So I had an interesting conversation with a cop buddy of mine who is burnt out and wants a new job. Obviously he needs to go back to college, and knowing that I'm a career student, we began talking. We began weighing the rumors we've both heard regarding for-profit universities. One rumor, which I don't know if its true, is how for-profit schools jack up the program requirements while you attending in order to keep you going cause their in the business to make money. What are your thoughts, because we were just exchanging rumors and we have no idea if they are true.
That has never happened to me. I know there is some rummbling on the NCU discussion boards (and maybe here) that they have a slow turn around time on papers and keep asking for rewrites for the concept paper and dissertation proposel just to make you sign up for an extra class. I have not experienced this. I was able to submit my Concept Paper with 12 rewrites within the required time frame of the class. When I thought it would not be approved by the end of the class I asked what can be done because I do not want to pay for another class. The advisor recommended I request a 30 day extension for the class. The was a week before the last day of class. The extension was approved and my Concept Paper was approved on the last day of the class (no extension needed). I think this comes from people who expect it to be easy because it is online and for-profit and find out you still need to produce quality.
That makes sense. It was just weird that me and my buddy had heard the same rumors about for-profit schools. We have no way to be sure, that why I told him I'd get back to him after I hear some opinions on the matter from people who have experience with for-profit schools.
When I worked for UoP, I saw some degree changes that changed courses, but if you had continuous enrollment you still were able to graduate on the old plan. If you broke enrollment, you might lose some credits, however. I don't like UoP at all (bitterness still reigns), but I never saw this particular issue.
a good question is Why be a for profit school? Why not just be a traditional educational institution? I don't know much about the for profit format, but it would seem to create a very different environment - maybe it is good maybe bad, maybe just different - but, I would expect the differences to be apparent to anyone taking the time to do a little research. I wouldn't think a for vs. not for profit institution would be any more likely to play games of one nature or another, but I'd expect the realization of any difficulties to be unique to the for vs. not for variance.
Personally I have nothing against for-profit schools. However, it's my experience that you can almost always find equivalent, lower cost programs elsewhere and no one has ever been able to adequately demonstrate to me why it would be better to pay more.
Yes, under certain circumstances this might make sense. If you were to be get a substantial raise for earning a degree, for example, or a different position but then obviously, the amount of the raise during the lag-time period would have to exceed the difference in the cost of the two programs. In some cases it might make sense.
My buddy was a computer geek prior to joining the police. He doesn't know what he's going to do next, but I keep telling him to start a cyber crimes consulting business. He is a part-time cyber crimes detective, but his departments budget doesn't afford that as a full time position; so he works patrol full time and does the cyber crimes on the side for now.
I've graduated from a for-profit institution (Remington College) and my experience was that they dumbed down the curriculum to keep the least prepared from failing. It was also the most expensive of any of the schools I've attended. I've actually stopped listing it on my resume as it got the least amount of recognition from employers.
I have attende two for-profit unis. I found the customer service to be superior to government CC and unis. Abner
So far AJU has been good, they are For-profit. Clovis was just as good in the customer service area, but were lacking in rigor. I thought the classes were great, but they pale in comparison to the work load of AJU.
***Please note**** My comments are not anti government. I work for the State of Cali, and our Department kicks butt/nalgas! Abner
