Colorado Technical University Online

PARALEGALHIGHTOWER SAYS:

Seems that the dean of admissions has a problem with accepting enlisted military service members on standy reserve. The cost of tutition has increased three times over since they do not want to acknowledge my affiliation and enrollment in the military service contrary to 10USC§12306; what we have here is a disrepect to the american military system and is foudational objective.

COLORADO UNIVERSITY IS A BIASED UNIVERSITY!!!

In my opinion, Colorado Technical University (aka Colorado Tech, Colorado Tech Online, CTU Online and Career Education Corporation) only is an option if you have no other options.

If you're considering CTU as a school, you should know/review this items, then do some investigating.

1. They have more than one class-action lawsuits pending against them and already settled one $40 million lawsuit. In my opinion, to avoid too much negative publicity while the government is closely watching online schools, passing new laws and guidelines and considering more.

2. Their advisers are telemarketers basically, not people who went to college for the purpose of working as an adviser. If you request more information from the school directly or naively put your information into an online advertisement in regards to college educations, you will be bombarded with calls. As a test, say you're interested in a degree CTU doesn't offer. Though they claim they will determine if CTU is a good fit for you, or not, not surprisingly EVERYONE seems to be right for CTU, even if you're seeking a degree in refrigerator repair, they will try to sell you on a different degree they offer.

3. No school advisers try to fit you into something, but rather, they should be examining your qualifications and prior college experience, to see what requirements need to be fulfilled to get a degree.

4. It's expensive! Compare rates and see how expensive CTU is in comparison to a physical four-year state school or private school. In my case, CTU was $20,000 more than the state school and the state school actually offered almost half its classes online. Unless rates have drastically changed in the past year (most likely they've risen, if changed at all) CTU could be over double what a community college would charge for a full schedule.

5. CTU does not have regular semesters. They may call semesters "marking periods" or something like that, I can't remember the exact term they told me on one of the many calls I received. I was told by someone in the education field, that this is somehow beneficial to them because of the way that financial aid is distributed. Judging by other reports from students with bad experiences, it could be because the government pays grants by the semester, so it seems to leave the door open for CTU to get semester money for one of their marking periods, then leave you on the hook for the other marking period, because it doesn't conclude within the parameters of a normal semester.

6. If you're in the military, CTU will hound you forever because it wants the guaranteed government grant money. I know someone who was called multiple times a week, for several months, trying to get him to enroll at CTU. When he said he no longer wanted to receive calls, the adviser asked why, then asked him to at least complete the free application, then decide whether he wanted to register for classes.

7. You should never trust an adviser than can't provide any information on the teachers. My adviser could have given me a teacher's credentials, the length of time teaching at my school, an opinion on if the class/teacher is right for me and options on similar classes taught by different teachers.

8. No decision on schooling should be made in an hour or a week. In most cases, it's an investment that you'll be making payments on for years into the future.

9. CTU's parent company, Career Education Corp., is a publicly traded company - meaning the shareholders expect profit and put little or no value in whether it's students are receiving a quality education or if they find work after they graduate.

10. Call other colleges and see if they accept or transfer credits from CTU. I'm not going to guess the answer you'll receive, but in my state, most said no or that it will at least depend on what class it is. It's less hassle to know the college you may transfer to, if you do, is known and hearing that the adviser knows the other college and hasn't had any issues transferring credits in the past.

11. Do research on whether companies would hire someone from an online college. Be honest with yourself. If you're up against another candidate and they went to a physical university, especially one the hiring person has heard of, they're going with the candidate who went to a well-known university. Example, who would you hire? - Candidate 1 with 1 year experience and a degree from an online college or candidate 2 with 1 year experience and a degree from a four-year college in your state?

12. Lastly, realize no real advisers are salesmen. There is no pushiness and desperation for you to apply. The application for a real university is done separately and you speak to an adviser to talk about majors, minors and what classes are required for completion. And these advisers can usually tell you quickly and with confidence, what is required.

OK - let's look at some basics. You are paying 14-prices for a degree that you can get at your local community college for a fraction of the price. Many of the programs are NOT accredited, so you will not be able to sit for a credential, and will have a very hard time competing for jobs against community college grads who attended programs that ARE accredited and who actually learned something in their classes.

Look at your classmates. How many of them can barely write a coherent sentence? (not many). How rigorous do you think any school is that allows people who write worse than a 5th grader into a college level program? Now, look around as you continue in your classes, and you'll see that a lot of those illiterate writers are STILL in school! Money forgives a lot of bad grades in the for-profit world.

Now, think about employers, many of whom KNOW these things. Who are they going to hire?

Having that piece of paper (e.g. a degree) is no longer enough to land a good job. You have to know something and be able to PRODUCE something of value in your new profession. The homework assignments at CTU are not only too few, but are weak, and not indicative of the skills you need out in the workforce.

If you are already working somewhere, and just need to "check the box" with a degree, this place is convenient and you might be OK. If, however; you are seriously looking for a college to teach you important skills that you can use to better yourself through improved employment, go to your local community college, because guess what??? If you borrow money to attend this school, but cannot find a job that will allow you to repay your loans, tough cookies - you still gotta pay.

Be smart - DON'T start (CTU)

FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
CEC - Career Education Corpoartion the company which owns CTU along with numerous private for-profit colleges is under Federal investigation. Students will suffer. Watch the Youtube video below.

These are schools owned by CEC:
IADT - International Academy of Design and Technology
AIU - American InterContinental University
Brown College
CTU - Colorado Technical University - CTU Online
Brooks Institute
Le Cordon Bleu
CCA - California Culinary Academy
Sanford-Brown College - Sanford-Brown Institute
Briarcliffe College - Briarcliffe Online
Missouri College
Collins College

Visit my Youtube group and watch the 1min video -- it explains everything.
http://www.youtube.com/user/CECOAdvocate

In 2006 I attended CTU Online, seeking a B.S. in software engineering. In November of that year I was academically dismissed due to poor progress. A tuition debt was incurred by my dismissal, which I paid in full in early 2007. When I later applied to another university in my hometown, CTU Online released my transcripts to that university.

In May of this year I was contacted by a collection agency that identified itself as calling on behalf of CTU Online. It said it was trying to collect a debt of approximately five thousand dollars that I allegedly owed to CTU. Not having attended CTU since Fall of 2006, I challenged this debt and retained an attorney at my present school. The attorney contacted the collection agency with an order to turn over all evidence of the debt that I owed. The collection agency never replied. The attorney then recommended that I contact a credit agency such as Trans Union to see if the debt was recorded on my credit report, and I found that it was. The attorney contacted Trans Union, challenging the debt. In July I received a letter from Trans Union saying that the claim had been deleted from my credit report.

This was the consequence for my having attended CTU Online. I hope this helps if you are thinking about attending this online college.

I graduated from CTUO in 2007 with a BS in Business Administration-Project Management. I had attended the University of Washington 20 years prior for two years, and did not graduate. CTUO reviewed my 20 year old transcripts and granted credit for all the lower division requirements. Despite having 20 years of increasingly responsible management experience and executive level volunteer assignments on my resume, there was never any discussion about offering “life credits” or waiving any of the upper division classes. I was working full time. I signed up for the accelerated degree completion plan – 2 classes every six weeks. I took the studies and requirements seriously and put significant effort into the assignments. There were many nights I was up until after midnight getting assignments completed. Each class had one or two group assignments. It was evident that not all my classmates had the same level of interest that I had. However, many did, and the group assignments with those individuals were instructive and rewarding.

The online nature of CTUO carried a stigma for me, and for quite a while, I didn’t advertise where I completed my degree. However, a couple of years after graduating, I worked with a colleague who attended the University of British Columbia (a brick & mortar school) and received a degree in Business Administration. His curriculum was very similar to CTUO, and 80% of the text books from UBC were the same as I used at CTUO.

I feel that I got my monies worth from CTUO. I paid cash for tuition, and as a result was never hassled by anyone in their financial aid department about student loans. The accelerated program was a big benefit to me, and the online nature allowed me to continue working full time. Completing the degree was beneficial to my career, too. I received a promotion to General Manager shortly after graduating. The degree itself wasn’t a factor, as I had been with this company for 15 years. It was because I was able to apply my recent studies, and help the company increase efficiency and land more sales.

I still don’t advertise the online nature of my studies, primarily because of the stigma that associates many online institutions with diploma mills. But in my experience, CTUO is definitely not a diploma mill. I had more good instructors than bad ones. I also wish that CTUO had a more selective process for acceptance. The main criterion for admission seems to be ability to pay or qualify for financing. But the CTUO credits transfer to other accredited universities without question. I’ve been accepted into one bricks & mortar program, and two other distance education masters programs at public institutions that have no affiliation with CTU or any of its affiliates.

I served on an advisory board for the University of Alaska, while they were developing a master in construction management program. The program wanted to serve campuses that were 400 miles apart. Because of my attendance at CTUO, I was able to recommend that the distance education model, such as that used by CTUO as an effective method. I recommend online education for people whom full-time college attendance is not an option. It’s not for everyone, and requires a high degree of discipline to complete.

I am not sure how I would rate this school as of yet to be honest. I have been a student with CTUO since August 2010. I am halfway to my Associate Degree and was hoping to continue on through to my Bachelor and Master Degrees. Unfortunately, at this time, that is up in the air.

First, the professionalism of the staff leaves something to be desired. If there is an issue and I have to call in, I am never given the opportunity to explain my issue, but am instead interrupted and talked over by staff wanting to argue points or solve the issue before it is explained. I have had this happen with Student Advising, Financial Aid, and Prior Learning. In the eight months I have been enrolled, I cannot remember but maybe one or two calls of the 15+ I have made where I was treated professionally. The last three times, I have had to request a manager to get stuff resolved - this should not occur this way!

I have had issues with class mates as well. In the Discussion Board requirements, most posts require you to critique classmates postings as well. I took this and other assignments seriously so I broke down issues I found and offered positive reinforcement as well. In a couple classes, I received Instant Messages and emails from students upset with me "making them look bad". This was a big clue into the type of students I believe were enrolled. I noticed many failed to follow APA format or had terrible grammar and spelling errors, or had placed no effort into the assignment. I even found plagiarism with assignments in mine and my wife's classes. That is something that should be dealt with swiftly and not be something you see past the first few classes, but unfortunately, I am finding them in the classes associated with my degree.

I also have had document issues. I have had my documents and my wife's documents mixed up online. One Financial Aid advisor explained to me it was a an imaging issue. I requested my transcripts and had major issues that almost cost me a job opportunity and was informed by advising that it was the problem of the third party document company they use. When I called in about a teacher switch made in the last week of class that prevented me from getting an Incomplete (had surgery and needed an extra week to get all assignments in), they again passed the buck. I have no confidence when I call in that they will be able to assist me, but instead will look for opportunities to pass the buck.

I have thought of transferring, but as I read other posts, I am concerned with this. I think I will finish my Associate Degree, as I feel some of the items to learn do have great value. In a program like this, you get what you want from it and only based on what you put into it. I work hard and get a lot of knowledge, but I am beginning to question if it is worth it. I know I can argue the value based on accreditation because it is the same accreditation as any other "brick and morter" and know where to go to complain if told otherwise. HLC is currently working to clarify these issues now anyways if you go to their site.

I had some good experiences involving the clubs (LEAN Certificate training) and with some of my instructions. Overall, I see the three biggest issues as a lack of consistency between instrcutors as it pertains to grading and accountability, the lack of communication skills with the staff that answer the phones in PLA, FA and Advising, and the acceptance of responsibility by the university as a whole (STOP PASSING THE BUCK - you are the university and you chose the vendors, and hire the employees).

OVerall, I am undecided as to how I feel. I want to finish this degree and I will be back to rate it again. I believe we are all agents of change and we can either complain or work to fix it. These may be too big to fix, but I will not quit right yet. Who knows, maybe I can help make this the school it advertises it already is...?

Colorado Technical University is a big farce!!!!

First of all, they accept people that cannot spell simple words such as cat and dog. The Admissions Advisors routinely help enrollees spell words so that they can fill out their applications for admittance. It's all about enrollments.

These poor people get roped into a degree that they will never finish and thousands of dollars of debt because they still have no job and no skills to get one.

The Admissions Advisors positions are a business within a business. It is a revolving door where people are hired and trained. Most of the employees do not remain 6months if that long.

Most of the Admissions Advisors cannot speak proper English. They are really not Advisors but people that work well in call center environments and that is what it is.

If you read this article and are interested in more education online, try your state schools. Most state schools have online classes and you are not roped into a whole program before you are certain that you will be successful. Take a class or two before you make your mind up a degree program .

A degree from CTU is worthless!!!

I was a little disappointed with the MS program at CTU. Some students were incredibly good, but not all. While I believe I applied myself, others did very little, and really lacked the aptitude necessary to write at the 10th grade level. Despite this, these other students graduated with the same credentials as I did. This really cheapened the degree I had earned. If you just need an MS degree to check the block for your employment, and a traditional setting will not work for you, then CTU is a good recourse. CTU does have the potential of being a good school, they simply need to fail students who don't perform. I realize that their income is tied to keeping the students, but if their credibility is destroyed, they won't have any students at all.

I am a couple weeks away from finishing my Associates Degree in General Studies from Colorado Technical University (CTU) and have already enrolled for my Bachelors Degree. The course work can be challenging at times and is certainly fast paced. While I do not always agree with the course tasks (I am not a fan of the discussion board and group tasks), I find the majority of the course work is relevant to real-world situations. This real-world methodology is essentially what CTU is attempting to offer students: a pragmatic approach to earning your degree. CTU isn't right for everyone, but it is right for my needs and I look forward to completing my undergraduate work at CTU. I will most likely transfer to a local, well known school for my graduate degrees.

I also wanted to point out that CTU is fully accredited by the U.S. Department of Education.

1. Go to http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.aspx
2. Enter Colorado Technical University in the Name of Institution field and click the Search button
3. You should see a listing of all CTU campus locations; simply click the first entry

As you can see, CTU has been accredited since 1980 by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission.

I am currently attending CTUO, in my experiences the staff have helped me everytime I needed help. I have recieved both real books, and online ebooks, by the way, most colleges and universities are trending towards ebooks, so get prepared for that.

Financial aid has always been very helpful, student advising is very helpful, and tech support is there 24/7 365.

Higher learning is just like everything else in life, you get out of it, what you put into it. If you do not want to work towards your degree, then CTUO is not for you, because it is challenging and fast paced. The instructors here are just like the instructors anywhere else, some are great, some are good, and some are not so good, but it is there interaction with students that is faulty at times, not their knowledge of their subject.

Overall if you want a degree from an Accredited university that is fast paced, will challenge you to learn more, and has always been there to answer any questions that I have had come up, then CTUO is the place for you.

You need to run CTU thru the US dept of Education list of accredidated schools CTU is on the list and is accredidated

While researching colleges both online & brick and mortar, I came across CTU and wanted to learn more. Their shady policy of not allowing full disclosure to course requirements until you have applied caused me to have to submit a $50 application fee and now I can't get the "college" to stop calling me. I quickly found that they are in it for the money and will require you to take multiple unnecessary courses as well as repeat previous courses that you took at other universities under the guise that the "title of the course at your previous school differs from theirs" all at a cost that is 15% higher than several other online programs I researched. Additionally, they are extremely disorganized and lost multiple personal papers of mine and were constantly asking that I resend files & forms that had private information on it. Who knows were those details have ended up. I cancelled my application over two weeks ago and am still getting unprofessional & disturbing phone calls. CTU will call you early (I’ve received 3 phone calls between 5am & 6am), late (I’ve received two calls after 10pm), and on the Sabbath (at 5:43am no less!) with complete disregard for your time preferences or requests to stop the harassment. This “college” is an unprofessional, disorganized sham and is only out to get your money.

Ok guys, I am currently enrolled at this school there are some positives and negatives to this institution….I love the atmosphere and professors, the staff is always ready to help you achieve your best while enrolled at their school. Its hard work however it’s not impossible to achieve your degree I feel this school is best suited for those looking to receive their degree but not to transfer to another institution, why? Well because they are NOT accredited. Yes it says they are by the Higher Learning Commission however they are NOT recognized by the US Department of Education!!! I am thankful for this school because it’s put a degree on my belt however I wanted to extend my degree and enter in the healthcare field…( Physician Assistance, Nursing) of course to achieve this you need a degree in biology which CTU does not provide. When I filled out an application at another institution they stated CTU was not an accredited school and would not be able to transfer any of my credits over (this was told to me by several Universities and community colleges)…For me it was a waste of $30,000 and as a single parent giving up numerous amount of time, dedicating my self to my school has done nothing for me in return. I’ve done a tremendous amount of research because I had to see for my self that this information was in fact true, and it is. If your older and you want to achieve your masters Great CTU is a good place, if you want your bachelors…great CTU is a good place (as long as you don’t need to attend another college) however if your getting your associates and want to go in to a field that requires you to attend a different University DO NOT ENROLL HERE!!! WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! THEY WILL TELL YOU OVER AND OVER THEY ARE ACCREDITED BUT THEY ARE NOT ACCREDITED BY THE RIGHT ASSOCIATION THEY JUST HAVE PERMISSION TO TEACH AND PROVIDE DEGREES… wish I knew this earlier I’ve wasted 2 ½ years to now enroll somewhere else and start all over again..the upside to all of this? Well I’ll have 2 associates’ degrees (no pun intended)

I am writing about Colorado Technical University(ctu). I did not actually attend this school, however I did apply to this school. I decided not to go, because of financial reasons. I was told by the loan department I would need money right up front above and beyond my financial aid. I could not afford that being a working single mother of two. I was told I would get my application fee back if I decided not to go. It has been 7 months since then, and with numerous phone calls and e-mails (and I mean numerous, not 1 or 2, I mean probably 50), I still have NOT gotten my application fee back. Some of the people I talked to have been so rude. Why is it when they want your money it is debited right then, but when they have to give it back they can take as long as they want. I have even e-mailed the president of ctu and he has never even responded. They are a horrible online university and I would never recommend them to anyone.

While at CTU Online, I asked one of my professors if she thought CTU was delivering a quality education. She would not answer me, instead suggested I e-mail my question to a certain board member. Well, I did send an e-mail and he never responded. Sort of sums it up don't you think?

I will make my review short and sweet.

Cost: Considering it is an online university, one would expect to pay a substantial amount. However, I did already have roughly 30 standard college credits towards my degree and I attended CTU Online for 3+ years. My overall bill exceeded $30,000 prior to my employer reimbursement kicking in after each semester. Had I attended a state university/community college combo I would have paid about $10,000 less than that. (This does not include the cost of books, lab fees, activity fees, travel, etc.) Was the cost worth it, yes and no.

Academics: I feel that what I learned put me on the level with my co-workers. I obtained the Associates in Business Admin and the B.S. in Business Admin, concentration in Management. Most of my co-workers obtained those same degrees about 8 years prior to me and we're all pretty much at the same place. Either my education is mediocre and I'm super advanced or their education was fantastic and they're just pretty lazy. Either way, it didn't make anything better or worse for me.

Practicality: The best aspect of the school was the flexibility with scheduling and the wide variety of resources. For a variety of the projects I worked on I was able to access the CTU Online library. (I will also admit that I used, and also as an Alumni, still use the CTU Online library for ongoing projects I'm involved in.) It's a modern world, the internet is very important in our daily lives. It only seems fitting that a school made the internet an integral part of our education.

Job advancement: I graduated while the job market was tanking. I managed to keep my job and since no other fantastic jobs were available, I cannot attest to that factor. I can however indicate that over 25% of my co-workers have online degrees, many of them University of Phoenix. (At my job site there are many jokes about Phoenix because it's always in the news, CTU Online has yet to reach such a level of notoriety. This could be good, or bad. I have not experience ill effects as of yet.)

Experience: One regret I have, the "group work" does not prep you for certain experiences that you will encounter in the real world, especially the business world. However, as an intelligent adult, if you truly have achieved various stages of improvement, evolution and education you should be capable of adapting and adjusting to your environment. This is a personal problem; one I have no triumphed over, but am working towards.

Overall: Yes, it's a bit overpriced. Yes, you will get ridiculed form some of your co-workers. However, unless you want to become a VP or high-level executive, this school will harm you no more than going to night school at a local state-run educational program. (Furthermore, if you want to become a VP of a fortune 500 company, you probably should have considered a better school overall. Clearly most VP's and other executives are very ambitious and go to schools in the top 5 to 10 ANYWAY.) For the rest of us that just want a mild improvement in our work lives, a basic education covering our specific majors is what is important.

I won't give CTU Online a fantastic rating (I live very close to UCONN - University of Connecticut, Yale and Harvard), however I won't give it a horrible rating either (in Connecticut we have a variety of horrible community colleges and other private schools as well.)

If anyone would like to discuss further with me, I welcome further conversation. I can be reached at [email protected]

Sam
Current Student
ASMBC program

Overall I would give this school a good rating. I think the classes are relavent and challenging, except for the gen-ed classes when you start your program. Most of the teachers I have had are professional and willing to help the students learn and understand. The only bad experiences were one teacher who, in my opinion could not speak or write english clearly enough to be a teacher, and one teacher who truthfully hates her job and doesn't care anymore. The group assignments are rediculous. I agree. My only problem with them is many of my classmates have the writing abilities of a grade school child. I'm not here to say that I am a writier worthy of publishing but I do know how to use a spell check. While I may not agree with the group projects or commenting on classmates discussion boards (these are semi-group assignments) I understand why the school uses them. As far as doing nothing but writing, what else are you supposed to do? IT'S AN ONLINE SCHOOL!! Either way I have not completed my program yet so I don't know about the job aspect, I am hopefull. As a last note, for all those saying that schools like CTU are for people who can't get in to any other "real" college, I was accepted to the University of Georgia after graduating high school but decided to live my life first and now married with a child I am finally ready to obtain a degree. There are smart people here at this school that just chose a different rout in life. Thank you.
Good luck in your futures.

Currently working on my MBA at CTUO and I am being pushed. Graduated with my BSBA in Nov and have had a wonderful experience. Recommended two friends and they too are about to graduate. I am very happy with the eduation I've recieved so far at CTUO.

I did Graduate from this school with a BS in Managment....The experiance was great at first...Then it just went downhill...All decisions are left up to the Teachers,,so if you have problems with an assignment you have to soley rely on them to return any answers,,they have up to 72 hours to do so,,and if you get one that is not so agreable,,,you take the chance of flunking that course because the teacher will not work with you,,,answers,,,late assignments,,,,whatever...There is also questionable practice on Additional Funding..At one point I had to wait for 6 months to get any...I had re-enrolled for my Masters and just quit this school...I'm tired of having to fight with them because they want to hold on to my money every single session now...I am now going into into 2 months of waiting for additional to be placed on my card and was told today that it would be another month...I talked to other students in my classes and a lot of them where going thru the same thing I was....CTU hanging on to your money for as long as they can get away with it....Customer Service is less than desireable as well....These are very frustrating people...very rarely did I get one that would help me and now all they say is....There is nothing I can do

While the online classes are ok, vice the group projects that would be better if the professors took the time to only makeup groups with active students. My issue is with University itself. They auto enroll you in a track of classes so they can the most money out of your GI bill benefits. I called the university and told them that I did not want to take as many classes as they had me enrolled for and they told me that I had to call every semester to drop them. The problem with this was that CTU would receive a payment from my GI bill for all of the classes that I was enrolled in thus getting over paid by the VA. Once CTU has the money it is close to impossible to get them to refund the money to you or the VA. I have been trying to get them to refund the VA for the classes that I did not take for the last 8 months. I did not know that I had a debt with the VA till the VA sent me a letter stating that they were going to withhold the debt from my disability pay. (My CTU student account showed a $0 balance) I have called CTU on numinous occasions over the last 8 months and have always been assured that the refund would be sent NOT! They also hold on to your PELL grant money for an excessive amount of time after they receive it. All CTU cares about is your GI bill money beware!!

I struggled with going back to college after being out of high school for almost 25 years. I started online schooling at another school, and then found out about CTU online. My admissions advisor, Lori Spitzer was absolutely amazing...she made the process of transferring incredibly easy. It was a long tough haul coming back into school, but Lori was great!! If anyone needs an academic advisor, I would highly recommend Lori. She knows her stuff and will go to bat for you in a heartbeat!

Once I started CTU classes, I realized that my academic career was up to me, and although the online learning is unconventional, it was amazing the amounts of interaction with the professors and staff, as well as the other students. I would highly recommend CTU to anyone that is looking to go to college, or return after being away from school for any length of time.

I am happy and proud to say that I graduated with my Associate of Science degree in Criminal Justice in September 2009. Was it difficult? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!! You learn how to pace your classes, family, job, and social life, and it is a challenge to balance it all in. You will feel no greater accomplishment than when you walk across the stage in Colorado Springs, and they hand you your degree!!

I am especially grateful for the professors that pushed and challenged me...you guys are my heroes!! You taught me so much more than what I could have learned behind walls and stuck in books...you taught me that I can accept a challenge, face it, and be victorious! To Bert Ouderkirk and Walter Clement...I am forever grateful.

CTU Online is ever-expanding. If you want to respond to a higher challenge and learn to overcome whatever life throws your way, CTU online is the way to go. I am extremely glad that I made the decision to return to school, and even more glad that I chose CTU!!

Awesome experience!!

Sherylyn Rodrigues
Alumni 2009

As a graduate of CTU-Online and Amarillo College I can truly say that the experience that I had at the brick and Mortar College and being on-line with CTU were pretty similar, except CTU-online was harder. CTU is a fast pace school, you take (2) class at the same time in (6) weeks. My last (6) weeks of school I had to take (3) classes, talk about a butt kicker. I had to devote a lot of time to school and my family; friends had to take a back seat at times. However, my wife was cool with my work load because she knew she was just as committed as I was and that it would benefit us both in the long run. If you look carefully at the people complaining about CTU you will see that none of them went very far and could possibly be hurt from their failure of not being able to complete anything, or that they possible thought that On-Line schools are easier than brick and mortar schools (who knows what they think, I’m not a failure). None of my instructors copied and pasted anything that wasn't done by them. The instructors didn't read out of the book the entire time, they taught from their experiences about the topics at hand, and they taught us what we needed to know to succeed, just like my instructors at the Brick and Mortar schools did. Also, there was interaction between the students and the Instructor; there were times that the instructor went one on one with me when I was having problems, at no additional cost. My instructors were pretty good, but David Bertocci, Amy Tran, and Paul Brasil were the best. If you get one of them look out you will have your work cut out for you, but it is worth it. The school is tough and challenging, and you have to be prepared for the long haul. CTU-Online is not a scam, if it were FASFA, the Military (GI Bill) and Employers wouldn't pay for it. CTU-online is an accredited school, just like Amarillo College, Texas Tech, University of Texas. If you are former/active military and also work for a company that pays for college tuition, you can leave CTU with low to no loans, I did. Just like anything that requires a long commitment, do your home work, know what you are getting yourself into and discuss the pros/cons with your family to see if they are just as committed as you. My advice for anyone who wants to attend any school is be prepared for hard work, it’s not an easy ride, if it were everyone would have a degree. I will be going back for my MBA in September and my Employer has looked at my curriculum and said that the degree program that I want to pursue looks like a good program. Oh, and after I graduated from CTU-online with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Project Management (BSBA-PM) I was promoted to Project Manager in my current department (Department of Energy). I wouldn’t be where I am today without graduating. It wasn’t just the school (CTU-Online) that got me where I am today; it was my commitment to hard work and following through on that commitment. Good Luck with your endeavors and I hope this will help you.

Semper Fi,
CTU-Online Alumni 06’
BSBA-Project Manager
PMP

Wow so many bad things to say about my experience at CTU. I realized after six months of attending CTU on-line that is a scam. These people should be ashamed of themselves for wasting tax payer money. I have found a newspaper article that anyone planning on attending any of these ridiculous on-line schools like CTU, ITT Tech, Westwood College or university of Phoenix, ECT... should read. It is titled In Hard Times Lured into Trade School and Debt. By: Peter S. Goodman. The New York Times, March 15, 2010. This article explains exactly what these types of phony schools are up to. http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109081/in-hard-times-lured-into-trade-school-and-debt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V122ICNS8_0
I found CTU On-Line to be a miserable experience. The on-line class environment is a joke. All the instructors do is read you a book over the internet. Listening to the instructors just read you a book over the Internet was intolerable and boring. The instructors would never answer any questions, saying that they had to finish reading the required material in these live chats ("class sessions"). The assignments that some of the instructors posted were stolen from other schools internet sites word for word. I found this out by googling the key words of assignments and found the exact same words for assignments on other schools web sites. The instructors say you can e-mail them for help "since you can’t ask questions during the live chats”, but good luck getting a timely response. Most live on-line chat sessions I attended at this "school" had very few participants; maybe three out of forty people participated on average. The chats are recorded but that's even more intolerable and boring than listening to the live sessions.

The instructors would have you grade and comment on other student’s papers. This was a joke because most of the papers sucked and I didn’t want to be the one to tell these people they had no clue what they were writing about. Most of the student responses would only be a few sentences like, nice work on your paper I found it interesting. This really was not helpful at all and a complete waste of time.

The instructor’s comments for grades were basically the same, consisting of only a few sentences that really didn’t help me learn anything at all or correct my mistakes or clear up any confusing material. Most of the time the instructors would use the cop out that you can find everything you need on the internet, what a joke.
They (CTU) have this thing called group assignments were you team up with others from all over the country to do assignments together. This never worked because of different schedules and time zones. I was the only one most of the time that would even try to get the group to work together. It never did go very well though.

The APA style writing they push on you was a joke too. Every instructor had different interpretations of what APA was and nobody I talked to or even myself ever had much luck writing "correct" APA format.

I was getting A's and helping other students out with programming concepts and Java code writing. If you attend this school you had better love sitting in front of the computer forever. The college algebra class came and myself and allot of other students were struggling and trying to find help, but there was none. I was spending 30 hours a week doing all these things and feeling like I was wasting my time and money.

I learned more about computers from my own studies than the classes provided. Most students in my classes were so lost that I spent most of my time trying to help them make sense of the garbage the school was presenting.
I really think that you should choose a school carefully and ones that advertise on the TV or radio usually aren't very good. I got out after $9000.00 in total charges after like six months and six worthless classes. I would have been better off investing that money in any other way rather than trying CTU.

The admissions people are quite the sales talkers. They called me constantly for two weeks straight to get me to pay the $50 application fee and start my FASFA papers so they could get paid as soon as possible. What a joke that school will pass anyone through the courses so they can collect the easy money their stealing from government loans.

I think people should attend a class room based school with hands on training. That's really the only realistic way to go. Who wants a bunch of Internet trained cops, engineers or doctors working with them, I know I wouldn’t. I would advise you to ask the HR department of a place you would like to work were they have their employees trained and go to those classes. I have taken company sponsored classes that got me certificates that increased my pay and value to the companies I was working for. Hope this helps and good luck in your search for a school

I believe this school will accept anyone for their programs just to collect the easy money from the government loans they are stealing from. The fifty dollar application fee is just feel good tactic. Anyone who applies to this school will be accepted. Seriously DONT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL, YOU WILL JUST END UP IN BIG TIME DEBT WITH NO SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS. Now I’m so mad because I was a MORON for believing this "school" was going to improve my education and job options.
DONT GET SUCKERED IN LIKE I DID, I KNOW I WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF INVESTING THAT MONEY IN ANY OTHER WAY. My E-mail is [email protected] and if you want more explanation of what I experienced I would be happy to save you from the worst (AND MOST COSTLY) decision of your life, attending Colorado Technical University On-line.

The grade I would give CTU on-line is 50% or an F.

These are my responses I put together that I have sent to others answering their questions about CTU on-line. I am glad to advise you what I experienced at CTU and hope it helps you make a wise decision. In my years of working towards advancement in my careers I have found that state, government and corporate certifications are the most rewarding classes to take. I have taken classes for certifications in bridge inspecting, construction materials testing and auto repair. All of these types of training experiences where the most rewarding and the most beneficial in the short run. I would suggest again that you consider calling a company human resources representative that you would like to work for and ask them where they send their employees for training. Generally these types of certifications are grounded in real world job use full information and training that results in immediate raises and job security.

Hope this helps you to make a good decision and best of luck to you.

So believe me this school isn’t worth the money and that’s why I answer all inquires sent to me about CTU. I do this because I truly believe I am helping people make a well informed decision. I am happy to answer any questions anyone may have my email is [email protected]

I have been attending CTU online for 4 years. I had completed my two year Associate Degree in Science of Criminal Justice. I received several professional certificates from this degree alone. All of the courses in this program is real world application. I am currently enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. If you want hands on learning (technical etc) it's best to go to a traditional college. It only comes out to what you put in this school. I have had good professors and bad professors. As some have already said, they're everywhere including traditional colleges. I began college at the community college in Virginia and that was not a good experience for me. I've had better experience here at CTU online. The only problems I have had is the communication with the financial aid office. They are like vultures sometimes. They contradict their selves continuously, but in the end you do get the result you want if you push and speak to the right person. Either way, my resume has received results from potential employers and other training programs. The economy is terrible right now so even if you have a degree it's still hard to get a job no matter where the degree came from. Maybe it's your resume that is causing you a lack of response from employers. Resume presentation is essential that gets you a response from the employer you wish to work for. If you do not have it done right then they ignore you. College tuition is extremely expensive. Look at it this way: American's make 3 major finance choices in their lives. They are: a car, a house, and college. College costs just as much as financing for a house does. I cannot afford to mortgage a house. So, I chose college education. You cannot expect to go through college anywhere and not have to pay for tuition or attend college for free. You cannot expect to pay your tuition back when you feel like it. You make an agreement, you are stuck with it. As far as the admissions go, I was never forced into attending the school by the advisers who call you upon your inquiry. They don't force you and falsely enroll you. If you were thinking about it, you logged into campus started filling out paper work, that's your doing, and are not admitting it. Instead you are blaming the school as a degree mill because you changed your mind the last minute. I chose to attend on my own and knew the sacrifice would be college tuition I have to pay off the rest of my life. Yes, it upsets me sometimes and worries me. However, welcome to adult hood. I plan on transferring to a traditional state college for forensic investigation hands on training during my bachelor degree program at CTU. All my credits are transferring over. Not all of your credits are going to transfer from any college depending on the school you are wanting to transfer to and it depends on the degree you are transferring into. The reason is, each college online or not online has different curriculum for their programs. Sometimes states have different requirements for transferring credits. I read all the complaints here and the positive feedback. If you are still sketchy, take it from me. I'm the most careful person when it comes to making decisions here. No matter where you go it's a choice. You have to expect that when you sign up for a college on financial aid. It has to be re-paid regardless. There is always an option to get it differed where you can pay 6 months after graduation. You can always go on a payment plan if you request it instead of in full amount due. The best thing to do is research your desired college and find out if it is an accredited school for the degree you are interested in. I checked this out first and it's highly desired. I hope I was helpful.

I have zero issues with CTU Online. I've just started furthering my education through them. They took ALL my previous college and military credits. I ended up with almost 50 credits toward my degree which drastically cut down the time it would take to complete it all.

1: CTU Online is accredited.
2: CTU Online is accepted by the VA for the GI Bill.
3: STFU and learn something. Some of the negative reviews are poorly written. Perhaps if you stayed and attempted to learn, you would be able to voice your concerns in a concise and properly written manner.

Although I attended CTUO for only a month, I can truly say that I learned a lot. I had a lot of unforeseen obstacles in my path and after reading a lot the reviews, the negative ones stood out the most. As a result, I chose to withdraw. I sort of regret that decision now because although I became extremely irritated with so many distractions at home, it was definitely worth it. The assignments were pretty in-depth and required a lot of writing. I feel that had I not read the negative reviews I probably would have been able to overcome some of the obstacles. Studying at home was not as conducive to my learning as I thought.

Additionally, however, I was disappointed with the way I was treated by an advisor upon learning that I wanted to withdraw. I had been receiving A's on all of my assignments and he felt it would be wasteful not to finish. However, he didn't have a positive way of expressing that. The tuition was another contributing factor. I did not want to owe a lot of money upon graduation and still not have enough experience in the career of my degree program to pay it back.

CTUO has an award winning virtual campus and I know from experience that if anyone is below average as far as spelling and grammar, CTUO has all of the tools necessary to become successful in bringing up your level of skills. I agree with those who say that it is hard work. I worked hard for the A's I received and I still appreciate the late nights and time spent at the computer to learn what I know. It's all what you put into it.

I don't regret withdrawing, I only regret not completing the first session; especially since I only had 3 more task to complete. I have already taken steps to continue my education at my local community college and perhaps attending a brick and mortar school will be more adaptive for me.

I'm not gonna say the University is perfect or rate what the degree is worth. If you want to get a certain degree in a certain field.....probably shouldn't be doing it online for such a job they look at NAME of the College not what you actually know from the school. Along with experience doing it as well. If you got billed means you signed a Payment Agreement, so if you were DUMB enough to print, sign/date, and send back this form........ really?!? Then you complain about it and call it a hoax?

I'm currently using my GI Bill while serving on Active Duty. With that said if my University wasn't up to Veteran Affairs standards or was not Accredited they WOULD NOT approve and pay for the education.

So if you are complaining about the University and writing bad reviews due to your own short falls please stop! We all know the people who are ALWAYS the victim and never responsible for what has happened or admit their own errors in the ordeal.

I would love to see an honest review that gives both sides of the story. Or at least what really caused their bad situation. For example, I signed the payment agreement then last minute changed my mind past the cutoff for full refund or not having to owe partial payment and admittance fees.

I went from chatting with an online adviser rep to having an "admissions adviser" start emailing me and calling me within ten minutes. I thought this was strange, but I also thought I would just be put on a mailing list to receive some catalogs. Before I knew it, the school had emailed me access to the virtual campus and encouraged me to sign in. I signed in to check it out and what did I find? I already had a class schedule and a start date. The school hadn't even received FAFSA info or official undergraduate transcripts. This was fishy.

The "adviser" called me three times the next day while I was studying and I kept ignoring the calls. I sent an email to my "adviser" (who was really a fast talking salesman) telling him that I needed to be withdrawn from the classes, as I had no intention of starting their program. I received no reply the next day, so I called and left him a voicemail. Again, no reply.

I sent an email to [email protected], as it was stated in their student handbook to do if you wanted to withdrawal, but received an automated message saying the email address was no longer in service. That was funny, because the student handbook I had found the address in was updated in January of 2010 and it was only April of 2010 that I attempted to message this address and it was deactivated. It said it had been forwarded to the proper address, but I still heard no reply. I called my "adviser" and left him two more voicemails. I also chatted with three online "advisers" to inquire as to why I was not receiving any confirmations and they became increasingly more mean, saying "If your questions are regarding your withdrawal, you will have to speak with your adviser." HOW COULD I DO THIS IF HE WOULDN'T ANSWER MY EMAILS OR CALL ME BACK?

Finally, my "adviser" called me on a Saturday (what kind of school has people working on Saturdays?) and told me he had submitted my withdrawal paperwork. He said he would call back in 24-48 hours when everything had processed. I gave them 72 hours to call and when I hadn't received my confirmation call, I emailed the "adviser" twice more and called the registrar. The man said he had no way of accessing my file but he would call my "adviser" and leave him a voicemail requesting that he call me. I don't know if this was ever done.

I finally managed to annoy someone at the registrar enough to get the phone number of the "Student Manager." I called her and left a voicemail asking why I hadn't received a phonecall or email confirmation of withdrawal. I was assured I would be called back no later than 24 hours from my call time by the man who gave me her number.

Obviously, this was a giant lie. I did receive a call the next day from my "adviser" telling me he had processed the paperwork and he was "sorry he hadn't gotten back to me" and that an automatic confirmation of withdrawal email would be sent once all of the paperwork was processed. I requested an email verification from him as well, which he finally sent stating that "it was being processed" after a week of hounding him. It was riddled with grammatical errors. I have still yet to receive my confirmation of withdrawal, and if I don't receive it by the middle of this week, I will call everyone and hound them until I get what I want, which should have been done two weeks ago with no argument.


DO NOT BE SUCKED INTO THIS SCAM. This school hires salespeople to coax people into starting and they will enroll you in classes before you even mention your decision about your own enrollment. Once you want to withdrawal, they will ignore you and be very mean to you. DON'T GET SUCKED IT, THIS SCHOOL IS A SCAM! DO NOT FILL OUT ANY OF THEIR PAPERWORK OR THEY WILL ENROLL YOU WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

I have been attending CTU Online for nine months now. I am working towards a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology, and have a 3.90 GPA. So far I have been not impressed at all with this school, and would give it an average rating at best.

One of my main problems with this school has been with the teachers. With each assignment you submit, the teacher is supposed to give you a written review of how they graded it. I have found that the majority of teachers just copy and paste the instructions for the assignment into their review, and then only give you one or two sentences consisting of something like “You did a very good job on this assignment.” The instructors do not provide any critical detail on the grading, which makes it hard to correct mistakes when you have them.

Another problem with the teachers is that they are hard to get a hold of. I am pretty self-sufficient in online classes, but occasionally do need assistance. The few times that I have had to email instructors with questions, it has taken days to get a response. Usually it takes 2-4 days to hear back from them, and sometimes I have to send a second email to get them to respond. This is unacceptable in a school where your only form of communication is email.

My final gripe about the teachers is that they have given me grades that have been completely wrong many times. In one class, the teacher gave me zeros three times saying that I hadn’t submitted the assignment. However, I had submitted all three assignments 1-2 weeks before the due date. This same issue has happened in two other classes. I have also had teachers dock points off assignments for not meeting certain criteria, even though I had met the criteria exactly. In all of these cases, I had to take screenshots of my submission dates or the part of my assignment that met criteria to prove that the teacher was wrong. It seems to me like the teachers are just flying through their grading process and are even mixing up students, giving grades from one student to another.

In addition to problems with the teachers, I also have problems with the class structure, and the relevance of some assignments. No matter what type of class you are taking, every single class is broken up into phases, and then each phase will have a Discussion Board assignment and an Individual Project assignment. The problem is that some classes really only need one or the other, not both. For instance, in the programming classes, you may have to write an essay on a programming concept one week, and then program something the next week. For something as complicated as programming, it would be much more beneficial to program something every week, and then maybe comment on other students programming instead of their essays. I have this same feeling about most of the “technical” classes I have taken. It seems like there is way too much theory, and not enough practical application.

My other problem with discussion board assignments is class participation. Each DB assignment requires you to post something, then comment on two other students postings. However, the majority of students do not put any critical thinking into their responses. Most of them just write a few sentences like “I really liked your posting. I especially liked when you talked about blank.” Most students will not point out things that are wrong with other student’s responses. I think this is more a result of people not feeling comfortable criticizing others, but the result is that no one really benefits when no constructive criticism is expressed.

Even though I have a lot of complaints, I figure it is not fair to end this review without mentioning a few positive aspects. The plus side of only having two types of assignments for every class is that you know what to expect. You know when assignments are going to be due, and you get in a rhythm of doing one type of assignment, then the other. Another benefit (which could also be considered a problem) is that you can skip scheduled events like chat sessions if you are already comfortable with a subject. This can help you to focus your time on homework or reading assignments.

As I stated in my introduction, I am not very pleased with this school overall. Since I only have a year left to complete my degree, I am going to keep going, as I feel it would be a waste of a LOT of money to stop now. However, at this point I feel like I am just going through the motions, and am only really learning useful, practical material in a small subset of classes.

Mike.

I normally wouldn't voice my opinion in these columns but in this case felt the need to. I work in education. The university I work for is a competitor to CTU. However, I attend CTU( working on my Masters). I have access to a lot of information that those not in education wouldn't. If you go to Chea.org you will see that this school is in the same accrediting body as many state universities and community colleges. Think about something logically...anyone who has dealt with the federal government know that in order to receive anything from them they will looking at that information and review it in many different aspects. The same goes for the DOE( Department of education) they will not give you money to go to school if the academics didn't exceed the secretary of education guidelines. After all you have to pay it back.Most private universities have a career placement department. In order to keep an accreditation they must place at least 70% of the student body. A school must not have more than 10% of the student body default on existing student loans otherwise the accreditation will be removed. Therefore the reviewers who say the degree is worthless obviously didn't do their research enough. Think about it if students didn't get job then the majority would be in default by this time and the school would have loss its accreditation privileges. An accreditation looks at the overall academics, financial stability and operational ethics.

Bye the way the DOE and accreditation actively conduct audits on phone interviews and on campus interviews to determine if students wishing to enrolled are mislead or deceived in any way. They will pose as student or someone acting on behalf will apply like a normal student would.One student made the comment that they were charged for a class the didn't take. If you have read your paperwork you would have notice that once you log into a class and participate in a discussion, or any form of class work you have participated. It doesn't matter if you only posted a bio. YOU PARTICIPATED...Ad drop off periods have been established for those who wish to quit to do so without payment. No one is going to call you and ask you if you have decided to withdraw. If you choose to ignore the documents you sign then its your problem. Cancel before the drop of period using the instruction in your documents and you would be fine.

This school doesn't have undergrad fee, tech fee, exam fees, and so forth like state schools and other for profit universities do. The only downside is CTU uses e-books, my school has physical textbooks. Not a big deal though I have never had to print a book as of yet. BTW- If you think CTU is expensive I urge you to look in the eduction Chronicles, some degrees will cost you almost 45,000. Someone said the school cost them over 30,000 for an associates. This student neglected to tell you that he probably asked for a refund check so the Financial aid officer maxed out the students loans.

Those students worrying about paying for the funding they already took out, If you did your taxes correctly this year you were eligible for the hope tax credit. That s 2,000 to put towards student loans. Another student made the comment that this is a bad school based on all the negative comments. Any school that has a student body is going to have students dissatisfied with the institution. Where would a student who goes to school online voice their concern? ONLINE.....just like students protest on ground campuses, virtual students do it on the web.Do a search blog search and you will be surprised.

I can go on and on about how these students with the negative statement blame the school for their lack of motivation. Bottom line the school is very good. Not perfect but good..

I have to say that there are many favorable and unfavorable opinions regarding CTU and/or CTU Online. Let's all not forget one thing, it is a for profit school and subsequently has an open admissions policy. Therefore, think about it, if for whatever reason you were unable to get into a traditional school or had to leave a traditional school this may be an opportunity to get a degree. For myself, I have an AS, BS, MBA (next couple of months) and will be starting the Doctorate in July. I also have a degree from a private University from the 80's and also attended state schools during that time. I can agree with some of the negative statements as well as the positive ones. I find the course work to be rather easy, but I also was in business for more than 15 years as an owner, so maybe I understand more. I have asked many of the instructors about the education and many will say it is not a first class education, i.e big state universities etc, but that does not discount the education. I am privy to how the higher education system works as my late wife was a VP at a private university and the accredation process every couple of years made everyone pull their hair out. Lose accredation, lose federal aid, close the doors. CTU is accredited and this is what matters. I admit I often question the lack of theory, BS and MBA in Finance, but theory is jst that, practical use is what happens in the real world. I had one instructor that made the comment about online education. There are two schools of thought: the first is that online education is easier and grades are inflated by at least a letter grade and the other is that it is harder because you have to manage your time. As far as those that say the instructors only read from an outline, yes it appears so, "corporate" sends them the coursework, unlike traditional professors that can pick their own course material. The piece of advice when making comments for or against CTU is this: if for some reason you are dissatisfied with the experience ask yourself why? Did you actually learn something? Did you try to go beyond the required coursework? Did you participate in chats? Did you ask a lot of questions that forced issues? For myself I try to attend the chats and always ask questions why? How? What if? This forces an explaination. I plan to teach at CTU and believe me, having been a student there I will take what I found to be irritations to me as a reason to make the experience different. As far as a money scam, I can only say that any university operates the same way, every university has admissions goals. I use to see my wife look at the head counts for enrollments and they were always being pushed for more. ANY university is dependent upon enrollment, without enrollment and enrollment increases, overhead will not be covered. Any comments are welcome and my email is [email protected]. Dennis

I recently graduated from CTUO with my Master of Science degree. I honestly call the experience one of my best academic journeys. I have read many of the review already written, and as one person pointed out, "some of the bad reviews are coming from people who didn't have the right mind set to enter a university but especially an university online". I found the program very challenging and rewarding. Yes I had to cancel plans, yes I spent weekends sitting in front of the computer for months on end, yes it was a major impact on my lifestyle, yes there were students in my team that I wanted to strangle, and yes, I did graduate with a honors as a result of my
perseverance and discipline. Each professor was different, and the further I got into the program the more I seem to end up in the class of the most strictest professor at the school. But I now cherish those moments.
As for the staff, my advisor Laverne Perkins 630 967-5610, was always available to me whenever I called her about anything. I was very nervous going into the program, truth told I was scared sh*tless about not being able to keep up. My advisor assured me and pointed out ways of bettering my chances for success. And she was 100% accurate because as I stated I graduated with honors. Did I like everything about the school, I can't say yes to that but those were problems were not things that I myself, as a student, needed to address and definitely not while dealing with the demands of my assignments.

As far as my fellow students and the teams. Teams in any environment, academic, professional, recreational, personal experiences, are always challenging and sometimes difficult, but what business venture isn't? And the fact that we overcame those obstacles and excelled is enough evidence that we were succeeding. The problem with any school must first be addressed by one own attitude and how they plan to benefit from being at the school. I am willing to bet a dollar to a donut that some of the authors of the negativity would have left an ivy league school with the very same issues. I made my CTU experience my Ivy League experience, and I encourage friends to enroll. I'm proud of being a graduate from the CTU program and I regret that some others did not share in that rejoice, but so goes life. I only hope that after they left CTU they enrolled somewhere else with success. I leave on this note "the worst best place is always the place you are leaving, and the best place is always the place you are going".

I have been going to CTU now for 3-mos and so far I have a 4.0. I think I am going to be on the Chancellor's list? I'm not sure how that goes but as far as I know a 4.0 qualifies. Anyways, yes the courses differ from instructor to instructor. Every instructor is different and of course their way of teaching will be too. I had to work my butt off to get to where I am. At one poing I was faltering in ENG Comp and got two C+'s which brought my grade down to a B. I was not happy with that considering I was mainting a 4.0 in Medical Terminology. When I "payed attention", got off my butt and quit being lazy then the grade showed! It's not easy like some people have stated and how can you rate the school when you've only signed on twice and didn't even try to participate? So, far I have learned Power Point, APA style formatting, writing a efficient essay and medical terminology to boot. I'm looking forward to my future classes and I know if things aren't going well then I need to work harder. There is no excuse. The professor's aren't there to fail everyone! I'll post again later as time goes on. Good luck to everyone in whatever you do.

C

Stay away from this scam school, they don't care about students. They call you and try to sell you on applying for a student loan, just like annoying telemarketers begging for you to buy something. I have a 7000 dollar student loan thanks to them and did not even take one class. Trying to get a hold of someone at CTU is impossible, once you tell them that you have a problem they put you on hold and forget about you. My GI Bill won't cover that of course, thanks for the bill CTU. GFY!

Traveling in my career prevented me from attending a traditional university for 2 decades. Initially I was skeptical of attending a for-profit school in an online environment. However, in the end, CTU seemed to have the key elements that would accommodate my circumstances.

Attending CTU Online isn't for the undisciplined and those seeking an easy path. On average, I invested 20-30 hours a week in course attendance and homework. This either means that I'm slow or my enrollment counselor was being overly optimistic. He led me to believe it would only take 10-15 hours a week.

Most of the professors were outstanding. They knew their topics well and communicated in an impressive fashion. A few of them were duds, but how is that different from the traditional school setting.

Overall, I learned a lot of things that I've applied in practical professional settings. One instance occurred last week while leading a session with our staff. The group was impressed by some Excel spreadsheets I created that contained formulas which simplify analyzing data and planning travel. Were it not for CTU, I probably wouldn't have learned how to do this. Now our team that covers the entire country and generates over 14 million dollars in revenue is benefitting from it.

The most disappointing aspect of CTU Online was the turnover of the advisors. Either they have a hard time keeping staff or their growth rate was so great during my tenure with them, that expansion mandated the frequent re-assignment of students to new advisors. I suspect it was the former, but can not verify that with certainty.

The end result of all this couldn't have worked out better for me. For about 20 years, I was passed over in career advancement opportunities because I lacked a degree. As soon as competing organizations learned I was about to complete my BS in Business Administration, they started calling me. In June of 2007 I finished my undergrad degree and immediately accepted a position that paid 54% more than the job I previously held. Today I'm working in my dream position for a nationally based organization that embraces and values the skills I learned throughout my career and my time with CTU.

My situation and outcome may be unique, however a degree through CTU Online can bring the results you desire if you are willing to pay the financial costs and truly invest the time it takes. A potential student must go into this understanding CTU is out to make money. However, they offer a valid education through a nationally accepted and accredited educational association. If you understand this, it is a win-win situation. If you are naive enough to believe you can get a degree without the proper investment of time and money, you will get something worth less that the parchment on which your certification is printed.

The negative ratings are here speak for themselves. You don't see students complaning about real universities like this.

My experience, observation was brief.

It's like a dude who wants a girl -
If he is desperate, any girl in their right mind runs asap, stays away.

If he is confident, knows what he is doing, patient, and ok if she doesn't accept (and moves on to next chick), that will attract a woman.

If a university is desperate, just wants money - you will read the reviews you read on here/ if you call for one question [and that's it], you are then offered/ given "advising"...by the same person you initially talked to/ you get 24/7 online chat service (which seems cool at first, but notice real universities who know their degrees mean something don't do that and don't need to)

If a U is legit - they could care less if you attend their U - in the sense they are confident about who and what they are and students will be happy with their schooling - so they don't chase others, using 24/7 chat, or constantly calling. If a student wants to go elsewhere, that's cool w them - they don't hassle them. They know they are the real deal - and they are not out to make money ripping people off - they give a legit education that all respect.

By the way, the first red flag (or at least yellow flag) that i received was hearing that there is no testing. I know this goes on at a few Us here and there, but that's a bit awkward, and more so online (very skectchy).

Once again, the negative ratings are here speak for themselves. You don't see students complaning about real universities like this. If not too late, stay away, go to a real community college, and then transfer to 4-year for Bachelor's if you want that.

I've been a student at CTUO over 3 months now, and I have to say, I really don't know what a lot of the people giving it a bad rep are talking about. I've been taking 2 classes at a time and am on my 4th and 5th classes. 1st class is just an introduction, and comes in 1 part.

I've read you just get e-books, yet I get both e-books AND books sent to my home, they even send CD's with them too! I've also read that you don't get books sent to you that are anything about the class? I'm currently in Anatomy and Physiology I, and the book that is sitting on my lap right now is, "Hole's Human Anatomy & Physiology - Twelfth Edition", and to top that off, it's the HARDCOVER.... My last class in Medical Terminology, I got a Medical Terminology book. Imagine that!

My current task in A&P I is to name 11 systems in the human body, describe every organ in them (as well as any organ that works with them), list all functions these organs do, and also include the anatomical positions in reference to the 11 systems. You also have to do all this in a table with the task also stating a senario you have to make this table so that someone who knows nothing about the systems of the body can understand them. Which means you have to take medical terminology, and transfer it all into "normal" reading for "normal" people. That seem easy? lol. I'm very happy with my huge Hole's book, it has every single thing I need to know for my tasks in this book. ;)

I don't know about the people saying that the instructors give answers, or are fired if they fail people either, because there is a guy who's in my current class who said he's gotten 3 F's so far. Last I checked, F means fail.

Yes, I will say there are some people who do not type well in chats, but so what? Does that mean they are stupid just because they don't type well? Is that to say they don't do well on their assignments and tasks because they don't type in full sentences or use proper punctuation and things in a chat? Doing assignments and having simple conversation are 2 very different things. You read and study things doing papers, then you write them down, and a lot of people have others read their work, there's no problem in doing that, there's no problem with people who aren't as smart or gifted as others either.... I've never seen others grades, so I don't know how someone else knows that someone failed and got their grades turned into A's, but okay....

Basically, the bad reviews I'm seeing made me laugh. The classes I am taking are exactly what they say they are, and the tasks are not some kind of "breeze". I study for hours a day, I read, am constantly busy with school, and I always have assignments due that I have to focus on.

I feel a lot of people expected to go to an online school and it be a breeze, and supposed to be cheap, like just because it's on the computer it's not worth as much as sitting in a classroom. Sorry for you, this learning system is no different than sitting in a classroom, and you pay for what you are getting. The only difference is, you don't actually see faces, and you don't actually sit in a classroom, from my experiences. I've worked damn hard for every A, B+ and the 1 B I got, I've worked damn hard for getting myself on the Dean's List and Chancellor's List, and NONE of it was some kind of easy.

I love it, I'm learning, it's stimulating to my brain, it makes me work hard for what I am achieving, and most of all, I can now do all this from the convenience of my home. I'm 30 years old, a single mother, and it has been the best choice I ever made.

As for the cost, sure it's more than going to an actual school, because you aren't driving, you aren't spending hours a day sitting in a hard ass chair killing your back because you are uncomfortable, you aren't having to go to class when THEY tell you to, things are adjusted in the live chat classroom to have 2 days that are for morning AND evening, and most of all, you aren't spending all kinds of money on food, drinks, gas throughout the day. You are sitting at HOME, in a (hopefully) comfie computer chair, doing your work when YOU want to, and if you can't make it to class, well folks, there's an archive OF the chat you can go listen to whenever you feel like it. So, at least to me, the not so much more cost of going to an online school is well worth it for me vs going to an actual school. Oh, did I mention your books are all included in your tuition and you aren't paying for them out of pocket?

Point is, CTUO has been a great experience for me, and I've met quite a few people who are there for Bachelor's Degree's and even Masters, and I've never heard anyone say that they can't find work afterward. Most of them are already working off of the degrees they have/are learning from CTUO.

CTUO is a valid accredited university, and as I saw someone mention, does the Higher Learning Commission and all the other places that have accredited them not know what they are talking about?

Sure, they want money. Every school wants money. EVERY school. My Student Advisor didn't "push" me into doing anything. He was sweet, he told me EVERYTHING I needed to know, asked me a ton of times if I had any questions, answered ANY question asked of him, and we even keep in contact to this day. He never forced anything on me, and I never felt like I was "being sold" something. I felt like that when I talked to the University of Phoenix. He even made SURE this was what I wanted to do, I had to write a huge essay to the Dean, I had to explain to him why I should be accepted, and he made sure that what I wanted to study was right for me, asked why, asked what I plan to do with my education, let's just say that man was on point. Him and I are still in contact, as I said, and we now chat about each of our lives, families, etc. That seem like someone just trying to sell me something? I never felt that it did. I never will.

On another note, some people do have bad experiences with things, some people do actually have legitimate reasons to give low scores to a school, not every person is the same. I will say this though, most of the people complaining are either lazy, expected it to be easy and realized they screwed themselves, or HAVEN'T even ATTENDED the school. People who haven't attended shouldn't even bother commenting. That's like me giving my cable company a bad review cause the CS lady was an ass, pushy, whatever it may be. But ya know what, if you call back, and get another rep, I know I've done it and I've gotten some pretty decent people who really do care. Both kinds of people exist in EVERY part of the Business Industry. And what is that industry for? Oh, right, to make money. Some are real leaches, some aren't. CTU definitely isn't.

There's my nice, long opinion after working for the past 2 hours on my assignment, and now realizing it's 3:30 am.

To those of you looking into CTU Online, I would recommend them to anyone. They have been nothing but great for me! =) I'll even bookmark this and keep checking in once every few months until I graduate next year.

Colorado Tech was a terrible disappointment for me. The academics go nowhere!!! I was enrolled at CTU for 6 months and the same academic themes were repeated over and over. I kept thinking that the next course session would finally present material relevant to my course of study only to be disappointed again and again. What could have, and was, learned in within the first courses I took were repeated, and repeated, and repeated...... A money trap in hindsight!!! I also really felt that original thinking is discouraged; giving oneself credit as a resource is seen with suspicion and reflected in grades given. You might pay a little less at CTU, but it's definately no bargain!!!

"The teachers GIVE you the answers'? I don't know which classes YOU were taking, but in my years with CTU (2 BS, 1.5 Masters degrees) I have NEVER had an instructor that gave me anything I didn't have to LEARN. Some instructors were better than others, but that was no different from my MILITARY life, some commanders were better than others, or my professional life, some managers were better than others, or now, in my personal health life, some of my past doctors have been better than others. That is life! CTU, in my experience always worked with me to get me in the classes I wanted, and they never pressured ME, even though in the beginning it took me two WEEKS to decide if I was even going to go to that school.

Regardless, you get out of your school what you put into it. ALL my past professors always made time to be sure the student was clear on the subject being discussed. While I can understand the frustrations I am reading that the school was not what YOU wanted it to be, let me ask, how much time did you give to your learning, or did you expect fro the degree to be handed to you?

I wanted to finish my degree in the shortest time with all the necessary credits. I was naive and unaware of the consequences that go along in finding a job with a degree from a mediocre school. I was just finishing my military duty and had the opportunity to acquire my BS in Information Systems from CTU. My Associates was honored and I finished my Bachelors in less than two years. I knew I made a mistake when the credits I was earning from the school were not transferable to other state schools and I was maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout my entire attendance. I graduated thinking that it was too easy.
Later, I sent out resumes for a year. No job agencies would contact me and I did not get any leads from any organizations wanting to hire me. Companies wanting to sell me Microsoft Certification classes was about it. I was able to land a contract position and later hired on as a full-time employee by making contact with an old friend who helped me get hired as a Software Developer.

There are many scams offering easy, short classes to obtain a degree. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. CTU along with many of these online universities are not offering solid education. CTU does not prepare students for harshly competitive, real working world.

I too am a victim of CTU. I logged in 2 times at the advice of the advisors at the school and now they want to say I owe them money and I NEVER attended a class. DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING WITH THIS SCHOOL AND DO NOT LET THEM TALK YOU INTO GOING. I found it to be a ripp off and the advisors are preditory. I think they work on commision.

As far as classroom and Instructors go I thought the school was just fine, I rate it terrible because of thier tendency to want to steal your money, and the fact that they wont admit that they screwed up and then expect me to pay for thier mistakes, Long Story Short I'm planning on Filing a class action law suite against CTU. If anyone is Interested in joining me contact me at [email protected]. and let me know your story, Id like to built a large database of examples and stick these shisters with a huge lawsuite.

My experience with CTU spans about 2 years. I am working towards my degree in Accounting, and CTU appeared to fit the bill. Don't get me wrong, I have had great instructors and some very bad instructors. More than a few times, I made the appropriate comments on my end of course survey. After one year, I withdrew because I ran out of money (My employer offers tuition reimbursement and I had reached my cap). I came back, to find that the curriculum had been revised. The revision was a vast improvement.

This is where I ran into trouble: I planned to go on vacation (with very limited internet access) and had made arrangements with my instructor to work with me on assignment submissions. The arrangement were made with the understanding that I would have the same instructor for the subsequent class. The first day of class, I found that I had been moved. The second instructor did not seem to be as willing to work with me. In addition, the planning for vacation took more time that I had anticipated. At this point, I decided to drop the course. Come to find out that I am now being expected to pay for the entire class because it is the "B" section rather than the "A" section of the quarter.

I have tried to contact the Office of the Ombudsman, but he could not help.

I have filed a complaint with the better business bureau.

Until I pay in full, my entire account is frozen. I can not even get a copy of my transcript.

I am looking for advise and for ideas of how to proceed.

Thank you for listening

hmm, I just joined CTU and I am seeing some awesome reviews but bad ones from staff, just a bit scared now, I guess I had such a bad time with UOP that I am ready to get one a university that doesnt do students dirty. So what if they want to make money, thats their jobs, another thing is that if you have questions about accusations then ask, research it, not every university is fit for everyone, thats why you search and choose what suits you and of course I have bad things to sad about UOP but thats because I didnt care for how they ignored the many times I contacted them abour homework than turned around and it was a request for money, not any answers to my former questions. They had me signed in their university within ten minutes of being there, CTU gives you the grand tour before they ASK if it is okay to take it to the next thing. Can anyone give me some GOOD advice on how to start on a good foot with CTU when I begin. I am wondering why some of these staff are working at CTU that write bad reviews if it is so horrid. If it is THAT BAD then you are just the same because you are a team member of that university so you stand for what they stand no matter what you may SAY, its ACTIONS that scream out the hardest so maybe its not so bad since you are there now, what, did your boss make you mad or something, very touching but save the bad review area for students that have quit there because they didnt care for it or for staff who did because it wasnt their forte, anyway, that is it, im excited to be a student again and I wish the best for the other students there

I graduate in Feb. 2010 my experience at CTUO has been the best experience I went to a local college in my town for 6 month and quit because it wasn't challenging enough. I enrolled in CTUO and have been having a ball I have learned so many new things and I feel like every assignment is a challenge. You have to want something for it to work you have to put your 200% to make it and thats what I like I'd rather have me teaching myself and figuring it out on my own than have a teacher who I just listen to and write down every thing that they say. You will have to attend all of the live chats and read all of your assignments and really put forth effort to make a good grade. ALL OF YOU THAT ARE COMPLAINING ARE LAZY THEY ARE NOT JUST GONNA HAND IT TO YOU YOU HAVE TO WANT IT AND GO GET IT! WE ARE ALL GROWN UPS.

I think that people need to stop whining, what college doesn't have a recruiter or admissions department? All you have to worry about is the following things: Is the school accredited? Did you learn anything while enrolled there? Did you get a great job offer while in your junior or senior year of college? If so are you making a profitable return on your investment? If you have answered yes to these questions, then nuff said. Forget all the dumb whining talk, the world is negative enough. If you didn't like CTU then pack up and move on, stop trying to dog them for your bad experiences or dumb mistakes. You live and you learn from them, not whine like a child.

I just completed the MBA Technology Management program at CTU. The quality of the education is comparable to my brick and mortar experience at Texas Tech.

If you really read the ratings and opinions in this thread, it is readily apparent that those who are rating the school poorly have issues in most cases which are not related to the quality of the education.

The online education process is a challenge which requires discipline and the ability to work through problems on your own. It is not for everyone.

Like all education, you generally benefit to the level that you invest of yourself.

Good luck to all.

R

I am getting ready to start with ctu so i do not know much about what they are like yet, but let me tell you something, the reason I am going to ctu is because I am leaving axia college of university of phoenix which is the business "school" or division of uop and I wouldn't wish that school on my worst enemy. They told me an associates in business management would be $12,500 before I joined, well 6 months later and 2 rates raises it turns out it's going to be $25,000. now, for an education, that's not bad, but I was lied to in the beginning when they wanted me to join, and also when I esigned my loan application for the $12,500 they had me sign an open agreement. So the university can take as much of money as they want when they raise their rates and never even have to bother to ask me if thats okay. I'm half way through an associates degree and 20 grand in the hole and didn't find that out until recently because they didn't deem it necessary to tell me. when i started asking questions, i got the run around. getting to a manager or anybody other than your financial aid counselor or academic counselor is impossible, even through the 800 number. My financial aid counselor rebeccah juhl has been nothing but rude and belligerent to me and has gotten away with away despite many voicemails left for her immediate manager. Also, the classes themselves are absolute jokes, I mean c'mon, a 9 week class on how to write a business memo?? that's the only class I took that even had anything to do with business! The courses are poor, the professors are just as bad, and they look for anyway to scam you out of more money. I auto dropped out of a class because THEIR website was down and they expect me to pay 600 bucks to retake the classes. I had sent in the waiver of fees 4 times which was for me to get out of those fees, but the forms magically disappeared when I told them I was transferring to another college and they are holding my transcripts hostage for the money. I have been trying for months to get someone to explain to me just what in the hell happened and you know what my answer to all of it is? $12,500 is per academic year and there are 2 academic years per calendar year and thats why it's $25,000 for you to get an associates.....now...you guys do the math LOL They will also tell you that they cannot specifically tell you what it would cost for any certain degree....now what school doesn't know what their degree programs cost? let me tell you what they cost effective july 1st...you know...another rate increase because they last increased LAST july...been too long for them i guess......385 per credit hour and 70 for "electronic books" which is just a pdf file telling you what your assignments are and your cheap readings for that class. You have to pay for EVERYTHING with that school and never receive anything. CTU will give you your software and books included in the 245/credit hour tuition. Also with UOP you never receive a drop of paper work that you esign....never....you basically sign your life away....CTU...I'm waiting for it in the mail right now along with my actual text books and microsoft office 2007. I am not sure what CTU'S classes are like, but if they're anything like the treatment I've already received, I will be happy that I switched to them.

TO SURGTECH
YOU DON NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT. UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX(BKA UOP) IS THE WORST ONLINE COLLEGE THERE IS, NEXT TO AMERICAN INTERCONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY. LET ME TELL YOU HOW I KNOW 2 YEARS AGO I WENT TO UOP FOR "INFORMATION ONLY" ON THEIR B.A. IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE. HOW ABOUT SOME LADY BROUGHT OUT THIS GUY SAYING YOU WANTED TO ENROLL I NEVER SAID I WANTED TO ENROLL I WANTED INFO ABOUT THE SCHOOL ONLY. SO I SAID TO MYSELF, "I GOT ALL DAY ANYWAY, LEMME SEE HOW THIS SCHOOL IS." MY PREVIOUS SCHOOL WAS FLORIDA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY WHICH IS NOW EVEREST UNIVERSITY. WELL ANYWAY WE SAT AND TALKED FOR ABOUT 30-45 MINUTES THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN THE (ACADEMIC ADVISOR) ASKED IF I WAS READY TO SIGN THE PAPERS. I LIKE WHOA I ONLY CAME HERE FOR INFORMATION, IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY I CAN PUT IT? THE EXPRESSION HE HAD ON HIS FACE LOOOKED LIKE DAMN I THOUGHT THIS YOUNG LADY WAS READY TO START SCHOOL. HE THEN SAID, "WELL CALL ME IN A FEW DAYS TO SEE IF I WANTED TO ENROLL." I SAID, "THERE'S NO WAY I'LL ATTEND THAT SCHOOL." ITS LIKE THEIR PRESSURING YOU TO GET IN. HOW BOUT THE NEXT DAY I WENT TO GOOGLE(THANK GOD FOR IT)TYPED IN IS UOP A GOOD SCHOOL, I TELL YA NO LIE I SAW 400-600 COMPLAINTS YES COMPLAINTS ABOUT THIS PLACE THEY CALL A SCHOOL. THEY WERE ABOUT TO TAKE AWAY THEIR ACCREDITATION, THEY WERE ALSO PRACTICING UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR, TELLING STUDENTS THAT THEY CAN GET A CAREER JOB ONCE THERE DEGREE IS COMPLETED, AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER BULLSHIT.JUST TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT THEY FUCKIN LIED SAYING THEIR GOING TO DO THIS & THAT, THEY ARE A DIPLOMA MILL, & A CHEAP ASS FUCK SCHOOL!!! IF YOU WANT AN ONLINE DEGREE YOUR BETTER OFF GOING TO KEISER UNIVERSITY, POST UNIVERSITY, WESTWOOD COLLEGE, OR SOUTH UNIVERSITY. THATS ALL I GOTTA SAY.