American Public University

The best online university I could find for Environmental Science. In fact, it ranked high even compared to brick and mortar universities for this program. It had all of the classes I wanted. Tuition was great and the institution is accredited. I feel that I have gotten a great start for pursuing a career in this field. I am continuing on with a Masters program in Environmental Policy and Management.

The discussion forum program is awful. Their level of communications from staff other than the class instructor is lacking. I wish I would have selected another college to complete my bachelors in. Be careful and research everything about the college before attending.

I would definitely recommend this degree and school to anyone. I think it is important that people understand that one must be good with time management to be successful in a school that is solely online. There is help available if you need it but it is better to be fully prepared. The teachers are qualified and willing to help the student with any concerns that may arise. The cost is rather good. I am in my senior year at the university and have enjoyed every minute of my experience.

Take the above information with a grain of salt. Overall, the programs offered by AMU/APU are top-notch and will exceed any online experience for achieving your educational goals. My personal issue is not with lectures or course delivery, it is the e-book system, which most classes utilize. I prefer to pay the money to get a used book/course material from a local source or Amazon, vice the the online delivery. Several classes had a poor format (PDF) or only limited copies to "check out" of the e-library. This couldn't meet my personal flexibility needs. Other folks prefer the e-delivery, so power to them. Once again, don't let this deter you from giving any of their programs a try, you will NOT be disappointed. Instructors work pretty well with students, and are diverse, experienced, and helpful.

I tried to add Environmental Science, but was unable to. I guess this is close enough. I have been extremely pleased with APUS. Since I was a transfer student, most of the general education and all of the general electives were already taken care of. The classes I have taken so far have been almost all excellent. English 102 was surprisingly difficult. I placed out of it in my previous brick & mortar institution. It was the only class I got a B in (actually a B+), which brought my GPA down a bit. Most of the teachers have been excellent and have responded quickly. I looked around carefully before settling on APUS, as I wanted Environmental Science, not Environmental Studies. I don't want a management position. APUS really has an outstanding number of degrees that aren't found in the most popular online schools. Not only that, but the cost of tuition is far below those. I would highly recommend this school to anyone!

I am in my second semester at this University and must say that collectively, it is exceptional. I have had phenomenal interaction with both students and professors alike. This has helped establish a better conceptual knowledge of all course material. The research writing required also makes it much easier to retain the information that is being studied. The tests are not the super simple, and basic questions that one might expect, they are engaging and present a challenge to the student. Most important of all, the way the courses are aligned with the material, you actually learn the information or at least most of it. The comprehensive final exams are proof of that in every class. The questions will be difficult and will require that the taker fully understands the class. That said, this is not the degree churning mill that some people would have you believe. In fact coming from a B&M College, I have found the extensive work in the shortened courses to be far more challenging. There is no one holding you hand to make sure you learn the concepts and understand what you are reading. The responsibility falls on the person and not the professor in this instance. I would say, if you want a challenge that will prove how much drive you truly have attend this school. If you want to be spoon fed the information you need to pass a class, go to a B&M school.

I would have to say I love this school and I love the area of study which I am in. At first I was skeptical about how good an online program could be compared to a traditional school. I must I am very impressed with the degree program curriculum. A good friend of mine is a local high school biology teacher and he thinks the online labs are great. Overall I feel I have made a good decision to pursue my degree through AMU. I have a family and work full time so going to a traditional school would be impossible.

I am in the last semester and a half of my degree here at American Public University, and must say that my expectations have been exceeded in every way. I would highly recommend joining the educational experience here at APU for your B.S. of Environmental Science. Almost every single one of my teachers, including those instructing 100-level classes have held Doctoral or Professional degrees. Those I have known working on distance masters degrees from other institutions regarded their experiences as easier than my B.S. APU expects good research and coursework from its students, and that has helped me to strive for higher grades, and I am doing better work than I ever did at my previous colleges. I can attend class and make submissions at any time of day or night. I know that some online programs at other schools focus on teamwork like crazy, allowing weaker students to be carried by stronger students. Here, it is all you. That is not meant to scare anyone, but it means freeloaders cannot take credit for your good work. Some would see that as a huge plus. Course prices are extremely competitive. You can finish your degree from APU for a fraction of what you would spend at a brick and mortar school. I should know. I attended three different institutions before coming here. With those there was still the hassle of scheduling work around certain classroom time blocks, parking across campus, paying hundreds of dollars for that parking space, and having to abide by strict attendance policies, many of which did not allow for more than one or two sick days in a semester. Catching the flu during the semester at APU was not too bad, all things considered. All of my professors were very willing to work with me, allowing for a few extra days to turn things in or take any quizzes. My favorite thing about APU is that the classes are usually 8 weeks long. If you are taking a math course or a normally difficult course like chemistry, then course lengths are 16 weeks long. What this means is that you have the opportunity to finish your degree faster, but expect more homework during an 8 week course than a traditional 16 week course. You are still going through an entire textbook, like you normally would, but it is condensed, which means more weekly reading than in a traditional course. Other scheduling perks including being able to stagger your classes (having one class start at the beginning of each month), take time off at unusual times of year (like in February), or taking classes all the way through winter and summer breaks. There is a lot of room for flexibility. Like you, I was skeptical about the name American Public University at the beginning, but I have had an overwhelmingly challenging but great experience so far. I'm glad I decided to get my B.S. here.

I am about to finish my degree this up coming june. I am currently in a pathways program, which is exactly whre I attended to be when i started APU. Unfortunetly my pathways program is not in an environmental field. However getting the degree means I qualify for jobs based upon education, and being ina apthways program and able to convert really helps me get hired. However I am worried about being able to obtain a position when going agaisnt other applicants from traditional schools. Has anyone been able to land a position with a degree from APU in the wildlife field. I have absolutly loved the program and used it for all its advantages. I pushed myself harder than before and learned a lot. I just really want to be able to land ajob in the fieldof natural resources, since I went back to school for in that first place.

I was a transfer student from the traditional brick and motor school. I was very timid about attending, because of a lot of the bad reviews that were on this website. Like with anything I continued to research and decided to attend when I found traditional brick and mortar schools accepted credits from APUS.(Oregon University being one) This was my greatest concern as there are a lot of online college that are degree mills. I have been here two semesters now I can tell you first hand, some of these classes are more intense compared to those I have taken at Northern Kentucky University. My second worry was financial aid. As I have read in many reviews before I started, individuals have had issues with the so called "hoops" you have to jump through. I can tell you the "hoops" they are talking about are forums you have to fill out online through APUS. The process is not any different from any other school with the exception that you will have to fill the paper work out, print the forum and fax or e-mail it back. The extra step is for your protection because the document requires an actual signature. Plus, if you have any questions or concerns, the advisor's are always quick to help. Like with any school you must make sure you allow enough time for financial aid to go through. This is why most people fill out the FASA asap instead of waiting until May of each year. Personally, I will fill out my FASA forms after taxes are finished. There is somethings that irritate me a little, but I think overall it is a great school. I feel I have learned more here in the first two semester than I have in two years at the previous College I attended.

My contribution here is to boil down a review so it’s not labor intensive to get through. Many reviews I have just read are in agreement with several angles of my opinion about whether or not APU is a good, bad, or indifferent place to attend for quality (or not) education that will (or will not) benefit life in the real world of work and discrimination of information and various matters. I am qualified by experience, of attending both types of old traditional schools and new online versions; also, of several years and types of old traditional: technical, community, college and university levels. Issues/opinions: Traditional-must attend at least 50%; APU online – will transfer as much as possible and life experience is also accepted; Both have internship courses and careers/vocational opportunities via career counselors/career fairs; Both: course projects which enhance learning experiences; Both: Traditional / learning lab; APU online – tutor.com and other supplemental presented by departments/schools, i.e.: School of Science, etc. Books and materials: Traditional: Must pay for books and materials (often paid by monies from grants, but also a part of the costs to budget). For this students who are paying for their own will feel the pinch.APU online: Course books and labs paid by special grant and not out of student’s own individual budget, up until Masters level. Unlimited and flex schedule: Traditional – provides online campus life and schedule; options of potential extensions, but getting them approved is a 50/50 gamble, practically like an act of congress approval. APU online has most willing professors to work with you for extensions and difficult schedules, making it apparent the y are mutually interested and realistic in the students success; that we are mostly adults who are very busy and realize for most, that attending college is something of value, otherwise, why would we be here in the first place? Both schools, traditional and APU online are supported by U.S. Financial Aid, regionally and federally accredited. A large difference I see between the two types of school is that I have no spare time to use for traveling and attending physical schools at this juncture of my life. Rather, I am happy to focus my time on actual learning. I am not able to make a great comparison between traditional and APU online for quality in programs of the same since I have changed from Arts to Science, from Law, Administration, and to Science, with the exception to the level of difficulty. Both types of learning have provided distinguished levels of quality in teaching and materials to learn by. For both schools, there were/are students of varied levels of learning capabilities. It is true that what is put into ones education in effort to learn, will often result in that, and more, as a result. My final opinion with regard to comparisons between old traditional and APU online: the education I am receiving now, at APU, is solid, intensive, rigorous, and thorough. Students are expected to be on time, complete the assignments, and to be able to perform well and to achieve, to set goals and to attain them. I am very pleased with the education I am receiving at APU online university. I am equally satisfied with most of my past endeavors in traditional learning, but often wished I had the ability to just go to school since I had to make myself available to attending in person. That was not a realistic situation to dream about because life happens and things changes. Flexibility of online college is priceless with my needs as a student, child of an elderly parent, parent, grandparent, and spouse. In the end, I do not have to make any real trade-offs to get my education. Yes, I do have to pay for my own. This did not turn out to be as concise as I planned, but hopefully this has accomplished an assist to you if you are researching a place to call your educational home –APU! Good luck to you in research to find a school. Financial Aid provides helps in both types of schools, APUS online and Traditional.

I have completed several courses with the American Military University and all of them have proven to be top quality educational experiences. As others who have posted reviews here I too have attended other Community Colleges and actual Universities and have found that classes I have taken with AMU are equal to or better than te classes taken at these institutions. I feel that AMU offers working adults like myself and our United States Service Men and Women the opportunity to acheive our goals while providing for our familis or defending our country. The education I have recieved while studying here at AMU has prepared me for real life application of what I have learned. AMU has not only trained me in courses I required for my degree but they have guided my development of computer skills as well. I would recommend AMU to anyone who wants a quality education set at their own pace and from facultywho really care about them.

The only negatives I have to offer are that there were a few classes I would have preferred to have actual books instead of digital copies and a couple of professors were extremely hard graders without ever explaining what they wanted. I will not hold this against APU since I could have bought books if I'd wanted to spend the money. It was a blessing that any actual books needed for classes were of no cost to me. Outside of the books, the professors I had trouble with would tell me things like they needed more detail or more citations. When questioned as to where these were needed I was only ever given vague answers, so my work never really would improve, in their eyes. Surprisingly, one Professor loved my essays in the first class and told me my citations were horrible in the next, though they were the same as before. Again, I must point out that I only had this issue in two or three classes. I did, however, use outside professor review sites to determine which classes I enrolled in.

Although I am a new student, my overall experience with APU is outstanding. I have only taken two classes so far and find the instructors to be very helpful. The feedback I receive from them, gives me the confidence I need to do the best work possible. The staff at APU has been very helpful, thus far. They answer all of my questions, and help me through the processes I don't quite understand. APU has provided me with a comfortable learning experience. I would recommend this school to everyone looking to pursue one of the degrees they offer. APU is the only online university I could find, that offers the Environmental Science degree completely online.

I have just completed my degree program in Environmental Science and remain convinced that I could not have received a finer education at another school. I am confident that I have been well prepared to meet entry level and beyond qualifications for a future in my chosen career. I highly recommend this school for its content, assistance and most importantly the quality of its professors.

I GRADUATED FROM APUS LAST YEAR WITH A BS IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES. OVER MANY YEARS I HAVE WORKED ON MY COLLEGE EDUCATION AND HAVE ATTENDED COMMUNITY COLLEGES, AND STATE UNIVERSITIES. WHEN I BEGAN MY ONLINE STUDIES, I STARTED WITH ANOTHER SCHOOL AND SOON BECAME AWARE THEY HAD NO INTEREST IN SUCCESS, ONLY PROFIT. APUS IS A GOOD ONLINE SCHOOL, VERY WELL ORGANIZED, AND DOES THE JOB PRETTY WELL FOR DISTANCE LEARNING. I FIND THE SCIENCES ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO DO ONLINE, BUT IF YOU ARE A HARD WORKER, YOU CAN DO IT. DISTANCE LEARNING IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. IF YOU EXPECT IT TO BE EASY YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE EXPERIENCE.

Let me start by saying that I have attended a few community colleges, both in person and online. None of the classes I attended were all that satisfactory. The teachers were either too vague and you got bad grades because there weren't enough details or they explained things in only one way. For example, I took a world history class that was shared with a distance learning class, over a TV at their location. The entire class failed the first test. Our teacher said he felt like he was failing us and asked us what he could do to help. The main request was that he give us visual aids. He refused on the premise that it wasn't fair for the distance learning class to look at pictures while listening him talk. Consequently, most of the class failed the second test also. I dropped the course before things got worse. When I first signed up for APU, they accepted almost every college course I earned from local community colleges. I have taken over 60 credits through APU and am only two classes away from graduating with a Bachelor's in Environmental Science. I know that a lot of people have complaints about the financial aid department. Last month, I experienced the only issue I have had, so far, where they misplaced paperwork, didn't tell me until right before my semester began and nearly dropped me (if I had been dropped I would have had to begin paying back my federal loans early). I am not sure why everyone is saying that other colleges are cheaper. APU is actually very reasonably priced, considering and a HUGE plus: all textbooks are free, through a federal grant to the school. When I started my program in 2010, if I hadn't had any transferred credits, my Bachelor's would have cost me around $28,000. Now it is around $30,000. All in all, this is not a huge increase in a little over two years time. The fees have gone up a bit, but the semester hour cost has remained the same, at $250 per credit hour. Not really all that expensive, in comparison to most colleges. As far as the classes go, you are not guaranteed A's. Teachers are responsible for the easy A issue and you will find this in any college you attend. One thing you absolutely should do before registering for any class is check the college professor reviews online. The lists do not include every teacher at APU but it includes several. I used these reviews to help me determine what teachers would require me to actually do a good job. For the most-part, the reviews I found were accurate. Some teachers are too hard on students, while others are too lenient. I prefer the happy medium and only had two teachers that were extremely difficult to please and not willing to explain what would make them happy (I was still able to get B's in these classes by working extremely hard and devoting a lot of extra time). Through my research I have been able to avoid all the easy A teachers. I am cruising along with a 3.8+ GPA right now and anticipate to graduate with the same or a little higher. I love being able to work my studying around my job and life, in general. Overall, I am impressed at how most of the teachers really want to see you succeed. They will do just about anything they can to help you understand assignments and will go out of their way doing so. It helps that APU/AMU professors are all working in their field and are not simply professors. If you do not understand a concept the way it is explained in textbooks they are more than willing to explain it to you in a completely different way. From me, APU/AMU comes highly recommended

I am almost half-way done with my Sophmore year and am extremely happy with my experience. Although I have had a couple of minor disagreements with instructors, the overall experience has been positive. When I've had questions, the instructors have been quick to respond, normally between 24-36 hours. I've never had a problem with my refund and the financial office has always answered my questions the following business day. I will not say the classes are easy, because they are not. But who wants to learn from a place who just gives the degrees away? If you really want to experience college without having to walk all over campus, I would recommend APUS.

I found APUS in Jan of this year and figured why not. So I filed the forms and renewed my fafsa and federal loans. But it is now June and I have yet to clear up whatever issues financial aid has. To be honest I am completely lost as to what has it held up to begin with. No one in the financial aid office has been much help either. I have been reading within the past week reviews for APU and it seem the majority of the bad ones are pertaining to the financial aid office. These reviews have just made me rethink the entire idea. If you are looking for an online degree.....I would suggest looking for a distant learning program offered through state and community colleges. They tend to be cheaper anyways I have left neutral scores for everything else because I have yet to try them. The only support that I have received has been from my adviser who has contacted me one time.

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?