How legit is The University of Phoenix?

Question

Are employers gonna take that degree seriously? What about associate degree programs?

Answer 1

Let my start by saying that I was an enrollment advisor for University of Phoenix Online, and AXIA/WIU Online under Apollo Group for 3 years. I recently quit from my position as one of their highest paid advisors. Paid on the amount of enrollments I did in 2003. I also completed my MBA/MKT while there.

For all of you in this forum defending this organization, you are simply spewing ignorance and rehashing information provided you by this organization. Please stop, you are not doing any good and I am sorry to say this, but you are wrong. So wrong that it borders on ignorance.

Let defend something for a moment. The company as a whole does contain good people, some of which do try and help and have good intentions. The problem stems directly from one man the CEO, Brain Muller. He has set in motion internal policies that create a hopeless scenario for all within the organization. They either comply, lose money, or are fired. When you start threatening a person's lively hood, they will usually fall in line. This is why so many good people have had to deceive or lie to potential students, and why you see so many reports in this forum.

There are many things that can be addressed here but let's start with some basic things. Accreditation. UOP Online is Accredited by the North Central Association of the Higher Learning Commission (Perdue Shares the same body as do many other schools) However, this really does not mean anything.

Yes, UOP has their programs screened and verified by the HLC, but their accreditation is not reviewed for years. What most people do not realize is that it is extremely hard to loose accreditation once you have it. There is no active monitoring of courses or instructors. Any audits that take place require UOP be given advanced warning.

This means that can basically provide sub-par courses for outrageous prices. Yes, their classes are a joke. If you believe that college is about shooting emails back and forth via Outlook Express and working in "Learning Teams" then you are delusional. Fact: Learning Team arose as a reaction to an audit by the Federal Government on UOP's financial aid usage. They had to require learning teams in order to maintain Title IV funding capacity.

As said before, UOPO is fully accredited, but they do not require the GMAT for the MBA programs. What does this mean? It means that they do not have AACSB Accreditation. Here is more on that: http://www.aacsb.edu/ This is why when I present my MBA to professional organizations, they laugh. Sorry to inform you, but your degree is not as valid as you want it to be.

Next I would like to address the organizations misuse of funds. They have been for many years now, embezzling monies from their employees and Title IV funding.

Let's start with Title IV. As mentioned about, they were abusing access to funding in the late 90's by claiming student living expenses on their report for on campus housing. Hmmmm, online makes that a little hard to validate. They were using this money as venture capital to finance growth and investments. They continue to do so till this day, just in a different way.

First, you must understand the accounting variables that go into a billion dollar company. There is money flying all over the place on their balance sheets. Income, expenditures, investments, etc. It is a fact that UOP has continuously decreased its amount of new enrollments each year since its peak in 2003. This is part of the reason they rolled the UOPX stock back into Apollo group last year. However, the CEO's Brain Muller and Todd Neilson still need to generate shareholder interest to keep the stock high.

Now, if there is a decrease in enrollments as compared to prior years, but the CEO is still claiming huge growth in years to come, how does the company make up for that? By counting scheduled students as enrollments for their report without every actually having those students start.

There is one problem. Smart investors can look at organizations financial statements and tell if they are losing money. So how does UOP make up the money difference in the accounting department? 2 ways. First, it decreases the pay of its employee workforce and (for years) violated AZ and Federal Overtime law by making overtime mandatory but refusing to pay employees overtime wages.

A quick search online will reveal the lawsuit filed by the AZ Dept of Labor last year and the $10 Million settle UOP had to pay. 10 Million? Sounds like a lot right? Not when you consider the amount it saves over the last 20 years by not paying overtime wages. Somewhere in the 100 million mark. Wonder how they were able to grow so rapidly?

Second, accounting is basically money in, vs money out in an organization. When you are dealing with a billion dollar company, it is hard to keep track of every dollar. One might wonder why UOP Online takes so long to distribute Title IV funding to students. They tell you it takes 2 to 3 months, this is a lie.

Answer 2

Is University Of Phoenix Legit

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How legit is The University of Phoenix?
Are employers gonna take that degree seriously? What about associate degree programs?

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Good morning everyone.
After reading many, many negative comments about the University of Phoenix (UoP)
"ONLINE DEGREE". I think I understand how you all feel about your experiences
with UoP. However, in all fairness, I would like to share a few points of observation:

- Complaining about how expensive classes are at UoP is valid. However,
NOT completing your assignments on-time, poor class attendance,
requesting to be dropped on the second week, students sign-in the
attendance roster just to disappear soon after, it sounds like EXCUSES.

- Instructors NOT giving you full credit for incomplete assignments it is not
excusable. You did NOT having coming.

- Students seeking out an online degrees "whenever is convenient to them"
should NOT expect the same level of academic quality as in a real
classroom set up with other students (away from their "comfort zone").

- Not one comment was made about attending their local campuses. Why?

- All the comments/complaints that I'd read (including former employees),
are very negative. NOT one, is written un-bias.

- In any college/university, you get/receive what you put into. Some of us
need to do a "soul searching".

Who am I? an old fool that attended many classes at the UoP local campus.
Just like many other students that struggled with: forced to read many book
chapters, research government web-pages, write papers, do team presentations,
having in-class oral and written tests, and above all: I was offered various jobs
while I was doing my required INTERNSHIPS.

Please forgive this old fool bluntness, and I wish you all a wonderful life.

Answer 6

So I read the article and I go to UOP. I dont know the inner workings of UoP but as it is for profit university it is expensive. I don t not just send emails as a student. I have to write papers and read a lot of textbook chapters in just one week. It is in many ways more challenging than some colleges I have attended which are CCSF and SFSU. Peace

Answer 7

It s not fair to any existing employees, stockholders of a publicly traded company, the board of directors, or to customers, to hire candidates from a non-accredited college.

So, while a pay-for-degree school may assist an existing employee, (with a degree from an accredited college), get some HR Department points for "training", it s not going to get anyone hired off the street.

Answer 8

848

Answer 9

University of Phoenix scam. Tell Congress to forgive UOP student loan debt and shut this school down by signing my petition below. Please share with anyone that will listen.

http://wh.gov/lPwwQ

Answer 10

Dear,

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Good Luck