Dollars and Cents

First things first, I was awarded the "Women In Technology" scholarship!!!  Yay me!!!  Like most WGU scholarships, this $2,000 award directly from WGU is dispersed at $500/term over 4 terms.  I was notified via email 6 days after my phone interview with the scholarship committee representative.  The 2 factors that I suspect contributed most to this are first that I've worked in the male dominated field of IT a total of over 14 years and second that I coach a Girl Scout First Lego League robotics team, so I am passing along an interest in technology and building the next generation of technology minded women.  Yes, being a Girl Scout pays off, spread the word.

The financial aid sections of my enrollment portal finally lit up with some to do items, including setting the amount of financial aid I wish to receive.  I set it for the cost of tuition/fees, minus my scholarship, plus the cost of a new laptop.  Going forward, I will only accept financial aid for the amount of tuition and fees.  This will keep my total student loan repayment as low as possible when this is all over.

I haven't had a new PC in 8 years, and while the beast I built is still going strong for my everyday needs, it is a bit behind the times and at 70 lbs (it's a giant behemoth gaming tower), certainly is not portable.  Time for a beefed up laptop with all the modern features and enough capacity to dual boot in a different operating system if necessary for hands-on course work.  My "proctored exam station" will be my big PC in the basement.

My first 2 terms (semesters) are all financially figured out.  I am taking out in student loans the cost of the first 2 terms plus a computer.  WGU costs $3485/semester, I have $500 in scholarship and up to $3000 annual reimbursement from work for each term (one term is in 2018, the other in 2019), which covers my first two terms entirely.  At the end of my first year the only thing that will be on my student loan account will be the amount I used for a new computer.  These will certainly be the cheapest 2 terms of my college career.

Going forward into next year, term 3 will have a $500 scholarship, and I'll apply for a local $1000 scholarship, so I'll have additional loan amount of net $2-3K.  Term 4 will be a new year (2020) and will be the same as this first term, $500 scholarship and $3000 reimbursement from work.  There will be 2-3 additional terms beyond this.  I will hunt and apply for additional scholarships/grants along the way, but between WGU's low tuition, my current scholarship and $3K annual tuition reimbursement from my employer, this should be a relatively low cost investment compared to traditional Bachelors degrees and other online programs.  At this point I estimate my final net student loan due to be about $8,000.

The Intake Interview

New this week at WGU, online Intake Interviews.

This was easy and took less than 10 minutes.  It was basically a set of online forms confirming my name, dob, address, phone, email, start date, degree program, financial obligation and home technology requirements.  The final form was a little expectations "quiz," just to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into, it covered time commitment, study habits, general assessment concepts, and they give you all the answers.  Nothing to sweat at all.

My new student orientation won't be turned on until June 15th.

While I'm waiting I do need to setup my workstation at home around my desktop PC where the webcam will be setup.  This will be at my computer desk in my basement.  From what I can tell from other student vlogs, I have some rearranging to do to make my space compliant.  This is a nice video that goes through one student's experience with proctored exams.

The Scholarship Interview

Yesterday I had a phone interview with a WGU scholarship representative.  It was very similar to my application interview.  The gentleman that called was very polite and kind.  He asked several questions.

• Why are you excited about your chosen program?
• How would receiving this scholarship impact you and your family?
• Why are you passionate about women in technology?
• What skills do you have that will make you a successful WGU student?
• What are your financial plans for covering tuition?

He said that I would hear back from the scholarship review committee via email within 2 weeks whether I am awarded a scholarship or not.  He also said that most applicants don’t get phone interviews, so it’s encouraging to be included in that group.

I applied for 3 WGU scholarship opportunities:  “New Year New You”, “Women in Technology” and “Sage”.   They only award 1 scholarship per student, so if I were to be selected for more than one, they would only award the value of 1 scholarship.  All of them are $2,000 divided over 4 terms.

It's hard to say how many of each of these specific scholarships they give out in a month.  According to WGU on LinkedIn 5,706 new students started degree programs on May 1st.  As I understand it, they have about a $7,000,000 annual scholarship budget.  If evenly granted throughout the year, 7 mil divided by $2,000 is 3,500 scholarships per year, divided by 12, is about 291 scholarships given out per month to about 5% of the month's incoming class.

I guess we’ll know in less than 2 weeks. Fingers crossed!

Cha-ching!

Well, we all know college is expensive.  A bachelors degree can cost tens of thousands of dollars.  In the case of WGU, which is cheaper than most, worst case you're looking at about $28,000-$31,500 for 4-4.5 years.  It's not exactly chump change.

For comparison, my local community college is about $2,200 for a 13 credit semester.  This doesn't include books, lab fees, tech fees or online course fees.  So, for a 2 year associates degree, you're looking at at least $8,800 plus books (several hundred every semester) and the other fees, so probably close to $11,000.  Unless you're in an online course (there aren't very many) you have to drive to class and have your butt in a seat.  Most courses are during business hours and aren't conducive to non-traditional students with jobs.  The nearest 4 year university is about $3,500 for a semester plus books and other fees.  So we're back at $28,000 plus books and fees, easily another $5,000.  So around $33,000 for a bachelors degree.

Back to WGU, the cost per semester (less than $3,500) includes all materials, e-books, flashcards, CBTs, etc and there are no additional fees.  I can attend class in my pajamas on the couch, in bed, on a road trip, wherever.  The tuition is a flat fee, regardless of how many courses I choose to complete in a 6 month term.  I can take 5 courses instead of 4, or in a great term maybe 6 courses, which over time reduces the number of terms I'm paying for school.  It also includes about $2,000 worth of certification exam vouchers.

What's my bottom line?  Ultimately at this point, undefined.  But I do know this....I don't have to take 7 courses due to transfer credits, that's almost 2 terms worth that I don't have to attend.  At the moment, I'm thinking my program will take 7 terms (3.5 years), it may take less.  3.5 years = $24,500.  My employer has a great tuition reimbursement program, $3k/year, that's $12k I don't have to worry about, so we're down to $12,500.  Here's where it gets fuzzy, I have (will) applied for scholarships, about $3k worth in total, and I'll hunt for more.  If I'm fortunate enough to get them, that would take the total cost of my degree down to $9,500.  So, for somewhere between $9,500 and $12,500, I can get a bachelors degree, almost as little as a traditional associates degree would cost.

I'm not in love with the idea of $9-12k in student loans, but it sure beats $31,500.  Looking at it from the starting gate, it's a great value.  With my new skills, the return on investment should be moderately quick.  A much better picture than what faces most college graduates these days.