WGU - Western Governors University Reviews 3,893

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

Get ready to have your assignments sent back for things that weren't in the rubric. They expect you to mind-meld with the jungian collective unconscious to understand everything your finished project is actually supposed to contain. Also, most "classes" are just links to a textbook and a test, and the instructors are forced to spread themselves across many classes despite all those classes containing countless online students. The vast majority of people I actually interacted with were very kind and knowledgeable though, despite the horror stories of what they have to go through anonymously posted online by faculty.

Not sure what all the negative reviews are about, seems like human error on their part. I just finished my bachelors and am already enrolled to start my master's program next month. I finished in one term, had good communication with staff and mentor, accelerated as soon as I completed each course. I don't have a single bad experience. There was a mishap with 2 of my assessment results not displaying after a test, but I just had to reach out to the assessment services department. It's really an easy, straight-forward process if you're determined to succeed. We're adults, quit complaining, use your common sense, and get your degree. I already secured a new job days after graduation. This is coming from someone who already works full-time, takes care of young children, and handling everything else life has to throw at us. If you're considering enrolling and don't require your hand to be held ever step of the way, I say go for it!

I am really disappointed in WGU. It looked like a good opportunity when I initially researched it but once I started I realized that was not the case. While you can move at your own pace, the mentors do not adequately adjust so that you do not have wait periods, at least for teaching. Furthermore, the evaluators who evaluate your papers provide terrible and unhelpful feedback. It seems like they do not even read your assignments. Most of the instructors are equally unhelpful when you reach out for help. I’m nearly done with the degree and I have had one instructor that has been helpful. I would not recommend unless WGU makes some serious adjustments in the way things are done. P

The requirements for placement to complete clinical hour are ridiculous. I have tried for over a year to find a clinical facility that fits their specific rules. They do not take into consideration those of us who work 40 hours a week and they do not provide a list of possible clinical sites in your area. Because of this, it will have taken me 3 years to complete a program that should have only taken me 1-2 years. Most horrible experience of my college education.

It's important not to lead individuals in the wrong direction, advertising whole heatedly means alot

I can't even get started, the enrollment counselors will not call at our scheduled meeting time. They obviously dont care about getting new business. Probably best to go somewhere else.

I am currently a student here I love the college set up and everything however, I really despise the financial aid communicationcomponent of it. There is no communication from financial aid and the only way you know something is missing or needed or whatever is that you log on then when you tell someone about it, all they say is, we’ll just know this time next year make sure you watch that’s insane! They could easily send out an email notifying if you’re missing something or if you just need to make a certain election, which is the case for me. Now all they can say is oh well 12 to 16 weeks for them to process the remainder of my financial aid! This is frustrating as many emails I get from their automated system. They could send out one pertinent to financial aid. And this is not the first communication challenge that I’ve had from financial aid. They just leave you to pick up the pieces.

When I went through my Bachelor's course it was a haphazard mishmash of constantly changing goal posts. Many of the more advanced courses I failed and retook, and for good reason. They kept updating things which forced me to try to learn more and change to a new curriculum mid-class. It was awful. That is the kind of thing that shouldn't be allowed. Students should finish out their courses or be made aware of newer content to opt-in to not just forced into it mid-way through and expected to re-learn everything.

For context this was the IT program and I am writing now because they have irk'd me a bit too much as an Alumni over the past few years.

How? Let me tell you. Should you happen to decide to go there. Just remember the first paragraph and the changing goal posts in your curriculum. Add to that your 'mentor' will definitely try to help in getting you help.. but its not the same as if you are in a physical environment where someone can SHOW you or even where you have a friend in class that can explain something.

That aside as an Alumni when you graduate lets go over some things.

First: There is little to no job placement assistance. Good luck! I hope you picked a popular field in your area. Because you are on your own. Even my local tech college had job placement assistance programs to help people find their first jobs after graduation which actually starts the last year before graduating.

Second: They pretty much didn't want anything to do with me after graduation. They had my money, They pushed me through. Thats all they cared about. I even tried to go back one time because I wanted a bachelors in another program while I, online being the only way to accomplish this because working full time I could only do it like that. They wouldn't return my emails though. So I gave up.

Third: They give you a free Gmail to use. Now.. instead of migrating the account, or contacting you to get that done? They shut down all the storage to that acocunt after graduation. No notification, just out of the blue one day. I can't migrate my email the easy way through Gmail account migration because its 'theirs'.

Fourth (Lastly): This is the last thing and the final thing that has me pissed about WGU. They are implementing MFA (like finally? after all these years?), but... and this is a big BUT.. they dont support common authenticator usage like Google Auth, Microsoft Auth, or any other auth the average person wants to use. In fact, they want you to use their own proprietary Authenticator only. There is an option for SMS, but that should be only for back up purposes in case your Auth app weren't working supposedly. Honestly, This is unacceptable to not support common FIDO and FIDO2 protocols for Authentication. Which quite literally everyone supports that uses Auth tokens for security.

Going back to school was easy. This school offered Competency-Based learning, which means you study the material, take the test, pass, and off to the next class. This style has regained my overall confidence in earning a degree again. This helped me reduced my testing anxiety, and made going back to school so much easier. And the ease-of-access to accessing the course material is incredible for when I have to study on my phone.

The school assigns a program mentor, and she's been great to me. It's easy to add or remove classes to a degree plan. She checks in and makes sure I'm taken care of and ready to take the next class, which adds to the lackluster of online university.

Accelerating is another HUGE aspect of this online university. I don't have to wait to move on, I can keep moving forward. Making it easier and quicker to earn my degree. I wish I discovered this school sooner!

Western Governors University promotes a competency-based education model grounded in objective, rubric-driven assessment. My experience as a student did not align with that representation.

In a recent performance assessment, I submitted all required components as outlined in the task instructions and rubric, including screenshots and documentation demonstrating compliance with the stated criteria. The evaluation feedback asserted that specific required elements were missing, despite those elements being clearly present in the submitted materials.

This discrepancy raised reasonable concerns about whether the submission was reviewed in full or whether evaluation standards beyond the published rubric were applied. When I sought clarification and asked questions to better understand the evaluation, I was not provided substantive answers addressing the discrepancy itself.

Instead, the response emphasized procedural boundaries and referenced the Student Code of Conduct in a manner that discouraged further inquiry. While institutions have the right to enforce conduct standards, referencing disciplinary policy in response to good-faith academic questions had a chilling effect on my ability to seek clarification or advocate for a fair review.

The result was an unnecessary resubmission cycle that consumed additional time and delayed academic progress. In a self-paced, tuition-based model, such delays have tangible consequences for students.

This review does not allege misconduct or improper intent. However, it does raise concerns about transparency, consistency, and the balance between academic inquiry and institutional process control. A competency-based program depends on clearly defined criteria, thorough review, and open clarification when discrepancies arise. When those elements are constrained, the model does not function as advertised.

Prospective students are encouraged to document submissions carefully and to be aware that raising legitimate questions about evaluations may not always result in substantive clarification.

A terrible experience already.
Financial aid constantly giving misinformation.
It’s so common that there are several Reddit threads referring to financial aid not having accurate information. Unfortunately, I finally see it myself.

Veterans, remember how DoD civilians treated you while you were in, curt, dismissive, and made you wait as long as possible just cause they can? You can continue that treatment post service with the veteran support department at WGU!

They answer emails if you send a form but that’s about it. If you have a question you have to weed through the call operators to find someone who is actually familiar with the different VA education programs (still looking).

My favorite is when you don’t get a response on the email, so you call, and they tell you to try emailing again because they don’t know. Full circle! :)

At the very end of your semester you enroll in next semesters classes. From there you have to submit a form to the WGU veteran support department (be careful, WGU doesn’t tell you this until you ask) where they generate a simple form stating full-time or part-time status to turn into to the VA to get your BAH / stipend / VA entitlement.

States they can take ‘up to’ 30 days (they always take the max) to give you this simple form. Then the VA takes a month to process, so the good news is you’ll always get paid starting two months after the semester begins.

They’ve structured the department so you can be guaranteed to get your benefits late!

This was the ideal way for me to get my MBA. So flexible. I rarely had anything scheduled that I had to be online at a certain time, which would have been really difficult. I work full time and have a family, so the flexibility was the only way I was able to get it done!

Every once in a while, I did miss the classroom interaction. That would have been helpful sometimes, but I didn't really have time for that, so it was worth the trade-off.

The classes were terrible, several grammar errors, to if you passed their class and exceed expectations it still says fails and they will not correct.

The mentors and instructors do not help.

I advised I will not attend the upcoming semester and they booted me immediately an caused issues with my VA funding as a disabled veteran and I had to pay the VA.

After disputing with the college they said they said when I leave due to activity on their portal and then try to charge me for tuition the VA took back due to them booting me.

Worst college ever, it’s a scam!

Great program. Highly recommend. They know what they are doing. Only recommendation is that some of the classes need to be updated/reevaluated.

I love the open format. If I were familiar with the material, I could essentially test out of the course and continue with my degree. In brick-and-mortar schools, I felt stagnant. I'd finish the weekly work and wait until the professor opened the next assignment. That wasn't a problem at WGU. My mentor was a great person who helped me throughout my journey. When I had questions, she found the answers. My professors were very responsive. The financial and student records offices were just an email away. I'm glad there was a class that forced me to write a resume. That did wonders for my professional confidence; however, I would've been happier if that class also focused on writing a CV, narrowing down graduate schools, and graduate school application essays and interviews.

The accessibility of the courses, as well as their design, allows for flexibility around work or other obligations and responsibilities.