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Maybe that is just a personal pet peeve. People who constantly mention their alma mater have always annoyed me. Why do I care what school you went to 20 years ago? Higher education to me has never been an identity, just like the military. Sure i've accomplished things in the military that i'm proud of, and i've even attended a prestigious local school. But these things are not my identity and do not get brought up in conversation. Universities and the Military are just a melting pot of society anyway and do not state anything about the individual. Have you ever been to a networking event? People want to hear what you have done, not what organizations you have been a part of. It is more impressive to state that I managed 2 million in projects that resulted in 42% increased efficiency than stating I graduated from State U 15 years ago.
I don't follow your question about your OIF ribbon and jump wings, those are a military requirement in uniform. Can you wear them in civilian clothes? No. As for wearing university apparel without having attended the institution, that is fine. These days with university sports being so popular, it's more about being a sports fan than about the school itself.
Back to the point, AMU is an affordable and accredited university that will open up opportunities upon graduation. It's not for everyone, but it is a great choice for most.
I sometimes wear mini wings and a mini OIF ribbon on my hat on Veterans Day. Of course in a tasteful manner. And I did get a ring made with both my US Jump Wings and Polish ones on it. For me the combination of the things I have done made me who I am today. And that's what gives me my identity. I only talk about my background in person if someone brings it up.
I agree if someone talks about a school too much it would get annoying. And for getting a box checked AMU/APU would be fine. But if a better option exists it would be wise too take it.
I am a current student at AMU and have been for about 2 years, prior to AMU I went to Troy university, the only difference was cost, I had higher grades when I was at Troy. It is all about applying yourself, I truly believe that when you interview for a job regardless wether your degree is from AMU or a brick and mortar school, your potential employer will be able to tell wether or not you applied yourself during your studies and if you are indeed educated. And by the way there is no such thing as NON-Profit university!
I am a current student at AMU and have been for about 2 years, prior to AMU I went to Troy university, the only difference was cost, I had higher grades when I was at Troy. It is all about applying yourself, I truly believe that when you interview for a job regardless wether your degree is from AMU or a brick and mortar school, your potential employer will be able to tell wether or not you applied yourself during your studies and if you are indeed educated. And by the way there is no such thing as NON-Profit university!
You should look up the difference between for profit and non-profit. I don't think you know the difference.
Employers may be able to tell, but you'll have trouble even getting an interview with an AMU degree. Managers at good companies have a bias towards online degrees in a lot of fields.
Employers may be able to tell, but you'll have trouble even getting an interview with an AMU degree. Managers at good companies have a bias towards online degrees in a lot of fields.
You will find the following quotes from recruiters.
"Never. I have never had a client tell me to stay away from people who have degrees from online schools."
"Yes, they are pretty much the same. There are a lot of traditional, well-known business schools that are now offering online programs."
"The employers don't ask as long as the college or university is providing an authentic accredited master's or certification program. I haven't seen it make any difference at all." *AMU is accredited
"No, I've never had a client differentiate between a candidate with an online or online distance learning degree."
I will concede that the perception of online degrees are still not on par with traditional brick and mortar schools. If you have the opportunity, attend a brick and mortar school. However, this is not possible for many adults who need to work and have other obligations. AMU can provide an accredited and affordable degree that can help a persons career.
Believe what you want. I work in finance as an analyst, you will not even come close to getting a phone interview let alone an offer from a firm with an online degree.
Despite what people say, there is no shortage of applicants with degrees from good schools looking for work.
I am a current student at AMU and have been for about 2 years, prior to AMU I went to Troy university, the only difference was cost, I had higher grades when I was at Troy. It is all about applying yourself, I truly believe that when you interview for a job regardless wether your degree is from AMU or a brick and mortar school, your potential employer will be able to tell wether or not you applied yourself during your studies and if you are indeed educated. And by the way there is no such thing as NON-Profit university!
You will find the following quotes from recruiters.
"Never. I have never had a client tell me to stay away from people who have degrees from online schools."
"Yes, they are pretty much the same. There are a lot of traditional, well-known business schools that are now offering online programs."
"The employers don't ask as long as the college or university is providing an authentic accredited master's or certification program. I haven't seen it make any difference at all." *AMU is accredited
"No, I've never had a client differentiate between a candidate with an online or online distance learning degree."
I will concede that the perception of online degrees are still not on par with traditional brick and mortar schools. If you have the opportunity, attend a brick and mortar school. However, this is not possible for many adults who need to work and have other obligations. AMU can provide an accredited and affordable degree that can help a persons career.
I just read your link. It reads like a propaganda poster. It's not really a credible source. I've posted sources showing that recruiters of major companies do not hire online degrees.
I see that this is a very long thread, it has been in progress since 2008, and many different opinions have been offered. Please forgive me if I do not take the time to read them all.
I'm a current student at AMU, and I wanted to offer my opinion of this school.
I can see why some people view it as a degree mill. I suppose it depends on your definition of that term. If you mean a school where you essentially read the course material, write an essay or two, and get a passing grade, then yes, AMU is a degree mill. The classes aren't very hard and don't require a lot of work. Of course, I think that is the idea in an online school that caters primarily to military personnel. We are working people who may be on active duty, or may be reservists with full-time civilian jobs. Virtually none of us are in a position where we can dedicate ourselves to full-time schoolwork and nothing else. Let the 18 year old kids who are going to school on their parents dime spend 18 hours a day on schoolwork. I've got other things to do.
I originally selected AMU because it was the only school I could find which offered the degree I wanted (Homeland Security) in a fully online format, and which also was willing to accept ALL my transfer credit from other sources, without trying to place some unfair limit on how much transfer credit I can have just to force me to take extra courses. My goal was to take care of all my "general education" and "elective" credits without taking any classes, and AMU has gotten me very close to that goal. If I complete a few more CLEP and DSST exams, I can accomplish that goal.
Here is where I've had a serious problem with the school: Customer Service.
My position is simple. This is a for-profit school. I am providing this school with profit in exchange for a service. That makes me a customer. If any normal business treated its customers the way this school does, they would not be in business for long. Sadly, a "school" believes it is entitled to a very old fashioned concept of academia and respect, even though it has a mercenary attitude on the side. Sadly, "professors" seem to think having that title conferred upon themselves entitles them to some kind of special respect and authority which they haven't earned, and their status as part-time instructors at an online school hasn't done much to curb their raging egos.
Most of the professors at AMU are simply lazy. They interact as little as possible with their students, grade assignments a few weeks later than necessary, and provide only the minimal feedback on assignments. Most of these professors don't bother me, and I tend to just think of them as paper-grading robots. I skate through their courses with A+ grades even doing minimal work. If they are doing minimal work as the instructor of the course, they tend not to notice when the student is doing minimal work as well. These folks are probably the reason this school gets labeled a degree mill, and I'm not in any position to argue that point. I'll take a degree mill over the alternative, thanks.
The professors I have a problem with are the ones who actually try to do their jobs, but are largely bad at it, or unfamiliar with the idea of teaching through an online format. They nitpick minor details of your work, such as the formatting of a title page, while giving no feedback on the actual content of your work. They often don't know how to use the online classroom, and fail to even update the course syllabus from the default format it comes in. They refuse to grade assignments if the assignment wasn't to their liking. I've had one instructor claim I "harassed" him in a post on the classroom forum, and I was easily able to disprove this false allegation by asking the school's technical support to pull up a record of my posts. Surprise, surprise, I didn't even log into the forum the day the professor claimed I harassed him. I'm still trying to get the school to acknowledge this blatant act of misconduct on that part of the instructor, but as you would expect, the employees are literally "thick as thieves" and are reluctant to admit one of their own might have screwed up.
I've heard a lot of other students have problem with the financial aid department. Once I got through their elaborate paperwork and convinced them I was only going to be using my Post-9/11 GI Bill to pay for my classes, I didn't have to talk to them anymore, so my problems with them were minimal. I don't doubt the other folks who had more extensive problems however. It shouldn't be a difficult process to convince a school to let you use your GI Bill benefits when they have "Military" in their name. I can only imagine the nightmare of having to convince them of anything more elaborate.
So I guess the bottom line of my opinion is that this is not a worthless school, but it does have a lot of problems, and the "degree mill" criticism is something that could be argued for very effectively by anyone so inclined. I personally just want a degree to put on my resume when I apply for jobs which require a degree. Other than that, I don't expect anything more from AMU, aside from a little more respect than I'm getting now.
My advice to anyone who wants to attend this school is simple: Keep your head down, avoid contact with the professors as much as possible, and be prepared to have your patience tested multiple times by people who think they are highly intelligent, but are actually the exact opposite.
It is true what they say:
Those who can, do...
Those who can't, teach...
And those whose stupidity is so far out of control that it actually has MASS, they make school administrators.
I'm a current student at AMU, and I wanted to offer my opinion of this school.
I can see why some people view it as a degree mill. I suppose it depends on your definition of that term. If you mean a school where you essentially read the course material, write an essay or two, and get a passing grade, then yes, AMU is a degree mill. The classes aren't very hard and don't require a lot of work. Of course, I think that is the idea in an online school that caters primarily to military personnel. We are working people who may be on active duty, or may be reservists with full-time civilian jobs. Virtually none of us are in a position where we can dedicate ourselves to full-time schoolwork and nothing else. Let the 18 year old kids who are going to school on their parents dime spend 18 hours a day on schoolwork. I've got other things to do.
I originally selected AMU because it was the only school I could find which offered the degree I wanted (Homeland Security) in a fully online format, and which also was willing to accept ALL my transfer credit from other sources, without trying to place some unfair limit on how much transfer credit I can have just to force me to take extra courses. My goal was to take care of all my "general education" and "elective" credits without taking any classes, and AMU has gotten me very close to that goal. If I complete a few more CLEP and DSST exams, I can accomplish that goal.
I think this pretty much proves the school and "degree" (and I use that term loosely) are pretty much worthless.
Not hard, ton of transfer credits, no general electives, no limit on CLEPS, and the list goes on. Not to mention they pretty much make up degrees. I.E. "Homeland Security", "Intelligence Studeis", etc.. Students who believe the school owes them something. What a joke. Garbage.
Most of these professors don't bother me, and I tend to just think of them as paper-grading robots. I skate through their courses with A+ grades even doing minimal work. If they are doing minimal work as the instructor of the course, they tend not to notice when the student is doing minimal work as well. These folks are probably the reason this school gets labeled a degree mill, and I'm not in any position to argue that point. I'll take a degree mill over the alternative, thanks.
So you're happy with people thinking you're school is a joke?
Quote:
They nitpick minor details of your work, such as the formatting of a title page, while giving no feedback on the actual content of your work.
Are you being serious? Surely, you can understand the concept of attention to detail.
Quote:
So I guess the bottom line of my opinion is that this is not a worthless school, but it does have a lot of problems, and the "degree mill" criticism is something that could be argued for very effectively by anyone so inclined. I personally just want a degree to put on my resume when I apply for jobs which require a degree. Other than that, I don't expect anything more from AMU, aside from a little more respect than I'm getting now.
Actually, I think you just proved it is worthless.
I think this pretty much proves the school and "degree" (and I use that term loosely) are pretty much worthless.
Not hard, ton of transfer credits, no general electives, no limit on CLEPS, and the list goes on. Not to mention they pretty much make up degrees. I.E. "Homeland Security", "Intelligence Studeis", etc.. Students who believe the school owes them something. What a joke. Garbage.
Ummm, Homeland Security is a common degree offered by traditional, non-profit colleges as a major and minor/concentration. Intelligence Studies is often offered as a minor or concentration in political science and international relations programs. AMU's limit on transfer credits is the same as most colleges and they do not accept an unlimited number of CLEPs. Approximately 25% of the degree has to be taken in residence. You were in the military and you don't know anything about homeland security and intelligence degrees?
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AMU & Professor Misconduct
