A Liability
Written: Dec 09 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Buy a degree!
Cons: Disreputable degree, prohibitive cost, corporations pulling reimbursement, lawsuits destroying reputation
The Bottom Line: Not recommended because UoP is not respected. Major corporations like Intel have pulled reimbursement and Parker & Lynch has an ad which specifically says that UoP graduates "need not apply."
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| uopblows's Full Review: University of Phoenix |
UoP is a serious liability. With the numerous lawsuits and bad press, the value of possessing a degree from the University of Phoenix is plummeting from poor to seriously detrimental.
I took a few classes with UoP. They were the easiest A’s I have ever received. After the first couple of assignments, I got the impression that the instructors were not even reviewing my assignments anymore. There were no longer comments, feedback or suggestions for improving my work. When I asked about the lack of input, I was told that they didn't feel a need to review my work and were focusing on other students.
I understood why other students would need additional assistance. Even just a simple post a paragraph long was riddled with extensive typos, misspellings, poor grammar and illogical thought. Having already received one degree from a traditional institution, I began to wonder how anyone could learn to refine their work enough for it to be considered professional and be taken seriously. I tried courses online and in person. I was hoping that the students, as well as the instructor, might have more to offer. Instead, I found myself carrying team members, doing all the finally editing and having to seriously rework and rewrite portions of team projects. It was EXHAUSTING. The work load was excessive because I was forced to work for multiple people in order to keep my own grades up. When I spoke to the instructor about it, I was advised that I needed to find a way for my group to "work together" because we would all receive the same grade. This meant that, if I wanted an A, I had to do the work for my teammates who refused to complete their own work.
In one Master's class, there was a young woman who was already teaching students. When I saw her paper, I was sick. My fifth graders wrote better than she did! So, I found out about the Center for Writing Excellence and referred her to it. I made her commit to submitting all her papers to them first before submitting to the group. Because this program was online and it took about a week for students to have submissions returned, this meant she would have to complete ALL these assignments EARLY. Luckily, she was conscientious and submitted them every time. Still, the papers we received back were not above a ninth grade level. We were grateful for the reduced work, but most students did not act with such high scruples.
In most situations, request fell on deaf ears and more than one student on the team was inexperienced and unable to complete college or graduate level work. Over and over again, I carried them on my back. Finally, I was SO tired, I simply slacked off myself. To my surprise, I still received an A! That got me suspicious and I started spending less time participating, turned in sloppier projects and even failed to meet deadlines and requirements for the papers. Surprise, surprise! I received an A for work my bachelor's level teachers would have returned to me with C’s and a good lecture. Well, it was a relief, but it was proof that the system was NOT designed for me to learn. It was designed for me to earn a degree by paying for credits and filling a seat. No wonder why all these other students were slacking off!
My mother went to UoP years ago and so did my aunt. Back then, they went to ground campuses only and they say the coursework was rigorous and relevant to their studies. Now it is often just filler. In online classes, colorful posts and interesting fonts replaced content and insight. UoP is NO LONGER a university of quality. In fact, the quality continues to decline dramatically every year. I took teaching courses there for convenience and to fulfill my ongoing learning requirements. It never mattered what course I took our what modality I used, whether it was in person, online or Flexnet, the courses had the same lackluster standards.
Avoid throwing your money away.
Intel pulled employee reimbursement for UoP in December 2006. Clearly, the business world is losing respect for their degrees. It is just one thing in a series of events that have been building against UoP. In November 2006, a securities lawsuit was filed against the company. At the end of September 2006, the EEOC filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the university. At the beginning of September 2006, the 9th Circuit Court revived a US Government lawsuit stating UoP defrauded them of hundreds of millions of dollars. This last lawsuit could lead to the government revoking UoP's ability to obtain federally insured student loans. Right now, consumers are assembling a class action and, apparently, Academic Counselors are following the lead set by Enrollment Counselors and suing for compensation in overtime pay. UoP is even being sued for violating copyright laws. Apparently they scanned entire books and mailed them to students as an incentive to start courses without having to pay for books out of pocket. They also converted several books to eBooks and used them in classes without paying royalties or informing the author who owned the rights.
If this keeps up, UoP will be just another Enron.
This combined with the poor quality of curriculum, professors, and staff is colliding with these latest events - making any UoP degree a liability.
Rather poetically, the university's alignment with a football team plagued by perpetual failure (the Arizona Cardinals) says it all...
If you want success - go elsewhere. If you want an online program in Phoenix, I suggest Rio Salado Online. This community college actually demands high quality and requires that students go to a center and VERIFY their identity to complete testing. Meanwhile, UoP doesn't care what name you sign up under, students are plagiarizing work from online sources (UoP does not check for plagiarism) and the identity of individuals is NEVER verified. Unlike my classes for my undergrad where IDs were checked before tests were handed out, anyone can claim to be anyone else and earn a degree in that person's name. Since UoP never verifies identification, online classes have become infamous for handing out degrees to people who paid for others to complete the courses for them. This is not new behavior in the academic world, but other institutions have taken precautions to limit such abuse while UoP just looks the other way. Worst of all, online diplomas look exactly like diplomas earned at ground campuses, so it is impossible to tell if there is any legitimacy to them at all.
A UoP degree is a liability.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
uopblows
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 3 members
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