Capella University - System Design and Development

Avoid at all costs

By: Anonymous (In Progress) on December 28, 2006

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Capella University is nothing more than an online money-making scam. There is good reason for online-degree programs to be looked down upon by others and the so-called “education” you pay prime dollars to buy from Capella certainly explains why so many consider all online “universities” to be substandard.

For example, Capella hires and retains “instructors” who have literally bought their graduate “degrees” from diploma mills. That’s right, Capella University knowingly subjects their students (which they call “learners”) to unethical “instructors” who have purchased fake degrees. 

Students with disabilities are also subjected to gross incompetence as evidenced by not only lawsuits that are pending against the University for their failure to accommodate such students but also by the fact that their disabilities services director apparently has never taught. Not only that, but she seemingly has no background, whatsoever, in disabilities services prior to working at Capella. While Capella likes to brag about her in their advertisements and other promotional materials, she recently posted her resume on the web which is rather embarrassing – prior to being hired by Capella University she was a “team leader” for Mervyn’s (the retail store) and a residence-hall director.

As if that’s bad enough, Capella University is currently being audited for stealing approximately $500,000 (half-a-million dollars) from taxpayers by the United States Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General. While the audit hasn’t been completed yet, this information was provided by Capella University to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Who knows how much Capella has really stolen so far? Only time will tell.

Another major problem is that Capella University seems to have ongoing management problems. For example, their School of Psychology has had a seemingly endless stream of “deans” (which Capella often refers to as “Executive Directors”). This has apparently created a tremendous amount of instability.