Thanks for all the replies in this thread.

For me deciding to choose any online program isn't about whether or not the public's perception is fair. It doesn't matter if it’s fair.
Once your looking for work or applying to another university for grad school all that will matter is the reality of perception in the eyes of the approving people, whomever they may be.

Any online degree has a certain amount of negativity associated with it by some HR people and headhunting recruiters in particular.
If you won't need to impress such kinds of people with your finished degree online I guess that may not matter to you. But I think most of us count on better jobs and higher pay as the reward after getting a degree and that means how HR and recruiters view your degree means EVERYTHING, regardless of whether that view is fair, accurate or based on any real knowledge or data.
That is reality.

Thanks again for all your input above.
My research continues....

 

 

Geo,

  Have you looked at online classes from traditional schools?

 

Here is a blog about UoP.

http://www.intuitive.com/blog/the_university_of_phoenix_reinvents_the_week_again.html 

 

 

That is exactly why I am grateful for this site.  I certainly wouldn't choose to pay over 30 grand for my AAS.  I will pay around 20 grand for my BACHELORs at Peru State.  To say UOP is pricy is an understatement.  What I found here, however, was a great group of people whom were supportive.

Good luck! 

 

Something to note - UOP's sticker price is high, however, for those whose employers will pick up the tab (remember, UOP is regionally accredited and offer degrees in a variety of career-oriented fields), the issue of cost is less important. For those who are going totally out-of-pocket, UOP can be less attractive.
 

Good point. I wish I had tuition reimbursement

OmegaLynn:

How good is the University of Phoenix as far as their bachelors and masters degrees goes with employers?

I am considering enrolling, but I want to find out all I can before I do.

Thanks.

I have no affiliation with UoP; never went there. But my personal feelings are negative. They were actually the first college I contacted when looking for online education. Having attended 5 semesters at the local college, I was set to expect a certain demeanor. Serious colleges are places of education, whose goal is to educate. Most often, they are unconcerned with whether you like them or not. When I request more information from a traditional college, they always provide the information and that is it. No sales pitch. What I got from UoP was a marketing blitz designed to "sell" me an education. I knew something wasn't right. Education shouldn't be a drive-thru menu. Honestly, it sounded like I was talking to a car salesman. Eventually, I was able to get them to leave me alone, and I wound up finding a very good online college.

The one thing I wish everyone looking for an online education would remember, is that higher education is very serious. Education is not about getting a high paying job, a big house, fancy cars and gorgeous women. Education is about pursuing a field of study that you are interested in. It is about practicing something that you truly enjoy. In order to be successful in a career you need to like what you are doing and to have a solid education in it. Getting a degree from some place only interested in their enrollment numbers is a sure fire way to get yourself in over your head when you actually get a job. Places like UoP prey on those with no prior college experience, with the promise of easy money. Online education as a whole has a bad reputation because it is filled with those only looking for a quick buck from an easy degree. If that is your mind set, then good luck to you. You will quickly realize that UoP taught you absolutely nothing. But if you are serious about actually learning something and working in your chosen field, then please look at more "education" based colleges.

The one exception to this is for those who have been working in a field for about 5-10 years. For those people, you probably already have the knowledge which you gained from work. You just need a degree to legitimize your knowledge.  In that case, UoP or similar colleges isn't necessarily a bad choice.

 calipc1 -

You state, "The question wasn't "should" it be viewed as a joke.  Thats not the point, of COURSE it IS viewed as a joke."

I agree with facetious's point that you have not identified your criteria for viewing a university as a joke. Your eptithets lack  substance and represents that of many people who criticize UoP. So I have elected to respond to you as representative.

It is important to remember that the University of Phoenix, while it has experienced some problems, and what educational institution hasn't, has been under the media microscope since its inception. I believe many people and institutions who are threatened by alternative and online educational programs want to find reasons to condemn UoP.  However, it has been phenomenally successful, and while you may condemn education for profit, then you would have to condemn many elite private high schools for the same thing, even while such schools  feed students into  Ivy League universities and colleges.  In my opinion, since the success of UoP, many other ground based universities along with the ones who criticize it are beginning to follow in the UoP's footsteps by offering online programs and using the UoP model for their delivery. UoP is a ground breaker (no pun intended) and threatens the hold and authority of traditional educational formats. However, as the world goes more digital, now online programs are becoming more and more common and indeed essential to the financial sastainability of the "not for profit" universities.

I can speak from experience about the University of Phoenix. I attended the M.Ed. program and graduated with a 4.0 average which I had to work for. Professionally I am in the education business as an academic director and teacher. I already had a B. Ed. from the University of Toronto, as I live in Canada. UoP students came  from all over the world, including wives of military personnel. We wrote many papers and had to participate in online discussions, do projects, complete research within our professional communities. We took a statistics course that required testing problems and many students found this part difficult and were dissatisfied, but I liked and enjoyed it. Some students dropped out temporarily, finding the pressure of full time work and school difficult. I found most of the students intelligent and articulate. Yes, we had group pariahs from time to time. However, in many classes we were required to evaluate ourselves and each other on an ongoing basis as to group participation. We did not all receive the same grade. The ones who did nothing received an appropriate response. There was one class where a guy offered his portion of a group project on the day we had prepared it to submit. We refused to take and integrate his portion because it would have been impossible--and besides it was awful. The professor was angry with me about my treatment of this guy, and eventually the guy dropped out. I didn't care, because I thought that was fair.

Another member of my family, a recent Yale graduate attended the UoP MBA and liked it and that is why I chose it. I honestly believe that my studying was very helpful to me professionally. I used everything I learned immediately and as proof of the pudding, right after I graduated our school underwent a government Ontario Ministry of Education inspection. I prepared the school, informed by my education at U o P, and also by the latest government mandates which matched and paralleled everything I learned in the curriculum and instruction program. We not only passed the inspection, we got a perfect score--something the principal had never heard of before.

So, I take my hat off to UoP, and I think that once the other schools get their own Online programs established and do not feed so threatened by the UoP's success, this bitter wave of criticism and scrutiny will die down. UoP will undoubtedly respond to correct the problems in its model and continue to develop in a positive way.

Wendy

Hi Wendy,

I'm the one who wrote "The question wasn't "should" it be viewed as a joke.  Thats not the point, of COURSE it IS viewed as a joke.":

The question originally asked, was what people thought of the school (their opinion), so I gave my opinion.  I stand by everything I said.  I do think that UoP is not taken as seriously by prospective employers and peers as certain other colleges and universities may be, however, that is just what I (and many other people, I'm afraid), think, so you can take it with a grain of salt.

I do find it interesting that a member of your family managed to go to Yale, and then settled on a University of Phoenix graduate degree -- if true, that boggles my mind.  I suppose in his/her case, the prospective employer will be so focused on the degree from Yale, that maybe the University of Phoenix degree won't weigh as negatively.

Hi facetious,

I take your opinion for what it is worth, and on the basis of your conviction and apparently that of your circle of people, I believe in your sincerity. However, while you state that prospective employers and many others regard the University of Phoenix with contempt, you fail to corroborate your strongly held conviction with either personal experience or factual data, which information from my perspective would more persuasively legitimize your opinion.

As I recall, while engaged in my program, several students compared their workloads with those of friends who were students at various state universities doing their M.A.'s and who said we had to work way harder than their friends. I still maintain as an educator who has attended and graduated from a decent ground university, that UoP has been a leader in the field of Online education and has had to deal with multiple problems of massive success, including intense, if jealous, scrutiny. In my opinion, the bottom line is that UoP is still accredited by the bodies that count. In addition, this year as academic director, I hope to be running professional development programs using Harvard's world outreach PD online programs, that focus on the same issues that we studied at UoP such as assessment and evaluation, diverse learning styles, teaching and learning strategies to accomodate diverse learners, writing accross the curriculum, etc.  and use the team approach.

I have to acknowledge that I cannot speak for all the UoP programs, either, just Education and the MBA. However, I think UoP is a little like Fulton and the steam boat or Jules Verne and his science fiction stories about rockets to the moon or submarines--after scorning their ideas, the world embranced them. If only so many ground universities were not adopting Online programs that use models similar to UoP, then I would say, well, maybe you have a point, and I missed it. It's always easier to let the innovator innovate and run into all the problems while at the same time identifying the problems for the others who then avoid them more easily. However, time will tell. I enjoyed my program -- especially as a working mother--and I really enjoyed being able to express my ideas without being judged by my appearance.

One last point is that perhaps U oP would be more attractive to a graduate student than an undergraduate because it is very professionally oriented and requires self discipline and motivation in large doses. You have to do action research from time to time, and it is a collossal amount of work. I don't know if I would have been able to pull it off as an undergraduate when physical presence of peer support was more important.

Cheers,

Wendy 

Thanks, Wendy!  And good luck adapting Harvard's World Outreach! 

 

 

Even if it is a little more expensive, I recommend you strongly consider the traditional program. Online degrees are not yet well regarded in the mental health field, and depending on where you plan to practice you may have difficulty getting licensed with such a degree. At least check with the state licensing board where you plan to practice before you make your decision. Best of luck!

ophelia:

Even if it is a little more expensive, I recommend you strongly consider the traditional program. Online degrees are not yet well regarded in the mental health field, and depending on where you plan to practice you may have difficulty getting licensed with such a degree. At least check with the state licensing board where you plan to practice before you make your decision. Best of luck!

I wasn't aware that any state licensing board differentiated between online and in class delivery.  Which ones do that? 

-=Steve=- 

I don't know of any state psychology board regulations that specifically preclude online doctoral programs, but at least two states (Minnesota and Vermont) require that the program be either APA-accredited or ASPPB-designated, and this has the de facto effect of excluding the vast majority of online psychology programs. Washington requires one year of full-time continuous residency, which has a similar effect. Other states that do not define the one-year residency as continuous (e.g., Missouri, Tennessee) have nonetheless denied applicants for licensure from online programs on the basis of their residency requirements, and in at least one case this has been appealed to a state court and the board's decision was upheld. It is not always possible to determine from reading the regulations whether the board will accept one's credentials--sometimes you can get additional info by reading the published minutes of their meetings, which describe their reasoning for denying certain applicants.

Comments like those, make you sound more like someone who wanted to engage anti-UoP, rather than just get opinions. UoP doesn't have a bad reputation because of online education. Many traditional state colleges and universities now offer online courses and in a lot of cases, a complete program. Right now I am trying to document all the traditional colleges that offer History, Psychology or Computer Science degrees. So far, my list has about 30 entries and contains colleges such as UNLV, University of Wyoming, Utah State University, and East Carolina State.

UoP has a bad reputation because they put the emphasis on profits and doing right by their shareholders; not their students. UoP is in it for the all mighty dollar, and from what I have seen and heard they don't mind cutting costs either on classroom supplies, textbooks or quality teachers. We can argue till we are blue in the face, and not get anywhere. You believe UoP is okay, and I don't. All I can say, is that I would much rather have a degree that I never even once have to explain, as oppossed to constantly trying to explain my degree to an interviewer. It may not happen all the time, but I assure you that you will run into someone sooner or later who is going to write off a UoP degree. With a degree from a traditional non-profit college, you just simply never have to worry about that.

I think that even if you get your degree online from a traditional non-profit college, that you will still have to worry a bit about someone writing off your degree.  I don't think it's specifically a UoP problem, I think it's more of a "people not being open minded about online education" problem.