Columbia Southern University

It is sad to hear that to obtain a college degree you have to get into debt. In our nation people are going into debt to sometimes flip hamburgers or simply not finding the dream job. Most of us work at small, medium and large companies and not at Wall Street. The accreditation system was designed for colleges and not by or for employers. I graduated in 2001 with a Bachelors in Management (from a National accredited institution). I have climbed the corporate ladder and I make almost a six figures salary. It has not been easy and I worked hard for it. I decided to complete my MBA in Human Resources. I was searching for flexibility and a quality education. I researched many colleges and universities, but most were very expensive (I am paying for it). I needed a college that was accredited and not expensive. I decided for Columbia Southern. I am on my fifth class of the MBA in HRM and I have been challenged from the very beginning. CSU is a school designed for busy professionals, family oriented individuals, military personnel (THANKS for your service) and those who do not have the time to waist to sit down in a classroom. I attended a brick and mortar school for my undergraduate degree and I feel more challenge online. In reality at a brick and mortar schools you do all the work at home (online), the same way you do at CSU. At the brick and mortar school you are even paying fees for the parking lot where you leave your car to attend classes. At CSU I do not pay for those expensive fees and my books are included in my tuition. America, please wake up from the lie that to obtain a good education you need to go $100,000 in debt to land in a good job. Most people choose an expensive school to impress their friends or employers, who do not even look at the school you attended or do not even care. In 20 years of career none of my three employers asked my what college I attended. As a police officer they paid me extra for having the degree. At my current company I am in the process for a promotion as soon as I complete my MBA. CSU is there for the ones that want to grow as professionals and are smart with their money and future.

I completed my MBA with CSU in 2010. Compared to the course load and level of knowledge required at the traditional four year university (UNC School System)I attended for my BA, CSU required next to nothing. Which among other things left me questioning CSU's accreditation... CSU is nationally accredited but not regionally. What does this mean? The issue is the transferability of credits from one school to another. While nationally accredited institutions will usually accept credit from regionally or nationally accredited institutions, regionally accredited schools often do not accept credit from nationally accredited institutions. Traditional institutions use regional accreditation and have far more stringent acceptance policies. In short I have aspirations to attend Law School and my MBA from CSU is of no value in the process. If a person desires and MBA with little to no effort; I graduated from CSU in 18 months Summa Cum Laude with an estimated 4hrs/week workload.

I just completed an MBA in Project Management and I thought I would share my thoughts on CSU. Each course in my program was graded on a series of unit assessments and a small research paper or two. The Assessments were made up of mulitple choice and a couple essay questions. All assessments were open book. With the open book nature of the unit assessments it would be very easy to skim through material and ace each assessment. If you did this you could "earn" a degree, but wouldn't get much value out of this. As as student I chose to read the material and apply the concepts to my organization. As a result I found the results to be very beneficial. In the end I feel the educational experience at CSU is what you make of it. You get out of it the effort that you put into it.