![]() “My employer contributed $3,000 in education expenses, so I wound up paying only $6,000 for my degree.” Like Nowaczyk, he attended the graduation ceremony this summer. “It was a tough one you’re just hammered, but I did my studying late at night and lived and breathed ,” said the San Diego cybersecurity specialist. Wes Moehlenbruck, class of 2017, at WGU's summer graduation ceremony Wes Moehlenbruck, 38, managed to graduate with a Master of Science degree in cybersecurity in 18 months, despite having young children and a full-time job. Within four years of graduation, the average WGU graduate sees a boost in annual salary of nearly $20,000, according to WGU data. The average time it takes to graduate from WGU is about two years and three months for a bachelor's degree, which would cost roughly $15,000. Since students entering WGU have to have taken some college courses in the past, they can get credit for their prior coursework. “That means that as long as students demonstrate competency in the standards they need to meet, they can move through the program at their own pace.” ![]() “We use a competency-based education model,” says Pulsipher. And unlike most colleges, which charge by the course, WGU also offers a flat fee structure: around $3,000 per six-month term, no matter how many courses a student chooses to take. As an online college, it charges less than the average public university, even though it doesn’t take any public subsidies. One of the most striking innovations is WGU’s fee structure. WGU President Scott Pulsipher congratulating a recent graduate WGU Since its inception, WGU has graduated nearly 90,000 students from all 50 states, with 87% of graduates working in their chosen field. “Many of our students are the first in their families to go to college,” says Pulsipher with pride. governors founded the online Western Governors University to help far-flung rural residents, low-income students, ethnic minorities and members of other underserved groups graduate from college. Twenty years ago, in a Western Governors Association meeting, 19 U.S. The college was originally designed for Western residents, many of whom live in wide-open spaces in which a brick-and-mortar university for working adults may be hundreds of miles away. “In everything we do, we put the student at the center of it.” Pulsipher, who has a master’s in business administration from Harvard and has worked at a number of startups, including Amazon. “WGU as a whole is very different because we are so student-obsessed,” says WGU President Scott D. ![]() WGU fees are among the lowest of any online college.Its teacher-prep is ranked first in the country by the National Council on Teacher Quality.Nearly three-quarters of WGU students (73%) say their education was worth the cost, compared to 38% nationally.Graduates have netted top jobs at places like Aetna, JPMorgan, Chase, American Express, Toyota, and Delta airline, according to Education Next.WGU graduates are more likely to get jobs, according to a 2016 Gallup-Purdue Index poll commissioned by the school: WGU’s employment rate after graduation is 81%, compared to the national average of 74%.
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