Before you enroll in WGU, I just need you to stop for a second. Did you know you can save thousands of dollars and shave off months from your degree before you even start at WGU? Most people have no clue that WGU allows you to transfer credits from external sources, so today I'm going to be highlighting the best ways to transfer credits and how to finish your degree in the most time efficient possible for you.
Here's the deal. WGU is great. It's flexible, it's affordable, and perfect for working adults. But there's a huge mistake that a lot of new students make that many don't even think of. They do not take advantage of WGU's transfer policies.
WGU allows you to transfer credits from community college, universities, certifications, and ACE credits from platforms like sophia.edu or study.com, just to name a few. This means you can potentially start your degree with over half of the credits completed. That's up to two years ahead.
But, and I want to emphasize this, this is a hard but, You need to do this process before you even enroll into WGU. So if you already enrolled, you know, you already sent your transcript in, this video is not for you. This is not going to work.
But if you're still thinking about enrolling, you're just hovering over that enroll button, listen carefully. Here's where it gets really interesting. If you're a number guy like me, listen up. WGU's average tuition is $4,125 per six months term.
That equals out to about $687.50 a month. Platforms like Sophia Learning cost $99 a month, and you can get a lot of those classes done relatively quickly. Study.com plans start around $200 a month. They're proctored exams, however, you can also go through that coursework relatively quickly. This is because these two websites are also an online, competency-based model.
So it's more so less turning in homework. It's if you know the course material, you should be able to pass. If you spend about $600 on Sophia and study.com memberships, you could knock out an entire year of credit before even enrolling.
That could add up to $8,250 in tuition savings. Another point I want to emphasize is that's $8,250 that you didn't have to spend that doesn't have interest on top of it. Since WGU is a competency-based school, you pay for time and not per credit hour.
Basically, the faster you complete your courses, the less you pay. By transferring these credits in, you're spending less time and money on tuition. You can go and check on WGU's website and see what classes line up directly to the classes on sofia.edu or study.com. They actually just list it out for you. When I first looked at WGU, I didn't realize how many credits I could transfer.
You know, I did go to community college, but the amount of credits I had still left me as a freshman. However, by leveraging WGU's transfer policy for my own benefit and taking those ACE-approved classes, I was able to transfer nearly two years of classes before even starting. Here is exactly what to do to start this process and transfer up to two years of credits. over to WGU.
We're going to check the WGU guidelines. Each degree path varies. You have to go through and match what classes you need to take for that degree path that you can take at sophiainstudy.com.
Here's the official transfer page if you want to check it out. Link's also in the bio. Next, you want to contact WGU admissions.
So here's where I have to put my two cents in. You have to advocate for yourself. So if someone tells you that you can't do it, just push back and if they're really giving you a hard time just say hey you know what kind of speak to someone else can't speak to your manager sometimes you have to bring it out but it's your degree it's your family's financial situation you gotta do what you gotta do after you talk to wgu admissions they'll basically give you a thumbs up on all the credits you can transfer what i did when i went into it was i literally made a google sheets or excel spreadsheet and i put every single credit that i was going to take And I lined it up with the classes that I needed to take at WGU for a certain degree I was going for.
I turned it in and I emailed it to the admissions office and I told them, hey, can you verify this transfer is going to work before I even take these classes? I want to do this before enrolling. So once you get in contact with WGU admissions, you're probably going to be talking to an enrollment counselor.
And I want you to ask them about the ACE courses. any other additional credit that you might have from community college, AP classes, certifications, or any type of work experience that potentially cover the classes that you are required to take with your degree. It's their job to walk you through the process so they will take it from there. Once you get the thumbs up and basically The counselor says, hey, everything on your spreadsheet looks good. I want you to enroll in sophia.edu first and try to take all of them on there.
That is because Sophia is $99 per month and overall a lot cheaper than study.com. And you can get the sophia.edu classes done faster because they're not proctored. And proctoring is basically when you have someone supervising you while you take your test.
You basically connect over a webcam and you have to scan your whole room. and they make sure you're not cheating while taking the test. Then my next suggestion would be to go to study.com. This is more around $150 to $200 a month. I haven't checked recently.
While you're here, you just want to focus on knocking out your general education requirements and additionally any foundational classes that you need to complete for your WGU degree. A little tip here is make sure to utilize Reddit, Facebook, Discord, anything you can find about WGU basically because a lot of these people They have been in the same situation as you. A lot of them, sometimes in hindsight, they're like, hey, you know what, I wish I would have just done that before and not taken it at WGU because the class is a lot more busy work at WGU when I could have just knocked it out at study.com.
At this point, you know, it can take anywhere from one to two to three, six months, however many months you need to complete these ACE credits. But once you are done with that, what that entails is basically you take your transcript, It has all of your credits from both Sophia.edu, Study.com, and you're going to submit it to WGU, and they're going to put their stamp of approval as you have completed these courses, and it will count towards your degree. So basically, when you log into WGU, when you see that progress bar, it's not going to say 0%. Hopefully, it'll say 50% plus. Another caveat, though, is with WGU, you can only transfer up to 75% of your degree.
Trust me. I wanted to transfer 100% of my degree to WGU and get on my merry way, but it simply doesn't work like that. There are some limitations on the transfer process.
However, I think if you can transfer up to 75% of your credits to WGU, that is more than generous. A lot of other colleges won't even consider that. Again, I want to re-emphasize that once you submit these ACE credits or past experience, you have to do that before enrolling, not during or after, because there's only one time you can do that. can transfer and that is before you enroll into WGU.
Those transfer guides are your best friend. Make sure to utilize that to the highest degree. The reason this works is because by combining WGU's transfer policies with affordable credit options, you're not just saving money, you're making progress on your degree. WGU already allows you to take control of your own education. A little bit of planning before you enroll could set you up for a long time.
Think if you can save $8,000 on tuition. What could that go to? Why take a loan out for $8,000 when you can just get a majority of your classes done prior to enrolling?
I hope you guys take all these tips into consideration. Don't make the mistake in just enrolling without even thinking about all of these options. Like, it can really change everything for you.
Take the time to start researching your options and start transferring your credits over today. If this video helped you, drop a like, leave a comment, make sure to subscribe. I have more coming on the way. And make sure to share it for friend. You know, I'm trying to get everyone educated.
I'm trying to spread the word because a lot of people didn't do well in college their first time they went through. I want to change that. I want to help you and guide you along the whole way.
But until next time, peace.