Arizona State University

ASU has the WORST finances department. It shouldn’t be so hard to pay my tuition but ASU makes it hard! If you have a question be prepared to be transferred at least 4 times back and forth and sit on hold for at least 2 hours. I have a scholarship and it shows on my account but ASU still put me on the payment plan and charged me fees because it has to be split in half. They can see all of the money is there but they say there is nothing they can do. They do not care about their students they just want your money. Their classes and instructors are great. My student advisor is great. The finances department is the WORST! If your deciding between schools and have a scholarship think twice about ASU. Dealing with the finances department is just as bad as having to call AT&T. They never answer any question they just want more of your money by charging you more fees. They do not care about you!!

Worst, unnecessarily complex online platform ever. I'm paying for an education, not to spend hours trying to figure out how to navigate some proprietary maze of random links. Nothing works properly. You click on the link to the book, and after 5 minutes of trying to get to the right chapter..nope. Nothing is straightforward. In the real world where real people do real work, I would have fired every moron involved in developing this piece of crap. Go to one location and it says no assignments are due, dig deeper and YEP their due. I would NEVER recommend ASU's online program for any adult returning to school. If you have hours of extra time to try to navigate their system, great. If you have a job and a family, do yourself a favor and find one of the online schools geared toward adults. This is some idiotic grad students attempt at throwing together an ineffective platform. I DO NOT RECOMMEND

This college think they are entitled to $2772 because they claim that I had completed the semester of 2013. I had asked them to drop my classes prior to the withdrawal period. They didn't bother doing so until AFTER Jan 23, 2013, so they had charged me for the semester. I had gone through their "tuition appeal", they had denied me, I had filed a complaint against them to the Arizona Attorney General, that didn't work, they also hired National Credit Management to collect debt, which I didn't respond and I have filed a complaint against them with the CFPB. ASU has failed to provide a reason for them to turn down my financial aid to me, they never sent a letter, but they think that they should get $2772.

I wish I could tell you about ASU’s on-line graduate classes but their career coaches from the beginning left a very poor first impression with me. You will find the career coaches follow a check list and treat you like a number, not a person. They are not able to answer many detailed questions about the program you are interested in or are willing to find answers for you. They will provide you guidance on when you need to have your application fee and other information completed. I have read many articles about online master programs and support that you should expect while pursuing your degree. I have decided that customer service is important to me and will spend my time and money at another school.

When I first looked at obtaining my Masters degree, I looked at many different programs. Some on ground, and some online. Since I already have my Bachelors degree, I favored online programs due to the flexibility. Prior to making my choice, I received many emails and phone calls form my advising staff at Arizona State. They were extremely helpful in obtaining my earlier credits, and answering any/all questions I had about their program. With their prestigious status, being a very known school, I decided to go with ASU. After making the decision to attend Arizona State's program, I began my courses. My first two courses went swimmingly. My professors were wonderfully helpful, and my advisor answered emails within 12 hours. It was after my first semester, that the issues began. First, it was my first internship, for which I had to do almost everything myself. I am out of state (not in Arizona), and the professors/advisors have little to no information on out-of-state educational issues. I had almost non-existent support during my internship. My mentor teacher's emails when unanswered, and mine were given very little attention. The discussion boards in the class shells are close to a joke. Most students are not interested in giving each other feedback, or actually working in the groups their are assigned to. Only one group, in each course, actually gets the "lead" professor, the rest of the class gets an "associate" which can be anything from a doctorate candidate to a teacher with a bachelor degree (I have only had the "lead" professor once). The biggest issue that I have/had, with ASU with their complete lack of interest in retaining their students. When I contacted my advisor to tell her about the issues that I was having, and I am to the point that I am considering another university; her response was "keep in touch". So if you choose to attend Arizona State University, especially their online program, just don't expect any support and you will be fine. If you desire any support (from staff or students), I would choose another university to further my education.

It's expensive at over ten thousand a year for a degree. However, you have all the educational materials and access to research you could ever need. You can be a history major or go above and beyond your degree track. So, it's what you make of it when looking at the big picture. I studied the history and technology and can hold my own with those in the computer sciences. I figure that was worth the price. If you plan on just studying history, getting your little paper that says B.A in History you can do that as well, but don't complain that you work at place that pays you a low hourly wage. The tech staff are however, kind of jerky. They treat people like they are dumb for not remembering their password. They have a sense of elite entitlement simply because they know computers better than most. The professors were pretty decent, you will be doing a lot of writing and being a research University you will be doing a lot of that. So get ready to write a lot of papers.

I have very many positive things to say about ASU Online. I think their usage of technology is great and only getting better. I took a few classes where the professor would make special Vimeo video lectures specially designed for our class. I also took part in some interactive online group projects. Once, I also got tickets from the department to ASU football game that took place in my state of OR which was pretty cool to attend. I do not regret finishing my bachelor's at ASU. I got plenty of support form counselors and teachers. The only drawback is that I didn't get to know my professors and I have not been able to get any references to help me get into a grad school. But if you are local they always have campus hours along with online hours. The biggest minus of the program was the fact that they would raise the tuition a lot. When I first started I paid a hundred dollar less for a credit than what I had to pay in my last semester. Bummer! BUt I still feel that I got some quality education. This is a known state university, not some for profit diploma mill school. So get ready to study as hard or even harder as you would if you attended classes on campus. I found lots of my courses very challenging and had to hire a tutor for a few of them. ASU Online is always expanding. Their Blackboard is almost flawless now in comparison to what it was 3 years ago. They have also added many new online degrees and certificates.

This program is advertised as being friendly to working adults but that claim is completely false. Their professors are not sympathetic to life events, at all. They do not care about their students. They are only there to complete as assigned task, not encourage a safe learning environment. I have taken online classes at two other universities and two other junior colleges, including University of Phoenix, and, for the cost, I would recommend any other university over ASU. This degree through ASU was to be my 2nd undergraduate degree, I am having 2nd thoughts about it because of my experience thus far. If you are a working adult looking for a program to fit into your life - not the other way around - do NOT choose ASU!!

Many of my fellow classmates are engineers and chemists. I do not recommend this degree program, unless you are already in a technical trade. Without that, you will not get in. I just barely made it in myself. ASU is a leader in sustainability. The material can get very challenging at times. However, I am hanging in there and should have my degree soon. This program has helped me change my career. I've gone from working in a dead end industry to a field of work with lots of promise for advancement.

I recently finished my MSc. in Technology in this program and was surprised by the previous review of the program. It took me approximately 4 years to complete the program working full time and taking a mix of online and in-person classes. I could have done it faster (maybe 2.5 years) but there was a lack of motivation on my part to choose a thesis topic and write. The instructors are very knowledgeable and gave me a good mix of "real life" and academic experience. The online system of classes worked well for me. Although toward the end of my degree I lived and worked in Europe - when there was problems with the system it was usually previously announced down time that I hadn't noticed, or the problem was fixed by the next day. The program has a wide variety of electives, many of which didn't interest me. The program is designed for giving you a variety of classes to use in environmental management or consulting work and not detailed technical skills. In my opinion this is a good program for people with a technical degree (chemistry, physics, engineering, geology, biology, IT) or with another professional degree looking to expand their knowledge of environmental management (law or business). I also believe it is useful for people with some previous environmental work experience and are moving up into a management position. Work experience use to be a requirement to get into the program, I'm not sure if it still is. As with any degree - don't expect the piece of paper awarded to you by the University to get you a job. That may go for this program more than others. Although management is a skill - environmental management without some sort of previous technical experience is not something highly desired in the work place (as far as I know). Sure you can go through this program and get 2 semesters of practical industrial hygiene knowledge or take a semester of the chemical properties of industrial waste - but if that is your main focus there are other degrees for that. This program gives you a good mix that helps to build on previous knowledge/experience.

ASU is one of these univeristies that behaives like a for-porfit and hides behind a non-profit status. They have made up mixed degrees like a BS in healthy life styles coaching and exercise and welllness that will not get you a job in the real world post graduation. Their online program called balckboard is pathetic. It kept crashing at the start of the semester and the excues we got was "we weren't anticipating this much traffic on blackboard". The reality of was that they had a new version of it and didn't have adiquate support to handle new technology. I took for ever to get going on my classes and the teachers kept on going expecting work to be turned in with out adjusting the sylabus. Yes ASU is cheap, but the truth is you have to pick the right degree if you go there engieneering, nursing, chemistry, biology or business. DO NOT GO FOR THEIR OTHER SO CALLED MIXED DEGREES THEY ARE WORTHLESS.