Western Governors University Reviews

From a Financial Aid perspective, the process felt fragmented and difficult to navigate. There was no clear point of ownership, and I was often left trying to determine who had decision-making authority. This lack of coordination contributed to delays and ultimately required me to follow up multiple times across different channels. On the Student Conduct side, I was contacted by Jessica **, Manager of Student Conduct, regarding an alleged violation categorized as “disruption.” According to the university’s Code of Conduct, disruption is defined as obstruction or interference with university operations, advising, or administrative processes. Typically, this standard is intended to address behavior such as harassment, refusal to comply with directives, or actions that materially interfere with university functions.

That is not what occurred in my case. My communications were consistently professional, respectful, and focused on resolution. This was acknowledged directly. The concern raised was not about tone, behavior, or misconduct, but rather the volume and scope of my outreach. My outreach was driven by urgency, lack of clarity, and the need to advocate for myself in a situation that had a direct impact on my financial stability and academic continuity. There is a clear distinction between disruption and advocacy. I was not obstructing university operations, I was actively trying to engage with them. I was not preventing processes from moving forward, I was attempting to understand and navigate them. The classification of my actions as “disruptive” appears to be based on internal strain rather than any true interference or misconduct.

Additionally, escalation to leadership did not result in meaningful resolution. Instead, it highlighted gaps in communication, coordination, and A LACK accountability FROM LEADERSHIP. When students are left without clear answers, it is reasonable that they will seek support through multiple channels. I have remained professional, respectful, and solution-oriented throughout this entire process. However, this experience has exposed significant concerns around how student advocacy is interpreted and how high-impact situations are managed.

Western Governors University promotes itself as a flexible and student-focused institution. In my experience, that standard was not consistently met when navigating complex financial and administrative challenges. I HAVE PROOF!!! My goal in sharing this is not simply to criticize, but to encourage improvement. Students deserve clear communication, defined processes, and support, especially when facing urgent and life-impacting circumstances.

Why wouldn't it be communicated all in one evaluation of the content? Cause they want to further prolong how long it takes you, so you have to enroll in another term. You can appeal it, but that takes 5-7 days on its own, and every department is just set up to support each other's decisions anyways so it doesn't matter and would be a waste of time. They say three days to review submissions, but it often takes even longer than that. They won't let you move onto the next course until the previous course is closed out even with petitioning that you are just standing by, playing their revision game with no real schoolwork or forward progress. You can't talk to the evaluators directly to "protect them" is what I was told? I have been through multiple other degree programs and have never experienced anything like this.

Normal degree programs you can talk to your professor directly about grading at any time and if they decide something wasn't perfect about your paper they would just mark some points off and it's still done. Not go through this review game. The "mentors" are just there to copy and paste all their 1000's of policies back to you when you try to fix issues and work forward. The whole thing is set up as a locked down system to take your money fast and then pretend to be supportive while playing games. I was even threatened as being uncivil despite never having once said anything inappropriate or offensive, but it was another "policy" to try to silence me and put me in my place. I am literally the nicest most humble and easy-going person and have never had an issue like this at any place of school or work before in my life!

The only reason I want to progress is to save my family money as we have enough student loans. But despite having zero reason other than "policy" they won't let me go to my next class and everyone gives the run around and just keeps responding the same "policy" over and over without any actual reason. If you plan on working slow and don't mind paying for multiple terms, then maybe this would work for you. But don't buy into this, saving you any money or being friendly to people who work full days and have kids and whatnot, because they will also constantly tell you to arrange calls with them during work hours of the day, to pretend to be helpful, only to say the same thing over the phone. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. Now my little family is out a lot of money because I am not continuing on because I am not paying for another term, just because they forced it to be that way, not because I wasn't working fast enough.

My second semester back (mind you I have 10 classes to complete to graduate) is turning out to be a nightmare that landed me in the ER needing life saving stabilization as the lack of effective communication, poor processes and inconsistent application of information from staff to staff exacerbated my disabilities to the point that I was projectile vomiting for 48 hours and needed to be brought to the ER for fluids, evaluation and stabilization. Here is my timeline:

Oct ‘25 start semester with financial aid pending in the portal. I started strong. 2 weeks into semester I hadn’t seen a change in the portal so I called to get an update as I need the aid to pay for my tuition and extra for living expenses. At this phone call I was informed I had exceeded MTF and wasn’t eligible for aid and was told to put in for an appeal.

The appeal involved explaining why I didn’t do well before. Long story short, during my last attempt at WGU I was post partum, escaping/surviving DV, a pandemic started, I was vexatiously dragged through the family court system, my therapist committed suicide and killed her children, and I lost custody of my children to my abuser. All in about a year. I had to drop out, and wasn’t succeeding. This led to my MTF, but the relevance is that revisiting all of that to put into writing in an appeal process I wasn’t prepared for set me back psychiatrically and greatly limited my abilities for about two weeks as I recovered from that exposure to all of those adverse events I had explained in more detail.

My appeal was approved the last week of October. The email stated to wait to hear from financial aid. So I waited. Mind you, I’m on food stamps and TANF and the government shut down during this time and financial aid was my safety plan. November 10 I called in to follow up and was told financial aid was still under review (6 weeks into my semester) and that it could be 2-4 more weeks for the award letter, and then 15-17 more weeks for distribution. Mind you, I have 19 weeks left in the semester. I started to panic again as my degree is my path out of poverty. Then on Monday the 17th I looped my mentor who found a contact in financial aid to help me navigate this.

David was helpful and forwarded me into scholarship and led me to believe the school would help bridge the gap for me, he didn’t promise but he was really really encouraging me to apply for these funds. The woman I spoke to emailed me with scholarship info and told me to call in and request it be expedited once I get the email they received it, and left the number to call.

I was unable to fill in the info until Tuesday the 18th. Today, Friday the 21st I finally got the email they received it so I called to ask for it to be expedited. I was told they don’t do that. Contrary to an email from them saying they do. When I explained the email, he changed his tune and told them they actually do and he just isn’t the right department, and I should have called scholarships. The email I have is from scholarships and I called the number in the email. This sort of disorganized administration creates a barrier to people with cognitive limitations like myself. That they are aware of.

I was then transferred to Eddie who then told me they won’t be expediting my request because they don’t do that. I explained my need as an ADA request and that this is not effective communication and their processes are making it impossible for me to succeed in coursework. He then told me he would email me by Monday to find out if they could expedite the 4-5 day process. That should have begun on Tuesday when I submitted the application. This is how the remainder of communications came in.

November 21, 2025 – Morning 10:24 AM – Eddie (Financial Aid): “Unfortunately we are not able to expedite application reviews at this time due to a high number of applications. For the Emergency Aid Fund, you should have an update by mid-next week.” 10:46 AM – Me: Submitted ADA accommodation request in writing. I described my PTSD and cognitive limitations, explained why the standard timeline created a barrier, and requested an expedited review as a reasonable ADA accommodation. 11:46 AM – Eddie: “Thank you for sharing this. We have forwarded the request to both committees. We cannot guarantee any approvals; you will be notified via email.” 12:45 PM – Me: Followed up asking for confirmation that my ADA accommodation request was formally evaluated and, if denied, for the ADA-recognized basis (e.g., undue burden).

Afternoon 2:58 PM – Generic Scholarship Team Email: Denial of Emergency Aid Fund application. No mention of ADA evaluation, criteria used, or timeline explanations. This denial arrived shortly after my ADA request, despite the earlier claim that expedited review was not possible. Following Email – Me to Scholarship Team: Requested written explanation of denial and confirmation that ADA accommodation request was considered. Observed Issues / Concerns:

• No explanation of whether accommodation was granted or denied.

• Scholarship was then processed rapidly and denied immediately after ADA request.

• Prevented informed decision-making and exacerbated disability-related barriers.

• Directly impacted ability to engage in coursework and administrative responsibilities.

• ADA Title III requires reasonable modifications to procedures, individualized evaluation of accommodations, and prohibition of adverse actions based on disability requests.

None of this is appropriate or professional. It makes me seriously question if a business running so poorly can actually teach me business at a university level. I'm not going to quit though. I’m going to remain in my path out of poverty and make it my life’s mission to steer others away from such abusive administrative experiences. I’m not surprised to find so many similar accounts of WGU experience.