What is your opinion of University of Phoenix? In regards to, UOP's reputation among HR managers and the corporate environment. I know the university has evolved dramatically throughout the past few years and has changed the curriculum of various programs. Additionally, if you had a chance to save an immense amount of money through a university employee discount, would you enroll here? Imagine if the cost were 50% less than other online universities. How would the cost savings affect your decision? Thank you.
Honestly, the fact that you are inquiring about whether or not the reputation among HR managers and in corporations is an issue should send some red flags up for you. There is no doubt that there is a population out there that looks down upon UOP degrees, so why limit yourself right out the gate? Even with the employee discount, the UOP is far too expensive when compared to the alternatives out there. You could get a degree from an online program at a B&M state school for less than the discounted tuition at UOP. When you factor in the negative perceptions out there on the UOP (legitimate or not), it does not make a lot of financial sense. FWIW, I have taught for UOP and been offered the reduced tuition for employees. I have chosen to pursue my further education through state B&M schools out of my own pocket and my costs have still been substantially lower than what they would have been with even the reduced tuition rate. I am sure some here would call me a hypocrite for teaching at for-profit schools but choosing to get my own education at public universities. Having been a faculty member for numerous institutions I can honestly say that for me there has been a benefit in sticking with public institutions for my own credentials.
truckie270 is right on (as usual). There are better choices out there that are less expensive. The State University of New York system offers a number of degrees completely online. The price is about one third that of UoP and their programs are very high quality. Not sure which discipline you are interested in but here is a link for more exploration: Online Bachelors Degree Programs at SUNY When you do a degree online at a B&M school, there is usually nothing that indicates your degree was earned online and you can avoid some of the online stigma.
If UOP still uses the learning team model, I wouldn't go there even if it was 100% free. I also remember that each class had multiple textbooks that you had to "purchase access" for and there would be make 2 chapters covered from one, a couple sections from the other & another few chapters from the third. It was a clever way to make the student buy "access" to these chapters & remove the financial incentive of buying used copies online. Take it from me. I graduated from there with a BA in Business/Finance back in 2007 & I am now in a second bachelors program for CS. I didn't pay for my degree...my employer paid for it 100%, but I still regret wasting time on it. I had mostly A's with a few B's (when I was feeling lazy), finishing with a 3.74 GPA. I would say that any single class from my current school is more challenging than the entire UOP curriculum. Also, since UOP is unrelenting in their advertising campaign, they will continue to have a bad reputation among HR and academia, regardless of how much they change their program. The only way I would consider it is if I was working for a company (that wasn't in danger of collapsing or laying me off) and in order to move up the ranks I needed a degree, AND only then if UOP was cheaper than any of the alternatives.
You made a couple of very solid points here. First, UoP has done so much advertising that they are gaining a reputation as the McDonald's of higher ed. "Can I offer you a McDoctorate? Would you like a loan with that?" The other awesome point is the fact that eBooks that require you to purchase access are an absolute rip-off unless the access fee is cheap. With physical textbooks you have the option to buy them used and then sell them again for substantial savings. With the access fee format they get their pound of flesh from you with no option of saving any money. In my experience, the access fees have been almost as much as a physical text.
Yeah, the fee for the e-books was indeed comparable to buying the entire textbook. And the kicker is that unless you paid more to access the entire book (not just the chapters you need), the PDF was locked so you can only view the chapters you paid for. It was a total scam...brilliant business tactic, though.
Yes, brilliant. I also think it's a little short-sighted because students will begin to catch on to the onerous tactic and use other schools that do not fleece the flock.
I have to admit it has been a while since I looked at UofP tuition. That you guys are saying even with 50% off, it's still more than B&M schools is absolutely astounding. UofP was popular in the military back in 2004. I had four or five Marines at my small unit taking courses from them. I told them about the school I was going to a respectable state school with a branch campus near work. Even in 2004 my tuition to take classes F2F was cheaper than UofP. Nobody took me up on the offer. I think they thought taking courses at UofP, despite the costs, was easier. 7 years later everyone is much better informed. You make your own choices in life, and often times advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer.
So I just checked their site & it looks like they list undergrad business degrees at $570/credit plus a $95 electronic material fee (this may be the book fee, in which case it seems less than I remember). 12 units per semester, say 3 semesters a year (including summer) will be $20,520 just for the courses. California State University system charges, for undergrad students, will cost about $6000 for two semesters, if each semester consists of 6+ units. There is another price for up to 6 units, which is a little less but not really worth it. I think summer session is more but even if you took the same amount of units as you did at UOP (18 each semester), it would still be far less than half of UOP's cost. And I'm sure UOP has some extra, hidden costs as well. The CSU system is probably even more expensive than other state schools, since fees have been skyrocketing in the last few years.
Wow, those tuition numbers are staggering. Despite all the protests by students in the last few years, your CSU system still has pretty low tuition rates. Especially when you consider how good some of the schools are in that system. The CSU tuition is less than in state residents pay in Washington to attend WSU.
One more point to consider - almost everyone that I have ever talked to who attended UOP ended up having to take more classes than they were originally told they would have to when they enrolled. I used to see it all the time teaching classes in the sudent bios - "I am taking this class because my advisor just informed me that I needed 12 additional credits to graduate" or something to that effect. The hidden fees that have been mentioned above are also a factor that can be difficult to plan for. With regard to the book issue - many of the classes I taught at UOP used proprietary materials built especially for them from the publisher, so even if you wanted to try and buy the book used somewhere and use it in class you would have difficulties.
Yes, and these eBook and eMaterial fees all involve a proprietary password that will only work with the student. So when you are done with your class, your eBook becomes useless to anyone. There is nothing to sell and they can hit you with the full price for every single book you buy. This can cost several thousand dollars more than using physical books. I think this kind of practice will the the way the Blockbuster Video has gone. When they were the only game in town, they could get away with charging onerous rates for videos and almost criminal late fees. Now that has come back to bite them and I can't say I feel sorry for them.
I know several U of P grads (ranging from undergrad to doctoral level)and though no one says anything to their face, behind their back they laugh about the program. I have heard people say very negative things about the school including incorrectly that it is not accredited. I have heard it said that some school districts are not interested in U of P grads. You are paying a lot of money for something that may not get the result you want. It is a degree and it is accredited and if that is all you want fine. I would just look at the comments below and think there might be a perception issue (Mac University and on and on). Someone who used to post here or on another board even said they do not list their U of P degree (I would if I earned one and paid that much). Many other more affordable options. BTW, the story about the extra credits I have heard before. Know an angry vet and all you have to do is mention U of P and he goes off.
It's just UOP's way to make sure that incompetent students who can't write a coherent sentence get carried through each course with passing grades so that the school can keep collecting financial aid from them. That was my take on it, at least. I didn't see any benefit from it at all & the learning team assignments were usually the most heavily weighted portion of the grade.The school seemed to explain it with some nonsense about "how work will be in the real world" and "adapting to changing environments". In a real work situation, if any employee behaved like some of the students I've had on learning teams, they'd be terminated from the organization in about 3 seconds.
I facilitate two courses for UOP; neither of them have learning groups. One of the other schools that I facilitate for have learning groups in all three courses. It certainly isn't a UOP-specific issue.
LOL! I have heard that complaint before. One of the graduate students I knew hated those groups at U of P and they knew who the slackers were. From her point of view it seemed to be set up to let lazy students ride the coat tails of others. She cringed every time she saw certain students in her class (or whatever they call the group).
