Bellevue University : Business Information Systems Reviews
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Anonymous
(In Progress) on March 4, 2012
(email verified)
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Love Bellevue
I loved Bellevue.
I was referred to them by a director at work, and I thought I would check them out. After seeing the Accelerated programs, I called immediately and an advisor walked me through everything. I was only able to get unofficial transcripts from my community colleges, but I had no issues getting credit for this work. I finished everything in 9 months, and zipped through the program. I thought it would take me years to get my Bachelor's, but I had it in 9 months. Just like other universities the cohort piece of the degree had groups, and I had good and bad experiences. In a 4 person group, 1 person never showed, 1 person was so incompetent we couldn't let her near any of the work, and that left me and one guy to do all of the work. I still keep in touch with that classmate to this day. In another group, all 4 of us had our work posted first day and final assignment submitted by the second day. Each group is different, and you are stuck with your group. This is supposed to simulate the real world, real work environment, and I have to say, sadly, it does.
In the program, you get out of it what you put into it. I received stellar grades, but I put more into some classes than others. I found that you don't have to invest much to achieve a high grade, but you are only cheating yourself. There is information in the books and class that you will miss if you don't put your all into it. This was great for me because I wanted to learn, but found myself so busy with work in a couple of classes that I had to just do the minimum. I went back and read the books later, and found invaluable information there I missed the first time.
The fact that I had to take K series I found annoying because it was 12 weeks and just took up more of my time. However, once I started the class, I really liked it. Of course the paperwork, assignments, etc. weren't fun, but I did enjoy the fact that the class assignment was to participate in volunteer activities. I found this so rewarding, and continued my volunteer activities after the class.
Finally, I have to note, I did experience hiccups like financial disconnects, credit holding patterns, etc., but if you make sure this is taken care of at the beginning, it won't hold up your degree. I since went to another university, and the service, instructors, finance department, etc. was simply unbearable. I didn't come walking back to Bellevue...I came running and screaming. Will try to remember to leave a review for my Master's as well, but that's going pretty well so far with 4 classes in!
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Anonymous
(Graduate) on March 6, 2011
(email verified)
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This is what's wrong with higher education
When I registered for this school, I was persuaded into a bait and switch. The program I wanted had already started so I was asked to join the Business Information Mgmt accelerated program which later changed to Business Analysis Mgmt immediately following the completion of my cohort. The entire program taught what a business analysis would do and had nothing to do with information management. Halfway through the program, many of the students realized that program wasn't what the advisors described it to be.
It was a nine month program with a teacher who was not in it to 'teach'. Very little feedback was given on any work and it really didn't matter if you copied, turned your work in late, wrote only single lined answers on your homework, or participated very little in group assignments, you would still end up with an A in that program. A huge portion of the grade consisted of groupwork, so if you can imagine how hard it is to work with people in groups around you, you can imagine how much harder it is to work with people who are across the globe. As it turns out, since a single grade was given to the ENTIRE group, many students slacked off. They didn't care that their individual grades would be affected because someone in the group would end up doing the group assignment thereby producing an A for the entire group. It sucked for the hard workers and it was an easy ride for those who didn't care. And the groupwork went on for the entire program. Needless to say, the students who genuinely wanted to learn at the beginning simply didn't care at the end.
Before you can confer at Bellevue, you must take a three month program called the Kirkpatrick Series. I've read in different sites that this was an unbias view of politics, but this is far from true. It's extremely conservative and very much one sided. The author of the series is a professor at the university and I've been told that he is very bias. I had one professor for all three classes of the series. An essay was required each week, for 12 weeks, and a volunteering project was required for the 12th week. Because you had to quote the author's notes, it was very time consuming to try to argue his views, and sometimes your grades suffered, so many students just summarized his writings.
The diploma was a disappointment. No matter what your major was, it would only say 'Bachelor of Science' or 'Bachelor of Art' on there, unlike almost all the other higher education schools out there, including Capella. The other universities will put your major on the diploma. Bellevue simply does not and you have to pay $100 for it. Summa Cum Laude, Cum Laude, and honorable mentions also do not show up on the diploma for students who take the accelerated cohorts.
Student Records at Bellevue is one of the worst I've ever seen in my life. I knew many students who waited months before that office finally updated their credits from other schools. I had to ask my other school to send the transcript in three times because Bellevue kept saying that they never received it. It was on the third time that I also requested one sent to me. I called Bellevue and told them that I had my copy and that's when they said they finally received it.
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Anonymous
(Graduate) on December 28, 2010
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IT degree - very dissatisfied
I received a bachelor's degree in Internet Systems and Software Technology (ISST) from Bellevue University through their accelerated online program. I completed this degree about two years ago. I am unsure if Bellevue University still offers this specific degree, because I am unable to find information about it on their website.
I was very dissatisfied with the quality of the program. There were 12 classes on various IT subjects, (including Database Management, IT Accounting, Project Management, Systems Analysis & Design, Network Security, Linux Administration, Windows Administration, Web Scripting, Wed Design, and JSP, among others), yet none of the classes went into enough depth so that you could really become proficient in the subjects. E.g., there was one class that covered Perl, ASP, and PHP scripting. For those unfamiliar with programming languages, you could spend a whole course talking about each one of those. For each of these programming languages, we made an HTML form and did a database connection. This is not nearly enough information to become proficient in any of these languages, and woe to the person who puts that on their resume.
Further, the professor didn't know many of the subjects that we were taking and therefore was unable to help when we had questions. In those situations, we had to rely upon ourselves or one of the other students to hopefully find the answer to our question.
I also felt that the tests and other course material were very easy, yet time consuming. I got a high GPA but I don't feel like I worked hard enough to earn that. It just felt like busy work. I didn't feel challenged on most of the exercises. E.g., we took a Linux systems administration course and I didn't learn a single thing. I had been using Linux for a little while before that, but was by no means an expert. I remember thinking to myself before the course, "Sweet! We'll probably get to do some Bash scripting!" Instead, the exercises covered only the basics, such as the cd, pwd, mkdir, touch, and ls commands.
I was also dissatisfied with the course because I realized in the middle of it that I would have preferred to take a computer science course, not an IT course. Because of the circumstances in my life at that point, I was funneled into taking the ISST course. This isn't Bellevue University's fault, of course.
I'm going to go back to a traditional brick and mortar university to get a computer science degree. I will never take another class through Bellevue University, nor through any other online school.
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Dpstravel
(Graduate) on August 10, 2006
(email verified)
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GREAT program
Bellevue's on-line degree programs fall directly in line with their in-residence offerings (same papers, efforts, assignments, and program requirements), and offer the utility of having a degree from a “brick and mortar” college that doesn’t differentiate the program on the diploma (i.e. it’s not a “web” BIS degree, it’s simply a Bellevue University Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems).
The BIS program in particular offers a very thorough, highly interactive program that gives a thorough grounding in the "business" side if information system management, delves into system analysis, project management, networking theory, and supervisory practices. The cohort based nature of the program ensures camaraderie, and interaction/discussion of the issues with classmates is a graded component of the course. Group work/projects weren’t part of the course.
The accelerated on-line programs/courses are intended for working adults willing to put in the extra effort to finish the courses in a “cohort”, focused order. You finish the specific degree programs with the same folks you start them with, and if you meet the prerequisites (Associates Degree, and all other general ed requirements met), the degree can be completed in a specific program in 15 months or so.
In addition to the core class requirements for the accelerated programs, Bellevue also requires a three course Signature Series that essentially focuses on liberal arts for all of Bellevue’s Bachelor degree programs (unless you’ve already earned a Bachelors), with a western civilization and democracy/citizenship focus. This component was enriching, highly enjoyable, and one of my favorite parts of the program. It offered a nice break from the drier IT/business courses.
It was a great personal growth experience, the school compares to any I’ve ever attended (either by distance or in residence), and I recommend it without hesitation.
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Spmoran
(Graduate) on August 8, 2006
(email verified)
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Solid Program
This is a solid program. Bellevue University is a brick and mortar school in Bellevue, NE, that has a strong online component. I graduated with this degree in 2005 at the age of 42 and have benefited handsomely. I was able to transfer the maximum 82 semester hours into Bellevue, and I took the remaining 45 credits in accelerated cohort fashion. The program is 127 hours if you do not have a Bachelors degree already, and nine hours of that is a set of classes called the Signature Series. These are liberal arts courses and were, to me, the best part of the program. After all, information systems can be pretty dry stuff. Dry or not, the program was thorough and definitely not a walk in the park. There are eleven courses in addition to the capstone course, and they cover the business side of information systems very thoroughly. The capstone course requires a 25 page original research paper, which is a challenge. The rest of the work in the program is also very writing intensive. There was no group work in my program. There were also no exams; rather many APA-style papers. My belief is that if I can write intelligently about a topic, I have probably learned the material. The instructors at Bellevue seem to believe this as well, and since was Business Information Systems (non-technical), the lack of exams or labs was not an issue.
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