University of Phoenix

Jodi of Brigham City , UT June 26, 2009

I applied for information to the U. of Phoenix at the end of May,2009. I decided on an assoc. degree to pursue and they told me to fax a copy of my previous Univ. transcript. I was approved and told to apply for financial aid. I explained that I couldn't afford to get too much in student loans and they said to apply for FAFSA. Robert D. told me my tuition would be about 8000 and that I should apply for all of it in case I didn't get grant money. I figured that based on my 2007 income of 9600 to support 6 people that I would qualify for a lot in Pell. The week of June 8, Janet J. called and told me that based on my score, I would qualify for aid and to go ahead and begin classes on June 15. I asked her what would happen if I didn't get aid, and she replied again that things looked really good for me and to go ahead and start because the first block was taken care of.

Yesterday, June 24 I received a letter stating that I got 1179 in Pell money, and 8000 in student loans (4400 is unsubsidized). I wrote Robert an email and explained to him that I was hoping for more Pell money and that I CANNOT do a student loan for 8000 especially when it only covers 24 credits. I will have to apply for another 8000 in February to cover the remaining 24 credits that I need. Robert emailed back and said that I would be penalized for dropping since I had already started. I was able to reach him by phone today, June 25 and he put Janet J. on to help convince me that the loan money was already disbursed (without my permission) and that there would be huge penalties for dropping right now.

FIRST of all...when a person applies for credit, they should not be forced to accept the highest amount offered. I told Janet during the week of June 8 that if I didn't get a lot in Pell that I couldn't accept the loan. She said my aid would be fine. They should not be allowing anyone to begin classes at their school without the student seeing what aid they can get.

Jackie of Newbury Park, CA June 6, 2009

Over the last two years I have gone through hell with the University of Phoenix and I do not wish for anyone in any country to go through similar experiences. I want to stop this University from mistreating its students. I took every single class (never missing one) and ended all the coursework with a 3.95 GPA. Towards the end of my courses, I submitted my end-of-class surveys requesting to be contacted as I had serious concerns. I was never contacted about any of my surveys and my academic advisor was missing in action. The process I followed to submit my dissertation proposal was to write the proposal and have my committee members and mentor review the proposal. They would offer recommended changes which I would make. I would then resubmit the proposal to the committee members and mentor for their sign-off and only after receiving their sign-off (again), I would submit to the university. The university would then reject the proposal for various reasons. I would then make the university's recommended changes and go back through the review cycle with my committee members and mentor then resubmit. I went through this nightmare process at least 8 times over 15 months with the university. Committee members and mentor signing off on the proposal and yet the university would reject. Aren’t the committee members and mentor employed by the university? I made so many requests for guidance from various individuals at the university as to what I was possible doing wrong but I received little to no communication from the university except for when it came time to send them more money. I grew so frustrated with literally begging someone at the university to communicate with me; I ended up writing a U.S. Senator and asking for his assistance. Lo and behold, only then did I get a call from someone in the academic advisor area. I thought "Finally, a life-line". Wrong. They promised yet another dissertation reviewer to review my proposal and that would fix everything. Wrong. Even after this additional reviewer who was recommended by the university approved my proposal, the university turned it down yet again for minor changes. The university's mantra was "Just make the changes but oh by the way you will have to send us more money." In frustration, I withdrew from the university after 5 years. I refuse to send them another dime. After withdrawing from the university, I received an overdue bill without any explanation. I paid off my student loan in full last year, paying for any additional classes in full yet they will not tell me why I have received this bill or the almost 600 in additional late fees. If you have suffered similar mistreatments from the University of Phoenix, please contact me. If we can work together as a group, we have a chance of getting some of our joint grievances addressed. I will gladly update you as to what our next steps might be regarding this matter. Please help me stop the University of Phoenix from continuing their mercenary tactics. This is your chance to help yourself and to help others. Thank you.

Elizabeth of North Chicago, IL June 9, 2009

I want to be in a class action lawsuit against UoP. I feel terribly wronged by them and am looking for other people who want to join a class action lawsuit. I've been wanting out and UoP is basically wanting to hold me hostage by telling me to "stick with it". They've even threatened me with having to pay for MTE 508 (Models, Theories, and Instructional Strategies). According to the HELP pages there's supposed to be a withdrawal form if I go into 'PROGRAM' and then 'SERVICES'. However, there is NO form. I feel terribly deceived. I've been to numerous colleges and universities and had no problem withdrawing from a class or the institution itself. Now, all of a sudden, it seems impossible to get ahold of people and start a formal disenrollment process from the university itself. I've also withdrawn from classes from EVERY college and university I've ever been to and have NEVER had to pay for a class I withdrew from. My financial aid has ALWAYS covered withdrawn classes and I've been left to eventually owe financial aid back if it was paid for in the form of a loan. A letter was sent to me several months ago telling me when UoP was getting their disbursement and when I was getting mine and my financial aid counselor, Eileen Broom, even called to inform me that they had their money to cover 'x' amount of credit hours (classes). As far as I'm concerned, they already got the money to cover this course and now I owe the loan people back. I'm in terrible financial straights and am on the verge of going bankrupt (been 6 months now since I've been unemployed.) I don't know if I'll be able to afford to pay them anything if they come back at me and say I owe 'x' amount of dollars and what's worse is iIf I don't pay whatever they say I owe in 90 days, it goes to collections, who I hear is merciless. Absolutely merciless. My financial aid cousnelor said we discussed how it all works if I ever had to disenroll and what would happen if I did when we first spoke after my initial enrollment in January. That's nice, but these things need to be covered in writing in their handbook and it's not. There's no written policy outlining withdrawal from the university and the fact you'll eb stuck holding the bag and paying something to them. THIS IS WRONG! I've read numerous things online about how they engage in unethical business practices and it sickens me to no end. I now realize I made a horrible decision by enrolling in UoP.

Martin of Detroit, MI June 1, 2009

As off 2008 I was an student at, the University of Phoenix. In September of 2008 Detroit Michigan had two very bad storms within the state. What occured next is ,not only wrong but very stupied! The last two weeks of class I couldn't transmit my homework to Dr. B class because the entire grid was down so, I tried too, give Dr. B the class homework too the, teachers. Dr. B couldn't accept the homework because it wasn't transmitted through the system. If she did take the homework she would get let go from her job at, the University.

Of-course I didn't pass the class even-though I did the homework for, the class. The reason why I couldn't transmit my homework too ,the teacher is, not only the grid was down because of, the storm in September of 2008! Tech - Support took away any and , all email support and , loggests too submit the homework too. I couldn't even send my test too Dr. B and , e-mail or, class site. In weeks four or five of the class.

Lets go foward too the result of, the new policy change and, not having now one around too even ask for any-help !The next point of dissagrement is, that at no- time know one from the University called or, even tried too, explain what was going on, or tried too help me understand what happiened or, tried too go within the system at, the Unirsity,

Due too the non-support at, the University and the non-help off tech-support I had too enroll in another university take out another loan because of the error of tech-support I didn't get the loan that I was supose too get because not passing the class even-though the work was done

jeremy of eagle river, AK May 21, 2009

I recently received my associates degree from uop, up until my economics class i had received A's and B's, but for this class i was given a D+ for quote unquote" not following proper apa format" keep in mind that I was using the same format in my other class that I was taking at the same time and received high grades for all of my papers, I e-mailed my instructor about what I did wrong and how to fix it and never got a response, he also was very critical of my work, grading absed on personal opinion instead of the presentation of the material,

a good example is, I live in alaska, our nursing program is not very big and only has an average of about 200 graduates a year, I called the college and got those stats from the college itself, my instructor marked me off 50 points on my essay because he felt that the numbers were to low, another example is on my final capstone question about what I had learned in the class he marked me off 17 points because he I did not list all of the material that we had covered when I mentioned some of the stuff that I found interesting and some parts that I struggled with,

other various experience's like that happend to me in that class, but when it came to my final I did follow the same format that I had for the whole class on my essay and he complimented me on how I changed my formatting style to follow proper procedures, I tried getting my academic counselor involved about this teacher and the unfair grading and I even reported him in the end of class survery,

3 weeks have gone by now and my academic counselor will not return my calls or e-mails or she is never available, I still have not received any follow up on the survery as I said that I wanted to be contacted about my complaints,

if I had known before I started going here what I know now, I would never have signed up, the only reason I did was because my local VA recommended it for the Voc Rehab program, and even though the VA is paying for it, I still get calls and letters from uop about outstanding balances, I can't even get my diploma from them because they say I still owe over 2000 dollars, I would stay away from this school if anyone is thinking of going here

Angela of Dallas, GA May 18, 2009

I completed my AAB degree in 2007 and have 7 weeks left for my BSBA. UOP is an excellent school, you can get allot out of this school if you are willing to invest the time, yes time. There were certainly more hours of work involved than I had originally thought there would be. You have to be willing to do a great deal of reading and research but this is how you learn when you are an online student. The attendance policy is very clear and easy to undertand. It is also posted in every syllabus for every course! You must be online a minimum of 4 days a week and participate at least 2 times on each of the 4 days per week. I have seen so many people drop out because they just couldn't keep up. You have to be disciplined to be an online student. This is a great school for working adults that are dedicated to continuing their education.

Matt of Canoga Park, CA May 6, 2009

I have been going to the University of Phoenix for over a year now and I must say that it is the worst organization I have ever had to deal with. The school is a joke! From it's poorly educated educator's (a few of my instructor's had no grasp of the English language. How in the hell were they allowed to teach? Most of them had full time jobs as educator's for other universities. How would they be able to find the time to communicate with us students and help guide us in our journey of knowledge and better education?) to it's clueless academic counselor's and money hungry financial advisers.

There have been many times where I have attempted to contact my financial counselor, Aaron Rangel, and was not able to reach him. He never picked up his phone and never responded to any messages I left him. I would request that my academic counselor, Derek Dowty, transfer me to him and he would never be available. If it wasn't for their marketing campaign, I would assume that the school employed no more than 50 people total. I failed one of my classes and ended having to retake it. Well, sure enough that will cost you 1,000 out of pocket, even though they said that my financial aid would cover it. Turns out that because I failed the class, they had to send back half of my financial aid. What in the hell is that about? So I took the class again and did my best to apply as much as my time as possible to passing it. Keep in mind I have a full time salary job that requires me to work as needed. So what I did was reuse some of the previous material that I submitted to the previous class to the new class. And of course the work I had submitted before that was graded exceptionally well by the first teacher was graded horribly by the second.

In the end, the instructor ended up failing me by LITERALLY just about 10 points. I called my academic counselor and tried to dispute the issue and he said that all grading was left up to the teacher's. He didn't even care that I was upset. He basically wanted to know if I wanted to continue, and if not, would I like to be transferred to the financial adviser to pay off my now hugely growing debt. I am now in debt about 15,000 and have only earned 15 credits to date. In the end, I am now in debt about 15,000 and have only made 15 credits towards general education. I beg of anyone who has taken the time to read this: PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER JOINING THIS SCHOOL. The worse part about it is I took the time to research the school and as well read all of these complaints, and I still went through with it because I was looking for an easy way out. The end result? An empty bank account, 15 credits, no additional knowledge of business (except to stay away from UOP) and a lifetime of regret.

Jason of waurika, OK May 11, 2009

I was told that I will be recieving a over payment from my account over a week ago. I am pasting his email below. I reviewed your account and show your tribal funds were released on 04/22/09. Currently the file is being reviewed to have the excess refunded back to you. Everything should be released to you within the next 9 days. When I get a notice that it was done I will do my best to send you an email or give you a call. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I have had issues with them holding moneys before and I don't understand how they continue to get away with this type of stuff.

Caesar of Dallas, TX May 11, 2009

I attended the University of Phoenix online for about 6 weeks. I have never became so frustrated in my life. I could not get my academic advisor on the phone for about 2 weeks. When I said I wanted to withdraw out the course she told me to just stay enrolled and get a d so finiacial aid would pay them, if I did not do that then I wouldn't get any student loans. Its been about 2 months and now i'am recieving 2,435 worth of dept from the appollo group.

I'am going to consult an attorney. I don't think I should have to pay them the whole balance of 2 classes for 6 weeks when I tried to withdraw the second week of class. I wouldn't recommend this University to anyone. I'am not going to let them stop me from getting my education. I'am at the local community college and will be transferring into a university next year.

Jay of Norht Bend, WA May 12, 2009

I had just graduated with my AA in Criminal Justice thru University of Phoenix Online division (Axia) and am now in my first class for my BS in Psych. Something told me I was not getting teh education that I was paying for, that the last 2 years was wasted time. I started sending emails to Head Depts of Criminal Justice and Psychology at my local college to get their opinions on the education that I had received. I was astonished when I found out that my AA credits are non transferable which was something that the University said would be when I had intiailly enrolled. More or less I have to start back at ground zero.

Here is what the head of dept for Criminal Justice had said to me:

First things first. You stated you received an AA degree from UPhoenix. This means you have a lot of CJ courses that are not transferable. Although UPhoneix is an accredited college you will still need to complete your general education requirements in order to take your upper division (last 2 years) classes for your bachelors degree and beyond. So you will need to get your transcripts to admissions here at BC and have them looked at to determine which classes will count toward your two year AAS-dt (direct transfer) degree.

They have a place online that you can check to see what University has credits that can be transfered to BC and if it still applies I have a total of 1 course (3 credits) that would be transferable.

The people in the Psych dept at my local college (they are a 4 year University that works in partnership with the community college) if the same would happen if I was to go Masters thru a traditional University since UoP does not offer what I want at the Masters level, At this time I am still awaiting their reply but I can only imagine that if my AA is not transferable to get me into a Bachelor program then the same will hold true if I completed my Bachelor program thru UoP.

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