Why are schools like U of P looked down on by the majority of people?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by bicycledude, Dec 4, 2009.

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  1. bicycledude

    bicycledude member

    I erned by BS from U of P and it seems like most HR personal won't give my resume the time of day. Should i just try and apply to graduate school at a repsected school and forget about my time at u of p and possibly try to get a job after that? I feel as though i waisted a lot of my time getting a worthless degree. i know state unis offer online courses and degrees. and cheap. I probably should have done that instead of going to u of p and screwing up my plans.

    can you guys reccomend a good univeristy for graduate study that excepts my degree from u of p? thanks
     
  2. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I would not "blame" UoP. Without knowing your background and what you are applying for, it is anyones guess. In this economy I would not point a finger solely at the degree unless an HR person (or several people) have told you that is the reason they are looking at you.

    As far as a grad school what do you want to study? UoP is a regionally accreditied degree so you can really get in just about anyplace depending on other factors.
     
  3. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    To what school are you referring?
     
  4. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Regardless of how employers might look at the degree, UofP is still RA, so most online masters programs would accept it.

    Are you sure it's the fact that your degree is from UofP that is causing your resume to be rejected? It could just be a very crowded field ... or something else about your resume, or the type of job you're applying for ... ? Just don't want you going to graduate school unnecessarily! :eek:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2009
  5. Han

    Han New Member

    As I understand it, they have no full tiem faculty, only part time. This makes the requirements for research none. Some would say they have less quality becuase of this. The professional accreditors require the research component.
     
  6. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    I wouldn't attribute it entirely to where you went to school. It took me nearly seven months to find a quality job coming out of graduate school and I went to what most consider a highly regarded MBA program.
    I would attribute more of it to the economy than anything else.
     
  7. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I assume you are referring to the University of Phoenix (there are other U of P schools). My last employer, a fortune 100 company, hired UofP graduates, both UG and PG plus they paid for education taken at UofP by employees. But HR at this company had very little to do with the initial hiring decision - they used monster and resumes were automatically directed to the manager who wrote the job requisition. I have never went through HR to obtain great jobs with 7 companies.

    My suggestion is to avoid going through HR to find a job - seek out who is actually hiring and contact them. When hiring people I was always impressed by those who figured out that I was hiring and finding my contact information ("how did you hear about this opening?" was often my first question).

    Getting into grad school worth a UofP degree should not be a problem provided you meet all the other entry criteria.

    Just one other comment (and I hope you excuse my bluntness): I hope your resume has better spelling than your post on this forum. Bad spelling and grammar on a resume are killers and guarantees entry into the circular file.
     
  8. major56

    major56 Active Member

    I’m no expert regarding UOP acceptance; but as a RA university you should have no issue pertaining to required [educational] qualification to enter a graduate program. Regarding employment, I’m in concurrence with Dave Wagner’s first post.


    Major56

    ___________________________________
    M.B.A. Tarleton State University (current)
    M.Ed. Prairie View A&M University
    M.B.A. Taylor University
    CGSOC U.S. Army Command & General Staff College (Diploma)
    B.B.A. Sam Houston State University
     
  9. vadro

    vadro New Member

    This is a very wise suggestion. Going through the HR is often a "show stopper"; contacting directly who is hiring can be sometime challenging but surely it is a winner in terms of employment’s possibility.
     
  10. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Actually, UOP does have some full time faculty members. It does have mostly part-time faculty though. The school does encourage research and has a research fellow program. The efforts to promote research and publishing have been extensive and persistent over the last few years. The size and scope of the University is enormous, so it is not that surprising that research is conducted differently.
     
  11. ITJD

    ITJD Guest

    So my advice here and the contents of this post are qualified by the following:

    1. I'm a hiring manager/director
    2. I have one team that's entry level, one that's mid range and one that needs to be promoted from within due to specific knowledge.
    3. I see probably 2-3 positions a year churn and I have two open at present.
    4. The industry I'm in is media, the specific discipline, technology and governance.

    Important to say the above cause your mileage may vary in terms of your field and the people in it if it's not equivalent.

    On the UofP thing, I do look down on the university. Here's why.

    1. I checked out UofP when trying to get an undergrad in my field.
    a. I was unimpressed by admissions.
    b. I was unimpressed by the sales reps.
    c. I was unimpressed with their attempt at brick and mortar
    d. I was unimpressed with their web presence at the time, sites were mish mash.

    2. My friends have gone to UofP and I've heard the following.
    a. "I carry my peers in group discussions"
    b. "My cohort on average can't write well or use proper language."
    c. "My instructors don't understand the topics as well as I do."

    3. Their presence in terms of advertising and quality of advertising used to exceed the quality of the company and program as outlined in points one and two.

    4. Stuff gets around. If I've gotten this opinion from random conversations and 5 hours of interaction with UofP staff then I can gather that other people have.

    Note that none of the above is necessarily fair to UofP, and not representative of their alumni in any direct way. My intent is not to flame UofP, and if you've gotten a degree from there then it's a good investment in you.

    My next piece of advice has nothing to do with UofP, it's got to do with online learning in general and I'm an example in taking my own advice.

    5. If you're going to go to a school that's entirely online and known widely for being entirely online, you should as a next step get another equivalent or higher degree from a school that has a solid brick and mortar program to balance out or eliminate the anti-online biases.

    In my case, if I were to have an undergrad degree from WGU, I'd want one from NU (done) and if I thought my last degree that I'd be banking my career on was coming up, I wouldn't go to a school without a brick and mortar component (currently at UMass). If I go on to get a PhD or JD I'll make sure to have one from a B&M and the other from an online place if I was to go that way.

    This approach is a lot of work, but getting an education should be in my opinion and the convenience of online education has an appropriate price to pay in return.

    Now, lastly, on the subject of finding the hiring managers and blasting through HR. I'm opinionated on this as well and I don't blame people for saying "find the hiring manager" as that's recommended on a bunch of job doc web sites and recruitment sites. Some points.

    1. If you're going to find the hiring manager, don't do it by contacting them through their work addresses or phone numbers. Use Linked in or some professional association where you find they belong and are looking for connections.

    2. If you blow through HR by contacting them via a work address or phone cold, you accept the risk of offending them and showing that you're not someone who works through a process. You cut corners.

    3. Etiquette counts big in this economy.

    If a person responds to a job ad by doing research and contacting me through LinkedIn, asking me pertinent questions about the job and my firm, I'm going to be impressed and ask to see his or her resume, maybe take them to lunch.

    If a person responds to a job ad by doing research and contacting me directly, cold with a resume or on my office phone and makes it obvious that they blew past HR, who is supposed to be receiving resumes and disqualifying people who don't meet my guidelines, I'm going to bin the resume in a circular fashion and not look at it.

    The idea is one way I have the option of dealing with the matter on my time at my discretion without the risk of offending someone by not being available when they call or losing their information in the 1000+ emails I get every couple days. The other way I will either not be there or have to hang up on them, or lose their information outright. I suffer in that case.

    Keep in mind that some of these people who are giving the advice on these web sites to blow by HR are recruiters who can't get into firms without using HR and are biased. Still, there is a good way and a bad way to do it. If you want to do things the good way, join professional orgs in your field and get on business related social sites like LinkedIn.

    Nuff said by me I think. Good luck with your education and job hunt.
     
  12. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    All companies are different but if I was contacted directly, I would tell the person that they must go through HR as that is the company policy then I would think, "Can't they follow directions?" But I guess it all depends on tbe candidates approach. Some people are smoother then others.
     
  13. morganplus8

    morganplus8 New Member

    ITJD,

    That's the best post I have read in years, thanks for your comtribution. I have an online degree from a long standing B&M and two B&M degrees as wel,l and you have convinced me that I should be looking for my next degree from a B&M source as well. This seems to be the safest way to get past the educational data and onto the experience portion of the resume, without raising too many flags.

    Excellent post!
     
  14. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    I frequent a few random message boards, and whenever the subject of online degrees comes up, the majority responding to the subject say to avoid UoP. Many are in the same position as ITJD. When choosing a school and doing research on the programs available, I have decided to choose schools that are not for profit and do not scream "online degree." I think most of us know that getting a degree online is not easy, but the rest of the world does not realize that. too many still believe that you just send a check and someone sends you a degree.
     
  15. TMW2009

    TMW2009 New Member

    One thing I've noticed about UoP that had always left a bad taste in my mouth is the aggressive marketing. Not only do they have ads plastered all over websites and the mass mailings I receive in snail mail, but also I've received a TON of unsolicited spam email from them across different email accounts in years past, and asking to be removed from the email lists doesn't seem to work with them (or the ad companies they use.)

    It gives the impression that they just want to churn out as much as possible, and gave me concerns about the quality, which personally biased me against them.

    Are they a good school? They may be great for other people, but these initial contact experiences just turned me off from them. (That and it is my opinion that they're waaaaaaay too darn expensive for my out of pocket costs.)
     
  16. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I agree with this one! This was a key driver in my decision to get a graduate certificate from the University of Florida. If you can complete a degree program for whatever reason, go for a certificate program. I started on the MS in Pharmacy (the certificate credits carried over) but bailed out because there is just not enough hours in the day! I am now considering an MA from USF when I finish my PhD.
     
  17. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Side note - I got my AA from UoP through their Associate of Arts Degree Through Credit Recognition, which never gets much focus here and is probably not well known. They took my military experience, past classes, and CLEPs. I was required to take only one UoP class and pay a $550 fee (covers the class, review of transcripts, and graduation fee) and I earned my AA. It is almost like the Big 3 but only for an AA and only for military.
     
  18. MISin08

    MISin08 New Member

    I am a hiring manager as well. Cold calls from job seekers are a kind of spam. Extra annoying because I have to document the contact and keep records, just in case they do go through HR, which makes them a bona fide applicant.

    Phillip
     
  19. leo

    leo Member

    I looked at Phoenix a few years back (2003/4?) and thought they were more interested in the money than educating me. It just did not look like a quality school to me. :(
     
  20. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    I don't mean to sound harsh but are you sure it's only because your degree is from U of P? In your post above, you spelled "earned", "respected", "wasted", "recommend" and "university" incorrectly and used the word "expects" incorrectly. You also randomly failed to capitalize "I" when referring to yourself. You have a college degree yet your post is filled with errors and typos. It's not a big deal here but make sure errors like these aren't making it into your cover letter, resumes and emails to the companies where you are applying. When I hired people, one of the ways I'd thin down the pool of candidates was to toss out any resume that had a misspelling or typo. Those mistakes told me that the person applying didn't pay attention to details.

    Posting a poorly spelled and grammatically incorrect post on an education forum does nothing to help the stigma of U of P degrees. Being that U of P degrees aren't looked at in a great light, you should strive to make the education and degree you earned look as positive as you can.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2009
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