Opinion regarding WGU

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 10, 2014

It's the norm. I would say as long as you don't procrastinate, you should be able to finish it without difficulty in 12 months.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Sep 10, 2014

I started WGU's RN-to-BSN program on May 1st, 2014. At this time I've completed 21 credits, and I fully intend to complete another 6 to 7 credits before my first term ends at the end of October. I should mention that I started the program with 34 credits to complete.

CareerChanger2009 · Sep 10, 2014

Thank you both. I am just concern with writing papers. In addition, the syllabi and cos looks daunting.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Sep 10, 2014

Thank you both. I am just concern with writing papers. In addition, the syllabi and cos looks daunting.

Although I enjoy writing papers, it's been my personal experience that they don't grade the essays too harshly. In addition, I skip the busy work on the COS. I only do assignments that are going to be graded, which facilitates acceleration through the coursework.

benegesserit · Sep 11, 2014

It's the norm. I would say as long as you don't procrastinate, you should be able to finish it without difficulty in 12 months.

As a procrastinator, I totally agree with this. I could have finished the program in 12 months with no problems, even with 60 hour workweeks and a family, if it weren't for procrastination.

UlanaD · Sep 13, 2014

I read recently on another site someone completed the RN-BSN in 120 days. Don't know how many credits they needed though. I've been gathering info for when I finish EC.

featherzRN, MSN · Sep 13, 2014

I finished in less than 120 days with 50 CU.. it's 'at your own pace', so you can go as fast or as slowly as you need to. However, to do this you need to pretty much be OCD about school stuff every waking moment when not at work. :)

CareerChanger2009 · Sep 13, 2014

Amazing. You must be excellent writer. what was your strategy? Ignore cos and focus on oa and pa? I work 3 12 hours with two kids. Just hope I could finish within the year.

emmy27 · Sep 17, 2014

I am a serious procrastinator and haven't raced through the program by any means. I often go for days or even weeks without doing any schoolwork. I've also gotten engaged, planned and executed a wedding, changed full-time jobs, had a pet seriously injured requiring round the clock care for several weeks, had my spouse sent out of state for several months for work, shopped for and bought a house from a distance, and moved to a different state, all in the course of my first 10 months of classes. And through all that craziness, I still managed to complete my coursework without stressing about it (about everything else, yes, about school, no!).

So, I knew going in that I was a procrastinator, that was part of what made the self-pacing appeal to me- I like to work in spurts of productivity and then take some time off to recharge, daily or weekly assignment due dates grind me down. I never expected to blast my way through.

Each individual course, when I actually sit down to do it, is not particularly time-consuming. The most time-intensive have been biochem (each of the five tasks took me roughly a week of study and work, but again, at a very leisurely pace- a few hours a day on my days off, not studying on work days) and stats (took me about three weeks of 1-2 hours a day of study- I didn't know much to begin and had to really work through the CoS). Most of the other classes have taken about a week from the time I started actually focusing on them to finishing the test/submitting the paper. Again, all with a pretty relaxed work ethic. It's not that it's easy material, it's not, but there's no busywork required (there are some assignments suggested in the reading material but they're just that- suggestions), so you just have to be honest with yourself about how much you need to study before you feel comfortable tackling a test or a paper. I'm a good test taker with several years of practice under my belt and prior bachelors-level study experience, so I felt more comfortable jumping in to some tests after a brief review, which is not everybody's preferred method. If you have a lot of test anxiety or are a perfectionist about papers, it might take you longer to feel comfortable hitting "submit". Or if you're really organized and motivated and can make yourself get up and work on it every morning, you could get through much faster. I'd say the amount of actual time I've spend on coursework would add up to a few weeks of full-time days (I don't feel like I'm studying differently or less than I did in college the first time around, in prereqs for nursing school, or in nursing school, incidentally- it's just there's no more time wasted in 4 hour lectures that no one can actually absorb or driving to and from school, study groups, or clinical sites).

I definitely think for someone who is highly driven or organized, doing it all back to back in a short time would be feasible- I'm in the facebook group and we've had multiple people finish in one semester, sometimes much less than one semester. It sounds awful, but it's feasible. But you really have to be honest with yourself. The nice thing about this program is that you can complete it really fast, or you can complete it without ever stressing too much- but you probably can't complete it really fast without stressing.

EMEddie · Sep 20, 2014

What is COS? What is OA and what is PA? I am starting the program in a month so just wondering here =)

featherzRN, MSN · Sep 20, 2014

What is COS? What is OA and what is PA? I am starting the program in a month so just wondering here =)

COS = course of study (the textbook, webinars, whatever)

OA = objective assessment (final test)

PA = performance assessment (final project) OR preassessment (pre-test for those classes with tests)

Make sure to join the WGU RN to BSN discussion facebook group if you 'do' facebook. It's very helpful!