Okay I swore I would never get involved in another cult, and I couldn't believe how easily I was brainswashed. WTH is wrong with me? After I left the church, I knew what to look out for, nobody would trick me again....

Then came the University of Phoenix. Within a day they had me registered and sucked me in. After 2 weeks of attending and just NOW doing my research I realize what a huge mistake I made. Why didn't I investigate them BEFORE I joined? You would think I learned my lesson.

Anyway they are a for-profit school. Their classes are beyond expensive. Their classes are a joke (from my own experience). I felt like I was in middle school, it wasn't the least bit challenging. I could go on and on, but I will stop here. My problem is leaving this place! They are worse than the LDS church! After talking to the Department of Education, I just had to type up a letter and send in priority with delivery conformation. Deja vu? I am ready to have a nervous breakdown over this. I want to transfer to my local community college and this whole experience might interfere with that..

Anyone have experience with the UoP, and anyone leave it effectively? Without losing Financial Aid? I have read so many horror stories on the internet, but have yet to find a helpful one with the appropriate steps to leave this place. My advisors there refuse to help me, they are out for themselves....

the last real estate bust look silly. So many loans for unused education that will never be paid back are going to be the depression dealer. You watch. Mark my words and I'll be Prophet Drilldoc if I'm right.

A few years ago my Sister in Law was a counselor for the UoP. While working there, she decided to get her MBA. I already had an MBA from a state university. Listening to her talk about her classes, I was wondering if she was really getting the same degree I had earned. My husband kept reminding me that mine was from a "real" school. It was obvious what he thought of the University of Phoenix.

Other than that, I do not know anything about dealing with the school.

I...just googled.

Didn't know this about University of Phoenix. That puts the Masters my father wields over everyone's head to prove how much he knows about psychology in a whole new light.


Wow...my world just shook a little. In a good way, but still.

and had to defend a law suit not too long ago about giving hiring preference to other mormons. Does anybody else know about this?

I finished my Bachelor's degree at the University of Phoenix. I liked that my classes were taught by professionals with real world experience. My Dad teaches there. In his professional career he ran multi billion dollar businesses including The Harman International Group. I also attended the U and was not impressed with the professors that had never had a real job.
I currently am a Senior VP with a Bank and manage the Private Banking Division for our institution. I sit on all senior management committees. I deal with individuals that went to Harvard B school (4 current clients), Stanford, Chicago, USC, Gonzaga, etc. It amazes me that I am their business advisor. I would put my education and business knowledge up against theirs any day.
U of P changed the delivery system for higher education to working adults. In this, they made many enemies with state schools that saw the threat. Look at the on-line programs now being offered now by major Universities. You owe that to the UOP. They are accredited the same as many Universities in their region. They are not run by Mormons.

We may owe UoP for paving the way for online learning, but as a student, I will also owe them an arm and a leg. I will owe them for two classes taught be under-qualified instructors. How do I know this? I have been out of school for 9 years, and I know my writing isn't the best. After week 1 my "instructor" gave me my weekly feedback stating my writing was perfect, no errors, and keep up the good work. That would be great, if it was true. That prompted me to look over all my posts, and I then found many errors. It was a joke. 90% of the students couldn't even write a complete sentence. My 10 year old could have completed the assignments they gave me!

A few years back I attended my local community college and took a few courses, and they were actually challenging. I managed a 4.0 but I worked HARD for it. Speaking from experience, I didn't even have to use my brain at the UoP. This is just one of the many reasons I seen red flags. I need to start trusting my instincts *sigh*

Aw, Man. C'mon, cut me some slack here. I have an AAS (community college), an ASN (private college NOT UoP), a BA (state university), and my BSN is from dun...dun...dun...UoP. I worked my ass off and learned quite a bit. I don't know about other fields, but I actually had to work to earn my Bach in nursing. Whatever you think about it, my BSN from UoP was respected enough to earn me admittance into a BSN to DON bridge program with no problems. It's respected within the nursing community as are the computer/technology degrees as I work with some of the grads.

Sorry I don't have experience to share with you re getting student loan monies back...

The lawsuit I think you're referring to was filed in 2006; they paid a hefty fine as a result in 2008. Prior to that, they paid a very large fine for something else they were caught doing.

They paid the money, but refused to publicly admit wrongdoing either time.

They have a lower than average graduation rate, across the board, than most public state schools do, but cost nearly twice as much.

The NY Times published a big article about them a few years ago. You could probably still find that online.

I wouldn't call UoP a cult but for-profit schools do operate differently than non-profits. They have recruiters who sometimes get paid commission, that's why they are so high pressure and so good and reeling you in. You shouldn't feel like an easy target, the fact is many of them lie to get you to enroll (so I guess it is kind of like TSCC). In terms of instructor quality, that varies. I have taught at community colleges, a private (but not for profit) university and a for-profit technical college. At each one of these places I saw good teachers and bad ones. There were ones that challenged their students and those that did not. It just varies regardless of the type of institution.

That being said, in my experience at the for-profit school, there is A LOT more pressure on instructors to pass the students regardless of how well they actually do in a class. I was told to do everything I could to pass the students, which I took to mean, past them whether they deserve it or not. This made me really uncomfortable. They do this in order to keep as many students enrolled as possible because ultimately they don't make money unless they have students. One reason they pressure you so much is because the advisors and instructors will probably be held responsible for each student lost. An instructor can be banned from teaching a course if they don't pass enough students and so can the advisors lose their job if too many of their students drop out. So yes, they are motivated to hound you because they want to keep their jobs. It may sound bad, and honestly I don't like it, in fact, if I could find a better job I'd quit teaching at the for-profit school today but the fact is I haven't been able to find anything else so for now I am stuck and have to deal with all the crap. I don't like it but I have two little kids to support and get hardly any help from my ex. So while those people who hound you from UoP may seem like jerks, you don't know their circumstances, they may not be able to get a better job and are just trying to hang on to the one they have.

If you don't want to go back just don't go back and don't take any of their calls. Change your phone number, email etc if you have to. It's annoying but that's just the way it is sometimes. I'd recommend a community college, they usually offer similar programs to the for-profit schools for about a 10th of the price. The community colleges have more full-time instructors than the for-profit schools, which can increase the quality of instructors although it's no garauntee. Like I said, there are good and bad teachers at every type of school.

Good luck to you.

NONE of them are positive.

Terrence H. Bell was a co founder of UOP, he was National Sec of Education under Jimmy Carter, and he DAMN sure was LDS !
I knew his sister who was a an RM, widow, second grade teacher in our town,friend of the family, ward member, next door neighbor to my grandparents and one of the meanest, nastiest, most bitter, spiteful people ever.

Luckily, all my UOP was paid for by my employer BEFORE Clinton let the IRS start taxing Education reimbursement, that from a guy who said he wanted to give tax credits for higher education, that intended as a comment on politics & human nature in general and a statement of fact.

Okay. I looked up the 3 longest NY Times articles:

Apollo Group, which owns The Univ of Phoenix, has paid out--- as the result of three separate lawsuits--- $6 million, $9.8 million and $78.5 million in fines, for wrongdoing.

The fines were levied for illegal recruiting schemes, poor/missing financial records, and illegal labor practices.

They graduate about 18% of their enrollees in their BS degree courses, while the average for public, state schools is about 45%.

The UoP Pres makes MORE than the Pres of Harvard! One of their stories on for-profit universities had a chart detailing that info.

Most of their grad students are already employed when they enroll at UoP, so their claims that about 80% of their grad students work in their chosen fields is a bit disingenuous. In most cases, the enrollee's job led them to UoP, usually thru employer-paid reimbursement plans; in other words, they did not get their job by virtue of a UoP degree, though their position or promotion may have been helped along by it (same as it would have if they had gotten that degree for about 1/6th less, locally).