Confetti in 19 months! My honest experience with acceleration
I was able to knock out my degree in 3 terms, plus a one-month extension! Honestly, the total preparation-to-completion took me longer than 3 terms. Because this is like a recipe that no one wants to read a story for:
TLDR: I used Khan Academy and coding bootcamps to prep for as many classes as possible, and studied a minimum of 6-8 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A little background: I have been self-employed for over a decade, and I use software to help with day-to-day operations. After becoming frustrated with the various platforms I used, switching from once-free features to now charging a premium on top of a subscription, I decided to teach myself to program. I did a Python coding bootcamp, and at the end, I realized I wasn't anywhere near ready to create an application. But I kept teaching myself what I thought I would need to know, but no real structure. This went on for about a year and a half.
During this time, I had a friend who just completed a business degree through WGU in about 2 years. I was interested in how that worked and what that looked like. So he gave me a heads-up on how he studied every day for at least 4 hours while working a full-time job. My wife thought it would be worthwhile to check out the software engineering program. But I didn't start just yet.
This is really where the "acceleration" took place for me. I wanted to get through WGU quickly to save money. I'm a "first-generation" college student; my family never had much money. So I went through the Program Guide for the Software Engineering degree and took every course offered on Khan Academy that seemed like a good match. It was surprising how many free courses were available that were relevant to the program. I honestly spent about 8 months on Khan Academy working through relevant courses in preparation for starting WGU. This is when I was "ready" to enroll at WGU.
My initial goal was to finish my degree in 2.5 years. I had no idea how intensive the coursework would be or what was involved with moving through coursework. My honest process for completing all my coursework boiled down to talking to every course instructor and dedicating at least 6 hours of study time each night. Not to mention my mentor was absolutely stellar, she was very honest with the process, what to look out for in classes, and was able to level set expectations before each course started. The courses covered through Khan Academy went much more quickly, but I still made a point of going through all the course material for each class. Shoutout to the Read Aloud extension for Firefox/Chrome for keeping me focused on some less-than-engaging reading. Reddit was my friend for finding guides and pinging random strangers who were very helpful.
After my initial term, I cleared 43 CU's. The second term is when I noticed that Khan Academy information wasn't as fresh in my mind, and the courses definitely felt more advanced. I kept at it, though, and came up "short" compared to the first term, with 33 credit hours. And it wasn't for a lack of motivation; the courses just were more challenging, and I needed more time. I took my laptop everywhere I worked between clients at work, and on trips with my family. I genuinely didn't take a day off through this whole process. Compared to my initial goal, I was way ahead, but I get competitive with myself.
Going into the 3rd term, I decided I was going to cut back my work schedule; I would work 1 day less a week, come in 2 hours later in the morning, so I could live the real night owl life. I increased my study time to at least 8 hours a day. And a shout-out to my wife for supporting me through this and letting me be a zombie to push through. By the end of the 3rd term, I had completed the remaining coursework and submitted my last task 4 days before the term ended. My mentor was on board with my making this last push to finish in 3 terms and had let me know that a 1-month extension for the 1 remaining course was an option. I submitted my last task on Sunday and got my confetti today!
I know that talking about acceleration has been controversial as of late, but I know not everyone tells their full story, and I didn't even share all of mine. Everyone's starting place and experience are different. But as someone who has been out of school and was hopping in with no work experience, acceleration is definitely possible. For me, it was just dedicating at least 6 hours a night, 7 days a week, and increasing that when I had to. I probably could have finished some courses earlier had I not gone through all the material, but I honestly enjoyed the learning process, and I'm aware that there's always more to learn. So here I am, almost 19 months and 6 Excellence Awards later, ready to finally sleep before 4 AM for the first time in a long time.