A New Year's Resolution with Real Value: A College Degree

Nonprofit online college WGU Missouri urges working adults to complete their degree in 2014.

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Missouri schools and workplaces ramp back up from the holidays, the nonprofit online university WGU Missouri is urging working adults to make a college degree part of their New Year's resolution. For the 755,000 Missourians with some college but no degree, a diploma can be the key to better opportunities.

In 2011, an astounding 24% of working adults in Missouri had some college but no degree. The missed opportunity for the state is enormous. WGU Missouri's model was designed specifically to help these students gain credentials in high-demand career fields.

WGU Missouri helps adults leapfrog obstacles by harnessing the flexibility and affordability of an online education, and it helps students stay on track with a strong mentoring system and a competency-based model that takes advantage of knowledge already gained in the workforce.

When she was a little girl, Martha Jaynes of Parkville, Missouri, promised her mom that she'd go to college. But her mother died when Martha was 7 and later, in high school, people told Martha she "wasn't cut out" for college. Years later, she had completed only a few classes at a traditional college. Martha learned about WGU and its flexible, competency-based learning model and decided to go for it. With her transfer credits, Martha was able to finish her bachelor's degree at WGU Missouri in one year.

"WGU has been a life-changer for me, and I think it can be for other people, too," said Martha. She's now studying for her MBA and is being promoted at the bank where she works.

The New Year is the perfect time to focus on self-improvement. The value of a college degree is undeniable: People with a bachelor's degree earn, on average, $21,000 more per year than those with only a high-school degree. Those with a master's degree earn 90% more, after taxes, than high-school graduates working full time.

WGU Missouri was established February 15, 2013, by Governor Jay Nixon. The state's only fully online, competency-based university, WGU Missouri allows students to take advantage of prior learning and experience to move quickly through material they already know so they can focus on what they still need to learn.

For more information on WGU Missouri, including admissions requirements, visit missouri.wgu.edu.

About WGU Missouri
WGU Missouri is a competency-based, online university created to expand access to higher education for Missouri residents. The university offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the fields of business, K-12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing. WGU Missouri faculty members serve as mentors, working one-on-one with students, offering guidance, support, and individualized instruction.

Established through a partnership with nationally recognized Western Governors University, WGU Missouri is open to all qualified Missouri residents. The university is nonprofit and self-sustaining on flat-rate tuition of about $6,000 per year for most programs.

Degrees are granted under the accreditation of Western Governors University, which is accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Teachers College programs are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE*).

More information is available at missouri.wgu.edu or by calling 855.948.8493.

*Western Governors University offers nursing programs that are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 5380, Washington DC 20036, 202-877-6791).

Follow WGU Missouri:
http://www.facebook.com/wgumissouri
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/western-governors-university
http://twitter.com/wgumissouri
http://www.youtube.com/wgumissouri

Contact for media inquiries:
Kelly MacNeil
314-677-2303
[email protected]

Contact for enrollment information:
855-948-8493
missouri.wgu.edu 

SOURCE WGU Missouri