American InterContinental University

Going to an online school, you have to expect that you are learning everything on your own. I went to an online school (PCI) and once we finished all of the online course work, you had to do an internship to learn before you received your degree. This is how I feel AIU should be. There is no way that I am completely prepared for a job in my field of study without hands on experience. I do like the fact that there are absolutely no tests and quizzes throughout the course, although I do feel a test or quiz would actually teach me more. I don't really feel like I am learning anything from writing 5-8 page papers for 3 years. I feel like we discuss the same information in a different way in every class (if that makes any sense). Though the people are really nice and helpful. My advisors always call and check in on me every so often. I really think every online school would benefit from having students complete an internship or externship at the end of every degree program. Especially for a degree program such as forensic science. I learn nothing by researching online, but it is my only choice since I am military and work all day.

I have attended AIU for four years now and have always had difficulties with the financial aid department. Financial aid claims to have an “Additional Funding Team” that projects how much and when you will receive any excess financial aid in the form of a stipend. This alleged “team” does not speak with students, so trying to contact someone directly is fruitless. The financial aid department directs any and all responsibility for additional funding to this unknown team and will provide only copied and pasted answers to your queries; “when will I receive my stipends?” or “I have a positive balance on my account, why can’t I get my stipend?” (None of which will answer your question). You are told that the "Additional Funding Team" will send you a schedule of approximate stipend disbursement dates and amounts, but they take their sweet time doing it (sometimes 2-3 months) as the loan money (which has already been received by the school and is reflected in your account balance) sits in their hands and accrues interest in AIU’s bank account (which financial aid will adamantly deny) while you struggle to make ends meet until AIU decides that they will release your money to you. In the past, persistently calling financial aid and addressing the same concern over unreleased stipends has seemed to help, due mostly in part, I’m sure, because they’re tired of hearing from me. I am not impressed with this school what-so-ever, and not only for the difficulties I’ve had with financial aid, but also because I am placed into classes with many other students who can barely speak English, much less articulate a semi-decipherable assignment submission. You can’t help but wonder how these students made it this far…until you realize that somewhere, somehow, their cost of tuition is being paid to the school and, in essence, that’s all that AIU is really concerned about. I am currently in my final degree program at AIU and have decided to stick with it until it is completed, but only out of convenience; I know the layout of the virtual campus like the back of my hand, understand exactly what is required of me to pass classes, and have two full sheets of names, numbers and direct extensions used to reach various departments and their staff (this is invaluable as it has taken four years to amass this list and I refer to it regularly as a means to avoid having to weave my way through generalized departments and subjected to call transfers that invariably lead to voice mails providing no immediate assistance). I have had four instructors (out of 25) who actually seemed to enjoy their role as an online proctor as evident in the comprehensive feedback left when grading assignments and the ample amount of interaction they had with the students; they seemed to really care that the student understood the material that was being taught. Three of these four instructors have since left AIU, perhaps because their perception of teaching students online had become somewhat jaded through their experience of having to pass undeserving students just so the school could continue to pocket their tuition. Is AIU a diploma mill? Yes, I would have to say so and base it on nothing more than the caliber of students who are now in their Master’s program but have yet to grasp the sheer basic fundamentals of proper grammar, spelling, citing or referencing. This only ascertains my belief that AIU values money more than education.

I am presently attending AIU and finishing my last 2 classes there - no no no - not because I'm graduating with my associates! But because I have basically been scammed. I am working to get an associates in criminal justice administration at AIU and from the get go I was very clear with everyone that I spoke to that my intentions were to move on to a bachelors in forensic science and work in CSI field work as has been my lifelong dream. Well out of all my classes, 18 to be exact, only 3 of them have anything to do with criminal justice and 7 of them have to do with business. This always confused me but I listened to the reassurances given by admission and student advisers but the feeling never went away. So I started talking to academic advisers from 3 other online schools and 1 from my local branch of OSU - and it was unanimous a degree in criminal justice administration "is good if you want a job as a legal secretary"! NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR! I've worked to get the grades I've gotten so far but curriculum has not been challenging in the slightest, quite boring actually. So I'm switching to ITT Tech School Criminal Justice where I will hopefully have better luck. They have 13 CJ classes (10 more than AIU). So if you want a degree in business AIU could very well be your ticket but if you're looking into something else - you may want to look elsewhere if you want to come out with a degree that amounts to something more than the paper that degree was printed on! Good bye AIU! All I can hope now is that they don't harass me with phone calls now that I've asked for withdraw papers to be drawn up like they did when I was signing up with them.