u/ITratWGU

Hi everyone! I’m just reaching out as I feel like I’m drowning here at WGU. I’m a program mentor and I’ve only been here for a year, but I’m starting to feel burnt out and just sick and tired of these students that are coming here complaining about everything. I do my best to support students, but I’m feeling like WGU does not hold a lot of them accountable for certain things. And even then the workload has just gotten to be too much. Not only that but we have three people who are on leave right now and because there isn’t coverage for those mentors, our team is assisting students so we’re having to take over some of that load. I’m reaching out as I’m thinking about quitting, but I wanted to see what you all thought about other opportunities elsewhere. I know some of you have left WGU and are working at different companies so I’m just curious about what you’re doing and if you’re a mentor transitioning into another type of job field.

As a program mentor, I call, email, and text my students non-stop. I cannot force an adult at an online university to log into their courses, complete assessments, or communicate with me. We have no control over student actions and there are few consequences. Our evaluation should be based on our efforts, not the students’ lack of effort.

They’re supposed to announce the updated version of the MSCSIA I informed the group of a few weeks ago this week. No more ISC 2 CC, optional ISACA AI cert, plus additional course (11 courses & 36 CUs) and more restrictive standard pathway. New program in effect for all new students 10/1.

​Leadership loves to compare WGU to traditional mega-universities when bragging about enrollment, but let’s look at what those student-to-staff ratios actually look like in higher education:

​The Scale Comparison:

​Arizona State University (ASU): ~140,000 total students across online and campus. Total staff and faculty: ~20,000+.

​Penn State System: ~88,000 students. Total staff and faculty: ~17,000+.

​WGU: ~135,000+ active students. Total employee headcount: seemingly Capped at ~8,400.

​What This Means for Staff:

At a state university, academic support, grading, advising, and course maintenance are divided across tens of thousands of specialized staff. At WGU, leadership artificially caps full-time headcount at ~8,400 while pumping record student volume through the pipeline.

​That puts Program Mentors at 100–130+ student caseloads (tracked on phone-queue telemetry like an inbound call center) and forces Evaluators to grade complex capstones on 4-minute assembly-line turnaround timers.

​The Quality Trap:

Traditional universities scale their faculty when enrollment grows. WGU scales its executive compensation ($2M+ for the CEO) while forcing frontline staff to absorb massive student growth for $0.11/hr raises ($4.40 a week raise).

​This isn't "innovative higher ed efficiency." It’s an educational call center that relies on frontline burnout to keep the profit margins high for the C-suite.

Updated version of the MSCSIA program is rolling out in a few months that doesn’t include the ISC2 certification.

How are you handling the increased caseloads, raising expectations, and continual critique when students don’t hold up their end of their education? I’ve been a mentor in the School of Ed for over 5 years and in the last year I feel that I am drowning and constantly being critiqued for everything outside of my control when I have worked myself to the bone. It can’t just be me. Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Is this something that is discussed openly in your teams?
I understand that there are serious systematic issues going on right now. How are you handing it?