WGU is sooo frustrating me.

[42pines]

Has anyone had this sort of issue with WGU?

My employer will pay a significant amount of my tuition upon completion of each semester. If I start WGU in 7/1 I will end in 2014 and receive a payment for 2014 and then again in 2015. If I started on 8/1 I will receive nothing for the calendar year 2014 and will be out thousands. Thus I am willing to plunk down my money if and only if I enter on 7/1.

My advisor says: pay the amount and send the confirmation number of the background check and you are good to go, BUT will not, in plain English say: If for any reason you are booted out of the 7/1 start you will get a full refund.”

When I asked my advisor, she sent me to the bursar's office. I called and talked to a CS rep, a fellow this morning that said plainly: If you do not start you will get a full refund.” But this is simply not true (I was dubious since this is very much a "fee" world so I went searching online and found that WGU does not refund the full amount. I confronted my advisor about what I found who confirmed that the fellow is either uninformed or seriously confused about WGU's polices, and wrote back to me: The resource fee of $145 and the one time nursing fee of $350 will not be refunded.”

So after being told I would get a full refund it turns out that $495 will not be refunded if, though no fault of mine, I am shunted to the 8/1 start. At this point I'll say: BEWARE to anyone considering WGU. At best the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I'm sadly perplexed by all this.

I've now sent numerous letters back and forth between my advisor, who up till this time has been excellent, and copied them to admissions but I continue to get what I call weasel words.”

And we are at a pivot point because I received this:

"Please follow the email instructions sent by your enrollment counselor to complete a criminal background check through American Databank. I strongly encourage you to complete this by the 15th (added: TODAY) of the month prior to your start date in order for it to be processed by the databank before the 22nd, which is the final deadline for WGU to receive processed results."

Why is it so hard for you or someone at WGU to simply write me and say:

If you pay the amount due, and send us the confirmation number to prove that you have done the background check, then if for any reason you are knocked out of the 7/1 cohort, that you will receive a refund of all monies paid.”

Admittedly most do not care of they are shunted a month farther down the timeline but I do, for a very good reason. Has anyone experienced this, and does anyone know who I can elevate this to? I'd really like to start in the 7/1 cohort but I do need confirmation that if I for some reason beyond my control cannot that I'll get a full refund. Does that seem a fair expectation? Does anyone who has gone to WGU know how to elevate this to achieve a resolution?

Update 1:54. (MODERATOR EDIT OF NAME) my advisor called me and said that they will not give me any written assurance. Therefore, sadly, I cannot move forward. So in short, I suggest that any prospective students realize that refund policies as stated by the bursar's office simply are falsehoods. I am sorely disappointed in WGU.

[featherzRN, MSN]

I can't speak to the $300 nursing fee, but when I backed out of starting my MBA last september, they refunded the entire amount including the $145 resource fee. (then I paid it again to start in March). I didn't even have to ask.

[psychnursehusband]

I have been to many schools and pretty much all of them "the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing." That's pretty much par for the course with schools.

I'm not surprised they wouldn't give you that guarantee. Although I certainly understand why you want it, given your situation, it's probably a fairly unusual request for them.

[42pines]

Thanks. How very strange. I guess that their rigidness surpasses the need to accommodate me.

Essentially though it's a done deal as today was the last day to get the background check done and well, the day's gone now.

Maybe it's one of those "just meant to be" things.

I've been working on a U of Alabama at Birmingham applications. I had planned (hoped) on doing a ANP course of study in Occ Health, they have an amazing faculty. Maybe I can do a BS to ANP and bypass the BS already, after all with two BS degrees it could be said that I have had enough BS already..

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Essentially though it's a done deal as today was the last day to get the background check done and well, the day's gone now.

Theoretically, you could still submit the background check today since the results typically take less than 72 hours to return. However, I suspect you're no longer entertaining the thought of attending WGU.

Good luck with whatever you decide. :)

[beeker]

Ive also been frustrated! I am in the application process. I have found that the scholarship application does not save your work even though there is a "save and continue" option. All my work gone. Ive also been told I could start in Aug, then Sept, Now I'm told Oct. Seems like very week they tell me a later month. I am starting my applications for 2 other schools and this one is moving towards the bottom of my list. I feel like they just shuffle you along with no real idea of whats happening.

[42pines]

Theoretically, you could still submit the background check today since the results typically take less than 72 hours to return. However, I suspect you're no longer entertaining the thought of attending WGU.

Sorry TheCommuter, I had missed your response.

Indeed, I could submit on the 16th and may have gotten in. However, with zero guarantee, even if the background check works fine--from email that I have from the Registrar it's plain and simple: "you may not get in" and if shunted to the next month I'd get zero for fiscal year 2015. I was simply not willing to take the chance and still cannot understand, since they had everything but my money (and I was willing to pay that on 10 minutes notice) and the background check, why they could not have written these simple words:

As long as your background check turns out to be acceptable and you pay today we will guarantee a slot in the 7/1 cohort. If we, for any reason we choose, bump you to the 8/1 cohort we will refund all monies.

That would be short, simple, sweet and straight-forward. They were not willing to do that and so it was a no-go.

Actually I am still entertaining thoughts of doing the WGU. I thought of doing a few Straighterline courses and then jumping in with the November cohort. I would, at least, receive reimbursement for the Straighterline courses and maybe that would make it easier for me at WGU. I lose reimbursement for WGU in 2014 but would get reimbursed for the Straighterline courses so at least I could salvage something.

But now I wonder. They say that once transcripts are reviewed that ends that process. So if I add courses that are normally acceptable (there is a Straighterline = WGU list) I'm not sure if even those would be acceptable. I wonder if they would review courses that I pass after the 1st review?

The word that comes to mind is stodgy.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Why stodgy?

I think you could get a re-evaluation once you do some prereqs.