Fort Hays State University

I completed the Bachelor of General Studies degree after attending Fort Hays State for several years virtually, as I live 1,500 miles away from the campus. I always took a part-time load, which took longer but also helped me learn more with just two courses to focus upon instead of four or five per semester. FHSU does not do the accelerated class format you see commonly with other online programs. Classes are the traditional 16 weeks in length just the same as if you are on-campus. I can tell you I enjoyed the online format much more in the beginning of my degree program than I did towards the end. Some classes were way better than others depending upon the interest and passion of the teacher. It seemed that the longer I was in the BGS program, the less and less interested my teachers became in actually "teaching" rather than just assigning papers, discussion posts, and quizes. The school has grown tremendously and I think many of the teachers are just too overwhelmed with students to really care like they should (and it does show). The advisors are also very overworked due to high student numbers and this also translates to lack of interest and meaningful communication between student and mentor. I love that this school offered me an opportunity to earn a regionally-accredited, four year degree that did not require any math courses. The Bachelor of General Studies does not require math, but does require twelve hours of science instead to make up for the lack of math. I did originally try taking math online for a Bachelor of Arts degree, but algebra was just too difficult for me without the help of a face-to-face teacher. The tuition is affordable and I was able to graduate debt free from FHSU. My end goal was to obtain a Bachelor's degree in order to enroll in a graduate degree program locally in my hometown and this goal has become a reality. This is a silly thing to complain about, but I have to mention that when my diploma arrived that I was disappointed with how it was packaged and printed. The school uses a very cheap diploma sleeve compared to most other colleges and high schools. I also graduated with honors, but the honors designation is printed on the diploma in tiny little letters in the lower right-hand corner of the diploma just above the signatures of the president and the registrar. This is totally the opposite of what I have seen with other colleges, as the honors designation is usually front and center on the diploma right above or below the graduate's name. It would be very difficult for anyone to notice I have an honor's designation on my FHSU diploma. I worked hard on my degree to achieve honors and I feel as if this belittles my hard work. All in all, I would do it all over again despite these negative points I have mentioned. Tuition goes up a tad bit every year, but is still extremely affordable at about $525 for undergraduate courses and $725 for graduate courses. Despite the serious lack of involvement from some of the instructors, you still learn a lot because the assignments, quizes, and exams do require you to read the text and commit yourself to the material. I have found that the younger the instructor, the easier the course will be. Some of the harder and more dedicated professors are those who have been teaching over twenty-five years. Blackboard is a popular computer program FHSU uses for the courses and this is also used by many other colleges here and abroad. It is easy program to learn on your own, thankfully, because a lack of genuine support and assistance is perhaps the biggest complaint I have with the university. Otherwise, if you are a serious student with lots of ambition and motivation, then FHSU will be a good fit for you; especially if you want a degree that will be recognized by employers and other schools, is affordable, and will give you the knowledge you need to succeed in the real world.

1. Virtual school means, almost universally: You get a list of what you are supposed to do: read the book, take the test, write the paper, post on a discussion board - and you get a grade and never know why your grade is less than good - if it's not good - because your teacher will post 7/20 and not tell you anything. 2. Virtual will overload you and if you do not understand every last drop of the book - be prepared - because they will ask you a question formulated by a test archive about pg 10 the last sentence about was it 5.1% or 7.2% on rainy or sunny day in bermuda - and then ask you about the pink rain in bermuda on - was it 11.815% or 12.698% in 1976? Do we need to know this? Does my teacher care if I know it? 3. Running out of good classes to take. Look at the campus classes and you wonder why there are so few online classes. 4. Blackboard is forcing you to cut and paste with keys - you can't use the mouse anymore. The new grading system is bulk - you can't find the courses you are taking now.

I have attended both traditional (brick and mortar campuses) and nontraditional (online, night and weekend) during my educational career. I learned that different programs suit different learning styles. Some people do very well with online learning, others need the structure of the classroom setting, some can thrive in almost any environment. This is not necessarily indicative of a program's quality or a student's aptitude. Fort Hays' Virtual College provides an enriching curriculum with engaging instructors who genuinely care about about the subjects they teach. For students who do learn well in this type of program, there are many excellent teachers available. Just like any other school there may be a few duds, but by and large, you will find that the instructors are dedicated and involved. Additionally, I found the support staff to be helpful and responsive on every occasion (admissions, financial aid, financial services, advising, technical support, library services). In fact, I was so pleased with the school that after being accepted to another university for graduate school I declined the acceptance and applied to Fort Hays, where I will begin attending again this fall.

I am in my 4th year at FHSU through the virtual college program. The positive side is that the online classes are convenient if you live far from the university. The negative is that the teachers are a joke, usually you will wonder if the class even has a teacher. They have the class set-up to function without them being involved and that is the way it stays. If you do have a professor who corresponds to your questions they always go on and on about how many classes and students they have. Seems like they are stretched to thin to do a good job. The classes are hard, with tons of assignments. If you have a job or family good luck. I have taken classes at ESU in the classroom and they did not have near the busy work assignments that the online classes have. It is like they wish to punish the online student because they do not have to come to class. Out of four full time years I would say that I have had 3 good teachers. I also had to take tons of worthless classes as my electives because they have so little to offer for the online student. If I had to do it all over I wish I would never have heard of FHSU. I would never recommend it to anyone.

This school was okay. Would I recommend it to a friend? No. The course work is solid, I never had a proctored test and the the classes are cheap, but those were the only positives. There were many technical difficulties in the online classroom and the teachers were MIA a majority of the time. The syllabi were confusing and vague. I had to ask my teachers so many questions. They took a few days to reply. Before this school I was going to a California State University, so I have college experience. At CSU, the expectations are clear. At FHSU, not so much.

I only just enrolled in FHSU for the online virtual program. I really enjoy the semester by semester rather than the type of schedule schools like University of Phoenix offers (6 weeks per class). I can't give any advice to teachers and quality of coursework just yet, but as soon as I can I will come back and comment. So far the transition to the college is smooth. All my emails although take one to two days to reply they still answer back as fully informed as possible. With a school at 10,000 students I don't see why so many people are complaining about delayed responses. A huge school such as this and an added virtual program I would only assume the staff is a little over loaded. Perhaps you should plan as much of your course related work ahead of time to give the instructors and staff some more time to aide you. I'm sure there is a syllabus included and you can note ahead of time that you may need some more material covering specific topics. As for the blackboard I have experienced some issues but nothing as extreme as people are mentioning. Hosting a server cradling over 10,000 students can be hard on software. I have experienced much worse with University of Phoenix and Ashford University both school I WILL NEVER ATTEND AGAIN. Until next time. Go TIGERS!

I had applied, enrolled and accepted to attend online, received everything I needed to become a student here. when time came to get set up and all that fun stuff, I had no staff support to help me walk through the process. They seem to behind with technology and when I called for help, they had no idea on how to help me. This helped my decision in withdrawaling from the University. all because they didn't have the time to help me get set up and get rolling so i could learn. I believe that the staff doesn't care or have the time to get new students going.

I have previously been enrolled with Park University and Central Texas College. While they were both good schools, I found the 8 week format to be too fast for me to truly absorb the information. Both schools required a proctored midterm and final for every class. As a result, I spent many lunches at work taking exams. Most classes at FHSU do not require a proctor. This is because they usually have essay exams. You can't just peek in a book to completely answer an essay question. To get full credit, you have to have a good grasp of the material. Another thing I like about this school is how understanding the teachers are. I was admitted to the hospital for a week and was unable to complete my assignments. Both of my professors understood and I was still able to complete the work that I missed. I am only halfway through two classes, but so far this is a good school.

I have taken several courses here but no more. Was taking the test and somehow I lost the page. Could not get back in. I called the help desk they said there was a program that if you left the page it locked you out. I conntacted the teacher several times finally got a response days later. She said I failed the test and there was nothing I could do. Insane.

I applied online to Fort Hays university 2 months ago and up till today I have not heard back from the admission staff. I contacted the transfer students admission rep and she has rec'd my paper but too lazy to do anything about it. I have no intention of pursing anything with this college. The admission staff so far is a joke. I have since started classes else where. Good you to you all!

I've been at FHSU since 2006 and I'll be finishing the BGS degree this December 2009. I've already been excepted on a conditional basis(full admittance once I'm done at FHSU) to several tier 1 university master's programs. All in all, I've really only had one awful professor. I encourage anyone interested in attending FHSU to go to rate my professor.com and check out reviews of profs of classes you're interested in taking. If a prof has a really lousy review, don't take a class with them! Simple as that. Classes were no walk in the park. All of the upper division courses I took required research papers, short essays, exams, quizzes and discussions of the text material or current events. If you're looking for an easy degree, try the University of Phoenix or some other rip off school. If you're looking for a quality education that will serve as a bridge into a new career or graduate program, go here. Go tigers!

I have written a review in the past, and I feel it's time to update it. I have been attending FHSU Virtual since 2007. It has only went down hill from there. If you consider yourself really smart, then maybe this is great for you. But when you run into courses like Statistics, Economics, College Algebra, etc. Be prepared to learn and grasp all that information/concept on your own. For the last 4 semesters, my instructors have had little to no contact with us as students. Most of the time they don't grade your work until the last minute so you will have no idea where you stand in the class until they do so. They will not be considerate to the fact that you are teaching yourself this material so don't look for any sympathy come time for you grades to be turned in. There is nothing worst than giving your all for 4 months straight only to turn around and receive a D by missing the mark by a couple of percent points. This has happen to me in several of my classes, and the teachers aren't the least bit concerned. I think most of them are annoyed by the whole "virtual" thing in the first place.

I have been attending FHSU for the last 3 semesters, and I must say it could be better. The con's to this school is majority of the teachers don't interact with students enough, the advisors ignore you, they release your financial aid 3 days before the classes start so forget about using it for books, if you drop a class you can't replace it because all courses fill up before the semester even starts, and there is a huge load of work per course. The pro's to this school is that you do EARN your degree through quality work and if you have technical issues they do all they can to help. There is nothing fake about this school!

I will graduate Spring 09. This college took all of my hours from another school 90+ which helped me out a lot. I have enjoyed my experience for the most part. However, I did have one course Personal Wellness in which I am still waiting on a reply from the teacher(last semester) and in a few days the spring semester starts and still no reply!!! The tech support gave a systems upgrade a day or so before an exam which made several students computers nonfunctional with respects to opening and closing exams: even after the IT dept sent emails explaining how to correct the problem the teacher still failed to reset the exam therefore several students including myself had to take a very low exam grade for an exam that we could not complete. This has been my only bad experience, but I am almost OUT OF THERE so I suppose I will be satisfied with the college.

This institution accepted all of my credits from 30+ years ago and allowed me to apply them to a General Studies degree. I took my last 45 hours from FHSU and really enjoyed most of the classes. Online is not for everyone and requires a substantial amount of self motivation and discipline. I would as an older person with 5 grandchildren probably not wished to attend college face to face. But I realized my dream of a college education finally at FHSU.

For the most part I love the university because the price is very reasonble. However, getting contact with support is difficult in the extreme. I work at a University and the Academic Operations and Student Life folks here bend over backwards to help our students, and I just am not seeing that kind of support here at Fort Hays where it can be difficult to get in touch with your advisor or get information or help with where to go and what to do next. Many of the teachers are fantastic, so far in my sociology classes the professors have been exemplary. Both of the two ladies I've had the pleasure with interacting with have had wonderful course outlines with detailed syllabus of events, outlined times and dates for deadlines and communicated freely and openly and in a very punctual manner. The English class I took was the same. Excellent guidance from those three teachers. However, I am currently taking a Jazz Appreciation class from a contract teacher who is providing absolutely no support. There are no deadlines, no discussion. I don't necessarily mind a do it at your own pace class but I find I work better if I have at a minimum some communication, discussion and guidelines and deadlines at the very least to give me some momentum and motivation. My Modern History class was merely ok, and I was disappointed that the teacher made no comments on our essay papers to help us know what we did or didn't get right and simply provided a grading system that told us little or nothing other than the grade we got. However he at least had a good structure set up for the class and was somewhat communicative as well as had deadlines which was good. Only class disappointing to me so far is the Jazz class with the contracted Professor who seems not to care as long as he hasn't got to do anything.

Very supportive academic and technical staff.Issues I had were immidiately addressed and feedback was prompt and professional which made my trasition back to school as a returning adult student more enjoyable. Conduct your own research into schools which offer online programs and I am sure that you would find that when you compare accreditation, quality,support, convenience and cost, that FHSU comparable to many major universities.I would strongly recommend FHSU to any adult or distant learner who is seeking a quality education at an affordable price.

I was able to finish from FHSU while living over seas. They took all of my credits from other community colleges and universities. I found the staff very pleasant and easy to work with. The courses were challenging. I benefited from all the courses. I would recommend this university to anyone.

I just started with FHSU this summer. *Support: Enrolling had to be the hardest task of all. Since I'm no very familiar with the college scene, let alone the virtual part. I found it very hard to know what I was suppose to do and what was going on. No one contacted me to explain the process, and my phone calls seemed to just get me caught up in the transferring process. When I finally reached the person in charge of the Virtural Business portion of the program, she was the least bit helpful. The only way to contact her was thru email, and I specified questions, that I was expecting an answer for, but I didn't. I had to write her again and outline my question once again. Just the whole enrolling and getting started portion was a big headache. With VERY little support. *Technology: Here lately there seems to alway be a problem with their Blackboard. What actually prompted me to come and writ this review is, I'm in the middle of a test and the site has just went capoot. I have no idea what my test result are. I have studied for 2 chapters and I'm ready to take my test while the info is still fresh, but the site doesn't work. This isn't the first time this had occured either. Cost: I guess the cost of attending is pretty good. My biggest issues are the cost of books. I'm only taking 2 classes for the summer and spent over $400 for the books and video's needed. Teachers: My teachers thus far has been GREAT, really prompt with emails and their lectures are very well put together. The only problem is their technology (videos) are very old and choppy. Overall, I still intend on continuing to graduate from this school. Also a good resource of picking your instructors is on Myspace. Myspace has a network where you can grade your teachers. I'm really PO'd at the advisor though, for allowing me to take these classes that I'm taken for summer, because there is too much material to be covered in a short summer semester

I am in the military and have been with FHSU for 3 years. I do not agree with the poster about no structure to the courses. Every class I have taken has been well-structured with expectations given in written detail. Teacher are active participants and the tuition prices are very fair. I was even able to take classes during a recent Middle-East deployment. I have researched a lot of schools before choosing FHSU. I am extremely happy with all aspects of the college and look forward to starting a Master's program with FHSU next spring.

The Virtual College was a good fit for me. I was able to easily transfer credits from another school and graduate with a B.S. Degree in two years. The staff was supportive and friendly. Most of the instructors are easily accessible by e-mail and many respond even on nights and weekends. Fort Hays State University is a school with an established reputation and carries substantial weight with employers.

I have found most of my professors to be responsive and interactive with the class-- more so, perhaps, than in a traditional classroom setting at a large school. Some are better than others, of course, but that would be the case anywhere, and in any program. HOWEVER, I would greatly caution anyone about this program because of persistent problems with the school's distance education delivery system (Blackboard). The site is down at least 50 percent of the time during the evening hours (when I, like most distance students, need to do my work). This has caused me countless headaches during my two years at FHSU, and the problem only seems to be getting worse. Fortunately, my instructors so far have been understanding of the problems caused by this issue, but more than once I've had to turn work in late because of the school's technical problems. FHSU is certainly a good value, and I like that it is an accredited public institution. But, the virtual college can be VERY frustrating because of the technical shortcomings.