DeVry University — Attraction in Ontario

UPDATE 2019 (At bottom)

I've been attending Devry for almost a year and so far I've had a really good experience here, particularly with getting help directly from the instructors mostly on my time, and when I needed it. Although, the only negative I can really speak for is the fact that I have had a bad experience when it came to my "guidance counselor." When I first signed up, I was told it was one person and when I went to speak to them I was told it was another. As time went by I kept getting a different counselor everytime and right now I don't know who she/he is or if they even exist! But I will go as far as to say that when I needed to talk to one, there was always someone to help me. I simply dislike having to explain my situation over and over again. I don't enjoy knowing that most, if not all, of the counselors know my business. I've been using the GI Bill only, so I have no debts.. at least not to this date. I have heard many negatives about Devry in general, but I have friends who have graduated from Devry and have jobs in their field. The suggestion they've given me (and one I have always used during my community college years back in the day) was to look into internships.. Paid or unpaid.. as they are an excellent way to get your foot in the door. I've only been here about 10 months or so and the fact that I've already been offered internship opportunities from businesses directly tells me that I must be doing, and talking to the right people. The fact that these places recognize Devry as a "good" school tells me that they've had good experiences with students who graduated from Devry. The rumor mill has been saying that Devry is "paying" and "begging" companies and businesses to come talk to students.. but even if that were true (as I have not been able to confirm or deny it) people are getting picked up for work. I've seen so many students drop from classes at the beginning and on the last week of the session.. and it explains a lot as to why they've lost so much money investing in their education here. C'mon now, if you would have finished the class on time you wouldn't have had to repay to retake the same course! In my opinion, the waste of money is due to the students, not Devry. It's a shame and almost enfuriating to see students leave mid-session.. especially when I have had to take other classes due to my priority ones being full. Thanks for taking the opportunity away from those who actually want to study and attend the class.

Update: I graduated back in 2017 but have been busy I keep forgetting to update this review. So towards the last year at DeVry I applied for various internship and OJTs with different companies in the industry and was accepted into the NSA OOP program & Internship as well as the FBI's honors Program and DHS Secretary's Honors Program. Unfortunately I had to put a pause on my career given that my husband and I had a baby. So in the meantime I worked with a local affiliate with the Police Department to continue honing my forensics skills part-time and winning scholarships to pay for my CISSP certification and other certs to keep myself up to date with IT and the sort... gotta stay marketable! So while I may not be working full-time, I've kept myself busy. Opportunities have come my way thanks to those internships and programs I applied for during my stint at DeVry. The best part of it all is people are often surprised when they find out I came from a "for-profit" education. I even got to work first hand with one of my online professors during an OJT opportunity I picked up, who I had the pleasure to finally meet in person and has become one of my mentors over the years.

Like I said, if you want to make it in the world, you gotta put in the effort. The staff can only do so much for you and you gotta meet them half way. Don't expect to get anywhere if you expect others to do the work for you... you're setting yourself up for a very short and...

My experiences here are mixed as I've experienced both good and bad. I consider myself a "Career Devryer" as I've done my undergrad and am now working on my Master's program here.

One of the more negative sides of my story, it was during my undergrad that I was having issues outside of school and only went to school to "forget about them". I did miserably in school for that year things were happening and nobody, and I mean NOBODY, came to me and suggested to me, "Do you need to take some time off from school while you sort things out?" Looking back at it, that is what I should have done but nobody came to me and suggested I do that. After that happened though, I got my head back on straight and managed to graduate. Of course, at a cost of having re-taken several courses which only fed Devry's pockets and emptied mine due to their lack of "guidance". Even before I graduated, I managed to snag a job that paid me fairly decently. The hiring manager even recognized Devry and said that they had several other employees that graduated from there as well which made me feel more at ease of having gone to school here. I have since moved on from that company and now work elsewhere in a similar field of study that's closer to home with very similar benefits and slightly better pay.

My other complaint about Devry is the lack of onsite courses. While I understand that many people have busy schedules and online works better for them, that's not true for everyone. As for myself, I would rather take an onsite course over an online course any day of the week. What is truly bothering me now during my graduate studies is the fact that the majority of my classes have been online rather than onsite. We as students are not even given the option of having classes onsite and are instead being forced to take classes online only. For me, it's not an effective form of learning as I don't walk away from an online class taking something away from it. Additionally, having a slew of online classes severely impacts your networking ability which is highly important when it comes to seeking career opportunities. This reduced networking of having the majority of courses online also impacts any potential petitions that we can submit for taking a course onsite. Without sufficient interest in a course being taken onsite, it cannot be petitioned, and since the majority of courses are being taken online rather than onsite, your networking suffers and the potential to place petitions also suffers. Anyways, although I'm getting pretty decent grades in my classes now, I'm going to argue that the grades I'm receiving for the most part feel disconnected and not truly "earned" as a result of many of them having been from online only courses.

For now, I'm just going to wait out until I graduate from my graduate program before I start thinking of trying for a promotion at my current employer. I feel very confident that once I have my graduate degree that I will be able to promote much easier into a position that I want.

TL;DR

Minimal guidance from guidance counselors School is moving to more online only courses which hurt students' networking abilities Degree still recognized by employers Still a...

If you're choosing a school DeVry is probably one of the worst choices...Their game and simulation program is a joke. I was lucky enough to have one good teacher who did not stick to the lesson plan. Every other class that had a "lesson plan" I literally learned nothing. Like the other person said...tons of debt and no job prospects. I do not know a SINGLE person who I went to DeVry with that has a job in the gaming industry or anything close.

I went to the game developers convention in Austin Texas my last year at DeVry and was told by EVERY company there that they do not even look at DeVry applicants. Also keep in mind if you try transferring to another school to finish your degree that most if not all of the credits you've "earned" are not transferable. Also keep in mind that DeVry prices themselves higher than state and accredited colleges.

Do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from...