anyone used University of Pheonix

[Shelly]

Daughter wants to start school online thru them. I know they advertise alot, but that is all. Any first hand knowledge anyone.

 

[joyjoy]

A lot of our employees (I'm in HR) get degrees from U o P. I know because we have a tuition reimbursement program and I'm constantly paying them for their courses passed. It's totally legit, but crazy expensive. A regular 3 hour course at a community college costs about $300. University of Phoenix - three times that or more.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I would check if their courses are transferrable in case she decides to switch schools.

Also--many community colleges offer on-line course work and even some universities.

When I was a student--it was important that in case something happened, that my credits would be good elsewhere.

 

[Shelly]

Thanks I have told her to check to see if the credits will transfer. She got a grant she pays nothing, but I do wish she would re consider community college. She is just really determined on this school for some reason.

 

[mamacatnv]

My DH got his Bachelors thru them - crazy expensive. They were kind of the first of their type, there are a lot of legit and well accredited online schools now. I'd call the CC and talk with their admissions people to get some ideas of the different online schools that are out there and that are fully transferable.

UOP is geared towards the working adult, has a minimum age limit and a minimum number of hours the person works (or at least they used to).

 

[apirateslifeforme]

Before I lost my job, I was seriously considering taking some online courses - not through Phoenix, but just online in general. Then I was laid off and returned to school, at the community college, and to be honest, I won't consider online classes anymore. I've realized that the face time you get from physically being in class is extremely valuable. We do have a message board set up for my classes, but there's no guarantee that your teacher or even any of your classmates will be on when you are. What if you're in the middle of something and you need an answer right away?

Unless it's a class where you have to be online at a certain time, so it's like having a class with everyone together. My school doesn't do those. I personally just prefer face time in a classroom. YMMV...

 

[wvjules]

If she is really wanting an online school she should really look into brick and mortar schools that have an online program. I am anxiously awaiting word on admission to Penn State. My degree will simply state "The Pennsylvania State Univeristy", nothing about it being online. On the other hand, everyone knows UoP is online only. I'm sure in competive job markets they will view a UofP degree as less than that from a regular brick and mortar school.

http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/

 

[luvsJack]

I know two people who are attending UoP right now. One is an accounting major and has to write a LOT of papers. She is beginning to wonder how writing papers is getting her a degree in accounting. (she had finished her basics when she started so these are just the accounting classes)

I had thought about UoP too until she told me that.

 

[aen8888]

I would agree with wvjules. An online program from a brick and mortar school is really important, mostly because they are all non-profit schools and more about education rather than money. That also means they have things like football and basketball teams that she can root for. That may not matter so much to her, but those things are important because they make you proud of your school and hence your degree. Non-profit also means you get more personal attention.

Your daughter may want to check out Ottawa University. They are an accredited, brick and mortar school, and just like wvjules pointed out, your diploma says "Ottawa University" not "Ottawa University Online." Their traditional campus is located in Ottawa, KS.


Good luck!!

 

[AshleyW]

If she is really wanting an online school she should really look into brick and mortar schools that have an online program. I am anxiously awaiting word on admission to Penn State. My degree will simply state "The Pennsylvania State Univeristy", nothing about it being online. On the other hand, everyone knows UoP is online only. I'm sure in competive job markets they will view a UofP degree as less than that from a regular brick and mortar school.

http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/

I second this. Not to mention, I know several people who went through University of Phoenix and now can't get hired. Apparently a lot of businesses around here don't take UofP's degrees very seriously. And, last time I checked (which was awhile ago, so it may have changed by now) they weren't accredited for their business degrees like a regular business school would be.

Another school to look into is Upper Iowa University: www.uiu.edu They're a regular university with online programs for most of their degrees. They're usually ranked in the top 10 for online programs. My fiance just graduated from there with his degree in finance this past week.

 

[mamacatnv]

When my hubby went to UoP (8 yrs ago) he did not do their online courses he went to classes, study groups etc. He has had no issue with his degree but he was in his late 40's and well established in his career - it really was just a piece of paper, albeit a very expensive piece of paper, but paper none the less.

 

[Shelly]

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to give feedback I will show her this thread.

 

[joyjoy]

On the other hand, everyone knows UoP is online only.

This is not true. They do have regular classrooms and instructors.

 

[Cindy B]

One of my coworkers is in a U of P program, she tells me that she has 5,000-8,000 word papers to do every week.

I personally wouldn't do it.

 

[Tamarap]

I earned my Masters in Education through the University of Phoenix. First, they are not online only. My program included a credential and California does not accept an online credential. I attended classes at couple of their locations. For my program you were enrolled in one class at a time. Each class is 4 or 6 weeks. I did not write a 5,000 word paper every week. I did have one major paper due in each class (usually the last class), but even those weren't 5,000-8,000 words. An average paper was 3-5 pages. I called the school district I wanted to teach in to make sure that a credential earned through this college was acceptable and they had no problem with
U of P. They were more concerned with where I earned my bachelors (University of California Riverside).

 

[Mommy2three]

I go to Devry University online. It is a great program. You take one class every 8 weeks. The reason I chose Devry is because they also have actual college campuses. So Devry might be something to check into also.

 

[Tweevil]

I did Kaplan University - lemme tell you.... online is HARD. You had to attend classes online every week and the workload was massive. My peers that went to the local college couldn't believe my workload compared to theirs. Often times we would use lunch time to cram and it seems I was the one cramming while they were chit chatting and reviewing each others notes. Kaplan has quite a few campuses as well as their online courses. I could have walked (in Boca Raton) if I wanted to. It was expensive but I feel like I earned the degree not just paid for it.

A staff member of mine when to another online school (I don't recall the name) and she did dual masters in less than 2 years - their graduation was an online powerpoint that she invited me to... it didn't seem right and I couldn't imagine how she could have went from a bachelors to a masters in less than 2 years in 2 areas...?!?! It kinda ripped me because I know what I did and what she did and it wasn't the same in my book.

Good luck to your daughter!

 

[barkley]

dh got his bachelors through them (10 years ago) but it was at one of their brick and morter campuses. he's attending a traditional university now (masters/credential) and finding that the pace/workload is much easier as compared to the demands of the courses he took through uop.

since uop (at least back then) is so geared to "working professionals" the stucture of their courses seemed to take for granted that the students had some kind of previous or current experiece with the topics, or could easily determine the correlation between the class topic and some aspect of what they were doing at work. many if not most assignments were designed to pull from your work enviornment (so many included papers or projects that you needed to research/apply within a professional environment).

the pace of the courses was insane-and though you might only meet as a class one nite a week you were meeting as group members on projects at least an additional 2 nites.

i had a professional associate who taught in house for my employer but also part time at both local university and on occasion for uop-we discussed uop and his take was that their brick and morter baachelor's core courses were structured more more like university master's level courses-there was the presumption you had prior knowledge or current experience (to some degree) of the topic before you ever began-and that you could hit the ground running. he said he saw much greater success in those courses with persons who had some previous college or professional training.

you do need to check and see if units are transferrable (if there's a chance you will go to another college or go on to another degree elsewhere) but thus far dh has'nt found a problem with that EXCEPT when he was looking at another excellerated program (i want to say 'st mary's'????)-it seems like the excellerate programs are less accepting of each others courses.

 

[squirrlygirl]

DH got his bachelor's through UofP--it was HARD! I can't imagine a young student choosing that route! It has to be accredited or DH's work wouldn't have paid for it. For DH he probably would've benefited from some "real" classroom interaction but his work hours didn't allow it. They also only accepted one of his community college courses for transfer credit

DH is finishing up his Master's next year-he chose NOT to attend UofP. Partly because of the cost, and partly because he feels a different university will have more credibility due to some misconceptions about UofP. It didn't matter with his bachelor's-that was more to have the piece of paper for his current employer.

 

[Christine]

At least where I work (here on the DC area), if we get a resume with a UoP degree on it, we all do the "eye roll." It doesn't carry any weight here at all. Maybe in other parts of the country is is okay. We aren't against online schools either. We see several from the University of Maryland University College and that doesn't provoke the same eye roll.