I had completed 2 years of college at a community college and was looking for someplace to quickly get my Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology. Univeristy of Phoenix seemed like a good choice.
However, I had not done my homework by visiting sites like this, and got duped into signing up for this scam university.
My first clue was my academic advisor. It seemed like I was her first student she had processed, and didn't understand the paperwork she was reading to me. I only had to deal with her for a few months before I would get my real advisor though, so I let it slide.
I'll quickly explain how the program is set up for anybody interested:
The classes are 5 weeks long each, and most students take 1 class at a time. You can choose to take on-campus classes, all on-line classes, or what they call FlexNet classes. FlexNet classes meet on-campus the first and fifth week, and the middle 3 weeks are online.
My first class was fairly uneventful, except for my teacher did not show up the first day of class. The 5-6 students in the class waited for over an hour then left. We had to come back later in the week to make up the class because somehow the University had not informed the teacher that he was in this class.
After my first class the campus I was attending stopped offering on-campus classes.
The possibility of this happening was never even mentioned to be during my enrollment, even though it seems obvious that they had already known it was happening.
So I was forced to take FlexNet classes. I ended up taking 2 FlexNet classes, and just about everybody in both classes (students AND instructors) agreed that it was more work and less fulfilling than on ground classes. Yet the advisors and administration completely ignored everybody's complaints.
After 2 classes of FlexNet I had had enough, so myself and some fellow classmates switched campuses. Now I have to drive twice as far (about 45 mins) to another campus that offers on-ground classes.
The class I had next was Programming Concepts. I believe the instructor in that class had only taught one or two classes before. She seemed nice, but did NOT understand the content she was supposed to be teaching. During the second class, two professional programmers made it clear to the class that the teacher was unqualified and that we were wasting our money.
Some of the class disagreed at first, but after the next week when the content was getting more complicated, just about everybody agreed that the teacher was useless. One of the professional programmers offered a free workshop where he would actually teach the material.
The next day the instructor sent out an email to the class informing us that she was quitting due to "racial discrimination" which in my opinion, was completely ridiculous.
As of now, I am 4 classes and about $5,000 in, with about a year and a half to go. I feel that I am in too deep now to pull out and try another college, so I will bear through it, but I strongly urge anybody who is looking to go back to school to ignore University of Phoenix's catchy advertisements.
They do not care about the students, the do not care about teaching. They brag about how they are nationally accredited, but many of us feel that that accreditation will not last long.
If you just want to pay your $20,000 for a worthless degree, this is the college for you. However, if you are interested in actually learning something and having a degree future employers respect, please try something else.
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