I'm looking at pursuing a bachelors through DL in the field of IT. I have about 40 credits from a local Community College, mostly General Studies. I know that Excelsior is a good choice but their program is geared more towards students that're already working in IT, which I'm not. Right now, I'm looking at University of Phoenix. Any input about them? Or, any other suggestions of other DL schools which offers an IT program? Thanks. Any help is appreciated.
UoP is generally considered to be overpriced, and IMHO undervalued. They are a for profit business and academic standards don't seem to high on their priority list. Are there any on-ground programs in your area? IT is an area that can really benefit from hands-on - especially for someone without a lot of experience. Beyond that, you may check out UMUC and Capella. Thanks - Andy ------------------ Andy Borchers, DBA NSU (1996)
They advertise MANY places and that money doesn't fall from heaven. No wonder they're around US$500/hour! OUCH!!!
Regarding UoP and their tuition.... I have a good friend who approached them and inquired what his tuition would be. The recruiter, before asking anything else, asked if his employee would be providing tuition reimbursement. My friend advised that he did not know if they would or not, but suspected they did. The UoP recruiter advised my friend to find out first and then they would give him the tuition cost. To me this smells of price jacking depending on whether you get reimbursed or not - i.e. they charge one price if you pay for it yourself, and I suspect they charge your employer another, probably higher, cost if they reimburse. If this is true, I have an ethical issue with their practices.
Take a look at the online BSIS program at the University of Mass at Lowell. I started out in the BS CIS program at UMUC which, for a number of reasons, I found to be unsatisfactory.
I registered and was admitted to their Bachelor of Information Technology program last year. During the first session of my first class, it became apparant some of my classmates had been accepted based on financial ability, and not "academic promise." This is being overly nice. The following is an exact quote from my instructor I heard first hand in my class during the third meeting: "Your success in this school will depend on how well you get along with your fellow classmates, and not how smart you are, or how well you complete the assigned work," This was a subtle threat in my direction, because my ability far exceeded those of my classmates in the subject, and it was causing a certain level of resentment by some classmates. Education was certainly on the level of lowest common denominator. In addition, my UoP college writing class in English contained three students who didn't speak English! I quickly dropped UoP and have a hard time taking it seriously every time I see one of their current advertisements that seem to be bombarding the Internet right now. Regards, Christian
As noted, University of Phoenix is pricey. For an undergraduate degree, I'd first check out the public universities in your state; they're the most likely to accept all the community college credits. Many largely campus-based universities do have distance learning programs. Then, I'd look at other schools that are likely to accept a good chunk of your credits -- most often mentioned as being flexible in this regard are Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College, and Charter Oak State College. ------------------ Kristin Evenson Hirst DistanceLearn.About.com
That may be a bit oversimplified. I attended the UoP for 18 months and they are focused on group dynamics to a great degree. They feel (and they're arguably correct) that being able to work in diverse groups is a component for success in today's business world. Americans tend to focus more upon their own personal checkbook and performance than that of their company. I no longer attend the UoP for cost reasons. Anyone here would be hard pressed to say that Excelsior, TESC, et. al is more academically rigorous. I'm nearing completion of my degree via examination and the UoP courses were far more difficult (and had stricter grading).
You get out as much as you put in! UoP provides the learning environment and all the tools necessary for you to accomplish whatever goal you set for yourself. If you want to learn, study hard then you will succeed, if you want to skate through the program then you can do that too. It is up to the individual. I took over 20 classes at UoP, all were challenging because I made them so. I could have done less, perhaps received the same grade, but that is not the point of education, is it?
