is AIU prestigeous?

Originally posted by Bruce:

Bruce:

AIU's "real time" requirement only applies to the instructors. Instructors have to be logged on once a week for the scheduled chat session. Although it may be beneficial for the students to attend these chat sessions, it is not mandatory to do so.

 

This is not an anomaly at AIU. I personally turned in some questionable work that resulted in above average marks. I found that as long as the paper you turned in was on topic, met the page requirement, and was turned in on time it resulted in an A. The fact that it was poorly written, or lacked research and academic thought did not matter. In fact in one of my classes (decision making) I never opened my textbook. I just merely wrote something on topic and within the page/time requirements. The only B that I received during my time at AIU was a result of me turning in a paper late.

In every class that I took my grade point average was higher than that of the class. That means that on average the class was turning in work of even less quality than my own. I seriously doubt that I could have pulled a C average in a typical brick and mortar school with the type of assignments that I was turning in. That is why if I am ever in the position to hire an applicant and I see AIU on the resume I will disregard that educational experience. I also would not blame an employer for doing the same with me. I think for the most part AIU is a joke. It really is nothing more than buying a degree. It happened to work well for me and I am sure others can find a benefit from the degree but it is not an education that you earned. It is merely a degree that you bought.

 

Hi c130nav,

If that's the case, why didn't you transfer to another school? I would have if I thought I was getting nothing out of the educational experience. Many people say the same about UOP, but I actually came away with quite a bit, most likely due to the quality of the instructor pool in Northern VA, either way, just curious...

 

I guess I wasn't in it for the educational experience. I needed a bachelor's degree from a RA school in the shortest amount of time with a high GPA. This has to do with how the admission process works for law schools. For the most part the only thing they care about is GPA and LSAT scores. The difference between a Harvard grad and one from AIU is of little consquence to them. They only want to admit students with high numbers so that their rankings rise in the US News ranking reports. So in my case AIU met my requirements and allowed me to get an inflated GPA resulting in several tier 1 law school acceptances. Had I changed schools after I decided that AIU was a sham it would have cost me my time, money, and possible a lower GPA.

 

Wait a second! I just hired a new administrative assistant, and I had two applicants, one had a degree from Texas State University, and another had a degree from AIU. I in no way discriminated between the two because one came from a more traditional school. I looked at each applicants resume and judged them based on their perfomance in the interview process.

Texas State is considered to be very prestigous in this area. However, what if the one applicant had a 2.0 GPA and the AIU applicant had a 3.9 GPA? Is the one from Texas State more qualified because of their alma mater??

 

Well, Harvard would like to believe that its D-level students are better than straight-A students of all other schools.

 

Just thought I'd let you know I just finished my associates degree from AIU in Sept. They do have chat sessions where students and teachers CAN go online at the same time and ask questions or discuss the weeks material, but they are NOT required and if you fail to make it they are archived for you to view any other time during the class. Usually each class has 2 per week, but the teacher picks the time.

I did attend a few of them during my degree and the average number of students was about 5 each time.

 

I just finished up at AIU and I completely agree with you. I beleive only 2 of my classes the teachers actually took the time to grade the papers. And those classes I ended with a low B!! But am very proud of that than all the A's i received which I know I didn't deserve.

I actually had a GP where a girl plagarized her whole part like 4 paragraphs and I emailed the teacher, my advisor and the dean. Surprisingly the girl walked away with an A and graduated.

Just by viewing the DB you can tell people copy and paste because their fonts and word sizes do not match throughout their post.

This is a reason I do not want to return to AIU!

 

I would recommend you go to rip off reports and search on AIU. Just go to google.com or something and search for rip off reports or the bad business bureau, very easy to find! I think you will find plenty of information there, but while reading the information remember that is just SOME of the students and only one side.

I graduated from there last month and I'm not going to say it's the best college, but it's not the worst.

They are also a for profit school and have had quite a few complaints made to the better business bureau which you can also check yourself online.

Goodluck!

 

I've walked past the campus from the MARTA station to the Hyatt in Buckhead at least 50 times, uphill -yes, prestegious - not particularly, RA- yep.

 

That D student may well have been valedictorian at a good hign school, with 1400+ sATs.

 

Could be true. I know in my city of over 400,000 people you would be hard-pressed to find many who have ever heard of it.




Tom Nixon

 

This is very disappointing to me. I graduated from AIU (Los Angeles) in 1995. I have actually made several calls to the university president, and written several letters on the path that they have taken with the university - since they became a for profit university. It is safe to say that the school went down the drain once it was bought by SEC.

I had a great learning experience at AIU - however, since I did not do the online version of the program I am not too sure on the quality. That said, let me say that I have had no problems with the education that I received at AIU and had as much of an edge as anyone else in the field of graphic design.

It is troubling to read all these reports about a school that was very good (once upon a time).

 

You have nothing to be disappointed about, you have a regionally accredited degree that apparently served you well for admission into a very good graduate program (Norwich). My undergrad degree is hardly prestigious, but it's done everything I've needed it to do, and that's the bottom line.

 

Don't put too much stock in what you read on these boards. The stuff that is posted here is very informative, but sometimes it carries little weight in the real world. The information on this board is sort of like looking through a telescope - it's very narrow and focused, but when we hit the streets of the read world, reality is sometimes totally different than the funneled view that we were exposed to at this board.

 

Thank you for the words of encouragement. Again, I restate that I feel that I got a very good education at AIU, certainly much better than my brother who went the community college route; however, it is a upsetting to see my "School" dragged thru the mud like this.

I will say this to those thinking about attending AIU, my friend "Jay" graduated with me and went on to UCLA Law, and my friend Steve went on to grad school at University of Chicago, and there are many more students that go on to Grad School with an AIU degree. I do believe that the LA and London campus are one of the better ones. But like any school – you have to put in the work. I did College Math, English, Science, History, Latin American Studies, and the rest of the core material, and I was in the Fine Arts Program while I attended so it can't be that bad!

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys.