Ashworth College - Security Management

Worth the Cost

By: thrill (Graduate) on December 18, 2008

Materials:		Teachers:
Institution:		Support:
Value:		Technology:

Review:

I graduated this month from the Associates in Security Management degree program.  All things considered, Ashworth College is worth it if:

1) You don't have time to attend classes due to family/work committments

2) You do have the discipline to work with limited direction

3) You don't want to spend much money on your degree

Although there are occasional customer service issues, I was able to get all of them resolved quickly.  The best way to contact the school is either to use the Helpline on the Student Services website or to ask for help at the school's internet forum.  Probably the most common problem I had was getting them to ship the next course (they are supposed to send them automatically when 80% of the previous course is finished).  One email was always enough to prompt delivery.

The course content was good, although some of the material was slightly outdated.  Most of the outdated material was the result of new Supreme Court decisions or because of updates in Homeland Security.  This is understandable, but I hope they update their material ASAP.

One thing that suprised me was how challenging the material really was.  I'll admit that when I started, I thought it was going to be a walk-over, especially because all of the exams are "open book".  Not so.  The writing assignments were tough, particularly in the Introduction to Terrorism and Criminal Behavior courses.

For time, It took me from April 2007 until December 2008 (20 months)to finish what is intended to be a two-year program.  I thought that was reasonable. There is sometimes a great deal of down time between courses if you are waiting for a paper to be graded.  Recently, they started allowing students to submit writing assignments electronically and I was able to get my last two papers turned in and graded within three days.  I think the longest I waited was one month for a paper to be graded.  If I wasn't waiting for a paper to be graded, I never waited longer than a week for courses or semester final exams.

The cost is about as low as you can get at $80/credit hour.  The only concern you should have before you sign up is contacting any four-year colleges you may transfer to/potential employers and finding out if they will accept a degree from Ashworth.  Many regionally-accredited online schools will, but you better shop around first!  I've found one already and will be starting my bachelors degree program in April 2009.  To emphasize: do this BEFORE you enroll with Ashworth!

For what it's worth, I had a good experience with Ashworth and would recommend it to anyone ONLY if I thought they had the drive and focus to stick with it to the end and did not need a lot of "hands on" from a instructor.  As a working adult with a family who already has a great deal of experience in the degree field I studied, it was a great choice for me.