Capella University vs Western Governors University (WGU) - What is Your Experience?

I was deciding between these two myself. I went all the way through the admissions process for WGU and then realized that I would be required to do a synchronous class for the first 3-4 weeks....twice a week at the same time for 3-4 weeks I'd need to be at my computer participating in a 2 hour synchronous class. For an online university, this felt ridiculous. I can't work my schedule to be off the same two days every week for a month. That plus the fact I'd have to take chem and stats at WGU swayed me towards Capella. WGU also has a class where you have to get 90 hours of participation, interviews, or site surveys of community health resources. That sounded like a lot of driving around and interviewing people, none of which I was truly interested in.

I chose Capella ultimately....I have no idea how that's going to work out as I only start there on August 5. But apparently it's research papers and power point projects and no synchronous classes. No groups. There is a capstone at the end, but it's mostly just putting together everything you've learned. According to the enrollment counselors and other stories online, it's doable to finish in 6-8 months.

8 hours ago, Nurse Magnolia said:

I was deciding between these two myself. I went all the way through the admissions process for WGU and then realized that I would be required to do a synchronous class for the first 3-4 weeks....twice a week at the same time for 3-4 weeks I'd need to be at my computer participating in a 2 hour synchronous class. For an online university, this felt ridiculous. I can't work my schedule to be off the same two days every week for a month. That plus the fact I'd have to take chem and stats at WGU swayed me towards Capella. WGU also has a class where you have to get 90 hours of participation, interviews, or site surveys of community health resources. That sounded like a lot of driving around and interviewing people, none of which I was truly interested in.

I chose Capella ultimately....I have no idea how that's going to work out as I only start there on August 5. But apparently it's research papers and power point projects and no synchronous classes. No groups. There is a capstone at the end, but it's mostly just putting together everything you've learned. According to the enrollment counselors and other stories online, it's doable to finish in 6-8 months.

I’m trying to figure out how to reply to messages on here. @Nurse Magnolia please keep me informed on how it’s going. When I get back from my deployment I hope to start soon. Thank you for the information

8 hours ago, rn2bbsn said:

I’m trying to figure out how to reply to messages on here. @Nurse Magnolia please keep me informed on how it’s going. When I get back from my deployment I hope to start soon. Thank you for the information

Will do @rn2bbsn! To reply to posts just hit quote on the post you are replying on and it will quote the post and you can type under it (like this!). Or if you want just go to the bottom of the page and there should be a reply box.

On 7/27/2019 at 6:25 PM, Nurse Magnolia said:

I was deciding between these two myself. I went all the way through the admissions process for WGU and then realized that I would be required to do a synchronous class for the first 3-4 weeks....twice a week at the same time for 3-4 weeks I'd need to be at my computer participating in a 2 hour synchronous class. For an online university, this felt ridiculous. I can't work my schedule to be off the same two days every week for a month. That plus the fact I'd have to take chem and stats at WGU swayed me towards Capella. WGU also has a class where you have to get 90 hours of participation, interviews, or site surveys of community health resources. That sounded like a lot of driving around and interviewing people, none of which I was truly interested in.

I chose Capella ultimately....I have no idea how that's going to work out as I only start there on August 5. But apparently it's research papers and power point projects and no synchronous classes. No groups. There is a capstone at the end, but it's mostly just putting together everything you've learned. According to the enrollment counselors and other stories online, it's doable to finish in 6-8 months.

I was looking at those two schools also and now since I did my ADN with Herzing I want to see what Herzing offer but I am not sure yet

I just finished up my BSN with Capella. As stated before WGU wanted me to do a bunch of extra courses, and Capella waved me in and I just had to the 8 Nursing core classes. I highly recommend the Flexpath option if you are motivated. I got my BSN in 6 months for about $4500. I loved that there was no discussion boards or group work. You do have to "log" some "clinical" hours but there is not mandatory requirement that they be at a hospital you can pretty much write your own ticket.

Thank you so much for this information. I really want to get started soon.

4 hours ago, tydawg said:

I just finished up my BSN with Capella. As stated before WGU wanted me to do a bunch of extra courses, and Capella waved me in and I just had to the 8 Nursing core classes. I highly recommend the Flexpath option if you are motivated. I got my BSN in 6 months for about $4500. I loved that there was no discussion boards or group work. You do have to "log" some "clinical" hours but there is not mandatory requirement that they be at a hospital you can pretty much write your own ticket.

Glad to hear this! I start at Capella tomorrow! Hoping to finish fast as I only need to take the 8 core nursing courses.

WGU is cheaper. I did a MSN through capella. But it did cost me much more than WGU so thats a down side

On 8/4/2019 at 3:54 PM, tydawg said:

I just finished up my BSN with Capella. As stated before WGU wanted me to do a bunch of extra courses, and Capella waved me in and I just had to the 8 Nursing core classes. I highly recommend the Flexpath option if you are motivated. I got my BSN in 6 months for about $4500. I loved that there was no discussion boards or group work. You do have to "log" some "clinical" hours but there is not mandatory requirement that they be at a hospital you can pretty much write your own ticket.

Please tell me this meaningless degree is not possible

Doable in 6-8 months? What?