University of Phoenix

I have been looking for places to post my experience with University of Phoenix and have finally found this site. I know that there are many people out there that are like me and want an education to make their lives better in some way, shape, or form. But this school is not the place for that. Allow me to explain: When I first came across University of Phoenix, I was trying to transfer from another school called Penn Foster (which is just as bad as Phoenix, but that's a whole other can of worms that we're going to leave alone). I had looked through the options that I had available to find a school that would allow me to do what I really wanted to do, which was Web Design. My first interactions with Phoenix was very good. My AC was very nice and I got along well with her. However, since I was only 21 at the time and had no job, I had to file as a dependent seeing as I was also living with my parents. Now let me be clear that I have never in my life filed for financial aid, nor was I fortunate to have college savings from my parents. You could basically say that I was entering into the deep end with the big kids on this one. My parents put both of their incomes together and my counselor determined that I was eligible for the full amount of a Pell grant and loans from my state of Kentucky. I thought that after that it was smooth sailing from there and that I was on my way to getting my Associate's Degree. I really wish I could say that this had a happy ending. But unfortunately, this isn't one of those fairy tales where life is all cupcakes and sprinkles. I started to notice that things were slowly beginning to change when I started my very first IT class along with an Ethics class. I was doing well in my classes: I had a 3.75 GPA, A's and B's, and I was never late in posting my assignments. Then, out of the blue, I get an email from my Academic Advisor and Financial Advisor (Both of which, I want to point out, were very good fellows.)that there is a problem with my financial aid. I replied to them both and it turns out there was a paper that was not correctly filed and that I needed to resubmit it. So I went ahead and filed it. By this time, I had just finished both classes and was on a two week hiatus. Two weeks passed and when I logged in for my next classes, I was shocked to find that I was not in any classes. Immediately I called my Advisor and was informed that he was not my advisor anymore and that I had been reassigned. I was confused, but agreed to get in touch with another man that was going to help me get back into my classes. Once again, I had to complete the application process and (for reasons I will never understand) wait for him to get back to him. A week passed before I tried once more to get in touch with Phoenix. This time I reached what had to be the most rude and condescending person that I have ever talked to. I was told that my paperwork had expired and that I would not be starting classes as scheduled. But most shocking of all was the fact that there were "discrepancies" on my transcript. I pressed her to tell me what they were specifically and I could not for the life of me get this woman to talk. Frustrated and irritated more than I had been in a long time, I snapped and told her to not even try getting me back into classes because I was taking my education elsewhere. Bad mistake. Her entire demeanor changed in an instant; she told me that she forgot to mention that there was a class that was not paid for and that I was now responsible for paying them back $973.14 for a class that I never took. I didn't say anything for a moment before I told her that I wanted to speak to whoever was above her which she refused. She also mentioned, very rudely, that there was no way they were going to release my transcript until that was paid so I was better off in not even trying to transfer. With those words, I hung up, unable to continue talking. I have since been harassed with phone calls from a collections agency demanding that I pay Phoenix which is money that I don't even have. I have had to file for forbearance just to buy more time in finding a job. Worse; I can't get back into school until March because of how University of Phoenix screwed me over. If there is one thing that I am guilty of, it's not doing my research ahead of time and being naive about the whole thing. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and this is what happens to me. So, the moral of the story is don't go to University of Phoenix. It's NOT WORTH IT. Take your education elsewhere. Go to community college or some brick and mortar school if you have to. These people will only take your money and run and if you try to get out of there they will do to you what they are doing to me and many others. Don't waste a year and a half like I did trying to get a degree that won't be taken seriously. As for me, I'm going to keep trying to find a job and possibly go to Job Corps if all else fails just to get some kind of trade or something just to try and dig myself out of this hole that I'm in. If anyone out there is reading this, please keep this all in mind if you are thinking about going to Phoenix. If you want to get screwed over and waste your time, then this is the school for you. Otherwise, don't give this school any thought at all. You'll regret it if you go.

I attended the University of Phoenix through my Associates of Arts-Business and through all but 6 classes of my Bachelors of Science in Accounting. I can only give credit to my enrollment counselor for assisting me with all of my questions. He actually let me call him for like six months into my associates program because my academic and finance counselors were of no help. After he told me that I needed to start calling them I was on my own, even into my bachelors. I was constantly given faulty information when I did contact them and I'm pretty sure that there were intentional lies and mistakes regarding my financial aid throughout both programs. I am not currently enrolled with them, but I guess I will be eventually finishing my program with them because not all credits will transfer to another school. With the costs I have already occurred with them I cannot afford to lose any credits.

University of Phoenix can be a difficult program if you are not prepared to work at an accelerated pace. The financial aid awarded will generally cover the cost of the courses, however, if you fail a course you are responsible of covering the cost to retake that course. The school does not fail a student, the instructors do not fail students. If you do not complete the work as required YOU FAIL YOURSELF!!!! You must be a diligent student for this rigorous program or you will have very little success.

I never write reviews, but in this situation I think it is so important that anyone considering the UofP does NOT take classes through this 'institution'. I needed to take two classes with the UofP which I would transfer to my full time college in order to graduate on time. For anyone considering doing this, DO NOT. My original advisor was awful, she had no knowledge of the requirements and was completely useless to me. This was frustrating as a first time student of of the UofP. I was told I would receive help and guidance and I felt as though I was guiding my counselor. I finally switched advisors, which helped some but not much. When I had troubles with one of my professors (she was rude, angry, fought with the students in the forum, refused to ask questions, didn't understand the UofP policies and docked my points that I had more than earned) my advisor and her manager were not able to do anything for me. I was overcharged, a problem that took weeks to fix, and in the end the classes were not worth the large amount of money I paid. The materials were minimal and useless and there is no actual teaching. The students teach themselves if the want to, and the professors simply oversee. It is a waste of your time and money. Choose anywhere else.

I found out that my AA degree was basically a high school education equivolent. I am furious with Univ of Phoenix. They lied to me, chaarged me way too much, and then this!!! The financial aid folks are slimey salesmen as well. They'll tell you anything to get you to sign the dotted line, and then never talk to you again when you have a problem. I hate this school and recommend everyone think twice about attending.

I am starting to wonder if this school is for real. They refuse to give me my grants. When I began they told me that I would recieve a dispersment every three months but as soon as it came time to disperse the money they put me on probation. My sister also goes here and she had almost a 4.o GPA and when she finished the same exact class that they failed me in, they failed her in and placed her on probation. You do not recieve a dispersment check on probation so who gets the money from the government????? I believe that they fail people on purpose just to keep the grant money, they do not care if we graduate or not. I have a year left and I am not sure if I will transfer somewhere else yet or not. It is not a coincidence that this happened to me and my sister, we have differant names and live in differant states, they have no idea we are related.