Distance Learning: U of Pheonix

[go-fish]

Has anyone done any online programs for distance learning? I am in the process of enrolling in a Bachelor of Scince in Business/Management. I am excited to get started but just wanted to see if anyone else has experience with U of P.
I am in the military and what attracted me to U of P was the fact that the courses are 1 class for 5 weeks. That is almost perfect for my very unpredictable schedule.
If you ever have an experience with someone you know who is being recruited by the military and they are told it is easy to pursue a degree while serving tell them it is a lie. It is easy to get Tuition Assistance but when you are constantly training and then operating/deploying it is VERY difficult. One class over 5 weeks will just fit in my schedule.
Anyone have to juggle school and a more than full time job?

[JMarsa]

If you looking to use the degree as a stepping stone to a better job do your homework first. I have a family memeber that is a auto engineering recruiter and in the field they say Pheonix is getting a bit of a bad rap and that employers are looking for students who have had the interaction on a traditional campus.

--JMarsa

[6'9"Witha69]

Uof P is not regarded highly at all. Hell, DeVry and ITT tech are held in higher regard.

[CHRIS67]

I did my BS in Business Management through an accelerated program (not U of Phoenix). But similar that every 4-6 weeks we changed classes. One thing that I can say is that you'll probably learn more from a traditional degree program than an accelerated program. Things that are quickly learned are quickly forgotten. In my case I just wanted the degree to match my 10+ years of business experience, so I didn't gain a whole lot from it other than the degree.

However, there were people that went to my college who dropped out of U of Phoenix because it was good but too demanding. Whereas our classes met for 8 hours a week and 12-16 hours of homework were typical. I don't to even think of what they did at U of Phoenix.

[bucks69]

Also if you ever decide to try for conventional degree, such as at your local college the hours will not transfer 99% of the time, and you will have to retake the exact same courses. I graduate with an Ag Business Managment degree next month and start Graduate courses in August and so far have got most of my Business hours onlike through my local school(ASU). Also most of my post graduate business hours will be online also. Try your local University and ask an Advisor about the Military package. I know my school gives leeway to active duty that are taking courses and serving. Try that first and if you dont find out anything I will try to get you information for our program. The courses are regular length courses but they are completely online. let me know if I can help you any further.

[fiorano]

for graduate programs the Uinversity of Phoenix is actually ok
some employers don't like it but many honor it after all you do have to do it it isn't just a diploma mill...
i finished mine (half online half on ground traditional style) (a friend did his at Argosy Univeristy) and our jobs both accepted the credential and degree- a big bump in pay and i now teach at a Community COllege as well
so as long as it is accredited you are ok
check the US government website for accepted and official degrees
at http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.asp
any one is good here personal opinion is different from employer to employer though
if you can take 2 years off and go to stanford for an MBA great, if you can't many schools have options like UoPhx, and Pepperdine, Argosy etc. Depends too the subject- i would never get a masters in chemistry online or biology but you get the point.

[go-fish]

Well, right now my goals are to continue my military career to the end. I have 6 years in. I joined in between 9/11 and Iraq. I had no intention on doing more than four but my current enlistment will take me to 10 years so might as well stay in. I've gotten an Associates out of it so might as well continue on with it.
My goals being what they are I would have a Bachelors wrapped up well before I retire so who knows what I'll retain after 10 or so years.
My goals for after the military, having a BSB/M, are to go to Oklahoma State University at Okmulgee for the two year Auto Collision Technology program and take my Military Savings Plan (401K) and open up a body shop serving the insurance industry.
Military retirement checks are peanuts but I like serving. It would not be wise at all for a person to serve until retirement for the retirement money, it's ridiculous. I love the job and lifestyle but the fact is most military, particularly enlisted, live at the bottom of the middle class. The saving grace is the benefits, housing, college, experience ...
The medical is a joke however. Isn't it ridiculous that a doctor in the military can have as little as 4 years schooling?
Back to topic, I like the idea of running a shop the caters to an industry that will never go away, plus I would like to run the shop and not have to work in it. I don't even care to spray the cars. I am not getting into it because "I love the car industry". I do like muscle cars but don't have dreams of opening a restoration shop or turning out PT cars for customers. I am focused on the body shop business that serves insurance jobs because it is something that will never go away no matter how bad the economy gets.
As long as people buy new cars, new cars aren't going away, they will have to have full coverage insurance. As long as people are in control of the steering of vehicles there will be wrecks involving fully insured cars. The person will have it fixed. I want to reap the rewards of ridiculous insurance rates.
So my question is with my "self employed" aspirations, not trying to impress an employer with what school I attained a degree from, would a U of P degree still serve me well? Is it their curriculum or their reputation? What has led them to be looked down upon?
I do understand that in many cases your degree is only as good as the school who issues it. It is just too difficult for me to go to a traditional campus. I am home in the US for 10 months and I deploy for six. Whoever said it is easy to get a degree in the military must have been in the chAir Force.
I have gotten emails from some place called Indiana Business College. IBC seems kind of like a spec on the map. Would that be a better choice? At least I’ve heard of U of P.

[67RSSS502]

Not sure who has the disregard for the UOP material as the course work / credit are fully transferable to most if not all major schools. I live just outside of Ann Arbor, and am an industry board member for a couple of very well regarded institutions.

UOP has nationally accredited curriculum / programs, which is not the case for a fair number of alternative format schools. All of the more traditional schools I know of allow you to transfer UOP credits as equals to credits from their own halls. The key to how good the program is I think is what you want to make of it. You can get through the course work and retain little to nothing, or you can apply yourself and improve.

I was looking for a report we had presented from the U of M last year that actually showed something related to this, as they examined grades / tenure at U of M in their graduate programs. Could not find in my office at home, maybe at work as UOP grads studied in that report did better than grad students from other more traditional schools.

[absintheisfun]

When I was in the Marine Corps, there were programs (even on ships during deployment) where college professors would come to base (or on the ship) and offer to teach classes. All of these were credited and transferable if you chose to pursue a traditional degree in a brick-and-mortar school.

Are they not doing this anymore??

I don't know what branch you are in, but the Marine Corps Service Center always ran programs with colleges in the states that would allow you to do "distance learning" and it would credit towards your transcript.

Ask around...ask your commander. No one will turn you away, and I can promise that they would know the best options available to you. No one but you and your unit know the circumstances of your deployments...

Good luck!

[indyjps]

Look into Kettering University, used to be General Motors Institute.
Im getting a Masters thru them (started when I worked for GM then left the company) its all distance learning for the Masters of Science program.
They have a much more respected name, you get DVD's of classroom lecture, books and the test is from both sources.
The military is big on CLEP testing, you can get an old edition textbook on a subject for $5-10, learn the material and test out of many of your prerequisite BS classes, great for some of the intro business, marketing, accounting, economics etc, where the intro classes are just terminology and relationships. The CLEP was free for military and I took several (National Guard )
If you will not be completing the degree before you get out, contact the university that you want to go to and find out how many credits you can transfer in and still get a degree from them, could be a community college/ associates degree then transfer the assoc to a major university, what you dont want to do is lose any credits along the way.
check out how many hours you can get for ROTC classes at a university, I took 2 ROTC courses while on campus attending school and they let me use them as general prereq hours which let me take military map reading instead of psychology. I had just returned from Land Nav school. Pretty Easy.
Find a recruiter in the Business field and ask their opinion, developing a contact in the field may help you out later when you job searching. Try contacting VOLT staffing, they are a large business staffing company and they may be able to line you up when you get out.
Keep in touch with all your military friends who are getting out before you. A lot of times its not your resume but who you know to get your foot in the door somewhere.

[Paul_J]

It sounds like your intentions with the education is to apply it toward your own business if I read your post correctly. That changes things since you will not be job shopping with that degree but instead using the knowledge for your own uses. If the ciriculum will provide what you need to know at a cost and time table that meets your needs then do it.

BTW, thanks for your service.

[go-fish]

Thanks for the comments everyone, there is not a single bad response. As far as my intentions, they are to be self employed in a matter of 15 years or so. I would like to do school and then retire from military service in 2021-2 (that puts me at 20 yrs).
To answer some questions; the military is big on CLEP and it's free. I am in the Navy Seabees (so you Marines can still respect me! LOL We PT) and there are traditional calsses at bases offered by UMUC (Maryland) and Central Texas College here in the Mid East. Back in the States we have Coastline on base. I feel like if I do my whole program from one University it will be simpler.
The University of Pheonix is a SOCNAV school, any school that has the SOCNAV agreement will interchange credits. There are over 1800 SOCNAV schools including many major Universities.
Another question I have is if I complete most of my degree with U of Pheonix but finish my last couple of credit hours at say University of Oklahoma, do they issue me a diploma? How does this work? Is it whoever you did the most schooling with?

[go-fish]

Alright, I just got done doing a medium amount of research on U of P. It seems that I was duped like many others with sales techniques used by the Education Counselors. There are so many "ihateuofp.com's" UofPscrewedme.com", "UofPisascam.com"s. It is rediculous!
From what I understand it is all about enrollments and not retention. While I would not be out much money because of the GI Bill, I don't want to waste it on a For Profit school.
I talked to the Education Officer on the installation I am on and he encouraged me to look into schools local to me lie some of you have. I did and found that University of Southern Miss (Brett Farve fame!!!) offers free used book rentals to military plus if there is a course I need where I see potential help then I can utilize the facilities there and it is only about 45 minutes away.
I will also look into schools in the New Orleans area. There is Tulane, which I know has online studies, and U of NO. Better options I think than U of Pheonix and there are resources I can use.
I am not needing a degree for the next decade or so, no use in doing accelerated studies. That is if I do make the military a career which with it half finished by the time my next enlistment ends it isn't worth it to get out.
The U of P salesman was really pressuring me to send in the enrollment agreement. I was really put off by what seemed to be a high pressure sale.
I cannot thank you guys enough for telling it like it is. Do it right the first time. I cant wait to tell "Tim" , the education salesman, to take me off his prospect list.

[absintheisfun]

Where you complete your last class is the name written on your degree....

....however....

I think most universities prefer, or require a certain amount of hours to be completed at their school. If you complete all but 6 hours at various universities and go to another school to finish those hours and get a degree, they may require you take a certain amount of electives or courses to warrant them putting their name on your degree...

(I wanted to try that with SMU and they very politely laughed at me.)---But hey, it was worth a shot. 6 hours at SMU cost as much as a 15 hour semester at North Texas!

[67 caprice]

Has anyone done any online programs for distance learning? I am in the process of enrolling in a Bachelor of Scince in Business/Management. I am excited to get started but just wanted to see if anyone else has experience with U of P.
I am in the military and what attracted me to U of P was the fact that the courses are 1 class for 5 weeks. That is almost perfect for my very unpredictable schedule.
If you ever have an experience with someone you know who is being recruited by the military and they are told it is easy to pursue a degree while serving tell them it is a lie. It is easy to get Tuition Assistance but when you are constantly training and then operating/deploying it is VERY difficult. One class over 5 weeks will just fit in my schedule.
Anyone have to juggle school and a more than full time job?

The following is a written response from my wife who attends UOP:

Congratulations on your desire to further your education. Thank you for giving of yourself to fight and protect our country. In regard to the UOP I have been enrolled at the UOP for over one year. I am a fulltime physician and studying for a public health and administration degree.
Before enrolling I explored all my local options and read both good and bad about UOP. The important thing to note about the online comments is that many of those people today still have not secured a degree at an on-land university either.
Online studies/universities are fairly new compared to conventional education. UOP has been very strategic and forthcoming in its ability to offer so many degrees to students who otherwise would not be able to attend a campus.
Having attended university for more years than I care to reveal I find UOP as equally challenging and rewarding as any other institution. I commend your pursuit for higher education and wish you all the success. However, do not discount UOP just because of its new concept because as you will find many other institutions including Yale are now offering online programs and requiring some subjects be learned online because it is the way or the future.

[Aceshigh]

Uof P is not regarded highly at all. Hell, DeVry and ITT tech are held in higher regard.

Agreed.

I'm prior military and I attended on campus University of Phoenix for 1 year.....then guess what happened??
They switched my WHOLE degree around on me to a whole new title and program
from what I started pursueing there and it really *****ed me. I was LIVID about it.

So I was pretty pissed off that I wasted $7,000 there for nothing. :banghead:

I moved over to Devry and they accepted half of my credits, and my military credits.
I'm slated to graduate with a BS in Network/Telecom Mgmt in 11 more
credit hours. (1 more semester)

Go with Devry. Trust me. They also offer online courses, but I have to warn you
the online classes are NOT quite that easy. Some things you really need an instructor
to teach you......it's not easy learning from a book on your own....trust me.

OH.....another thing that pissed me off about UofP.
60% of the work is individual work.
40% of the work is "team effort" work.
You get "team projects" in EVERY class, and if you get stuck
with a bunch of sh**bags who don't do their part.....guess what
happens to YOUR grade. ;) Don't waste your time there.:smashcomp

[fiorano]

UoPhx did start with business in mind and has introduced other class slowly. you can get a lot out of it if you want.
I have found (i did do graduate work at another school as well) that after your Bachelors degree
60-80% of the work IS independent and if you get less than an "A" you are the problem. all group projects can be done your self it is a strategy devised by businesses and committees to help graduates learn to work better in committees...
plus and minuses for the programs offered but it isn't bad especially if you already have some education and can take the most from UoPHX
priority seems to be enrollment, but once you are in there are some very good and very bad professors and instructors who can make or break the experience -like college and highschool

[redsand]

I have taken several I.T. classes through them towards my bs in computer information systems. The only bad part of the classes is that they do not do a good job of screening people. Meaning, the assumption is for the I.T. classes is that you have an I.T. background and real life experience. Some of my classes revolved around a group project and I got some people in my groups that did not have any I.T. experience, which made it harder.

I thought though it was a pretty good experience. I will continue to take classes.