CTU problems and experiences...

Just thought I'd give you guys a little story I just encountered with Colorado Tech Online. i have been researching several different universities online to try and figure out which one would suit me best. I spoke to an adviser from CTU and from the first call it seemed to be more of a sales pitch than a true caring about me. I still decided to give them a chance and sent them the nonrefundable application fee so I could determine if CTU was right for me or not. I did everything the adviser asked me to do(FAFSA, sending them transcripts, training etc.). The first phone call I was told that with my professional background, training, etc. that it would take me 18 months to finish the program( Bach. in CJ). I was satisfied with that but was still looking at other universities. I had a counselor contact me and she had me send her all of my information again to review it to determine my standing and how long it would take me to finish it. Now understand that I am not lazy but I am looking for the best bang for my buck. She then proceeded to tell me that it would take me 22 months to complete my degree and I would have to take challenge exams, Clep, etc. to get me to the 22 month level. At that point I knew something was not quite right. I then found Mountain State that offered me a way better deal all around(cheaper, faster, more credits for training, etc.). Well heres where I get mad....I live in Louisiana and we had Hurricane Ivan bearing down on us which made a last minute turn into Miss. and Alabama. During that extremely stressful time of packing all my family up and boarding up all of their houses, I was also on emergency call for my job. (I'm in law enforcement) We started working crazy shifts and pretty much left me with no time to think. I decided to give CTU a call, and let them know to put my enrollment on hold and that if we made it out of the storm ok I would call them back to possibly continue my enrollment. I also made them fully aware of the Mountain State offer as well. Now up until this point I had not scheduled any classes, challenge exams, Clep, books or anything. At this point I was still in the application process. Well low and behold during my stressful week I checked my email and had 4 emails from CTU. One was from the dept. handling the shipment of books for classes confirming my order of books which I did not place. one was informing me that my financial aid had been awarded. One was for my challenge exams that have a 3 day window of taking them. The last one was from my adviser refusing to place my enrollment on hold because he said he knew how important my education was and wouldn't allow me to cancel enrollment. I was furious...I emailed a polite email back though stating that I could not understand the rudeness of 1)not respecting my request 2)knowing that I was in the middle of hurricane preperation and starting all those things(challenge exams, shipping books) 3) Leaving several voice mails on my phone questioning my attempted cancellation of my enrollment. I also stated to them again to cancel my enrollment, and that it was not a request but a demand instead.(I WAS still polite though) I received no response from the email and then received more notices of my classes being scheduled, and more book inf. At this point I was angrier than I have ever been and sent a nasty email threatening legal action, and at that point still got no response but finally had my name removed off the website, unenrolled etc. Now this took approximately two weeks to do and I could not understand why this had happend. I am not trying to tell you guys not to go ther but this is just my personal story that I just went through a few weeks ago. Oh and about the books....I called the shipping company and refused shipment and had them send the books back. I hope you guys have better experiences but mine was a true nightmare.

 

Some universities are not made out to be what they are suppose to be, trust me I learnt the hard way too and hard earned cash was involved.

 

The funny thing is I've had the most pleasant experience with Mountain State. They aren't pushy at all. My post wasn't meant to flame CTU but to give everyone here my recent experience. It obviously wasn't a pleasant one, and I would never give them another chance. Sometimes you have to learn for yourself which is what I did. I just don't understand sometimes how some people can act like that. Maybe my adviser was just bad and not CTU but it sure does taint the whole school for me..

 

They're owned by AIU with their main base out of Chicago. It is all about numbers and profit. Welcome to the big city!

 

Some universities are in the numbers game and I am certain that many are just after the bucks. After all without students, survival without some form of state funding will result in closure.

Universities are suppose to be honorable, but these days many are resorting to all sorts of schemes to generate revenue. Some are reduced to no better than a retail outlet or vendor. I once said to my dean if we have to bend backwards why don't we mail the certificates for a price, grade according to money given. Discounts for lower grades and multiple offers for multiple degrees. Sounds impossible but at the rate some universities are going, some will get there.

 

Education has become a big business, just a look at the commercials on TV when schools are advertised as credit cards or diet plans. The problem is not only in the US but aroung the globe, it will come to a point when every single individual in the planet will hold an MBA, B.Sc or even a PhD for few thousand and some hours of work.

 

Wholly agree with you, globally education is going down a very steep slope that may leave integrity and ethics behind. The trend of office politics stem from the fact that the seeds of education itself has been sewed in an environment of contradiction and mistrust.

 

That's very unfortunate.

I'll finish my M.S. Management-IT from CTU in December, but I'm on campus not online. Even though I've been happy with the facilities, professors, material, etc...if I had it to do over again, I'm not sure I'd go with CTU for the reasons you mentioned.

Even though I've never received the hard sales pitch (probably because I haven't taken time off while doing the program), I've heard from folks who have. Not a reputation I like my school having, but I feared when CEC took over the school this type of "marketing" would happen.

 

The world population is also becoming more educated than ever before. And higher ed has also become more accesible to anyone who wants to pursue it. That means more competition for us folks.