I think that there are different perspectives about University of Phoenix that can be source of endless discussions.  I am currently attending University of Phoenix.  The work is not as easy as some people make sound to be.  I have a full time job that carries relatively high responsibility.  I attended a community college in the past and I am fortunate to have extensive experience in my field.  I do say that UOP is more expensive than other online Universities.  The problem I encountered when I first joined it was that there were not many choices.  Now, established conventional Universities have expanded their offering to the online environment.  My employer fully endorses a degree from The University of Phoenix and accepts it.  This is a Fortune 50 company that has a full tuition reimbursement program.  What I have read about is that there are those companies that require specialized training and certification that do not see the applicability of the UOP degree.  I can tell you that I have hired entry level management candidates from both UOP and from conventional Universities.  There is much more to the hiring process than just looking at where someone graduated from.  The interview process is extensive and it allows us to make choices based on other factors such as leadership qualities, communication skills, experience, etc.  Most of the UOP students have full time jobs that already have responsibilities so the degree is just a validation of their experience.  We do not talk about someone having a degree from UOP or from UT for that matter as a large factor when the person can illustrate his or her capabilities through the behavioral interview process.  As far as the team projects, many conventional universities use the same approach and the grade is only a portion of your grade.  In my case, the degree is not a prerequisite to move to the next level of responsibility as I have demonstrated that I am a capable individual even though the company has few managers without a degree.  The degree will help me support the company's philosophy of only hiring candidates with a 4 year degree.

There are some hangups to UOP, some employers wont accept a degree from UOP and have put that in their job descriptions, that UOP or Devry graduates need not apply.  I have never seen a job description that specifically stated that certain college grads need not to apply.  One can only assume that the company has gotten burned by some graduates of UOP and Devry in the past and has decided not to hire anyone from those 2 colleges.:

http://www.jobserve.us/WB6F08141EF7A7620.job

http://www.accountingprincipals.com/Jobs/JobDisplay.asp?JobId=406374&JobsPerPage=100&StartWithJob=0&SortBy=0&SortMethod=1

So while some employers will accept UOP, some will not.

scaredrain:

There are some hangups to UOP, some employers wont accept a degree from UOP and have put that in their job descriptions, that UOP or Devry graduates need not apply.  I have never seen a job description that specifically stated that certain college grads need not to apply.  One can only assume that the company has gotten burned by some graduates of UOP and Devry in the past and has decided not to hire anyone from those 2 colleges.:

http://www.jobserve.us/WB6F08141EF7A7620.job

http://www.accountingprincipals.com/Jobs/JobDisplay.asp?JobId=406374&JobsPerPage=100&StartWithJob=0&SortBy=0&SortMethod=1

So while some employers will accept UOP, some will not.

When I clicked on the second link, I was very surprised at what I saw. I had no idea that employers had ever explicitely stated that they did not want UOP or DeVry grads. I'm shocked.

Victoria:

When I clicked on the second link, I was very surprised at what I saw. I had no idea that employers had ever explicitely stated that they did not want UOP or DeVry grads. I'm shocked.

Wow, I've never seen that before either.  I thought employers just acted this way without admitting it, I didn't think any would actually own up to it.

-=Steve=- 

SteveFoerster:

Victoria:

When I clicked on the second link, I was very surprised at what I saw. I had no idea that employers had ever explicitely stated that they did not want UOP or DeVry grads. I'm shocked.

Wow, I've never seen that before either.  I thought employers just acted this way without admitting it, I didn't think any would actually own up to it.

-=Steve=- 

 It shocked me also, I know there is some bias against UOP degrees and graduates in some areas, I have heard friends of mine who are HR directors flat out say their companies would not hire UOP graduates, but would at least let them apply to any job posting their company's had open.

I have never seen that either, although like the rest I had heard of it.

One thing I noticed was these seemed to be entry level positions. I am a Software Engineer with over 14 years experience... and a degree from UoP. I finished my degree about a year ago after spending all that time as an "uneducated" individual. When I applied for my current position they asked if I had a degree and that was it. Seems to me that UoP is better for experienced professionals than someone who is looking for a career change or just starting out.

I must admit that one of the reasons I have gone back for my Masters (from Bellevue University) is to lessen the "UoP stigma" on my resume.

Wow, I can't believe that they actually wrote that UoP & DeVry students shouldn't apply.  I know that some employers are biased but I just never expected it!

This is really nothing new.  I have actually posted about this on this forum awhile ago.  In fact, I have seen some employers specify that students with degrees from "online" schools need not apply.

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  I probably wouldn't want to work for those companies in the first place.

 

 

Hi, I am a first timer here and just want share some of my experiences and at the same time learn some from you guys about online education as well.

 

I heard that Intel just took UOP and Devry off the corporate employee education reimbursement eligibility school list. My employer (not Intel) paid my UOP BSIT degree, but now I want to get a MSIT from an AACSB or regionally accredited state university, so no one could question about my degree. My personal expeirence at UOP campus program were good. Few of my instructors are PhD or PhD candidate from UC Irvine and the Ethic course was taught by a corporate lawyer who was UCLA grad, just to name a couple.

 

Another point I want to make: The general acceptance of your degree depend on YOURSELF. If you are a dedicate employee and your manager, director likes you. Any degree will work. In the contrary, if you are a piece of "dead wood" with a Stanford PhD-likely, you won’t have the job for long.

 

Well said.......

 

I will say however that Devry has some pretty strong ties to employers in North Texas and have one of the best job placement programs that I have ever seen.  I wouldn't necassarily put them in the same boat with UofP.

 

 

scaredrain:

There are some hangups to UOP, some employers wont accept a degree from UOP and have put that in their job descriptions, that UOP or Devry graduates need not apply.  I have never seen a job description that specifically stated that certain college grads need not to apply.  One can only assume that the company has gotten burned by some graduates of UOP and Devry in the past and has decided not to hire anyone from those 2 colleges.:

http://www.jobserve.us/WB6F08141EF7A7620.job

http://www.accountingprincipals.com/Jobs/JobDisplay.asp?JobId=406374&JobsPerPage=100&StartWithJob=0&SortBy=0&SortMethod=1

So while some employers will accept UOP, some will not.

I'm no human resources expert, but this smacks of being discriminatory, considering that they are excluding a large sample of people. As our VP of Human Resources would probably say, the threshold question would be, "Is a degree from a brick and mortar school an absolute essential requirement of the job?"

As we all know, distance learning only around 10-15 years or so and it is still at its infancy. It will take years or decades to gain general acceptance. A lot of old fashioned companies do expect old fashioned education from brick and mortar type of university.

The most difficult part is to measure the knowledge gained from online program. It is very hard to quantify. Indeed, there are some “bad apples” (UOP grads) did not cut it in real business world. But, we have to be fair; Ivy League schools grads are not all good either. Yes, I did learn a lot from UOP, although not much technical stuff. I have been a technology consultant since 1998 and had several tier1 (revenue over a billion) or larger client’s ERP systems implementation under my belt. Not that I am so complacent, but I do know a whole lot in IT, from capacity planning, system sizing, client workstation to enterprise server, software installation, system/database administration, performance turning, application security plus disaster recovery, and I would say I am perhaps as technical as the materials covered on the text book, and may be more. But I still learned a lot on other areas where I was lacking. Such as project planning; technical strategic presentation for the C level executives; IT project management/CER prep; business case study, etc.

Now, I have seen more and more UC and Cal State U start offering online masters and they all have AACSB accreditation. It is a good sign. May be I will sign up just for the hack of itJ,

kcdpas:

As we all know, distance learning only around 10-15 years or so and it is still at its infancy. It will take years or decades to gain general acceptance. A lot of old fashioned companies do expect old fashioned education from brick and mortar type of university.

Brick and mortar institutions have been offering distance learning since the middle of the nineteenth century.  Before the commercial Internet it was mostly through postal correspondence.  And don't confuse proprietary schools like Phoenix and DeVry with online education -- Phoenix has more students on campuses than online, and even Harvard has online courses available.

-=Steve=- 

True, but Intel did not ban eCornell and Cal State U's tuition reimbursement and no company on their job ad specify UOP and DeVry student need not apply. It tells us their quality of education is questionable and controversial at best.

I should have said DL become popular in the last 10-15 years in my previous post.