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Jsaadein
(In Progress) on January 28, 2012
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Take Responsibility for your Education
(AMU) I find it interesting in the reviews here, as they are quite the opposite from every experience I have had with this university. At this time, I have completed 18 undergraduate courses with them and can comment intelligently about various encounters. For those using federal financial aid, the process is all fairly automated – get it right the first time when apply and stop blaming AMU for your lack of oversight and ill preparedness. Additionally, the comment which said the university is making their family pay prior to receiving financial aid is completely false – once your package is in, AMU actually fronts the registration in anticipation of receiving federal funding. Tuition assistance is the same, there is about a two-day turn around for class-registration. As far as the instructors…there are some extremely qualified and who are attentive, and there are others that are not – this is typical with every university, even traditional ones. This university is not for those who need their hand held – attending AMU requires a great amount of initiative and time management. Furthermore, this university requires a significant amount of writing. I have taken courses at UMUC and Embry Riddle and they by far have nowhere near the amount of workload that AMU requires. I hope this provides a little insight into my degree program. Lastly, I have put in for three of the top 12 MBA programs (traditional) and none of them have questioned my degree from AMU.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Lcculpep
(In Progress) on November 14, 2011
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Great Experience So Far
This is my third semester at APU, and I have been very pleased with everything so far. I'm in the BA Psychology program and hoping to get my MFA in Screenwriting once I finish. I did a lot of research and looked at just about every online school before choosing to attend APU, and I'm glad I did. Yes, the financial aid department can be hard to get a hold of and they do make mistakes sometimes, but it is not impossible to get things taken care of. Everyone in the department that I have spoken to on the phone or e-mailed has been helpful and nice. The tuition is very reasonable, and actually less expensive than the brick and mortar universities in my area. The tuition also includes your textbooks(some are e-books), which is pretty awesome considering how insanely expensive college textbooks are these days. As far as academics go, it has been wonderful. Most are easy to get a hold of and grade pretty quickly. I will say, however, that you really have to be motivated and disciplined to get things done. All courses have weekly deadlines, but beyond that it is your responsibility to keep up and make sure you get everything turned in on time. You also really need to be a self-learner or become one. There is a lot of reading involved and I have found that most of the professors are just there to provide you with the learning materials, grade your assignments, and answer any questions. For me, this is not a problem and I actually enjoy having control of my own learning. I've never enjoyed lectures. The psychology classes have been great, and I have really learned a lot. That said, it is definitely not easy. Be cautious in taking higher level courses too early on. Although most don't require any pre-reqs, it can be overwhelming if you haven't taken some lower level courses first. One thing I absolutely despise are the Discussion Boards. In just about every class you are required to post a thread discussion and also reply to two fellow students EVERY WEEK. It can really become tedious and generic when you have nothing really to say and just want to do the work and then move along. All in all, I have found it be a challenging but very doable program and I am glad I decided to come here rather than anywhere else.
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Michellee
(In Progress) on November 12, 2011
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Master Public Administration
In the APU MPA program you will be studying outdated information: The assigned reading on technology was published in 1980. One of the assignments said we could submit it on bond paper. That sounds like something written in 1980 too. Instead of learning about SAAS, cloud computing and oissues relevant TODAY, you will learn about not enough memory or hard disk space and floppy disks.
You will be thrown questions in a midterm exam that were not a part of the information studied; be presented with questions that do not correspond to the assigned readings; get Yes/No questions on Essay exams, and you will be asked to answer vaguely worded questions asking for absolutes.
If you are a working student, you will find no compassion or flexibility at APU.
APU made major changes to the MPA program recently without directly notifying grad students. No matter where you are at in the course of the program you cannot even change your concentration (2 classes) without meeting the new requirements. The new program no longer includes any electives so there is no flexibility. They put the burden on you to find these things even though they can easily push this information out. I had a job opportunity that was dependent on switching my concentration and the response from APU complete refusal. I’m stuck getting a degree in an area that is experiencing massive layoffs.
With APU you can expect mediocrity and indifference. No matter what they say, there is no partnership. They are not there to help you. They will take your money, erect obstacles, move the goal posts, strictly apply self-serving policies, and provide a bare minimum effort towards your education. Good luck.
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Jk2710
(In Progress) on November 4, 2011
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Has exceeded my expectations and more
I must admit that I was reluctant to consider a fully online Masters program for quite sometime. However, due to my location and frequent transfers, I really couldn't find another program that met my needs. Now, I'm so glad I didn't end up stuck at some local ground university.
First off, be prepared for the fact that it is truly an online university-- you will not get the face to face, or on the phone, support you will get at ground universities. If you are the type of person who needs a lot of help and attention by nature, then you may want to look elsewhere. The financial aid department in particular can be be rather difficult to deal with, but they do eventually get things sorted out.
As for the quality of the education and instructors, I have been much more than pleasantly surprised. Not only do all of my professors have PhD's from reputable universities, but most have extensive high level experience in their fields of expertise, unlike most career professors at other universities.
The coursework is demanding! Do not expect any less. Since you are not spending 3 or more hours per week being spoonfed by in person lectures, they make very sure you are capable of doing research and thinking for yourself. Having taken graduate level courses at 2 other schools, the amount of time and independent thought required at APUS is much more demanding. And I'm glad it is this way. The few people who show up expecting an online Masters to be handed to them get weeded out very quickly. Most of the students have been very impressive and serious about their studies.
Unless I were able to get some sort of scholarship to a very highly respected university, I wouldn't consider going anywhere other than APUS.
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Anonymous
(In Progress) on October 16, 2011
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MBA review
The MBA course at APU is above average (and well above average in some respects) compared with other MBA classes I have attended (both by correspondence and in a traditional classroom).
I cannot comment on the financial aid department as I have had no interaction with this department.
Textbooks are for the most part the same textbooks which are recommended at other universities. Given, some texts can be quite pricey, but no more so than the medical textbooks I've used previously nor other graduate level texts.
The quality of the professors (or instructors) is variable. I have had some who interact very well (and frequently) with students; and others whose only interaction is the grading of assessments. This again is really no different to any other unversity I have had experience with.
The interactions I have had with the school's technical and student support have far exceeded my expectations with responses and resolutions to my queries in a very timely manner.
The only difficulties I have had are the rather compressed term lengths for courses and discrepancy in student knowledge.
What is normally a sixteen week course is compressed into an eight week timeframe, meaning with time management is critical. This of course can be very challenging for working professionals with children.
Because there is no graduate exam requirement for entry (which I feel by and large is a good policy), I found a large disparity in the knowledge between course participants. On one hand, some students are senior managers with years of experience, and on the other are those who have recently received a bachelors degree and have nil experience. This makes the sharing of knowledge and leveraging of experiences a very one sided affair.
As with any graduate program, it has been my experience that one only gets out as much as one puts in. For some students this may mean doing the minimum to get the testamur for the wall, whereas others will choose to go the extra mile: extra reading, establish study groups, perhaps even organize internships with local companies to boost their experience - it is these students who benefit most from the flexible self-directed learning format of this program.
On balance, I would recommend this program to others, especially given the school's regional accreditation and the program's ACBSP accreditation.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Anonymous
(In Progress) on August 31, 2011
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Horrible school!
This school has way more problems than the few things it does have going for it. The tuition is fairly low, and they say it is a great value because you do not have to pay for books. But you rarely, if ever, get an actual textbook; they are all e-books and very convenient to some. So you still have to pay for books out of pocket.
The financial aid department is a joke, and they do not abide by the federal aid guidelines at all. In fact, I am honestly surprised that they have not had any type of consequences relating to their ability to accept federal aid. They do not know how to process the aid packages, make mistakes regularly, do not send out tuition refund checks on time or anywhere near it, and they do not respond to phone calls or emails.
The professors do pretty much nothing but grade assignments; they do not teach. Most of them do not even correct their "standard" syllabi that is provided to all instructors to reflect their own names, much less any changes to assignments. So the classes and assignments are very confusing; there is always conflicting information between the syllabus and the online classroom. The professors do not grade on a timely basis. Basically, at this school, you are told what to read and what to learn and you do it on your own. Hopefully, you learn it and get a good grade, but if you don't, you're out of luck.
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Anonymous
(In Progress) on August 23, 2011
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Online Learning
I am in the process of enrolling into the Master's In History Program and I have read many reviews of this and other online universities. The top 25 Online Schools of 2011 are listed and AMU is listed as number 6. If you were to look at the first 5, the tuition is a few hundred dollars higher per graduate course and thousands for undergraduate. The so called lower tuition for in state schools, especially for undergraduate and graduate courses are much higher than the online courses. As I look for accreditation on both online and in class universities, they are the same and each accepts transfer credits for the most part from each other, unless some universities are hard about transfer of credits. What I am seeing is that too much emphasis is being placed on education and while it is important, this is to be used along with experience, training and other areas to assist in the major in which you had received your degree. I do not have the money, time or grades to attend Harvard, Yale, Princeton or any other nice and expensive school because I along with most online students have to work. This degree is only a slice of the pie of life and the rest of the slices are a combination of life experience, networking, a little luck and opportunity. The main thing is to do something and move on to the next level and accept that no university is perfect but make the best out of the situation.
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Anonymous
(Graduate) on July 7, 2011
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AMU may be for you
I recently completed my management BA with AMU. It has been a positive experience overall. I already had my CCAF degree as well as completed the NCO Academy and the SNCO Academy distance course. AMU gave credit for the vast majority of my previous classes and military training, as well as allowed me to CLEP several general courses. The book scholarship program is awesome, making AMU more competitive than other online schools. I found the degree program and electronic campus easy to navigate and use. There are no automatic enrolments, making it possible to plan your education around family and work commitments.
I think AMU is best at enabling non-traditional students to convert their real world experience into college credit. What this means is if you are someone who has worked as a manager, squad leader, crew chief or superintendant and received corporate, military or civil service training and haven’t received college credit, you can take the comparable AMU/APUS course and receive credit.
What AMU is not best at, IMO, is teaching directly. This is a failing of most online schools. Several instructors tried to create interaction and teach through lectures, but given the limitations of the medium, we were more or less learning by reading and answering posts. One instructor did create YouTube lectures, (IT naturally) which I thought was a nice touch for those students who learn best by lecture.
I would not recommend AMU/APUS for someone who requires a lot of hand holding and/or does not learn well by reading on their own. I would also not recommend AMU to someone who has not attended a brick and mortar school or at least taken some regular classes.
But if you are someone trying to convert your work/military experience into college credit, AMU may be the school for you.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Marinaks2007
(In Progress) on November 8, 2010
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Stay Far Away!!!!
Stay far away from this "university."
Financial aid department lacks caring, talent, and the ability to figure out small problems without sending you to several different people (who also know nothing).
I was to obtain a second graduate degree, and they abruptly stopped me after my first semester. No, I am not a bad student: 3.85 undergrad; 3.79 post-grad work; 3.95 in APU. Why did they take me out? I dropped several classes four years ago, in lieu of a better program that I thought would bring me gainful employment faster than the APU program (it didn't...thanks to the economy). I used no financial aid at the time to take classes at APU (four years ago, now I need it).
Guess what? Academic warning, and they allowed me to begin my program with the assurances that my loans were all safe and done for the entire year. Sallie Mae told me my loans were sent to the school already for the entire year....
Where is the money?
Obviously not in my pocket.
I am out 100 dollars for books since I was notifed of this three days before my second semester was to begin on 1 November 2010.
Stay away from the for-profit universities. No, it wasn't the professors, in my case they were great....it's the adminstration and the fact that APU is now being investigated for financial aid fraud.
Look for an article in PR Insider called "American Public Education, Inc. Former Employee Investigation" dated October 27, 2010. Investigation on behalf of former employees of American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI), American Military University or American Public University concerning potential ERISA breach of fiduciary duty –
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Ashw33
(In Progress) on August 3, 2010
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APU is a great school!
APU has been a fantastic experience for me. In any situation you may have professors you do not like and some you will love. I have had a couple who were VERY challenging and I almost despised them by the end of the class. In retrospect, I learned so much from them. Not just about the subject of the class, but of responsibility and to expect nothing less than the best out of myself. My husband received his Master's from a "brick and mortar" very reputable university and he has had so many problems with getting the wrong information from the staff, who act as if they don't have a clue what is going on. His recent graduation was less than acceptable and not up to what should be expected of a University of this size and reputation. Just because a college has a building does not mean they are going to have better instructors and staff than you will find at APU or other online schools. I have had nothing but positive interaction with the staff and professors at APU and they are very helpful. The book grant is great too. At first I was worried about not having a book in front of me, as some of the classes have e-books. However, I now have an e-reader and I can download my books to it. (Many classes do have regular books) It works out perfectly. I am a late in life student who went back after 15 years (and 2 kids). I started in the Associate's program for Web Publishing, because I wasn't sure about learning online. After meeting the requirements to do so, I transferred to the Bachelor's of Information Technology program. I was very proud to make the Dean's List last semester. My grades are not "given" to me. I work hard to make those grades and really have had some professors grade me harder than I was expecting. It makes me work harder and I am so proud every time I make a good grade. Do not start any online program thinking it will be easy. Online learning takes much more dedication on the student’s part and is not for people who need “hand holding”. Just remember when you read a review, that people have varying expectations out of similar situations. If you see someone vehemently bashing an institution, they are disgruntled. Now ask yourself how many businesses, schools, etc. that you or someone you know have been disgruntled with at one time or another. You just cannot make everyone happy all the time. The staff and professors of APU are human just like the rest of us.
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Robby.litherland68
(In Progress) on June 12, 2010
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A Pretty Decent School
When I transferred to American Public University, nearly all of the credits I have obtained from brick and mortar universities were accepted. I have read many reviews about this school and I have heard many people complain about swtudents that can not seem to even write a sentence with proper structure and I do a agree with them wholeheartedly. I would venture to say that these same students will not get away with this, and may not be able to pass the advanced literature courses because both of the professors I have had grade very tough on proper grammatical syntax and sentence structure. I seen a post from someone on this site who did not spell regret properly, which is probably one of the students I have heard others talk about. I do not agree that everyone at this school gets an automatic "A" in each and every class. Before starting school at APUS, I had a 4.0 GPA (out of 69 credits, or 23 classes and made straight A's in High School) and received my first "B" this past semester. After I had taken my first 4 classes, I looked at the Deans / President list of students (which consists of students with 3.75 to 4.0 GPA's, and can honestly say that in all of my classes (which consisted of approximately 70 students) my name was on the list, along with 3 other students who had taken courses with me, thus debunking the "Automatic A" assertions. Had each and every student I had taken these classes with been on the list, I was going to drop out of the school and attent the University of Oregon because they offer the same program online. I like the fact that the studies that one partakes in at this school are all based on individual effort. I am 42 years old and do not buy off on the fact that brick and mortar schools will try and tell you that group study is to prepare you for real life working experiences. As any of you know if you have worked in "groups" at brick and mortar schools, half of those people do next to nothing to contribute to the assignment at hand. It has been my experience that those types of people in real life working scenarios are let go to seek employment elsewhere. Some of the courses are easy, but many classes at brick and mortar institutions are as well. For the working adult like myself, that works 60+ hours a week, has twin 1 year old daughters and a million other responsibilities, this school is custom tailored to help me to get the degree I must have to advance in my career. There are undoubtedly students attending American Public University that are sub standard. There are also many students attending brick and mortar institutions that are the same. Do you know what they call a student who graduates at the very bottom of their class in med school?....Doctor.....do you get my point?
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Mala_chaval
(In Progress) on April 11, 2010
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EXCELLENT PROGRAM & GREAT UNIVERSITY
So far, the courses in the IR program at APUS are interesting and challenging. Lecture notes, assigned readings (of which there are plenty), and the online discussions in the several courses provide different viewpoints and theories about a myriad of subjects and topics related to the field of IR.
Until now, my professors designed the courses in such manner that student participation is mandatory and therefore the exchanges of ideas among students are great!
Until now, professors have been very professional by stating their expectations in a clear and concise manner, grading on time and provided constructive feedback, most of them have been easily available through e-mail to ask for clarifications or explanations in order to complete assignments. Based on the professor’s comments and lecture notes, one can see that their knowledge and expertise in the field of IR is unquestionable.
The APUS interface is also very user-friendly and I never have experienced the website not functioning (except for maintenance during a couple of hours and that was usually communicated by the university administration to the student body well in advance) and the online library has an extraordinary collection of databases, journals, and e-books.
In the GRADUATE International Relations program, the students come from diverse backgrounds (military, non-military, other countries [such as myself], ethnic…)
I am sorry for students who have had unfortunate experiences at APUS, but the graduate IR program is really a good program that is challenging, very global, and interesting.
I LOVE THE PROGRAM AND LOVE THE SCHOOL!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Mike.azzarello
(In Progress) on November 4, 2009
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No regrets here.
I am just a few classes from completing my Master's in Transportation & Logistics Management. I have absolutely no regrets in choosing this school.
A little bit of background. I received my BA from a "brick & mortar" school. APU was the first time I ever tried online classes. Before choosing them I seriously considered going to the University of Phoenix to receive my Masters in Business. However,after a lot of thought I decided to narrow down my degree and save some money. APU just seemed to fit me better as I pursued a new career.
To be honest, at first I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Online classes requires a lot of discipline. I realized without this there was no way I would ever complete it. I also realized that a lot of negative complaints, with most online schools, is due to this. Student who do not have this discipline will fail, and probably blame the school for it. Online classes are not for everyone. They require a lot of reading and writing. I seriously didn't read and write this much when I was attending an actual school. Their are required assignments due each week, and if you fall behind you'll pay for it.
As far as accreditation goes and how this looks to employers, I can tell you this. I have already been on two interviews with a major transportation company on the East Coast. The only way I was able to be considered for this job is because of this school. Believe me, my previous experience and degree have nothing to do with my new major.
Hope this helps anyone who is deciding on this school. If you have any questions, just ask me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Anonymous
(Graduate) on August 3, 2006
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AMU: MA Land Warfare, International Perspective
The program was a good balance between structure and flexibilty, in that it was focused, but allowed me to study what I wanted within the area. I had easy contact with my profesors, who gave me constructive, useful feedback on my papers, and all but two of them responded to questions very quickly. The books I had to buy were almost all very good; in fact, I kept most of them. I wrote a lot, and believe that I developed as a writer because of it, even to the extent of having two papers published on a military history website. As for technology, I experienced no real problems -- the online classroom environment was intuitive and never unavailable; registration was easy; and the school's support staff was easy to contact and gave prompt, useful answers.
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