I am currently pursuing my bachelor’s in computer science at Western Governor’s University (WGU). I am thinking about transferring to my local university to do their Regents Engineering Pathway program to then go to Georgia Tech for computer engineering and then get my PhD in robotics or Computer Engineering, with a focus on reinforcement learning or computer vision. I would like to work at a National Laboratory or a Research Lab. But I’d lose 39 credits of the 42 I have. It would also be free because I recently joined the Air National Guard. Would it be better to transfer or finish WGU and then get a master’s with a thesis at a brick & mortar university, if I didn’t transfer I could potentially graduate early 2028, if I did transfer my graduation date would be 2031 or 2032 because I would have to go on military orders. To pay for school I have the Service Cancellable Loan and I should be able to obtain the Gi Bill at 50%. I also have a clearance if that helps with anything.
For Engineering in particular, in-person learning, with group work, team collaboration, labs, maker space, robotics competitions,… is vastly preferable to online learning. Therefore I think you should transfer.
In addition, the fact you’d lose credit may indicate your current degree program may not be ABET accredited so attending an ABET accredited program would make a huge difference to your employment opportunities. Indeed, there should be a lot of overlap (physics, calculus, cs, gen eds) between your current and future majors so it’s possible your current major isn’t as respected or rigorous as the one you plan to transfer to.
In addition the the sound advice above, you can also talk to a PhD advisor at a college and ask their thoughts. I’m sure someone on a committee at a bricks and mortar school can tell you about prospects from WGU, which is accredited but still may lack the recognition for a high level graduate degree.
Actually, WGU’s computer science major is ABET accredited:
However, the courses and descriptions suggest a more applied / preprofessional focus, rather than a research / pre-PhD focus.
WGU is regionally accredited, but “loss of credit” may be the result of some of the intro level courses being considered “too low level” by some other colleges and universities, or not matched to any course that they offer.
You don’t know what you don’t know yet. Once you get deeper into your curriculum, you may decide that a PhD isn’t necessary for what you want to do.
If you do decide you do want a doctorate, most skip terminal masters programs and go straight into their PhD.
If you do that, it’s WHO rather than WHERE that matters. It’s the research not the university that people looking at your resume will be paying attention to. If the top labs for your interest are at Wisconsin, or Texas, or Illinois for example, you try to get in there rather than MIT, GT, etc.
Sorry I didn’t answer the main question. Good luck!