is AIU prestigeous?

Hello all, I am new to this site. Please I would appreciated any advice. I am just about to enroll @ aiu online and I am just wonderfing if it is a well respected University. Does any body have any ratings on this University?

Thanks

 

they are legitimate, and regionally accredited, but I would not call them prestigious.

 

Schools that are either entirely or for the most part online rarely make the prestige school rankings. If you're interested in school rankings, you might go to www.usnews.com and click on the education link in the top right corner.

 

Ae risk of inciting some folks on this board that attend (or plan to attend) AIU, I will offer my thoughts on it.

In my opinion, it depends on what you plan to do with the degree.

First and foremost, AIU is a regionally-accredited institution of higher learning, which by itself means quite a bit. This is a good thing.

If you need an accredited degree to gain a promotion, etc., then it is probably fine.

If you are looking to leverage the degree to broaden your career opportunities, keep in mind that many/some in the corporate world perceive AIU (among others) as being a commercial, for-profit school, that offers "fast" degrees (Bachelor's in 13 months, etc.). While these folks realize that it is an accredited degree, they also perceive it as being "easier" to obtain, because it is convenient, and quicker.

Just some things to think about.

Cheers, and good luck!

 

Exactly.

A useful degree from an accredited school no one's ever heard of. Just like most people who graduate from college.

 

Hiya Rich - I would have to disagree on the "no one's ever heard of" part. I think the problem that many UoP/AIU/et al graduates face is that hiring managers *have* heard of them, but in a negative light (i.e. fast degrees from commercial for-profit entities, etc).

Like the students, the hiring managers are also bombarded with online and print ads from UoP/AIU/etc. They may well be offering a decent education - I have no idea. Just offering some insight from the field.

Cheers.

 

I talked with one of the admissions people once... AIU has a campus in Atlanta as well as the online program. The major advantage to the program is that it's fast. That's their main selling point. However there are also lots of drawbacks... 1) it's insanely expensive 2) it's not terribly well-regarded, as others have noted. You could get an MBA from UMass-Amherst at half the cost (although of course it would take longer). Also, I've seen a lot of people on the board complaining about the group work involved there.

 

I agree with Rich. The question is likely being very close to statistically moot.

It only matters if a lot of people know about AIU, and a lot of those that have heard also have a negative perspective. Fact is, almost nobody knows of AIU. So, even if 100% of those that know of AIU have a negative perception, that number is still pretty insignificant in the real world picture of employers and job seeking and networking, etc.

It is a regionally accredited university that would have similar utility as the vast majority of other regionally accredited universities that most people have no real knowledge of.

 

Good point. However, here in Atlanta, AIU is advertised a lot, due (I am sure) to the fact that they have a campus here (2 actually, I think).

Perhaps they are not as well known in areas where they do not have physical campuses - but here in Atlanta, everyone knows who/what they are.

Cheers.

 

Hi Paul

I have to agree with Unixman. Here in Portland, if you are familiar with education at all, you know what AIU is. So someone doing hiring or interviewing is more than likely to know about it. If you are talking Joe blue-collar or even white-collar worker, you are correct. They probably aren't familiar with AIU.

 

Dave, I think the number of people that fit this criteria is very small.

In the DC area, Strayer is a huge advertiser - very ever present. I know about them as I am one of those "familiar with education" people. As prevalent as Strayer is in the market here, probably a couple in a hundred have any real opinion on Strayer’s academic position.

I’m convinced that most in a position to matter, just don't know or have any strong opinions.

 

Although AIU is widely advertised on the Internet, none of the hiring managers I encountered actually heard of it. The only questions I got about AIU was "Where's it located?". AIU is expensive and is far from prestigious. But, I my salary dramatically increased after I earned my degree. Of course I think this would have happened if I had graduated any other accredited college. In the end, I agree with Rich Douglas in that a degree from AIU is a "useful accredited degree from some school no one's heard of."

 

I don't know who's heard of it. Most of the people I work with (in education) know about a very limited number of institutions -- DL or B&M.

It is insanely expensive though. (mmm someone said that ) That would be the main drawback for me. There are so many DL programs to chose from -- and some are much more reasonable in price.

 

I applied to AIU last year and BOY... they are a BUSINESS in all sense of the word. I felt almost like I was in the middle of hard pressure sales tactics by their counselor and although they are RA, I didnt really care at that point.

Good points are: they seem to have a really well run program online.

Cost, in my opinion, is too expensive for my needs.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

The major drawback I see with AIU is that the online courses have real-time requirements, which requires the students and teacher all being online at the same time.

To me, that eliminates one of the major advantages of DL, which is the ability to work on your own schedule.

 

No, far from respected but a legit place to finish your studies. If you work in fields like IT, the origin of your degree wouldn't matter as much as the skills learned in the program.

 

That's not true. There is no requirement to be online at a certain time. You just have to sign in at least once by tuesday and complete your assignments by saturday at midnight CST.

I would not consider it a well respected university. You will never here anybody say " wow, you went to AIU. I heard they have an oustanding (business/IT/Accounting/MBA) program". If AIU is not overly advertised in your area most people will just assume that it is another average no-name university. However, as the school has become more aggressive with its marketing a lot of people are starting to take notice and unfourtunatly in a bad way.

That being said I have had a good deal of success with my AIU degree. I applied to law school earlier in this year and was surprised on how well I did on the application cycle. I was accepted to 3 tier 1 schools (Wake Forest, UofFlorida, and George Mason) as well as priority waitlisted at (Boston College and Uof North Carolina). Some of the lower ranked schools offered me scholarships ranging from full tution plus stripend to half tuition.

So in my opinion I think that an AIU degree is decent approach if you are planning to go to a well respected grad school or if you are using it to secure a promotion in your current job. On the other hand, as an AIU graduate, I don't feel that the degree would be sufficient enough to compete on its own merit. The rigor and scope of academics is laking in the program and any employer that has seen the advertisements will be skeptical of the quality of an AIU degree.

 

Bruce,

Methinks that participation in online chats is not mandatory for AIU students.

 

AIU thinks different;

http://chronicle.com/jobs/id.php?id=0000421998-01

Look for "real-time" in the job announcement.

 

Again just a single-case experience from an applicant a while ago: He was in the army, 28 years old and had earned his business bachelor from AIU. He had 18 spelling mistakes in his application, a look at his homepage showed the same amount of grammar and spelling mistakes. the quality of work done for AIU he sent along would surely not be considered academic work even in the broadest sense. One of those pieces of work was titled something along the lines of a comparison of organizational theories. It merely was an essay lacking any methodology, structure and even research. However it apparently resulted in an above average grade result of the overall course, so one might wonder how the other assignments must have looked and if so, why he hasn't send those in then.