University of Phoenix : Bachelor of Science in Psychology Reviews
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Anonymous
(In Progress) on May 18, 2012
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Save Your Money
I completed a class and half before the work load wore me out. The first class was easy peasy (introduction to their online program), but then I started a general psychology class. Which I'm good at, understand well, and have studied before. I couldn't keep up with it! 2-3 papers per week, "group projects" (in which you are responsible for other people's work from around the country), 2 discussions, 3 chapters of reading, and numerous responses per week. PER WEEK. I would come home from work and read, write, and "discuss" until it was well past my bed time and I could never do it all. When I disenrolled, they asked why and I told them just that. They said, "Oh, most students don't do all the reading. They just skim through it enough to write their papers." Seriously?! The counselor told me to cheat my way through school! I honestly have NO idea how people with kids do this. It's nuts! They call you multiple times a day until they have your money. They lie to you about whatever they can. The staff I met on campus never looked like they enjoyed their jobs. Just please, pay attention to what you read about this school from those that have been through it already.
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Ed-smith
(In Progress) on February 1, 2012
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A Long-time University Faculty/Staff Member's Viewpoint
As a doctoral-level professional staff member and part-time faculty member in the undergraduate and graduate schools of a major public university, I applied and was accepted to teach at UoP. My intention was to establish this as part-time income and activity for my upcoming retirement. After teaching one five-week session of a 200 level psychology course, we have had a parting of the ways. First, I had to go through a long and labor-intensive training and personnel procedures that made conventional university bureaucracy and administration pale by comparison. This is partly justified due to the dramatic differences in instructional philosophy, policies, and especially the use of on-line technology. About midway through the course, I begin to see how certain aspects of the set up that were totally unique to my experience seemed designed to work. First, the instructor does not compose the tests, nor for the most part the written assignments or team assignments. So I was in the position of providing in-class instruction on text material I did not choose, covering objectives I did not develop nor fully understood, for exams that I did not write! Next, I struggled with the fact that students were responsible on the exams for material from the text BEFORE the class covering that material took place! Then it began to make more sense. Since the exams are "open book" and taken directly from the text readings, it became obvious that taking the exam was a matter of going back over the written material to find the answer to the exam question. I admit, the questions were relevant and fair as far as relating to the text, but anyone could take tests like these without reading the text or going to class just by reading the question and retrieving the answer verbatim from the text. And it became obvious to me that was what my students appeared to be doing. This could be deduced from the material submitted in the writing assignments where the student had to do more than just retrieve the correct term but had to demonstrate an understanding of what the material meant. Often students would hand in paragraphs that mentioned concepts from the topics but that too often were just misplaced concepts. For example, I "learned" that Psychoanalytic techniques included dream interpretation, free association, resistance, and transference (the first two are correct, the second two are just terms related to psychoanalysis but NOT techniques). It would be like saying techniques of driving include use of the mirror, use of the brake, tire wear, and oil changes. In short, the students had no idea of the concepts in any meaningful way. And why should they? Given this set up, I am still not sure what the purpose of having a classroom instructional session served. The message of the entire way it's set up is, "don't understand, just find the right answer, get a sufficient grade, and pass the test." And it was extremely difficult, if not impossible to teach these concepts when covering such wide and marginally related areas in one four-hour class (for example the first class included learning, conditioning, ethics, research concepts, and a smattering of neuropsychology. The result? An individual with a passing grade, credit toward a piece of paper saying they had a degree, a healthy payment from the student or throug government financial aid (mainly loans), but no real knowledge gained. Oh, and a nice little sum for the institution. To be fair, the concept of providing upper level education in a manner realistic to the needs of the working adult student is a good one. Many of the faculty were knowledgeable and possessed perhaps more practical knowledge of their field than traditional faculty at a traditional university. And there were remedial programs in place for students who needed attention to basic writing and reading skills (I do not know the substance and quality of them, however). The emphasis on learning teams and group presentations is also appropriate (though I found the emphasis much less tangible in its actual implementation vs. "on paper." I applaud the effort to provide this education in a format that makes sense for the working adult student, but five four-hour crash courses on such broad subjects simply doesn't allow for adequate absorption of the content or the experience necessary to a genuine education. Bottom line - don't go there - don't send your kids there - don't advise anyone to go there. They won't have a degree that is generally recognized by our society and the work world, and they shouldn't because they probably will not have gained the adequate knowledge and skills a degree is supposed to represent. (which sadly is to a lesser degree is true of many legitimate accredited universities as well, but that's another story!)
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Carol.gasper
(In Progress) on July 28, 2010
(email verified)
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Riding the Coattails...
I received my AA in Criminal Justice from Phoenix and was quite happy with the classes and faculty. My opinion DID NOT remain the same when I started my B.S. in Psychology classes. For the bachelor’s classes students are required to work in teams. However, the reality is that only 1-2 people on a 4-5 person team will put forth the effort needed to earn above average grades while the others ride the coat-tails.
Throughout 30 weeks, a total of 6 classes, I had hoped the situation would improve. Instead, it became intolerable so I withdrew and am now searching for a new university to attend. The most common strategy suggested by the academic advisors to deal with this issue is to approach the classes as if I was completing the assignments alone. A workable and tolerable approach if I was also earning the grade alone. The team members work, lack of work, or lack of effort always put my grades in jeopardy and in order to maintain my GPA I had to put an extraordinary amount of effort into completing assignments meant for an entire team. The problem is that the large majority of team members are not actively engaging themselves in the team assignments.
Along with the many excuses like a busy work week and last minute personal deadlines the other most commonly posted statement of the rationalization of an individual’s lack of effort on a team assignment is (and this is my favorite!), “Being on a team means that people should work together and help whoever needs it.”
***This is code for - I ignored my assignment until the last minute because I didn't feel like doing it so I pounded on some keys to create several inconsequential sentences for you to rework and make sense of. ***
Of course apologies will be dispersed along with the standard, "It won't ever happen again." Of course, it will and repeatedly. This is almost always followed up with the ridiculously insincere question of, "Is there anything else I can do to help out the team?"
I have posted to an instructor or two regarding this issue but as far as I know, these people received the exact same grade as I did. I believe this is the case because I have seen these same individuals in the next class.
It is a very disheartening experience to pay tuition and, literally, earn grades for others.
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