What Online College I Attended (And Who I’d Actually Recommend It To)
Last Tuesday, I was folding laundry on the couch after dinner, my 16-year-old daughter propped her feet on the coffee table and paused her TikTok mid-scroll. “Mom,” she said, “you never told me what online college you went to for your teaching degree. Would you actually recommend it, or is it one of those scammy places people talk about online?”
I got pregnant with her when I was 18, graduated high school and got a job at the local dentist office front desk, rented a one-bedroom apartment with a roommate for a year. By the time she was 3, I was ready to stop daydreaming about being a teacher and actually do it. On-campus classes were out of the question: I couldn’t quit my job, childcare for a 3-year-old during the day cost more than my rent, and night classes would’ve meant paying for after-hours care that I couldn’t afford. I spent three weeks scrolling through consumer forums at 10pm after she went to bed, comparing options, and landed on Western Governors University, a non-profit online competency-based college.
My “classroom” was the hand-me-down oak dining table I got from my grandma, which still has a bright purple crayon mark on the left leg from when Lila was 2. I did most of my work between 9pm and 11:30pm, after I cleaned up from dinner, played with her, and got her to bed. Some nights I’d fall asleep on my laptop mid-reading assignment, wake up at 1am with my face on the keyboard and a cramp in my neck. I’d drag myself to bed and get up at 7am the next day for work, same as always.
It worked for me in ways I didn’t expect. Competency-based learning means you move through classes as soon as you prove you know the material, not when the semester ends. I’d been working in the church nursery for 5 years at that point, led a toddler story time at the library every Saturday, so I already knew most of the intro to early childhood development material. I tested out of three classes in my first term, which cut my time in school by almost a full year. Program advisors helped me arrange my student teaching at the elementary school 10 minutes from my apartment, so I didn’t have to travel far or rearrange my childcare that much. Total cost for my bachelor’s degree ended up around $14,000, all covered by a Pell Grant and a $100 a month payment plan for the small portion that was left. I graduated 2.5 years after I started, no five-figure student debt hanging over me when I got my first teaching job.
It wasn’t all perfect, though. Discussion boards felt like a waste of time half the time—half the other students never posted on time, and the ones that did just copied generic paragraphs from the textbook to hit the word count. I never had a study group to quiz me before big assessments. Once I spent three hours stuck on a special education assessment strategy, and my program mentor didn’t reply to my email for 48 hours. I sat at that dining table crying because I thought I’d have to drop out and go back to just answering phones forever. I ended up finding a free YouTube video from a professor at another university that explained it clearly, but that’s not a problem you deal with when you can raise your hand in class and get an answer right away. I also didn’t build any professional connections through the program, which meant I had to scramble for references when I applied for my first job.
When people ask me if I’d recommend it, I never say yes or no straight up. It depends on who you are and what your situation is. I don’t recommend it for 18-year-olds straight out of high school who don’t have a lot of practice sticking to a self-directed routine. When Lila asked if she should do four years fully online, I told her no, right now. If you can’t stick to 2 hours of focused work every night for two weeks without someone (a parent, a teacher, a boss) reminding you to do it, you’re going to fall behind and waste your money.
There are a few concrete things I tell anyone considering online college now, that I wish someone had told me 10 years ago. First, before you enroll in any full online program, take one 3-credit class at a local community college online first. See if you can finish all the work on time without anyone nudging you. If you can’t, online isn’t for you. Second, always check that your specific program is accredited by the national board for your field, not just the college. I needed my teaching degree to be accredited by the national educator prep board to get my license in our state, and WGU checked that box. A lot of unaccredited schools market themselves as affordable and flexible, but you end up with a degree no employer or licensing board will accept. Third, if you do go the online route, schedule 15 minutes once a month to check in with your program mentor or a fellow student in your field. It takes almost no time, and you’ll have connections to ask for help or references when you need them.
I do recommend WGU for people who already have full time jobs, who have kids they can’t rearrange their whole life for, who already have work experience in the field they’re studying. My younger sister is 32, has two kids under 7, works 12-hour shifts two days a week as a medical assistant, and she’s halfway through her nursing degree through WGU right now. She does her homework between patients on her break and after the kids go to bed, and it’s working for her because she already knows what discipline is, and she can’t quit her job to go to in-person nursing school.
Lila’s still thinking about doing her first two years of general ed online to save money before she transfers to the state university for her biology degree. I told her to take an online biology class next year when she’s a senior, see how it goes. I don’t regret going to WGU for a second—it got me the job I love, let me stay home with Lila when she was little, and I didn’t end up drowning in debt. But it’s not for everyone. Some people need the in-person structure, the casual connections, the built-in routine of going to class every day. That’s fine. There’s no one right way to get a degree, it just has to fit your life right now.
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