*Please note, this website is not associated with the University of Phoenix in any way*
NEW 3-24-08! Abysmal Graduation Rates! Click Here!
NEW 3-22-08! The UOP Hiring Process Unveiled! Click Here!
NEW 3-7-08! Employers Shun UOP! University of Phoenix Grads Need Not Apply, Part 2! Click Here!
NEW 1-16-08! University of Phoenix Parent Guilty of Fraud! Click Here!
NEW 12-26-07! University of Phoenix Grads Earn Less! Click Here!
NEW 12-7-07! Former CFO for Apollo Group Testifies in Securities Class Action Trial! Click Here!
NEW 12-4-07! UOP Cover Up! Student Earns Master's Degree BEFORE Earning an Undergrad Degree! Click Here!
NEW 11-1-07! New blog entry: A University Without Tests! Click Here!
NEW 10-18-07! UOPSucks.com exposes ANOTHER unqualified facilitator! Click Here!
NEW 9-30-07! UOP Proves How Cold Hearted They Can Be! Think UOP Will Have Any Sympathy For You If Something Bad Happens? Click Here!
NEW 8-30-07! EEOC Settles Claim with University of Phoenix! Click Here!
NEW 6-14-07! New Employee Forum! Visitors may post in either forum; however, the new employee forum is specifically aimed toward employee complaints and communication amongst employees.Click Here!
NEW 4-1-07! New page for shocking emails from UOP!
NEW 2-24-07! UOP issued an internal response to its employees for them to discuss the NY Times article with students and prospects. We cut through the propaganda and put things into proper perspective. Click Here!
NEW 2-14-07! CALL TO ACTION! UOP has started a letter writing campaign to refute the charges in the NY Times article. Here's what you can do to help oppose this action!
NEW 2-11-07! Sam Dillon of the The New York Times has written a great article which does a fantastic job of summarizing many of UOP's educational quality problems.
NEW 2-11-07! New Forum Quotes page featuring some of the most interesting and revealing commentary about UOP from the user forum!
NEW 1-16-07! New FAQ page and website graphics!
NEW 12-4-06! Arizona Republic Reports Intel Drops UOP from Tuition Program! Check our news page.
Accreditation: When you ask UOP if they are accredited they will respond that they are regionally accredited. UOP relies on the fact that most people do not understand accreditation or how it works. University of Phoenix has regional accreditation but they do not have top rated professional accreditation for many of their majors... in particular the ever popular MBA. When looking for an MBA program, make sure it is accredited by the AACSB. Check to see if your school is accredited by the AACSB at http://www.aacsb.edu/General/InstLists.asp?lid=2. For more info refer to http://www.onlineuc.net/warning.html.
Employers Shun UOP Grads: Some employers will absolutely not consider UOP grads! They explicitly tell University of Phoenix graduates not to apply! More details here.
Recruiting Practices: Working at the UOP recruiting center is like the movie Boiler Room. Recruiters have high goals and are rewarded by how many students they enroll. As such, they use high pressure sales tactics and do anything to get you to enroll. As such, turnover is very high at UOP. Check out how they operate.
Mysterious Grievance Processes :Whether you are a student or faculty member, UOP uses secretive committees and obscure processes for addressing grievances. There is little or no chance of making your case in person or getting an explanation for the decision the alleged committee eventually issues.
Spam: If you've had an email address for the past few years, chances are University of Phoenix has spammed you. Do you really want to patronize any company that uses spam to advertise? How legitimate is a university that uses spam to advertise?
Misrepresentations and False Guarantees: Recruiters and Counselors have been known to make false promises and guarantees to get you to enroll and stay enrolled and they may hide or downplay consequences. They may represent that credits will transfer into UOP, transfer from UOP to another school, that you can start and stop the program at any time, etc. Be careful! Many students have been burned by false representations about financial aid and end up with ruined credit.
Poor Customer Service: Because of the high turnover rates and because of how poorly University of Phoenix treats its employees, it is hard to find someone competent to resolve your problems if you have one. Often, the employees are overworked and unable to give you the time needed to help you properly. Failure to return phone calls, inability to reach supervisors and higher level managers, and the incompetence or powerlessness of the lower level staff will frustrate you to no end.
Poor Quality of Instruction: While there are a few great instructors at University of Phoenix, most are mediocre business people who have no business in a classroom and are there simply to supplement their income. Most will give you an A or B for showing up and turning in all the work. Few instructors care enough to read submitted work carefully for proper grading. Those that do take the time to grade carefully care more about whether or not the formatting and appearance of your report meets guidelines rather than the quality of the content. When you're paying over $1000 per class, you should expect an education worthy of the price you're paying!
Poor Technology Infrastructure: UOP has been in the online education business for several years now. For all of the money that you're paying, you would expect UOP to have adequate bandwidth and server resources to handle the loads, but they never seem to have enough. You're paying thousands of dollars per class - can't they at least get enough servers and bandwidth?
Poor Quality of Classmates: With UOP's learning model, at least half of your instruction comes from interaction with your peers. The biggest problem with this concept is that there is no screening of who your peers are (i.e., no admissions test) and your peers don't know much more than you do (that's why you're all taking the class to begin with). A great deal of your course work is group work, and getting stuck with a bunch of idiots will ruin your educational experience. Additionally, chances are great that potential employers have hired other graduates from UOP that have been less than desirable, and that bad experience has now diminished the reputation of the UOP degree for that employer.
Financial Aid Carelessness: We get a TON of email from people whose financial lives have been ruined by the misrepresentations of the financial aid and counselors at UOP. When you owe UOP money, it is impossible to get things straightened out because you can never get the right person on the phone. If you plan on using financial aid, make sure that you are approved and everything is setup and confirmed BEFORE you start classes. Make sure you get all representations in writing. Realize that if you stop classes or change classes your financial aid is likely to get canceled or screwed up and YOU will end up paying the bill. UOP is relentless in debt collections, and they do not like to straighten things out even if they are to blame.
General Lack of Respect for the Customer: Once University of Phoenix has you enrolled, they could care less about keeping you happy. They DO NOT guarantee customer satisfaction. In some cases they will allow you to re-take classes for free, but who would ever want to spend the time to do that? UOP's financial aid department does not return phone calls and counselors and help become hard to get a hold of once you have a problem.
Education Does Not Meet Federal Guidelines: In order for schools to qualify for financial aid, degree programs must meet certain requirements, one of which is a minimum number of hours of class time. UOP meets these requirements by using study-group time in lieu of instructor-led instruction. While there may be a few legitimate study groups out there, most students can vouch for the fact that they rarely meet outside of class for the required time. Group study records, if any are necessary, are often falsified. The educational value of group study time is also highly questionable. This applies even more so if your study group is comprised of incompetents.
Abysmal Graduation Rates: UOP's graduation rates are terrible! As low as 2% for the West Florida campus, and averaging only 16%! You can research them here. A University with graduation rates this low definitely has a problem!
At UOPSucks.com we realize that not everyone has had or will have the same bad experiences that we have. If you had a good experience, then this is probably not a good website for you. We are glad you had a good experience, but unfortunately we did not and we are glad to present a forum for students like us with similar bad experiences. UoP administration has not responded adequately to our complaints so here we are... If you want to read good things about UoP, go to their website. Please realize we have many more complaints and problems than could ever be shown here. Site content is chosen carefully for obvious reasons and we will provide full anonymity for any feedback and comment we receive and post.
Are you currently a student at the UoP? An ex-student?
Do you have an experience to share on this website? Share
it on our forum or
Email us!
*Note: The information presented on this website represents the reported experiences of alleged students and faculty of the University of Phoenix. No guarantees can be made as to the authenticity or accuracy of claims. Please conduct your own research to form your own opinions. Your results may vary.
University of Phoenix Sucks.com ©2000-2008 -- Last Updated March 24, 2008