Park University

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Park in May 2014. The majority of the classes I took were online through their accelerated program, although I did take a half dozen classes at the downtown Kansas City location as well as one at their main campus in Parkville. I thought I had done fairly well for myself; my cumulative GPA was exactly 3.7 and I graduated Magna Cum Laude after holding the Dean's List for a number of semesters. I was excited (prematurely) and had read all of the positive reviews which left the impression that it had been worthwhile. Then post-education reality set in... While the course work did provide me with generic experience, I have since found much of the material which was covered to be outdated. For instance, COBOL was a degree requirement even though batch file processing is akin to knives and bear skins in the world of modern databases. Structured Query Language was barely glanced at in the curriculum despite my taking two database management courses. Other courses, such as the one I took on user interface design, were all theory with very little implementation. So, after wading through tedious but interesting concepts, I found myself completely unprepared to do any actual real-world work. Perhaps the most frustrating thing was the lack of any real support structure regarding a transition to something outside the virtual classroom. I remember being made aware of only two internship positions in IT via my student e-mail to which I applied, only to be given the virtual finger. Since graduating, my "luck" hasn't changed and I have found Park's alumni program to be impotent as far as help with job seeking. Being saddled with 20 grand in student loans doesn't help either... To be fair, I do know people working in IT with same Park CIS degree who are doing well for themselves. However, in every single one of those cases, the individuals had previous IT experience gleaned from time served in the military. I have found employers value the experience more than the degree as a rule. After seeing the other positive reviews which are undoubtedly inflated, I felt I had to comment to get the sickly sweet taste out of my mouth.

Its a great school. Received my Bachelor and it was well worth it. The courses itself wasn't extremely challenging, but you will get something out of them. After I graduated I found a job at one of the best hospital in the nation in the IT department. Park set me up for success and i am proud to call myself a Pirate.

I recently completed my B.S. in Management Computer/Information Systems with Park University and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed studying with this institution. I have never been to the main campus in Parkville as I completed my degree almost entirely online, but I do not think that the online experience took anything away from my education, in fact I think I may have learned more through online classes compared to past in-the-classroom experiences. Initially, I was very nervous about taking courses online, but soon found that it was the right method for me. The mobility of online classes are great, but the thing with Park is that you are required to be in one place at a certain time once each semester for a proctored final exam. While this sometimes became problematic with my current career in the military, I think the proctored exam policy that they implement keeps a higher level of legitimacy compared to other institutions that offer degrees online. Like any school (online or face-to-face) you will have good teachers, bad teachers, ambitious classmates, and slackers at Park, but in the end you will get out of it what you put into it. Great school, low cost, and would recommend to anyone looking to pursue an undergrad. The Management CIS program was good overall. Great business core, but too many programming classes! Would have liked to have seen more system analysis and design courses opposed to 4 to 5 programming classes.