Empire State College, State University of New York

I earned my B.S. in business management in 2010. This was all online study through the CDL. It was not easy and required a lot of time and effort. Many research papers and assignments. If you are not a self disciplined adult, this is not for you. Time management is critical and be prepared to do all the work! On a good note, ESC will give credit for prior learning if you can validate it. I recommend ESC to working adults who need to study online for various reasons. My final analysis is that ESC provides a top notch education at an affordable price and will give you the tools needed to excel in your workplace. Best of luck!

Received credit for prior studies, made the school worthwhile money and time wise. Mentors were essential. Received AS degree in 2000. Have BS studies in progress, completion target is Dec 2013. Students must read and complete all assignments, no questions asked. Instructors will guide courses, and yet it's up to the student to have a high level of discipline and organizational skills to achieve success. ESC is a school for our time, it meets all criteria for the serious adult learner. Before signing on to ESC, read and reread all of the preparatory school guidelines info, no questions asked. There will always be room for improvements at any school, for the quality and the price show me a better option than SUNY ESC.

i transferred here after 2.5 years at Green Mountain College, which is ranked in the Princeton Review best 300 plus colleges in America. I graduated from high school in 1997, attended some college and culinary school. Decided to return to college after over 10 years. After 2.5 years of sitting in classes with mostly kids right after high school, I switched to Empire and it HAS BEEN A GREAT EXPERIENCE. Horrible experience sitting in classes with really immature kids. America's youth are so lazy and have no social skills. This school should be for students who have experienced college and know what college level work is all about. If your rusty with college level work after a long time then do some prep work first. Yeah I hear people with the mentors are not always on the ball and the professor can be a little delayed with responses. BUT THIS PROGRAM IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED THEIR HAND HELD LIKE A LITTLE BABY. Take some time to try and figure it out on your own or ask someone in your class. BE SELF MOTIVATED, BE SURE YOU CAN WRITE WELL AND KNOW HOW TO CITE YOUR WORK, BE ABLE TO MANAGE YOUR TIME WELL, READING SKILLS HAVE TO BE UP TO PAR, DONT WAIT TO THE LAST MINUTE FOR ASSIGNMENTS OR YOU WILL PAY FOR IT. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH I FIND THIS PROGRAM HARDER THAN MY PAST SCHOOL. Most of the time I went to class and learned nothing. I felt I was mostly there for attendance points. Plus the learning process that I grew up with back in the late 90's is gone. Most of the schools now want you to teach yourself and then ask you questions about it and work in groups. By that I mean read and take notes so when you go to class the professor can quiz you on it. Back in the day it was the teacher taught you and then you go home and study it. Its a weird change for sure. Anyways I hope this helps anyone trying to attend Empire, its good just don't be lazy and expect to have your hand held because this is for ADULTS to children or dumb people. lol

I completed my Bachelor of Science in Management at ESC. Having already completed an AA degree prior, I was hesitant to start an online degree program and was unsure of the expectations. Taking classes online is difficult, it takes A LOT of personal commitment and time. The professors responded in a timely fashion, though there may have been 2-3 over 2 years of attending that were not so great, but what college does offer perfect professors? I was disappointed to see some really negative comments here, please keep in mind majority of them were from students that lasted a semester or two (probably not highly motivated individuals) and the course work is a lot. This is by no means an easy degree program. You will work for your grades. I recommend this college to anyone looking to work hard and complete a Bachelor level degree. The course work is heavy, requiring a lot of papers, but once you get the in the groove, it all comes together. Side note *** I am NOT embarrassed to put SUNY ESC on my resume, in fact I just left a management role with the largest pharmaceutical company in the world for a promoted management position with one of the best colleges in NYC and the country. Just sayin' :)

I graduated from ESC in 2004 with my B.S. in Business Management with a concentration in Human Resources. Prior to ESC I received my A.S. from SUNY Jamestown Community College and prior to that I attended a very respected private college in Ohio. So, I have seen about it all with the exception of Ivy League. I would truely have to say that my education at ESC was the most difficult to get through of the three. You are only going to get out of it what you put in. Don't think that they are going to take your hand and gently guide you through your program, like a community college tends to do (at least in my experience). I have seen in the community college instances where papers were extremely late, tests taken at later dates and work not completed and the teachers would cater to the student's every whim. Not at ESC (or a private school). You must stay up with the work, no exceptions. And yes, the amount of reading is extensive. And yes, the amount of research and writing is extensive. But, what are you in school for? I took 2 classes per semester and I would say for that load, you should expect about 20-30 hours of work per week, depending on if you have a paper due. As far as the teachers, I can only remember one that I had "problems" with. He wouldn't answer e-mails, grades were late and he really didn't seem to care. Other than that, nothing but praises for my teachers. All in all, ESC is a fine school, but you MUST go in with the right mindset. You MUST be self-disiplined, and self-motivated. Realize that the workload is going to be heavy. But, if you give it your all (truely), then you'll be pleased once you graduate and realize that all the work was worth it.

I am almost done with my BS in business management. Out of the 128 credits I need to graduate, 96 were done in the traditional class room at other colleges. Empire by far is more demanding school I have attended. You need 100% participation to do well. In traditional schools you could skip some class, memorize some material, and pass you test. At Empire they put a great emphasis on writing. Most of my professors have their doctorates and many are from prestigious schools. My mentor was amazing and really cared about my success. All staff realizes that their students are adults with many responsibilities outside of school and they go to great lengths to accommodate their students. You can do all your classes on line. But there are also opportunities for traditional class settings and one on one independent study. I literally met with my professor every two weeks one on one for 1-2 hours. Where else can you get that kind of educational service? Sitting with a PhD for an hour or two going over course material and my work taught me far more than any 30+ student class I have ever sat through. The school is amazing. But it is only for the self motivated and discipled. Despite an enormous amount of resources available to help you be successful, the course work is not for the lazy. I love the school and I will be proud to call myself alumni this spring.

This school with the excpetion of a few great instructors has only two things going for it. First, they offer classes online which allows the student to accomplish them at a convenient pace. That does not mean that they allow you to complete them at your pace as advertised. Second, they are at least for now accredited which adds a measure of credibility to the diploma. I will not bash them simply to bash and understand that these are my own experiences. The school is marginal at best. For the first two years they never had enough staff to process student loans which meant above average waits for loan disbursement. Now that same staff is simply incompetent but there are enough of them. I was graded at least in one instance on how well I related to the instructor and not on merit. After a lengthy process that situation was remedied. The online based school has frequent scheduled outages for their web site. This would be okay if they scheduled these outages for periods that did not involve every students deadline for submitting homework (ussually Sunday). Many instructors still have not mastered the internet or the school's web site. Grading is ultimately accomplished but the gee whiz web site offers continous feedback that is never properly used (I currently have a 333.33% in Income Tax 2). 20% of most course grades are based on regular contributions to discussion posts. The grading on these discussion posts are subjective and vary by instructor. This would be okay if the instructors used the 'grade book' on the website so you could gauge your level of response or even pointed out examples of good posts. I could go on and on. If you are considering Empire, I wish you better luck than I had.