California Southern University

This will be the 5th University program I will be doing, and I can conveniently say it was tops in my ranking of achieving deliverables. The courses were relevant to the degree and the level of support from the University staff and faculty was satisfactory. The quality of studies was of international standard, and I am glad I finished my doctorate here.

I have been attending classes here for about two years working on my doctorate in psychology. The amount of work is quite a bit but by working each day and on weekends I am able to complete my work and work full time. I was able to join just before rates went up after they received regional accreditation. I had an issue with what I wanted to do after I graduate. I emailed by academic adviser who spent time going over my options. She even involved another adviser in charge of a program that I would have needed to incorporate had a chosen that path. They spent time in a phone conference with me to help guide me with my choice. I have been provided a no interest payment schedule that allows me to pay monthly for my tuition. You definitely have to be on top of your own work because there are no classes like in brick and mortar schools. The information that I learn gets applied directly to my current work. This place is great if you are working full time and unable to attend lecture classes. It is regionally accredited. The admin staff such as from the library has been readily available to me when I need them. Online learning is not for everyone but it has worked well for me.

I have only taken a few courses so far. My academic advisor isn't very responsive and you get the sense that she feels put upon in each interaction. In fact, it should have been a red flag to me when she called me twice within about an hour when I enrolled to welcome me with the identical spiel; she had no idea she already just talked to me and was fake knowledgeable about me personally. I didn't say anything. I just listened both times and laughingly mentioned to my friend that I could tell the experience was going to be less than personal. Hopefully I won't need to count on her for anything too important, a little worrisome. My teachers (they use the term faculty mentor) have been good and available, but really you need to be self-motivated and able to figure things out for yourself. My second teacher seemed to be new to the school and was having difficulty understanding their systems. It made it a little tricky because I got the feeling from her that people might have been complaining about her learning curve and so she seemed a little on edge. It all worked out though. The classes are good. If you have no experience in psychology, the material is challenging - not neurosurgery, med school challenging but you can't just spend a few hours each weekend and get through the material. It is time consuming with lots of reading, 4-6 papers per class, a weekly forum blog to post and a two-hour final exam covering all the material from the texts. As an aside, buy your texts online somewhere. I tried their bookstore on their website and it was a train wreck, with nice people who were completely incompetent (at least in the one instance when I tried to buy from them). Also, do not rely on their list of books in the section where you click on links to classes and books needed; go to the course syllabus and get books listed there. I have at least one instance where there was a mismatch and the syllabus is what is operable. By the way, another instance when I reached out to my advisor who was her usual completely unhelpful self. I am reasonably happy with my experience so far for the price. I am very happy with classes and teachers and if my advisor's responsiveness and interactional style were better, I would rate it as an excellent experience. So, I am not worried that I am not learning what I need, but just slightly concerned that if (really when) I hit a glitch, I have an advisor that won't be all that helpful.

Their online learning platform is dated and riddled with errors. The faculty are nice and make every effort to make up for the inadequacies of their system, but at the end of the day, the admin staff are never available and do not provide the support you would expect for the high cost of tuition. - Brett

Online degree programs are great for professionals mid-career looking for an educational advancement while working full-time. California Southern University provide independent study to acquire your degree online at reasonably low cost compare to other programs. Buyer be ware: The program is very much 'independent' study, which implies you're on your own for course support and guidance. I enrolled in the MBA program. For the most part, I'm able to complete the course without much assistance. However, when I did require some clarification, I received little if no feedback. And I constantly needed to chase many of the mentors. Who has time for that? There were a couple of classes where the mentors were great with response time, like the project management one. Many of the other mentors had challenges to response within the 48 hours window, which impacts your course deliverables and deadline.. and your level of frustration. I ended up extending for many of my classes to complete the course work, which means... more money/fees for the extension. I would not recommend knowing what I now know about CSU.

This has improved so much. They material, teachings and support is among the best from DEAC school. They are awaiting to get approved regionally. I would suggest anyone to sign up aspap before their rates go up once approved. There is no complaints.

Did my DBA there and now teaching at University Level...at first I was scared from online learning, but now i can say, it was worth it...