The Chicago School at Los Angeles — Attraction in Los Angeles

Between the lack of communication from all departments (one of my advisors completely disappeared and stopped answering e.mails and the other wouldn’t ever answer my questions), the conflicting information, and poor level of classes, this school leaves much to be desired. The president’s actions are performative when it comes to making space for students in the program. Additionally, the chair of my department asked how I could be supported academically. I gave her a well thought-out list. Instead of working towards solutions, she, in so many words, said, “Well, this is policy.”

I didn’t want to believe that the insane amount of money this school costs was ill-matched. However, it is. Only handful of the instructors actually care about instructing, while students are overworked under the guise of the program being ”intense.” Just because students have an overwhelming amount of [many times] irrelevant assignments doesn’t mean the program is intense.

This school is not worth the money, if it’s even worth attending. They will hold up your financial aid and in that specific department, the individuals do not know what they are doing. Their knowledge is exTREMEly limited even when it comes to basic tasks. They also make it difficult to get answers or resolve any issue that you might be having…which will be many.

The executive assistant to the president is the face of the most performative aspects of this institution. Unfortunately, my experiences with her when I had valid concerns was less that productive. Her response: you can fill out a student complaint form.

Best to avoid this place or buckle up for an interesting ride. I have a list as long as my arm of all the things that don’t make sense about this school. You can get a better, less expensive education elsewhere. I can promise you that.

On the other hand, the terms are only 7 weeks long....

My Wife goes here and it is possibly the most frustrating thing for me to watch... This school is honestly a huge scam. I really dont know how else to put it. They will charge you INSANE amounts of money for these classes (well over 200K for the Masters program after interest) and you "professors" are in the PHD program. what is that? I am not saying that they have some legit teachers and a few students teaching, I am saying that nearly ALL of the teachers are students.

Let me be very clear about this, the teachers are HORRIBLE. The faculty is HORRIBLE. We just found out today that they didn't report to my Wife's FedLoan for our students loans that she was still enrolled and taking classes. What this means is, now FedLoans thinks that we are no longer in school, and that our loan is no longer differed. When she emailed the school faculty, they said this was HER responsibility.... are you kidding me? so we pay 60K per year before taxes for you to have students teach classes for $10 an hour... NOT submit proper paperwork to FedLoans and have absolutely zero leadership at the helm...

When my Wife attended a "town hall" meeting with the Dean of the CA campuses, she asked when all of the grandiose things that were promised in admissions would be taking place... such as observation rooms on campus, real life experiences etc etc, and what did the Dean tell her? he said "if you would like to see these things happen, than you should initiate them yourself and start them up yourself".... really? THAT is your answer to the student that is paying TOP dollar to go to this school? oh, and we just found out today thru some super vague email, that the Dean stepped down....

Please, trust this frustrated husband, DO NOT go to this school... I am a smart person......

(UPDATED after completing doctoral coursework) My experience has been outstanding. This is a five-star institution, through and through.

After completing my PhD coursework here, I can say this school really did deliver on promises and I feel lucky to have been part of this program. Our classes have top notch professionals from Southern California and various major US cities who fly in for the executive format, on-ground business psychology doctoral program. Faculty have been top caliber for the area, coming from academia and professional practice. I leave classes inspired and energized.

I entered with my MBA and 10 years in my field. This is a program for people with work experience. It is not for folks who want school directly from undergrad with an internship, although they accommodate that with various master's programs.

This program has been one of the strongest positive forces for me life. I matured so much, professionally and psychologically. If I could go back in time to choose where to do my doctoral coursework, or whether to pursue doctoral studies at all, I would stay at Chicago School in LA to do it all the same way.

The big question for me was whether to focus on research or practice, since I already had work experience and could decide how big of a pivot the doctorate would be. Students from this program go into academia and industry.

This school is really big on diversity, service, community, and academics.

I went to a big school for undergraduate work. Between all the different departments, people, and majors, it was easy to lose myself. Chicago School is focused, so here, it was easy to...