I qualified for, I guess I'm good to go still. Oh but wait, today I found one more scholarship I can apply for since I work at a nonprofit (school system), yay! So off to fill that one out and hopefully I won't need to use much from FASFA at all.

I realized this morning that I was suppose to send ALL transcripts, not just my Northern Michigan University one where I earned my Bachelor degree. So this morning I sent in my Baker College transcripts and they were received by WGU just 6 hours later.

Back To School?

Four days ago, on September 9th, I got serious about going back to school to earn my Master's degree (Master of Science: Information Technology Management). I've thought about it on and off over the last few years now, but really had an itch lately due to new career goals.

I posted a status on Facebook asking if any of my friends had any expierence on online schools.  By the time the replies started coming in, I was already looking at Arizona State University and Walden as they are highly recommended through college review sites. However, a friend recommended Western Govenors University. Upon checking them out, I realized that I could get my degree for around $9,000 compared to $20-35k elsewhere.

To good to be true? After hours of research I found that WGU had better overall ratings than the other schools from students. I did find it funny that review after review kept using the same phrases over and over again. Turns out, those reviews are fake, created by school as marketing.  However, my buddy is digging WGU and I couldn't pass it up for the small price of $3k every 6 months, taking as many classes as I want.

So on the 10th I filled out the form online to have them contact me. Shortly after I received a call to schedule a meeting with my enrollment counselor for the following morning, the 11th.  The enrollment counselor missed the meeting so I sent her an email. The next morning (the 12th) I received a call from her stating that she was sorry and had a family emergency, no big deal. She went over the things I'll need to send in and sent me emails covering them all.

That morning I sat down and signed up for FASFA, ordered my transcripts to be sent to WGU, filled out a work expierence form and applied for a grant. The work expierence form was sent back to me and I was asked to be more detailed in my responsibilities. Basically my bachelor degree wasn't really related to the masters program, so they want to make sure I have the expierence to do the program. No big deal, I know that I do and I hope I made it clear that I do. I sent this back to my enrollment counselor the following day, the 13th.

I also got notification that on the 13th that WGU received my transcript from Nother Michigan University. Yay!

So now I get to wait to hear back from them if the work expierence paper was what they are looking for and if I'll be excepted into the Masters program at WGU. Based on reviews online, I expect to wait 2-3 weeks before I find ouch....which sucks. I'm really eager to find out! If everything goes through, I'll be starting Novemeber 1st.