Colorado Technical University

As a veteran focusing on completing a degree, CTU worked with me to review and apply credits for military experience and previous education. The cost has to be weighed with the reward. I was fortunate enough to have many decent instructors, but also had a few who were not really committed for one reason or another. The level of education you receive depends on the effort that you put into the program. If you read the books and learn the material, you will be better off. If you do the bare minimum, you don't gain as much as you could. I think the per credit cost was higher than it needed to be, but since graduating in 2011, the fact that I have the degree has been extremely valuable for me.

My name is Rachel and I am currently a student at CTU. First off they are very helpful in every department. I have never called in and been passed off or ignored. My student adviser contacts me regularly as does admissions officer. I have called financial aid several times and I have always been treated with respect and have been taken seriously at every turn. I think that you really do get what you put in and perhaps if others put as much effort into their own degree and stop expecting to have it done for them, then maybe they would be taken more seriously. We are all grown ups now and need to stand on our own two feet and stop expecting the world to hold our hands and hand us everything we want in life if we throw a hiss fit. GROW UP!!!!!!!! I have found my student experience to be very pleasent and I have no complaints. If CTU was lacking in the beginning, they have worked out all the bugs and are doing well. I have always recieved any help I have asked for. I would recommend this school to others any day of the week, as a matter of fact I did recomnmend it to someone very important to me, my daughter.

I, Trevor S., graduated from Colorado Technical University Online on November 11, 2014. It took me four years from start to finish to get a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. My experience was so valuable that I decided to go for the MSCJ and I’m now in my third class that starts on February 15, 2015. I received several job offers from security jobs, but declined them to continue my education without interruption. I honestly feel this is the best way to earn a criminal justice degree if you don’t want to sit in large lecture halls at a traditional university. I originally decided to attend the Colorado Springs campus because it was near where I was living at the time. I realized this was a big mistake because the instructors didn’t ever offer to help struggling students and made them take the class over again. There was zero support in trying to earn a degree at the campus. Several unrelated events lead me to online with CTU because of my terrible experiences at the campus. To this day I would not recommend the campus because they are more interested in taking students money than actual education. I found out the exact opposite was true for Colorado Technical University Online. From the beginning of my online program I was supported by the University. This online based system runs directly out of Illinois, not the Colorado Springs campus. However, degrees are conferred through CTU-Colorado Springs, or another campus closest to where you live and the degree doesn’t say online on it. All instructors give their home phone numbers for students to call and talk to them. Unlike many of the private for-profit institutions in the same bracket as CTU we had at least two live chat sessions a week in every class equivalent to lectures. This is unique because when I was at DeVry University and Argosy University all students had to do was read the textbook and respond to discussion boards. In fact, all of my master’s courses and many of my bachelor’s courses with CTU Online had doctor level instructors teaching the courses. CTU operates under the project learning model, which allows students to do projects instead of taking lengthy unrelated tests weekly like many traditional universities and colleges. The PLM is designed to assimilate students to what it would be like if they were in the working World. Many people feel online education isn’t worth it and may be a scam. For these naysayers I’d like to let them know that unlike traditional schools students are held to stricter standards. I wasn’t allowed to submit an assignment late, without prior approval from the instructor, or I would receive a zero grade. How many ‘research’ universities have this policy in place? Also, I wasn’t allowed to use any non-credible sources, like Wikipedia. Additionally, every assignment is automatically graded for plagiarism this includes any papers downloaded from websites for free or otherwise. It is nearly impossible to cheat, or have someone else do the work for you because of this plagiarism tool. Now that I’m working on my master’s degree with CTU Online I can honestly say this is a good school for anyone that values hard work and dedication to their education. The only problem I see is the cost even though Colorado Technical University has the fairest price for all of their degrees even online. In fact, CTU Online is probably the cheapest undergraduate degree program for the money offered online at just 325 dollars a credit hour. I’m currently taking out student loans for 585 dollars a credit hour for their master’s degree program. Overall, if you haven’t gained a better understanding of Colorado Technical University by reading this review you should have gained that this is a decent institution, education is what you put into it, and what you put into it is what you will gain from any school.

I wanted a career working with children at risk and checked into CTU. They did not offer a Social Service classes so they brilliantly sold me a BS in Criminal Justice which I was told by CTU advisors that this degree program would be comparable and completely satisfy SS requirements. The experience as a whole was great due to the friendly teachers although, the financial aid department and other education counselors were not helpful. CTU managed to guide me to a jobless and financially ruined future. I was over the age limit to join the police force where I would have to start - regardless, who would hire a police officer from an online school without any physical training? With the degree there are not other options available. CTU is not necessarily concerned for your future or you as an individual but they are in SALES! They sell you a little tech glam, flash your name on the screen and wish you well in your broken, disappointed and gloom future. Since CTU this degree has ruined my life!

I graduated here with my associates and yes the credit hours were cheaper..325.00 per credit hour and yes my classes and teachers were great but, this school started lacking the ability to effectively communicate among it's departments. I started talking to people that were abrupt and rude and could care less what the student needed or wanted. I took a Standard Period of Non-enrollment and for those of you who may need this badly be leary very leary if you attend CTU online. I was convinced by my student adviser that I should wait until after my 1402B session to put in for this request and knowing that I should go by what she recommended this is what I did. She failed to let me know that upon my return would be the start of a new academic year. She said that I would take the class I missed on my SPN once I returned. She said I would need to speak with financial aid department to ensure my funding would be okay upon my return. I did this as well and financial aid said my funding would be fine. I noticed on my accounts tab before my return that the financial aid department sent the funding back to the department of education for the class that was already covered and paid for by the department of education that I should have been taking upon my return. They then listed the amounts they sent back to the department of education on my accounts tab as money I needed to pay the school back. This was so wrong and completely out of context. I called for three weeks straight to get the issue fixed and every time talked to someone new and at least every other time someone with an attitude would be on the other end of the phone saying that I was totally incorrect and that I owed them money. I could not take my class that was previously covered because they sent back the funds...and top that off they also charged me for two classes prior that session when I only took one class and yet they did not offer to cover the class I should be taking with that funding either. They had numerous ways they could have helped or fixed my issues and failed at it for three weeks. What they did was charge me for the stipend portion I received on this one class because they sent the money back to the department of education. This was their own error not mine, my academic adviser then convinces me that I should withdraw and she started the process on her own and failed to tell me that after five days the process goes through on it's own. She started ignoring my calls, ignoring my e-mails and finally called me back one time and accused me of not contacting anyone back which was incorrect I had e-mails to prove it. Finally after 3 and a half weeks I requested a higher authority to speak with me that would stay calm, not argue and listen to me. Turns out after all of my calls and being correct every time with what I noticed and that they should not have sent back my funding someone finally sees what I am trying to explain. Sad thing is it this school almost a month to resolve an issue that was their own mistake, they withdrew a student without the students approval and tried to charge a student for their own mistake. I was more than half way through my bachelors degree there and now I am sadly not enrolled by no fault of my own. What school does this to their student. They are suppose to help us get where we dream of, believe in us and do everything possible to keep us in school. What happened to admitting to being wrong, honesty, and integrity I thought this is one of those things these schools live by.

Online sucks no support. They said they mailed out my books and software then when i didnt recieve it i told them n they sent it again but charged me twice for it. I only went for 3 months and when i told them to take me out because i kept failing because there was no support or help when it was needed. They left me in for a good nother month. Then i got the bill and while trying to track down what all the. Charges are for i got transferred round and round and then they garnished my tax return. If you are thinkin of goin here i would try my absolute hardest to find somewhere else cuz this is just barely a school

I know few people who attend this online school. Papers submitted is middle school writing and do a lot of cutting and pasting from other writers ideas. Information submitted and returned with an A....This is why I can never attend this school. Because these individuals are not being challenged in college..wait til they get to the working world. Some people just want an easy out. CTU offer just that.Plagarism is a fedral offense and they are not citing the students that I know that attend this school for such offenses.

Colorado Technical University Online (CTUO) is not a school for everyone. The courses used to vary from 11 weeks to 5 weeks but I guess they decided that they were not pumping enough students through the system. All courses are now 5 weeks long. There are some good instructors, that is, instructors that want to help you learn but for the most part instructors are low quality and do not help at all. I have had some instructors that barely speak English. The books are mostly e-books that you cannot take with you when you leave. You cannot download them, save them or put them to disk, but you can print them, one chapter at a time. What complicates learning is that most of the time the e-books have little or nothing to do with the course being taught. In this school you get out of the school what you put into it. They might as well call this the self-taught school because that is what it is. You do have grades handed out by the instructor who may dock you points for no other reason than he/she can. I once ran into an instructor who told me that students attending online classes did not deserve a 100% because they did not learn as much as a brick and mortar classroom student did. I believe him now. After two years my money and time have been wasted. I have had employers laugh at me when produce my degree from CTUO. Financial aid is another joke. I do not think even they know what stipends or disbursements you are going to get. I even think that they get points for getting you off the phone by telling you that your money will be in tomorrow. The whole financial aid department is incompetent with exception of one person I talked to a year in a half ago. Speaking of incompetent so is CTUO entire IT department. CTUO has discussion boards and back in 2010 they worked great then they had the 2011 spring update. Discussion board was unable to carry the original format. In other words I spent hours working on a paper making it neat and tidy with 0.5” borders, APA format, double space, and indent first line of paragraph. When I posted to the discussion board it came out with no boarders, single spaced and random enters sometimes five words then enter, and sometimes 10 words then enter. IT said it wasn’t their problem must be my computer. So I spent days figuring out it was not my problem even worked with Microsoft. IT said not their problem discussion boards worked fine. SIX months later they admitted it was a problem in the meantime all the students were getting docked 10 points per assignment for not submitting in APA format. I would go and spend an hour reworking my assignment on the discussion board so that it looked like I had originally written it. CTUO is a horrible place to get your degree from. It takes hours of research to research the subject matter and even longer to put it in a cohesive document. Be prepared to be congratulated on one hand for going above the required word count and punished with a low grade on the other for exceeding the expectations of the assignment.

I am about to graduate from CTUO. This is not a school for everyone the courses are SHORT and demanding. At first it was easy but as I got closer to my bachelors it got harder and harder. That is to be expected. They also gave very little time to complete assignments even though it was getting harder. They expected work and family to take a sideline to school. They do not fix discussion boards even though they have been messed up for two years now. Worked great initially but they had an “update” and never worked since. I called, emailed and online chatted with tech support and they are next to useless. They automatically assume it is your fault, even when you show them proof to the contrary. Teachers are good for the most part but you will never graduate with a 4.0 because at least a third of the instructors will dock you 5% for no other reason than “APA” or some other vague excuse. Asking for a specific reason or complaining is useless. Books are E-books which are useless and most of the books don’t even relate to the material being taught. You are required to do “extensive researches not use the book”. Then why in the hell am I paying for them. You pay the same for e-books as you do real books but don’t get to keep the e-books after school is over. You cannot download them or print them but you pay for them. Over all a very bad school with a piss poor attitude and format and I learned nothing.

I attended CTU in 2005-2006. I entered with my A.S. degree from the Air Force. I completed my B.S. in 15 months (Dec 2006) and worked hard every month of those 15 months. I put in 20-30+ hours a week into my assignments while working full time and it paid off. I graduated with a 4.0 and am very proud of the hard work I put into it. I wish online degrees from quality schools, such as CTU, would get a little more respect from others out there. I'm married, with two kids, working full time and couldn't have returned to a pysical college campus. I feel I learned as much, if not more, than if I would have attended a brick and mortar school. You can't cut class or have a buddy take notes for you. YOU have to do all the work to get the credit and grades. So, I beleive I got a better education than if I did attend a "regular" school. I only have two negatives: Group assignements suck because some of your group members don't put the quality into the projects that I expected and did. The second is cost. Its pricey, but my GI Bill paid over $17k of it. And, with the 5% pay raise I recieved at work for obtaining my degree, it has paid for the remaining balance in two years. FYI, my degree was accepted by my employer, the State of California and recognized by the USAF. It's a good school and I recommend it.

I have 3 classes left to complete my 4 year degree in criminal justice. After all the student loans and 2500.00 out of my own pocket for the schools screw. I informed the school that I was going to complete my degree at another school and they froze my account and told me that I needed to pay $4000.00 to get my transcript. Dont get me wrong the instructors are for the most part good and work with you during the class, the problem is in the office especially financial aid. It is a money school. the school is also owned by the company that owns AIU, AMU, and other federal loan hungry schools. I did contact the dept of education and there are more than one complaint out there. I wish you the best, 162 credits and still dont have a degree.

I am about to graduate from Colorado Technical University Online this year. The programs are aggressive as a student. A typical semester at a traditional in person university is about 9 months. The semester here is compacted into 5 week sessions. A lot of work to do, but it pays off. They do not hand out degrees like a treat to a dog. I recommend it as I am able to balance a full time job to meet my financial obligations and a full time college education at the same time on my own terms!

I will graduate in November and have 3 sessions left. I am an A student with a 4.0 GPA. The instructors are outstanding and really know their stuff. They provide live chat lectures and encourage the students to think for themselves. The multimedia presentation are also very helpful towards completing the tasks given. CTU does not make you take tests, unless you are just starting out. I never had any real issues with my advisors, only when I needed to drop a class, so I could go to a funeral. The only thing I hate doing is group projects. You have to deal with fellow group members not participating or doing a poor job on their assignment, then you end up with a low grade. You then have to negotiate with your instructor. Some instructors do not base your grade on the quality of the other members. The assignments are not a joke and can be very difficult if you do not use your resources. I would recommend CTU for people who really want to obtain a degree.

Let me just start off by saying that I am not an employee of CTU. I'm Chris Ingrassia, so you can verify that I was really a student. This school has its pros and cons. First, the pros: The curriculum is very well-organized and straight forward. When completing an online program, just know that it requires you to be extremely diligent and focused on the tasks. All classes are 5 weeks long, you take 2 classes at a time. That's upwards of 20-25 assignments in 5 weeks! The university website is very clean and easy to navigate. Live lectures are cool, the professors can display PPT's or documents as they speak. The professors that I had were awesome. Cons: I hated group projects!! Please....if you decide to attend an online university, make sure you are prepared to commit the time and effort to your work and to other students. The incessant focus on proper APA formatting rather than content quality got annoying. This can really be a discussion within itself, but I found the professors to really be overconcerned with it. My uncle always told me "you're not there for an A, you're there for a BA." It helped me to get past the petty grading and just consistently turn in quality assignments because I'm paying for the knowledge not the grade. Overall, I'm satisfied with my university choice. Do the research first and understand what will be expected of you as a student. Like I already said, I wish that more students attending really actually cared about doing the best they can on an assignment. Doing simple steps like spell-and-grammar checks, proofreading your work before you turn it in, using high-quality references, and really putting thought and research into your assignments will make the education that much better. I hated reading assignments by students who half-assed their work. People probably think that online universities are easier than an "actual college." Well.....kiss it. I busted my butt for my degree, and spent countless hours doing research and writing assignments and reading the text and putting together slides, I'm now exhausted of it all. But I feel empowered by completing it. I skipped vacations, did homework on christmas day, and have created friendships with other students across the country. The price may be expensive, but it's probably cheaper than a standard 4-year, plus college isn't supposed to be cheap, so people complaining about the cost should stop their whining. Here is my email: chrisingrassia at hotmail dot com if you want to really speak to me about the campus or have real questions on anything. I would be glad to help with whatever you want to know about the campus. Thanks for reading, and best of luck!! Study hard, work fast, move on! --Chris Ingrassia

I literally just finished all of my coursework and I officially graduate in two days. I must admit that CTU is much like a brick and mortar institution that I had once attended. There are many fantastic professors (more often than not) in this program. They are usually professionals that are working in the field that they are teaching or they are recently retired from it. I believe that this gives them a special insight into each course. Each professor that I encountered had no less than an accredited master degree in their field. Although some professors are better than others I suppose that is what it is like in any college. There are various significant technological improvements since I began my attendance at the University. Chief among these improvements is the TurnItIn.com authentication service where you can see if your paper is authentic or whether or not it has been copied somewhere on the internet. The University also utilizes this technology to route out plagiarism. I find this tool to be extremely important to any internet program’s credibility. The BS in Criminal Justice program emphasizes that the student solve real world projects in order to test their knowledge. Also there is a peer review and debate processes in the form of a discussion board where you can get you paper critiqued by another student and have the opportunity and duty to critique another student’s paper. You are required to post a response to at least two students on the discussion board and those responses are required to be substantial. There are also group projects (which I dreaded) that test your ability to coordinate with people from numerous different states, background, and in some cases time zones or even nations. Group projects are quite difficult in many cases and require the cooperation of the group to make a good grade. You are given quite a bit of lea way in how you complete your assignments but all of your assignments must be completed in the American Psychological Association’s format. Professors are becoming more and stricter on the APA format so keep that in mind. I personally believe that the APA format makes assignments more professionally accepted. Now in the realm of cost, you should note that this particular program is quite expensive and will set you back about $30,000.00. All in all I believe that this program taught me to be a better researcher and opened my eyes culturally with all of the different types of people that I had to deal with. All in all it is a good program and it is getting better.