I am a recent graduate of WGU.  With planning, I was admitted to the 24th ranked EMBA program in the U.S. and am doing well in the program.  WGU provides an alternative for mature students that I personally applaud.

Update a year later: I am wrapping up my Executive MBA and found that I was well prepared for the rigors of graduate school.

"Rigors of what grad school?". My understanding is that WGU credits are usualy not transferable.
Read more at handbill.us

Your understanding is incorrect seattlejew, I am a double graduate of WGU and still enrolled for yet another masters. I am a teacher and Registerd Nurse. Wgu is fully accredited and transferable the deal is with most schools they do not allow you to transfer in your hard core credits just the backbone, which is your AA degree the first two years. The schools usually want you to do all the program specific classes with them. I have been going to college geting one type of a degree or another for 22 years now. When I graduated WGU with my BA in education I was worried that coming from an all online school would possibly prevent me from finding the right job but I had 43 offers because WGU helps you prepare your portfolio in an amazing way. They really do what needs to be done to get you ready. I love WGU besides who would ever want to transfer, you can get a bachelors degree for 24k you can get a masters for 12k max and other schools charge between 80k and 60k for similar. WGU is hard core showing the world how we do it.

I just recently completed a Bachelor program at WGU and plan to enroll in the MBA program shortly. The experience was exactly what I had hoped it would be. I finished my degree on my own terms, going fast when I wanted to, taking more time when I needed to, and got everything completed in 2 years (with about 15 transfer credits).

I was initially concerned because not everything from my old college days transferred, so I thought I would take longer than I wanted, but it ended up being only me when I took longer. Several times throughout the 2 years life would 'happen' and I'd need to ignore school for a few weeks (which obviously causes problems in traditional schooling). I remember the holiday time was particularly busy for me last year and I ended up needing to spend very little time on school stuff, but because of the way it works that wasn't a problem - I just picked right back up with my work where I left it when my schedule evened out.

The programs are awesome (challenging!) and the flexibility to work at your own pace is ideal for parents like me who have lots of obligations. However, one word of warning -- if you aren't willing to motivate yourself, you may struggle. I had experience running my own business for years so I was used to self-motivating but for someone who isn't used to having to make themselves accountable it might be very easy to get lazy. Overall, I loved the experience, have plenty of options of where I could take a masters degree from other colleges, but I really just am not interested - I plan to go back to WGU for a Masters because I just really love the way it works there.

Not only does the WGU tuition include all costs, it is the source of essentially all funding for the school. Local community colleges may charge a bit less tuition, but tuition generally provides only 10% or so of TOTAL community college funding. State universities charge about the same tuition as WGU, but again, tuition at state universities provides only about 15% of total funding. This is why states like Washington, Indiana, and Texas are quickly setting up affiliate programs to WGU and states like Wisconsin and Arizona are setting up clone programs under their own label.

I've recently started at WGU in their Master of Science, Information Security and Assurance course. I am pleased to say that it is challenging, affordable, and flexible in terms of time management.

I have graduated from brick and mortar colleges and I must say that, with WGU, I am pleased that I do not have to sit in a classroom at a set time every week with people that are half my age.  

and did this help get you as job?
From what I can find (see more at handbill,us) probably not

I just checked out your handbill, us and honestly they have no clue, thats a bunch of nonsense gibber jabber. First of all it says wgu has a 2.? graduation rate this is absolutly false, the statistics they are getting are from the fasfa and fasfa calculates graduation rates only on first time students since 99.999999999 % of wgu students are second time enrollies then their graduation never counts on the percentile. Then your handbill says that wgu is a lyier that they call their self non-profit and since they are not owned by a board of directors then they don't have to answer to the FCC junk....Dude, WGU charges 6 grand a semester, if you can find a profit in that after the mentors, the teachers, the web fees, books, and the sheer telephone bills are paid then please get the piggy bank out and lets throw that 15 cents that was left over after paying the bills in that bank. WGU is more than an online school they litteraly expect great things from their students and they do everything in thier pwoer to graduate you...the add on there where the HANDBILL lies and posts the craigslist add about how he has a phd and will write their papers and take their math and science on line is a stupid joke, first of all if he had a phd he would not need to write and cheat for other peoples papers this is a total scam someone trying to get folks to send them cash its a scam. When you take a test for wgu you do it proctored and you have already gone and done fingerprints and identity verification and you can't get away with someone else doing your work for you...yeah you might be able to hire someone else to write your paper but you can do that anywhere its not as if they follow you home at night to see if you did it or paid the geek down the street. Next even if you try that wgu will catch it while other collegs use computerized grading system yes even for essays and such wgu still uses a human being and they do their jobs well. please quit knocking my school you have no idea what your talking about. Sorry for the bad spelling i keep dozing off here.

I am not interested in a discussion via Disqus. If you want to post this at The-Ave.US, just let me know.

In doing that I d suggest you read what you have written for accuracy and grammar. For example, the articles on TA have never said that WGU is a for profit. What I have written is that it pays its admns exorbitant fees and permits them to also get paid by providers that collect money from WGU fees .. a conflict of interest that would be illegal at a truly public school.

Honestly I was beyond tired when I wrote this post because I had worked all day long at the job I got from my WGU degree. Enough Said, and I could care less to go to a web page of your picking to discuss it so you can get paid for web driving. ie...you get paid by the website for driving traffic their way. It looks to me like all they do is post other people's garbage. Again, Enough Said.

Bull

I am not paid for anything to do with The Ave.

Like most partisans of WGU I have encountered you do not seen willing to defend the place with anything other than (false) accusations against the critics and a dependence on anecdotes.

The offer remains and is an honest one.. I would love to read an account that is an honest statesment that proves Mr con verb wrong

No one is even willing to start that conversation with you because it is stupid. It is not worth discussing. They charge each student less than nothing to attend so why do you care what they pay thier instructors and mentors. Those people deserve to be paid. Go pick on the red cross and feed the world and see what their ceo's make, drive, and look at their homes. For every dollar you donate to them the folks around the world get less than about penny of it. Go find out where the other 99 and a half cents went and leave us alone. Go pick on the movie stars and the rich who go to feed the seal dinners where they play a thousand dollars a plate so they can write their hob nobbing off on their taxes. Im not going to keep setting here replying to you. I also don't need you saying I spoke to you first because that is mute at this point your kicking my school and it is my school not yours. You probably live in your moms basement and have nothing better to do than live on the internet trying to upset people. So let me say for all of us at WGU ask your mom to bring down your milk and cookies and you go to bed and wake up tomorrow and go get a real job and quit harrassing WGU students. We don't need it we already work. MOM come get your brat and tuck him in I don't care if he is 45 years old....stick him in bed and if it's not raining tomorrow then put him out and tell him to get a job and get out of your basement. Hey I put you some gramatical errors in there in case you feel the need to put your editor cap on. :)

Given the tenor and quality if this reply I will simply post it... with attribution...

You are hardly doing WGU a good deed.

And your not hurting WGU one bit with your ramblings so keep rambling. You are not affecting anyone's decision.

again seattlejew your wrong I was offered so many jobs as a wgu grad that I changed my phone number so they would quit calling me. Handbill, paying you to drive business to their site. Read the white house news letter, they think wgu is the most amazing school in the country. Why are you dogging wgu.

I think anyone can appreciate the fact that Western Governors is trying to bring a low-cost option to higher education. However, no one seems to be holding them to the same basic standards as state and private colleges regarding graduation rates (which they don't report) or job placement rates. For some thought-provoking questions about WGU, see http://handbill.us/?p=5155.  

 Well, since the average student for WGU (36) are well above the normal for most other colleges (28) that fall in the Carnegie Large category, the normal metrics for graduation rate aren't really relevant.  Yes there is only a 2.6% grad rate for students attending 4 years, however most of us only need a few credit hours and then the rest of us since we are adults have a lot more on our plates than just going to class everyday, so it takes us longer to complete.  However there is a 70% first year retention rate which ranks high in this category.  Also if you research your own thought provoking question you would see the first falsehood where the Johann Neem says that Washington States Community college tuition are half they are actually more expensive...their average tuition alone is $4,000/yr and that does not include books or tech fees, whereas WGU has a flat rate tuition of approx. $6300/yr which includes everything (except required malpractice insurance and other program specific requirements).  Also do I really need to point out the article you are using for thought provoking is over a year old....get something more relevant...How about Tom Brokaw's news report this year or the Today Show this year, or Good Morning America this year......Shall I go on...Oh by the way out of those other schools who boast about their graduation rates how many of them qualify for National Honor Society....Every WGU Student does since the lowest grade you can complete a course with is at a minimum of a "B"?  So why do you "have it out" for a college which is proving itself day in and day out, maybe just maybe, because your envious of us who do and those of you who can't do anymore??

They are using that article because they are getting paid to drive people to the page, I would hate to have a job where all I could do is surf the web inserting addresses so that people will log on through the link and the advertisers pay them for it. We all know what WGU is and those who have doubts can find a different school we don't need them mucking up the cabbage here anyway. I saw a post the other day where a guy put on you tube that WGU gave him and entrance exam and then said he did not qualify to go there for his masters and he was like oh yeah they won't let ME in...he thought he was smart enough for harvard. IDK i'm just saying this school WGU saved my life. I almost died my last semester there and they were on the phone with me at the hospital, they were very much involved in aligning my educational needs with my health needs and made sure I was given everything I needed in my home life so that I could finish school. They are family not just school.

They are upholding the standards that of over 6 different Accreditation organizations so they are upholding the same standards that other colleges/universities have to uphold; however, I think their courses and curriculum are better than most colleges/universities because it is more 'real life' application instead of just book/classroom learning.  I know numerous students who have graduation from normal institutions over the last 5-7 years and 50% of them are still out of work and cannot get hired.  If school cost more than students can make an hour/yearly salary, then students are not going to be able to get ahead in their career or their lives.  This is the reason why most college students are in the poverty level no matter what they make.  Maybe more colleges should take a few lessons from WGU and the govenors who started this amazing institution.

Beauty schools are also accredited. Rge question is why only 2 percent ever finish WGU and why they will not disclose the incomes of their admins.

(see more at handbill,us)

Let me also say when I graduated WGU with my teaching degree they paid for my classroom to be set up from floor to celing. Thats MY SCHOOL please stop web driving your site is not only inaccurate your site is just plain stupid with the full on effect of a scandal rag at best.

again your WED DRIVING....that rate is for first time college students and that is what I read on the FASFA website. It does not count returning college students which is the population of WGU students.