"Online degrees" = "Bait-and-Switch"?

[streetsoldier]

As some of you may know, Debi was within 24 hours of her Bachelor's in Business Administration/Accounting track, when she had to go into the hospital for kidney stones. Her surgery was on the last day she could have withdrawn for the semester, and she had to take a full-time job (due to her SS dependent's benefits being cut off) just to keep the family going.

Now, she's taking what she thought were "finishing" courses at University of Phoenix Online...and she found out this morning that, out of 162 credit hours she has, U of P/O is only accepting 57...that's right, 57 of them.

This throws her back to pre-Associate status..which means that she will have to PAY out the nose for courses she's already taken, and when she's done (another three years?), her student loan repayment schedule will be so high she'll never be able to pay it off within her lifetime.

IMHO, this is "bait-and-switch"...promises of "completing" her degree, but denying her of hard-won credits to keep her in thrall to the U of P/O...just another way to get $$$ out of her. She's written a scathing E-mail to her advisor...

What says the Board?

[wx247]

That is awful. A lot of colleges and universities are bad about this. I took an Environmental Science class along with an Algebra class from SFCC (State Fair Community College) that were not accepted at MSSU. Blah!!!

I understand what you guys are going through. Could you try another online university program???

[streetsoldier]

There was one other she tried to get into, but they wanted $$$ upfront.

What bugs me is that U of P/O "ditched" about 2/3 of her credits... all of which were VERY recent, and all very tough courses. I know...I was there watching her grinding and agonizing over each and every one of them.

[coriolis]

That is just not right. I sure hope that there is another solution to this problem. May I ask what school she was with before? Couldn't they do something considering the circumstances?

[Miss Mary]

Bill - it's not right but from the many times I've started and had to stop my college class 'career' (what I call it), I've noticed first off that 4 year degrees in some majors are a myth (Education is now 5 years and you need a major and a minor) and colleges are always changing their requirements. It's a rotten shame this happened. But I've heard it before.

After two years of Education classes, I decided to take a few semesters off to stay home with my first daughter. One semester led to two and so on. Within a few years I wished I had secured those credits with an Early Ed Associate degree. By the time I had that bright idea it was too late. I would have needed ~more~ classes to meet the Associate Degee requirements! By the time I did get back to school I had two children by then and decided Education wasn't for me (I know many teachers that work 12+ hours a day). I was working towards a Liberal Arts degee when cancer struck. I waited a year before going back but it was far too soon. That time I lasted one quarter. Haven't been back since. Now we're facing college tuition for Nina in 2005, so what I really to do is work part-time.

I don't know what Debbie can do. I would however make sure this is the situation before making her next move. Talk to several people before making sure they'll only take 57 credits.

Mary

[Stephanie]

Unfortunately, there alot of colleges and universities country wide that may not accept all credits that you may have earned from another college if you transfer. It's not just an online degree problem, but it still sucks just the same. The University of Phoenix should've told her right off the bat what credits they would've accepted at the time.

[streetsoldier]

You're correct, Miss Mary; Debi spent 4 1/2 years so far in Business Administration, minor (or "focus") Accounting...first through Three Rivers Community College, then transferring to Southeast Missouri State.

She had honors upon honors...Phi Theta Kappa (scholastic honors, officer), Alpha Beta Gamma (accounting honors, officer, departmental honors), American Scholars, National Dean's List every year for those four, President's Scholarship, etc., etc.; none of which was taken into account at all.

U of Phoenix is treating her like an incoming FRESHMAN... plus, they disallowed all of her accounting, statistics, Honors courses, her practicum, and most of her specific-application courseload in Business Management. Too darn MUCH, IMHO.

She cannot attend SEMO part-time and get the additional hours and courses she needs, for these are only offered by day for full-time students; she NEEDS her job to make our "ends" meet.

Ergo, unless "something radical happens" (her words), she is planning to tell U of Phoenix to "take a flying leap". Also, her words.

[opera ghost]

This is actully fairly normal- and why I'm stuck at my university even though I'd LOVE to transfer and live someone more agreeable to my health.

I've got 59 credits and many many colleges cut you off at 50/60/70 credits to transfer.

How it was explained to me is that these colleges havn't supervised your education before now. Say I took 110 credits at a low rung college with questionable academics... then I transfer into Harvard for the last 10 credits. Harvard would have to stamp my diploma even though my prior education might not have been up to Harvard standards. They have no way of being sure that I'm going to represent thier school well when they give me my diploma- and so much rides on alumni and reputation for colleges these days that they don't want to take a chance. They can't put down- (Insert College)/Harvard- the diploma from Harvard is identical to the people who paid for the ivy league name for all 4 years and who they KNOW are up to standards. Someone hiring you would look at your diploma and see- Oh a Harvard graduate... even if you only took 10 credits there.

Therefore most colleges won't let you transfer more than a certain number of credits from another school. It's a case of quality control and truth in diploma.

Having faced a similar problem (I'm at 59 hours, required to start taking day-only upper levels soon and working a job that's necessary to support our household) I can only offer my condolences and hope that something comes up to make it easier. The best choice is to finish where she began if she has so many hours- no school is going to let her transfer it all.... and to keep her eye out for night classes- sometimes only one or two are offered a semester- but if she can piece together her required classes through night school- it might work out.

[wx247]

Hey Bill...does the University of Phoenix have a way to petition for some of her specific credits to count.

For my environmental science class, I obtained a copy of the syllabus along with some of my coursework and when they saw the workload that decided to count it.

[azsnowman]

That REALLY BITES I can't BELIEVE this!

I'm glad to know that the UofP is like this....as God as my witness, I was getting ALL my paperwork work done online to take a Criminal Justice class online with them, this has stopped me ALONG with the COST, MY GOODNESS.....talk about EXPENSIVE

Dennis

[streetsoldier]

Yes, there is...but Debi has to obtain copies of the syllabus of EACH class she took, compare them with U of P, and send them in ONE AT A TIME for their consideration.

And yes again...it IS expensive!