All I hear are good things about Penn Foster? Are there any BAD?

I have been trying to research Penn Foster College before I commit to them for my Associates degree. I would say 99% of the things I find out about Penn Foster are good things. Has anyone ever had a bad experience with Penn Foster???
Thanks,

 

I am a Penn Foster student. I don't have anything "bad" to say about them, but there are some things that could be improved:

1) If in a degree program, final exams are given at the end of each semester, not at the end of each class. So if you take 6 or 8 months (or longer) to complete all 5 or 6 classes in the semester, you are looking at a lot of remedial study for the final.

2) There is really no good way to interact with other students.

3) No regular interaction with a teacher unless the student initiates an email or phone call.

It should be noted that numbers 2 and 3 above are not unique to Penn Foster. These are common place "problems" at a lot of schools, especially those that have open enrollment (don't follow set semester schedules). If you have ever taken distance study courses at LSU, it's pretty much the same.

That said, the materials are quite comparable to any other accredited school I've come across, NA or RA. The tuition is very reasonable and includes books. If looking to transfer credits to other schools later, a ton of their credits have been ACE evaluated. I don't see how you can go wrong with Penn Foster unless you are a student that needs the structured environment of a virtual classroon with regular student/teacher postings and set deadlines.

Pug

 

My best friend is going through the program and here is her thoughts (we talked about it last week).

1. The program she is in is completely online - and when you complete 1/2 of the class you are in, the begin processing / shipping the next class. Sometimes it takes 2-3 weeks, and that can delay things. Sometimes she waits for a few days to up to a week waiting for material.

2. Not everything is online, you must wait for the mail of the text and some of the tests.

The goods are :

1. The grading time for the submissions via mail
2. The materials in general - text and study guides
3. Online and phone support
4. website set up

Overall WAY more good than bads. I am not sure of the AS program, but wanted to put in the info above, in case it helps.

 

You haven't seen much negative info about Penn Foster because it REALLY is a good school. You WILL get an education from Penn Foster, it WILL be usefull information you can use in the "real world" and while it is NA, chances are most if not all of the ACE-reviewed courses will transfer to any college...RA or NA.

The ONLY negatives that I have encountered with Penn Foster: It once took nearly a week to get a response to my email. Solution: call them. It's much faster and you don't have to wait on the line very long.

Also, I agree with what Pugbelly said about the semester final. It has taken me over a year to finish my first semester, due to some family issues and my own procrastination. Before I take my semester finals, I'm going to have to do a lot of cramming. With that said, the proctored finals ARE open book exams.

 

I was wondering the same thing myself. I am currently in Stratford Career Institute for my high school diploma, and learned that it is not a accredited school and that no employer will take the ( So Called) diploma because it is just another diploma mill. The sight on the GED said ( supposedly ) that the only way you can get a REAL high school diploma that colleges and the work force will take is if you take a state issued GED in a class room type setting, or if you were still in a real high school. I hate that I wasted my money. So I was looking into Pen Foster and it looks really good, but the GED site for Georgia said that any place will say they are an accredited school to get people to enroll, and that any school you go to online is just a diploma mill. Is this really true? My soon to be husband is in the Military and we have three kids and I do not have time ( with him gone all the time, and with three kids) to be going back to school, so we were looking into Pen Foster. Can someone help me?

 

I think the term "diploma mill" is thrown around rather loosely these days, even on this form. A diploma mill is simply an entity that will sell you a diploma or degree without you doing any work at all. You're just paying for a piece of paper.

I believe Stratford falls into another category: unaccredited school. Your job or further education prospects are severely limited with a diploma from an unaccredited school.

Penn Foster High School is regionally accredited, just like a public high school or public college or university, so no worries there. I'm sorry you wasted your money on Stratford, but if you are looking for an accredited alternative, Penn Foster would be a good choice.

If you have finished your studies with Stratford, another alternative would be to use the knowledge you gained and just take the GED exam. It's also possible to get into a college such as Liberty University with a diploma from Stratford, although Liberty may ask for transcripts, samples of your work, etc. I know Liberty takes homeschooled students, so that could be an option for you if you are looking to go to college.

 

It's totally false, and I'd love to see a link to where this is said because I'd be more than happy to send them an email about that false information. It's one thing express reservations about online learning, but when someone stoops to calling it all a diploma mill they've gone into the territory of giving terribly false information, and that's a big worry when it's coming from a state site meant to help people advance their lives, smh.

 

Hey, call me late to the party but I had no idea that Penn Foster's Career Diploma's were regionally accredited. I wonder how long that's been in place?

 

Absolutely not. There are SO many online high schools nowadays that are regionally accredited. I cant believe you were told this. Please link the site this is on so we can all inform them they are very wrong. My son is home schooled through an online high school and it is very very legit.