Walden University

After reading several reviews about Walden University, I decided to join this university in September 2008. I wanted to pursue my PhD in management,on line was a good fit for me because it doesn’t require the complete one year residency as brick and mortar universities generally require. It was not going to be new experience for me, since I already took several of my master classes on line from a conventional state university. Walden seemed to have what I was looking for and it was listed as one of the approved universities by my employer, so I was going to be able to apply for educational assistance. Well, here is my story: If you can, stay away from Walden. Take this advice from someone that has taken on line classes from a brick and mortar university and knows what bad and good both service and education are. Walden is a business, thy will try to get as much money fro you as possible, regardless of what you do academically. They will task you with homework, lots and lots, whose value is more than doubtful. If you submit it on time, you got points. The feedback you get from the instructor is useless, and they force you to participate in nonsense discussions with no value whatsoever. Unless you really what to learn something from this, this is just a waste of time. For those of you that think that customer service is bad, you are right. Customer service is terrible. They treat you very well when they are trying to hook you up. After that, forget about it. But, this is not much different from my experience in my state university. Now for the worst part: It is expensive. They tell you that a quarter is $ 4,1700.00, but what they do not tell you is that depending in the time of the year you register, there will be bridge course until the new quarter begins. They register in this type a course during the first quarter, but they tell you not to do anything on it until the 12 week. Then at this time, they automatically register for this class again for an additional $ 1,500.00! When I complained about it, I was told that this is the way the university works, so I told them that unless the charge was removed from my account, I would not register again. I am still waiting for an answer. The most fantastic thing was that I did not submit any work or participated in any discussions for this class and still got a satisfactory as final grade! In top of this, you have to pay for residencies (6 of them with a cost of $800.00 to $ 1200.00) and books, even a simple $ 10.00 DVD (Please let me know how your textbooks were included, mine were not). Bottom line: This school has to be considered as a last resort. I am out of it and registering for a local, in state and well-known university. It is a business, and they will treat you like that. And believe me, I can distinguish between meaningful work and just work.