Korean Job Discussion Forums

Keepongoing · Joined: 13 Feb 2003 Location: Korea

what do you think about the University of Phoenix online degrees????

gosia · Joined: 10 Jan 2006

Personally, I would discourage anyone from going to U of Phoenix. I was in their master's program for a year before they informed me that they placed me in the wrong one (had to have a B.A in education but I didn't). It took another year to get my money back since it was their mistake. I also know of two people who completed all of their course work for their master's in education, and then were denied their application to student teach...which means their degree is not complete. Enter at your own risk....

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 2:27 pm Post subject: Re: University of Phoenix

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Its one of the worst degree mills out there. They are also in financial trouble (maybe just tax trouble, but something) and something like 85% of their students never graduate (this all from an article about 3 months ago). I have been looking into an online degree too for a couple months now.

cubanlord · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Location: In Japan!

not too long ago, I conducted some research regarding online degrees and the validity of them. I have some interesting facts if you guys are interested. Let me see if I can dig them up.

normalcyispasse · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:54 pm Post subject:

Czarjorge · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:26 pm Post subject:

When I was living in Chicago I worked for Colorado Technical Institute/American International University Online as a temp. These guys are direct competitors to Phoenix and the other large online universities. CTU/AIU are subsidiaries of the company that owns schools like ITT Technical Institute.

All these online schools are questionable at best.

The quality of the schooling is low. It is not like distance learning from a "bricks and mortar" university. The "lessons" are generally flash animated simplified lectures. Then they have assigned discussions via chat and some sort of homework. I never went to junior college or community college, but my impression based on talking to my co-workers was the quality of the lectures was about that of most mediocre community colleges. So, as far as what you'll learn, you might be disappointed.

The essential things to keep in mind are...
1) Is the school accredited? If you can't get government money, it's not accredited.
2) Read reviews online. Get feedback to see about the quality of the education. Remember, if you can find a negative review on google, so can a potential employer.
3) Find out what the degree's say. University of Phoenix Online says University of Phoenix Online on the degree. CTU/AIU, since there were online programs done through a "brick and mortar" school only said the name of the school, nothing about it being an online education. The company actually did a study to see if online degrees were considered less valuable, and, whoops, they are, or were in 2004.
4) Decide what you want. Do you want to learn, or just get a piece of paper that says you should earn more money? If it's just the paper the online might work for you. I'm not in Korea yet, but I have to assume that an accredited degree from the U.S., which UoP is, will fly out of the country whether or not it's from an online school. Would the average hagwon owner know the difference? What about a SK university?

cubanlord · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Location: In Japan!

cubanlord · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Location: In Japan!

santalucia · Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Location: PoHang, South Korea

You could do a lot worse than the University of London. They are a legit British University that has been awarding degrees for decades, and is especially popular in British Commonwealth countries. Your degree is respected and British. You can even attend classes in India, Singapore and Hong Kong if you want with linked institutions.

www.londonexternal.ac.uk

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

The Wikipedia article is interesting - they're being sued by the EEOC for "alleged religious discrimination favoring Mormon enrollment counselors..."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Phoenix

It's the nation's largest private university (250,000 students) so it figures that there would be more than the usual number of complaints ...

It was originally founded (in California) by Dr. John Sperling (hmmm - think there's any relation?...)

Fresh Prince · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: The glorious nation of Korea

I worked with a guy that got his MBA through them. He seemed to know a lot about business but he didn't really have very good people skills. I don't know if that is a reflection on the university, the online learning format, or if it was just an isolated case, but I think an advantage of going to a brick-and-morter university is interacting in person and learning be social.

sojourner1 · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 4:10 am Post subject:

They were begging me to get into their MBA program as soon as graduated from university in 2005. They employ telemarketers to call everyone graduating with a bachelors degree.

The real expensive elite MBA schools mail letters introducing their programs instead of telemarketing, but I had a hunch that none of these MBA's would actually be the ticket to a well paying career. I decided that if I go this route, I will be employed in a managerial role with an employer who will help me pay for it. Sometimes this happens if they are looking to groom some employees to be directors or other top managers, but it's becoming less and less common as there is an over abundance of MBA graduates today.

10 years ago or more, a bachelors was the ticket to a good job and an MBA was an automatic ticket to very high paying jobs such as director. Now these degrees are the ticket to big debt.

I would say no, don't do an online program, but if you want to know more about business, just self study, because it's all on the internet. www.investopedia.com is one site and there are many others with a wealth of knowledge.

traxxe · Joined: 21 Feb 2007

I'm getting my Master's degree in World History through APUS/AMU American Public University/ American Military University.

They are regionally and internationally accredited. Graduate courses are 800 a pop and you can get federal loans for the courses. The regional accredidation is what I like.

It's not all that easy though. I'm writing essays, doing research work... it is definitely more difficult when you are abroad. I ship my books here, etc. I would say though it is probably a little easier than a brick and mortar if you have the discipline to stick to it.