Problems w/student mentor

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 8, 2016

Are any of these courses prerequisites for the others? It is not often that students can simply dictate the order of the classes they want; there is a set sequence by the school (I do not have any experience with WGU, but with other programs). Have you tried discussing this with someone at the school other than the mentor?

featherzRN, MSN · Sep 9, 2016

It depends on the mentor, but from what I have been hearing WGU has been more strict lately on the order of classes. The mentor CAN allow you to take them out of order, but I hear it's strongly discouraged more and more lately. No, it's not 'necessary' to take them in any specific order (ie prereq), but my unofficial thought is that WGU probably is trying to add consistency for mentors and students.

I do know that some mentors don't follow the new directives but it's going to be difficult for OP to change mentors on that basis - afaik, that is the new norm.

JustMeRN · Sep 11, 2016

Seems that my student mentor wont open courses in the order that I want to take them. They want me to do them in the order they want me to do. I mean I am paying for the school not them so in a term, How I want to do them should be my choice!
Anyone else having this problem?

When I first started June 2015 mentors were just transitioning to a set course schedule. When I finished this past May the general rule was you took your classes in the order they were assigned. However, in my experience once you have proven yourself to your mentor you are likely to have more flexibility in course order, but you will never have full control. With very little exception you need to complete courses considered pre req before any nursing courses. You need to complete all four assigned courses in the term before another one will be pulled up, and the only expect them to be pulled up one at a time. If you are an MSN student you are most likely goin to need to complete bsn before bridge or MSN courses.

JustMeRN · Sep 11, 2016

It depends on the mentor, but from what I have been hearing WGU has been more strict lately on the order of classes. The mentor CAN allow you to take them out of order, but I hear it's strongly discouraged more and more lately. No, it's not 'necessary' to take them in any specific order (ie prereq), but my unofficial thought is that WGU probably is trying to add consistency for mentors and students.
I do know that some mentors don't follow the new directives but it's going to be difficult for OP to change mentors on that basis - afaik, that is the new norm.

also, I had heard from a student complaining about her mentor that she was told by the mentor group leader that requesting a switch would do her no hood. Mentors are grouped into teams with a leader. If you switch mentors you stay in the same team, and the team leader dictates the strictness of the rules.

I agree that some of it is consistency, but I think there were other issues as well. For example, evidence based practice is better understood with basic statistics, but many people were afraid of statistics and would push the class until last. Also, again what I saw with statistics is people would freeze and freak out and push the class until last, then be unable to pass the class leaving them 1 class away from bsn and unable to get it done.

i don't, myself, quite understand why people get so freaked out about what order they do classes in. It's silly. They all need to get done.