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.