The University of Arizona Global Campus — Attraction in Chandler

I have read many of these reviews and wow, people are very wrong about this school! I have had NO problems whatsoever with the administration, financial aid, stipends, instructors, staff or accommodations. I think the people who are posting these extremely negative reviews about lack of financial aid, and problems with counselors and staff are leaving out the important details! I have found through investigation, that most people who do not receive the financial aid they say they were promised is because of the use of financial aid elsewhere, failed classes, and dropped courses, or changes in financial living conditions. Shame on those people for misleading others and giving Ashford University a bad name!

I have been attending Ashford University for over three years. I am in my Senior year, and I am working hard to graduate. I want to first say that the expectations for attending an online university are mixed, because I think that most people believe that earning a degree online will be easy and trust me, this is not the case. If you are contemplating earning an online degree, you MUST be self motivated, dedicated, and be able to manage your time effectively. Be prepared to read, read, read, research, research, research, write, write and write some more. You must have the ability to take constructive criticism and apply criticism to future work/assignments. You have to stay on top of your work because if you fall behind you will be overwhelmed. You must stay focused, and keep working, even through difficulties, and everyday life.

The instructors expect a level of dedication, maturity, and want to see you work hard, grades are not given, they are earned! The instructors are actively responsive to correspondence but do not expect an instructor to respond to you at 11PM, an hour before your 12 page final essay is due. This is where I stress, time management. Instructors get back to you fast but do not expect them to in a time crunch. Some do, but some will get back to you the next day. Of course, life gets in the way sometimes, you may fall ill, your children may be sick and you might need an extension, extensions are not handed out, and do not, for any reason expect them. Only request them when you truly need an extra day. All of my instructors have been sympathetic, and have allowed accommodations when needed but use them sparingly. We are all adults and we know that if something is due and it is not turned in on time, it is late and that is the bottom line. I have had some instructors who have been the reason for my motivation and desire to do better with each and every assignment. I have never had a problem with an instructor. I have however, had very strict instructors/professors, so each class is different. Just be prepared to work hard in every class and you will never be blindsided by expectations. You get what you give, give your all and you will get the best grade you can for yourself, even if that grade is a C or a B!

The counselors have been amazing, they now have a new feature that allows you to talk to an alternate counselor if your counselor is not available. This means that your calls never go unanswered, ever!

This is college, not a day care, if college was easy everyone would do it. If you are not prepared to work hard and commit to a journey of ups and downs, then college is not for you. Ashford University is AMAZING! Yes, it costs more than a traditional college, but you are paying for the convenience that an online learning platform affords you. You are never alone, you have access to resources 24/7. If you choose to attend Ashford University, choose to go all the way, never give up and please, if you are going to share a review, tell the whole truth so that others are properly informed....

First of all, I notice the only reviews "Yelp" recommends are the positive reviews. This public should see all of the reviews without navigating the maze of pages here to find them.

I often stay away from reviews because all to often we see a timed emotion, which doesn't describe the entire experience from a student while at this institution. I have attended two online universities and lack just a few classes from obtaining my BA. You may find grammatical errors in this post, but it does not take away from the truth it covers about Ashford.

Let’s start with the University of Phoenix, since that is where I cam from with my Associate’s. The instructors and staff were a lot more in-tune with the student. My only complaint was “group projects” in the Bachelor’s level courses. This review isn’t about UOP, so I won’t go into detail, but the staff there seemed to care about the student, probably because classes were almost $2,000 a piece.

On to Ashford University: Jeffrey Woods was my admissions counselor, and as always, he was fantastic. This is a common theme among admissions counselors because they are the bread and butter of the company. He stuck with me for the first three classes. I couldn’t ask for anything better, so I was hooked.

I was moved to Chad Small after this… and this is where it began. I required a receipt (Univ of Phoenix offered this on their site as self-service) for each paid class for tuition reimbursement purposes through my employer. The system is set up to auto-email these, so they tell me, but it never worked correctly. When I requested any items from Chad, he would take in excess of 2 weeks to respond, or many times he would simply not respond at all. I started attaching delivery notifications to each email, so then I received the response that my emails were deleted without being read; therefore I never received a response. I asked Chad over and over to improve his response time, left voicemails with this information, and asked to speak to his supervisor. I never received any of the requested items. I requested a new counselor, so I was moved to Elana Perry… which would turn out to be worse than Chad.

I only had to contact Elana a handful of times during my 7-8 months with her, but ant hills turned into mountains when I requested anything. She was beyond rude, even telling me at one point that this is my education and my responsibility, not hers to deal with. She made me aware I was on her timeline, when I simply asked for her to follow-up with me before 4 days had passed with no response. She was beyond facetious and made no attempt to apologize or help me, the student. I asked for yet another counselor, and this was made it clear in the beginning that she would respond to me when she could, which is usually 48-72 hours. Her name is Aimee Downes; in which business environment is it acceptable to write to the company in which you are a paying customer, with an issue, only to be put on hold for more than 3 days?

Overall, the university does not care about the students, do not work for you but against you, and is the biggest joke for a business that I have ever encountered. We get better service at Taco Bell! The counselors, after your admissions timeframe ends, are rude, non-responsive, and their managers are no different.

Sadly I am so close to finishing that I, like others, have trapped myself in their circle of chaos. Why switch now, only to do more paperwork, attend more entry classes, and risk my classes not transferring. I wish I would have done this different, but I will continue to swap counselors until they treat me like the customer I am, which is a high...

I’m currently enrolled in the MISM program, and while I appreciate the flexibility UAGC claims to offer working professionals, my experience has been frustrating and disappointing on multiple levels.

First, tuition increased mid-program by $300–$400 per class, without warning or explanation. On top of that, there's a book fee for digital books that you can’t fully download or print. You’re limited to a few chapters at a time for offline access, which is far from practical for on-the-go professionals the school markets to.

Another major issue is support access. The recruitment team is incredibly responsive. But once you’re in, reaching your academic advisor becomes a challenge. Advisors only work standard business hours, which means if you work full-time (like many of us do), you're forced to use your work time to chase them down. Calling their extension directly rarely gets an answer, and you’re left coordinating a callback you also need to carve time out for.

As a tech degree, the MISM program has lab requirements—but these are outdated and poorly supported. The labs run on remote servers using programs from 2012, likely because they’re open-source and free. You pay a lab fee, but the professors can’t help if something goes wrong. Instead, you’re referred to a support team that only operates via email. I personally exchanged over 40 emails in two weeks with support due to a technical issue, only to become the go-between when they asked me to talk to my professor—and vice versa. Despite all communication with support, my professor, and my advisor, the school dropped me from the course due to inactivity, because I couldn’t complete assignments while the lab wasn’t functioning. This not only resulted in a charge, but it also delayed my program by 12 weeks, since my employer requires course approval before enrollment and I missed the next cohort. While UofA Global Campus eventually adjusted the cost after I pushed back, the disruption to my academic timeline was significant—and their response boiled down to “we’re sorry for the situation.”

Lastly, a more general critique—likely applicable to many online schools, not just UofA—is that there’s very little actual teaching. You’re assigned a digital book and reading materials, and then your assignments are graded. There are no lectures, no interactive instruction, and no opportunities for live Q&A with professors. If you’re comfortable self-teaching and only want minimal interaction, this might be fine. But if you’re hoping for engagement or actual instruction, this format falls short. Overall, UAGC’s model seems more focused on enrollment than student success. I would advise anyone considering this school to do so with...