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Wow. What an interesting thread! I can only judge University of Phoenix by the caliber of its graduates I personally know. My response: the big thumbs down. In both cases, it's a "wait until your deathbed" degree. Both of the people I know got business degrees, the first in his late 30s to early 40s and the second in her mid 50s. I applaud them for attempting to gain the knowledge, but neither of them absorbed very much such that you couldn't have a sophisticated conversation with them. I doubt they could even tell you how to compute "working capital," "current ratio," or even what the "4Ps" of marketing are!
In the case of the first person, I told him REPEATEDLY to take his business degree at night from Cal State Univ. at Sacramento. He could then take 1 class at night each semester and 1 in the summer, finishing in about 8 to 10 years since he already had community college credits and is kind of lazy. He didn't listen. He then went to UoP about 5 or 6 years later and began his business degree where you get crammed through accounting, marketing and all these classes in 5 week modules. (He then wonders why all he can get are glorified clerical jobs from which he must contribute to support his family). At my undergraduate school, one must take 2 semesters of financial accounting and 1 semester of managerial accounting if they are NOT majoring in accounting. That's 42 weeks! This means to me that there is a CANYON between an A student at my undergrad alma mater and a B/C student at UoP.
If a resume with UoP landed across my desk, I would be very skeptical of it and would seriously look at the other things a person had to offer...to offset the fact that they went to UoP. I recently graduated with an MBA in Accounting (3.9+) from a well know public university and the degree was taken in the evening. However, because I of my age (not that old, but still older than 26 to 32), I am having an interesting (hm..hm) time locating work and thus have time to post on the City-Data forum.
University of Phoenix? Nah...
I actually took those courses and did actually learn a lot, the programs at UOP entails a lot of reading, research and writing and I've stated before you get out of it what you put in. One can easily research his or her assignment and complete a paper without even reading the books, but then again that's with any college/university..it all depends on how much the individual is willing to put into learning and earning his or her degree.
For me I have had a great experience with the school. I completed my BS at a learning center and the team environment was great. I am completing my MBA online and the team environment is also great. Not sure why you would ever need to meet in person as everything is done on line. They have a great "classroom" environment. My BS has helped greatly in my current job. Things that I have learned from my MBA I use in my job. My employer has been letting me work as a Project Manager while I finish my MBA. I wouldn't have earned the position if I had not been working on my education. I have taken classes at two traditional institutions. I have to tell you that I bet few in the traditional educational arena could keep up. UOP not only gives you a great education but a solid one at that. They do work us and for the past 8 years of my life I have concentrated on family, work, and school. Nothing else left.
I totally respect your last sentence. This is why I, myself just enrolled to UOP for my BS. I went to local community college and I hated all the driving to otehr campus and it took forever to get done, due to FT-job, family and getting some what a social life. I can't wait to get into the program. Two-months to go!
The point is that it doesn't have the RIGHT accreditation. For business, it is NOT AACSB accredited. That's the mark of a decent business program.
Also, if it gives a high pressure sales pitch, that's not a good sign, either. It means they need you more than you need them. I doubt that the night-time MBA programs at UC Berkeley or University of Michigan will court you. You will have to court them!
The University of Phoenix is accredited by the business school accrediting body the ACBSP not the AACSB.
At University of Phoenix, the first lesson you will learn in your orientation class is critical thinking. Critically look at the AACSB. They were established in 1916 and their mission statement is, "to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership". Keep in mind thought leadership are professors. Professors have a vested interest in keeping traditional schools the status quo so they can continue to make their bloated fixed salaries working 4 hours per day.
The University of Phoenix is accredited by ACBSP which was founded in 1988. The ACBSP mission statement is, "to create an organization and an accreditation process designed to fit the needs of business programs focused on teaching and learning". Focused on learning and not thought leadership... Seems to me UOP has the correct accreditation from an association actually focused on learning not professors who never made it in the real world with tenure making 6 digit incomes from our tax dollars and not teaching anything.
I was a senior and Middle TN State University Massey School of Business. I went to University of Phoenix onground to finish up my college for convenience and location only. I learned more in my first class at UOP than in 4 years at the traditional university. I can honestly say if you are looking for a professor to ramble on over and over about academia and theory then the traditional learning model is right for you.
If you are looking for a professor who it is mandatory to have and MBA and also mandatory to be a practicing professional to teach you real world application of the theories, what works and what doesn't then the University of Phoenix is for you.
For those who don't like the learning teams, which I have not liked at times, it is part of the learning model. To be successful you have to work with others. The learining teams provide the environement for you to have to work through problem sets together and end up with a finished product which if you are ever part of a project team professionally you will have to do.
Bottom line, UOP is the learning model which Strayer, Devry and know every traditional university is mirroring. Ask yourself do you want to be a leader and accredited by an association who is focused on learning or do you want to follow the traditional path and be accredited with an association concerned with its self preservation and protecting the millions of faculty with "tenure" , who many couldn't ever survive in the professional world so they crawled under their professor rock.
I have had classes with some of the sharpest professionals in the country. The graduates will determine in the end which schools are better, not accrediting bodies.
I can guarantee you that if someone has graduated from University of Phoenix they are capable on presenting to a large audience public speaking, can critically diagnose problems and have been armed with the knowledge on how to quickly and accurately find the answer.
I look forward to proving my education was world class.
P.S. The difference between profit and not for profit is that not for profit build big new buildings and parking garages with their profits and raise taxes or implement state lotteries to suck the life out of the lower class to keep their money machine going. Also I don't want to even bring up the book rip off's with traditional universities and selling them back for 1/10 of the purchase price.
I am not going to tell anyone where to go to college, but I will say this; regardless of how some feel towards the quality of education that they received from UoP, or the quality that they feel that they will receive, it would be very much worth their while to research who/what/and where the perspective degree will take them.
It does not matter what you think of the degree as there are employers out there who do not look at 'degree mills' with too much regard. And, the same is for grad school. Some grad schools will accept these types of degrees but then some grad schools won't even accept evening or online classes taken at a 'real' university.
I don't know squat about all the accreditation issues or whatever but I really wonder if it is more just a stigma attached to the school (I don't know why). I have a friend that received her bachelors in accounting from UoP and is now attending a traditional school for her MBA. If it wasn't accrediated the way it should be, I would think that she wouldn't have qualified for the MBA program? The MBA program she is attending is ranked in the top 10 regional public schools so it is considered a good regional school..
Interesting reading here; the accreditation issue came up, and I'm actually thinking about a non-AACSB graduate program in accounting at a traditional school. I plan to stay in the local area, and I feel the school's overall reputation is good enough here with local employers. Plus one of the largest companies in the region founded the accounting program and offers a fellowship for 20 people per year. Maybe they are looking at accreditation (program is just 5 years old), but ultimately, I decided it doesn't matter.
As for U of P; I think that with such schools, your education does not have as much quality control connected to it. I am sure you can learn a lot and be successful...no doubt. But there are some that just go through the motions. That happens in traditional schools as well; but they're methods are more "tried and true" when it comes to repeating courses and forcing you to meet with advisors, etc. They may be inefficient, but after so much stumbling and not maintaining proper progress, they'll suspend you. Also general education requirements (not saying U of P doesn't have them..but there are differences) set a good foundation for being a professional. I had a co-worker who go a Computer Science degree from American Intercontinental University and somehow the English classes were waived for him (native Haitian). However his writing skills were not good and he was not getting good scores on the GRE (wanted to go to graduate school) so was going to go to community college to take English classes. So yeah, that sort of thing happens.
But besides academics; I'm anti-U of P mainly because of costs. They are just so expensive. I go to a traditional state university and I take online classes to the tune of $500/class .... and I pay out-of-state tuition (so $4000/yr). My financial aid cuts that down even more. I still get all the conveniences of a being a traditional student when I go to campus (million volume library, 24 computer lab, tutoring services, student lounge/amenities). I just think that many non-traditional students are not too aware of their options. And it's sad...because there's a lot of people out there looking to take your hard-earned money.
If you are looking to truly invest in your future, I can personally gurantee that University of Phoenix is hands down an excellent choice.
You can guarantee it? I must say, that is a pretty bold statement since it is solely based on a personal opinion. Some people appreciate what UoP has to offer, while others would never consider the 'school' as an option. Some went 'there' and loved it, while others wished that they have never 'attended'.
But, the same can be said with any school.
To the OP: there are a few threads regarding the University of Phoenix in the Education forum. Reading through them will give you a good idea of the pros and cons as well as various opinions from both sides.
My wife got her masters thru PU. The classes were OK and she felt the education was passable for a masters program.
However, every (and I mean "every") single thing like loans, getting transcripts... andything administrative was a nightmare of epic proportions. And they never gave a damn. It cost my wife a couple of jobs.
After reading this thread, I felt compelled to respond. I've attended George Mason University for 2 years, Northern Virginia Community College for 1 year, University of Phoenix (local campus) for 1 year, and University of Phoenix (online) for 1 year.
The reason why I did this is because I learned absolutely nothing from George Mason University. I then went to Northern Virginia Community Collge and I learned tons, but they didn't have a 4 year program, so I had to decide to either go back to George Mason or somewhere else. Well I decided to go to UOP.
This was the best decision I've ever made. The initial local campus gave me presentation skills I desparately needed and the online campus really strengthen my written communication skills. In addition, I learned how to code in HTML, JAVA and write simple SQL statements. Now it's been a while so I don't remember all of it, but it gave me great skill sets to really advance within the IT world. Now, I manage multi-million dollar government projects and iI'm really enjoying my work. I can't really attribute this all to UOP but I have to say they gave me that boost I needed and the 12 years of working experience really gave me that leverage.
Now if I'm 21-25 with hardly any experience to back myself up and I graduate from UOP, I can understand the negativity behind that because there's really no way for employers to judge me other than with education and grades.
On another note, for the last 3 years, I hired about 4-5 people from various colleges (i.e. GMU, VTech and Penn State) and I have to say....CLUELESS!!! Very sad and disappointing. No work ethics, can't take simple directions and just flat out cannot communicate. I rather take a UOP student over any of these. At least I know a UOP student will be able to communicate and give presentations.
Just my experience.
Sam
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UOP is excellent!
