Washington State University

The WSU online MBA program is a very slow program that is not academically rigorous/challenging. The Online MBA program did not prepare me for a financial career and has not opened many doors. The program is set up and mandates that students may only take one course at a time. Unfortunately there is no way to speed up the program/your graduation as courses are offered on a rolling cycle, meaning that many courses are not offered for months/years. Washington State University does not require the GMAT... Read More for admittance, but they do require foundational/core courses which can be transferred in (from your Bachelor's program), however if you did not take or pass a foundational course during your undergrad, you are required to take the equivalent foundational course before you can start the MBA program. This is a hidden cost/time waster which was not clearly explained during the admissions process. This can add a semester or even a full year to the program (not to mention additional costs). One trick which would never be explained to you, is that you can take multiple courses at the same time if and only if one of the courses is a foundational course. Courses are 7 weeks long (semesters are 14 weeks), only a single MBA course is offered during each 7 week cycle, as the University has Professors teach multiple different courses throughout the program (as a cost savings initiative), meaning you can take two MBA courses per semester (one at a time) and if you miss a course, you will need to take it when it is next offered (2 years later), but if you have foundational courses that are required on top of the MBA program, you can often take a foundational course and an MBA course simultaneously. Some MBA courses have prerequisites requiring the completion of the foundational course prior to admission into the MBA course, but many MBA courses have no prerequisites, so if there are two courses offered at one (foundational and MBA), you can take both. WSU Academic Advisors are always changing and you will likely have multiple different advisors throughout the program, so definitely double check their work. An academic advisor will creat your "most efficient graduation course schedule", however they do not know which electives you will be taking and or when those electives will be offered, so you will need to plan our your own schedule, taking into account what discipline you'd like to take your electives in/when those courses will next be offered. You may need to take an elective as one of your first courses in the program, even though your "most efficient graduation course schedule " has electives listed during year two of the program. As for academic rigor, most of the program courses utilize Pearson's eLearning portal, where students need to pay for access (for 7 weeks), into the Pearson's course portal in order to access the course textbook and assignments. Person's generates quizzes and homework assignments automatically and most professors do not dare to alter the Pearson's assignments. For the vast majority of courses in the MBA program, you will not need to attend (zoom) an instructors lesson (Professor/Assistant Professor), as nearly all assignments are based solely off of the Pearson's learning material (unaltered). A few Professors alter the assignments a bit, and one Professor (as of 2022), completely creates their own course and requires students to take online Proctored exams (you must record your test taking and your only scratch paper is a white dry erase board, that you must show your work on and erase completely after taking the exam), but for the most part, courses are very cookie cutter. Most courses consist of 7 weekly discussion posts and a final exam. Some courses add a group project to the final exam or in lieu of the final exam. A few courses have weekly homework assignments/quizzes in addition or in lieu of other assignments, but in general the work load is no more than 5 hours per week. Many (all) of the finance courses/accounting courses that utilize Excel, give students the Excel formulas for each assignment and all the students needs to do is to alter the data input to match the current question. If you're looking for very high level introductions into subjects, this program is for you. If you want to become a Master of these subjects, this program is not the program, as the courses barely scratch the surface of any subject it touches. Final Summation- Courses are offered one at a time - You may have gaps/half semester/entire semesters where not a single course that you need is offered. Courses are generally very easy/very high level. The program will likely take 2.5 - 3 years minimum. Most courses are run by the TA/Assistant Professor. Most course work answers are given to students by the Professor before any exam/major assignment. Most course work answers come directly from the text book/online answer bank.

Absolutely horrible online experience. I took maybe 3 courses here through their Global Campus and can attest to previous claims that this was probably the worst experience of my educational career. Their platform was completely inept and the teachers had NO idea how to teach an online class. I swear it was like a mousehunt just trying to figure out how to open an assignment. No built in links but tons and tons of hyperlinks that had no relation to each other. I can say that the linguistic course... Read More I took was by far the worst conducted course I have ever been enrolled. the first test required knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the teacher wanted special marks placed on top of words that nobody's keyboard even can generate. I would be surprised if anyone passed this course. Lack of involvement from staff in the cultural and social anthro department. They are so out of touch with the online platform it is laughable. I immediately left this school and transferred after a semester. It is non-user friendly "global" campus that I would not recommend to anyone.

WSU has a great undergrad program for psychology, especially for students looking to pursue their degree online. There are a wide variety of courses, and different opportunities to enhance your learning experience through different roles not normally seen in online programs. WSU provides teaching assistant roles, research assistant roles, all of which enhance the learning experience. I was really impressed with my experience with WSU, and would recommend the program to any student, especially those... Read More with busy schedules, or children.

Global campus online school: If you are a single parent, or have other life responsibilities, don't even try. Yvonne Berliner (Women in Latin American history) is unsympathetic to real life issues arising throughout the semester; She's very condescending as well.Teachers are micro-managers-online studies should be more flexible and accommodating to busy adults. The technology used for assignments is antiquated; I had better quality online classes at Lake Wa Technical College. I'm canceling my enrollment-... Read More I deserve better if I'm PAYING to get an education. WSU, step it up!

Growing up in the northwest provides multiple options for individuals to attend university. Many friends of mine have discussed their experiences at other locations, but they didn't seem to compare to mine at Washington State University (WSU). Like many, I have been forced to fund my undergraduate and graduate studies with little outside help. As such, I worked fulltime while a student at WSU. In order to pursue a bachelors degree, I needed to find a college with a flexible program to allow for such... Read More a busy schedule. WSUs three campus options (Pullman, Vancouver, and Online) provided the perfect solution. Much of my time was spent at the Online campus, however, there were a couple classes that were not offered. The Vancouver campus had these unoffered classes and it was easy to complete split enrollments. To help facilitate a difficult schedule, my advisor worked diligently and swiftly to get me answers to questions I had and suggested courses based on my interests. My interests changed multiple times throughout my undergraduate career, so this was very helpful. The online classes were challenging, simply because of the inherent motivation needed to do well without going to a physical class. That said, each instructor was helpful whenever students asked questions on the public discussion board. For me, when asking questions privately, the response time was fast. This, again, makes a difficult schedule a little bit easier. Most memorable was the understanding of one instructor when I could not complete an important exam for her class. In the middle of a timed exam, I was made aware that there was a water leak in my apartment. Accordingly, I stopped my progress with the exam and tended to the leak. Shortly after the time expired, and calming down from my panic attack, I emailed my professor requesting to have a second opportunity to complete the exam. Within 3 hours, I received a response granting a second attempt. Frankly, I don' know if every professor would do this but I am grateful for that one and the others that have helped get me to where I am today. Without the understanding and flexibility that was provided by WSU, I may not be attending law school this fall. For that, I am grateful.