Franklin University

I started it Franklin University when I was employed. My employer laid me off in 2001 in the middle of classes and did not pay my deferred tuition leaving me with a very large bill. I could not pay being unemployed. Have not been able to make that big of a chunk out of my budget since. I approached the school face-to-face since I have called several times left messages no one returned my call. I wanted to talk to someone face-to-face. Instead my option was to talk to somebody over the phone in the middle of the lobby with no privacy or confidentiality. I was denied a face-to-face meeting with the business office and was told by the person at the desk that due to the holiday weekend almost no one was available. Someone did come out and talk with me about trying to get a transcript but because there's a bill that is 16 years old they won't release my transcript. My biggest complaint or problem is I've asked several times to work with someone to get this bill paid down or accept a smaller amount to make it paid in full and I've been denied correspondence or a meeting for over 16 years. Now all I want is my transcripts so that possibly I can finish my 4-year degrees somewhere. If I would have had the money I was only 3 classes away from finishing my degree plus I hold a 3.88 at this school. You would think that they would want to work with people instead of humiliating them in public and in an open Lobby or denying them by not even returning phone calls from previous voicemails that I have left throughout the years. This is not one of my top suggestions for anyone.

My experience has been hit and miss. The school prides itself on working with working class adult students but has certain professors that, I felt, weren't considerate of a working schedule. I have been in insurance for some time now...for this being and insurance degree program, I feel most of my time at Franklin has been fluffing up pointless word counts and less concentration on real-world resources and applications. I'd coin the program "1990 Risk Management and Insurance" as it feels like this is what insurance was like in the 1990's. Now, there are some great professors. My hit ratio on them has been 50%. If I could do it all over again, I probably would. The bad professors are very bad and the good are very good. If you find a bad professor (and you will know), avoid them like the plague -- and then run further away.

I attended Franklin University for a single semester, using a hybrid online and in-class schedule. I attended Ivy Tech to get my bachelor's degree before this, and worked with a transfer advisor for the whole process. We worked out what I needed to take at Ivy Tech to transfer smoothly and I expected great things. Instead, someone lied to me in the transfer process, and my 3years (at Ivy Tech) + 1 year (at Franklin) turned into a 3+2. So I signed up for my first mandatory classes, and got my first semester under way. My second semester was the start of a new school year and I tried to get the rest of my classes scheduled per the transfer arrangements I had made. The advisor I had worked with had quit, his replacement had quit, and I was working with the third advisor since I had started this process a year and a half ago. Really I didn't work with her though, because as soon as I started asking questions, she had to bring her boss in. Every time. SO I try to sign up for new classes, and I’m excited to get going. Except now as I try to schedule, my 3+1 is a distant memory and I'm looking at a 3+3. SO the advisor suggests I take an extra class and we get it whittled down into a 3+2.5. Are you as frustrated as I am yet? I'll skip to the good part. Extra classes means extra tuition and Financial Aid is not stepping up. I definitely don't have the extra 2k to pay, up front mind you, so as soon as I see that bill, I cancel my classes. Bad idea, you see with all the extra fun we had setting things up, classes started that day. (Yeah, just go ahead and start your classes and we'll let you know how much you owe us later. Great advice!) So now they want me to pay everything, not just the extra. So, if I can't afford to go to school there, the only recourse is to drop out and owe MORE money. Oh, and you can't start a new school without a transcript from your last one, which you can't get when you owe them money. Goodbye future, hello manual labor, oh and guess what, they're going to file suit against me and refuse to accept a reasonable payment arrangement as well. Goodbye, house and car. Thank you Franklin University, Mark Daniel III

I earned both my bachelors and MBA from Franklin. During my MBA I was using the Post 9/11 GI Bill and never had an issue with financial aid. Franklin took care of everything which made it easy for me to concentrate on school. In my undergraduate, I was using grants and student loans. Again, Franklin took care of everything. Scheduling was easy, I never had a single issue with financing, scheduling, any of that. I was a little skeptical of the MBA program at first because the courses are only 6 weeks long and Franklin doesn't require the GMAT. I took it in class and Franklin basically had us MBA students together for the whole duration. I had classes with the same people each week throughout the program and this made it easy to make friends and work in groups. Franklin does require MBA students take the Major Field Test for the MBA at the end of the program. This is an independent test administrated by a completely separate company. In my capstone class the teacher announced that the majority of the class had earned a 90% or better on the test and that one person in the class got a perfect score! (Not me, I was in the 90%+ people) To me, this validated the education I received. The fact that I was able to take an independent test of what I learned in the MBA at Franklin and not only me, but many of my classmates did very well on the test proved that Franklin had kept its promise to educate us. I would go there again anytime.

This place has me so furious I cannot see straight! I signed up for more information for a Bachelors degree and before I knew it they had me signing up for classes. The only problem is that's where they leave you, signing up for classes and nothing more. I called this university several times to get some assistance because there were no local offices near my home. I never received any support; in fact each time I called I had to leave a voice mail only for nobody to ever return my call. Well I ended up finally connecting with someone to let them know how frustrated I was and I wanted to cancel everything. You can only imagine how frustrated I became when I received a collections notice in the mail stating I owed this fraud of a place $5,800!! Now I have a collections department calling me every day telling me I owe money for classes Franklin University is saying I TOOK! I NEVER TOOK ANYTHING! This place is fraud! They will charge you a fortune to take classes even if you do not take them!! STAY AWAY!!!

Teachers and classes are okay, but support staff and their Veteran's Affairs support staff are less than competent. May be an okay school for regular students, but not so much for students using Veteran's benefits.

I decided to attend Franklin to finally finish my bachelor's degree after many years of attending community colleges off and on. I had a wonderful experience transferring my credit hours and completing the admissions process. I was assigned an admissions coach who checked in on my regularly and ensured that I knew how each step would go. I had been so frustrated with the poor treatment and general lack of interest in my education that I received from the local community college, so it was nice to have someone so interested and excited about getting me started. I've only taken one class now, it's the class they make all new students take that lets you familiarize yourself with the university and how the systems work. Some things about the technology seemed confusing, but the systems just received an update 2 days ago, and I can already see improvement. As for how challenging and useful the coursework is, I don't feel that this class is a good one to judge from, but I do feel very prepared for any of my online classes coming up because we have been given challenges utilizing all possible platforms. The student learning center does a great job of making their services available virtually. The library does a good job at this as well. I feel confident that I will be able to get a quality education without setting foot on campus.

Flexibility was my primary reason for attending Franklin. Nearly every degree is available online; on-campus classes are one-night a week. Their trimesters allow for lighter course loads. In my undergraduate (BSBA), I took a back-to-back six-week courses over a twelve/fifteen-week courses. In the MBA program, it's just back-to-back six-week courses, but heavier material. Though not highly accredited (with the "gold" standard like Harvard and Yale), the MBA is a quick 16-month program that is regionally accredited. With current tuition rates, it's under $25k, which is nearly impossible to find these days. Many of the books are custom Franklin books, making renting or buying used sometimes difficult. At this point in my academic career, I am choosing to buy over rent because the material is important for my professional career. During my undergraduate, I transferred from OSU. The teacher-to-student ratio was very refreshing. It is so nice to have one professor (instead of two TAs grading and a professor who only lectures). Not only that, but the professors are always available and have real-world experience which they constantly share and incorporate into the course. Communication in the online environment is outstanding; nearly every course requires discussion board postings or participation in a live session. Professors are quick to reply to emails. Group projects can sometimes be difficult, but that's usually due to other students inability to be a team member. The online formart is very straight-forward. Courses are all setup the same, making accessibility a breeze. There are two complaints I have about Franklin. The first is that the computers available in the classrooms are terrible. The university thrives on being technologically current, but the computers are completely inefficient. With a four-hour class, most of the students spend the first hour waiting for the computer to simply boot up. The computers in the labs and library work just fine and professors encourage students to bring their own laptops to avoid delays. The second complaint I have is with the academic support. The online support is lacking, but currently being update, which is nice. Printing, signing, and mailing/delivering papers is tedious, especially with technology that allows online forms/signatures. The actual on-campus support is ridiculous. Financial Aid is difficult to get ahold of; typically, you'll find yourself on the phone with a student worker who can only give you vague information and suggest scheduling an appointment -- same with Advising. Appointments with either are typically on a 2-3 week wait, regardless of the time of year. People from both departments will not give out their phone numbers and take a week to respond to emails. My first advisor was let go from her position, but I was not aware for nearly two months, and had been attempting to contact her the entire time. There are a handful of individuals who have helped me with timely issues, none of whom are my actual advisor. All in all, Franklin is a great investment. The main reason I was able to get the internship I have is because Franklin allows me to work full-time while attending school, and it is a very well respected university, especially here in Columbus. I have known many people to receive promotions after completing their MBA here.

Typically every time I call into the financial aid department I received a different response regarding the same questions. Representatives answer the phone with not enough information to answer questions. I have a current teacher that yawns during her presentations via Franklin Live and conducts herself very unprofessionally. This same teacher fails to respond to emails. Hence causing me to drop the class. The Academic Advisers are not able to answer their phones and takes weeks to get in to see.

Franklin's curriculum is backwards to traditional colleges. Franklin University's classes have one teaching themselves first,then going to class and finding out how one did. Assignments are give, and are to be completed before one even starts a class, then you show up for your first class,and turn in assignments. Further,depending on how the teacher delivers the material, one may not get instruction for the next assignment until the following face to face meet. Imagine if you are learning to drive without instruction first. Just go ahead and drive on the busy streets and we will tell you how you did later. If you hit anything you fail, yet if you happen to teach yourself,then you pass! Good luck. They will gladly take your money though,and wish you the best. I have a good GPA above 3.5 by the way. If one already knows the courses and one just needs a degree go for it, but if you want to learn from the start, um well good luck, for it is very difficult...I would go somewhere else if I was not already invested into this money pit of a worthless college!...

Outstanding program. Just 17 months and the right mixture of on campus and online work. The program even created the opportunity for a lasting cohort of friends and professional colleagues.

I started attending Franklin after a disappointing transfer to OSU Fisher (their switch to semesters royally screwed a lot of people). I have an associate's degree in Business and will graduate soon with my BS in Financial Management. Franklin accepted ALL of my credits and helped me create a plan to graduate within a year, as well as move seamlessly into an MBA, which will only take about a year and a half. All of which will now be done online since I've moved from Columbus. In the midst of classes this trimester, I had to move and switch out of on-campus classes. My adviser was very helpful and easy to contact. I've spoken with a few other departments on the campus, like the VA Office, and everyone seems to be very helpful and punctual with responses. It seems as if the primary source of communication is email, which is fine, but it does take a few days. Don't expect to get direct phone lines to anyone you need to speak to. Flexibility for adviser meetings, or meetings with anyone, is great -- on campus, on the phone, or through a web chat. The online learning format is very, very user friendly. I have dealt with some not-so-friendly platforms, and it's refreshing to see a college put so much effort into making it easy to navigate and understand for students. The uniformity (i.e., the look and feel) of all the courses is huge. When it's a 6 week (or sometimes 3 week) course, there's little time that can be spent trying to figure out where things are supposed to be. They've done a great job as far as online instructional design. I actually never used FranklinLive for any of my courses, but the concept is there. One and only complaint so far? The in-class computers (not the labs) are worthless. It is absolutely absurd that an institution which thrives on their online learning format have computers which take forever to start up, and constantly freeze when attempting to access web browsers or a flash drive. From my last on-campus course, 90% of the computers took more than half an hour to start-up, making it difficult for students to follow along, or download documents from MyFranklin, with the professor. Not to mention the fact that the professors computer froze up constantly, too, interrupting lecture time. Computer labs are great. But in-class computers? I'd rather carry my own desktop to class than use theirs. Overall, I would recommend the school. No, it's not Fisher (OSU). It is pretty expensive but you certainly are paying for flexibility (online courses or 1-night lectures). Instructors tend to have real-world experience (most own their own businesses or work full-time in the field they teach). Classes are much, much smaller (no more 200 person lectures!). There are no TAs grading your work (ugh). And there's no such thing as lockstep at Franklin, which is pretty awesome for people who want to graduate this century.

I found Franklin University the perfect school for a working busy adult learner. I can go on and on but as a veteran, single-parent and with working full-time, there was no better school in Columbus or pretty much anywhere else that could have done better. They are extremely veteran friendly, it took be 2 years to finish my BS, i started with 80-90 credits and had to fill the blanks to make it a true degree. The only drawback I can say was the capstone for PR, it was combined with the Organizational Communications and that proved challenging because the PR majors were forced to learn new things where the OC majors already knew the material. Outstanding and inspirational staff members.

I just graduated with a BS in computer science from Franklin and this is definitely a technical school which from the beginning was supposed to be. In terms of CS and Object Oriented concepts this school is on the ball. It is true that it lacks some managerial abilities but this does not preclude getting a decent education. I went to University of Utah before and I really can’t say I got a better education from the teacher assistants that really taught the classes.There were so many students there that no one cared in administration about you particularly. In terms of education Franklin delivers a good one plenty of challenges and plenty of research. No open books tests and you need to know what you need to know. Projects were challenging as well and any other CS graduate from Franklin will agree. If you are looking for a traditional University this is not your school, this is a school that focuses on opportunities for adult students. People with kids and families will probably have a better experience not for highschool graduates. (although if a highschool graduate thinks this is their calling by all means). Over all, they can deliver, I do agree with 80’s interface I think paying for blackbord or WebCT wouldn’t be a bad idea.

After attending Ohio State for one year and Columbus State off-and-on for several years, I finally finished my degree at Franklin. I found that the professors were very knowledgeable overall with their subjects and gave real-world applications for the course material. I was able to finish my degree in only one year at Franklin and even went back for more classes this year in the accounting department. I plan to finish my MBA at Franklin too! The student services advisers and financial aid teams were always willing to help and I never had to stand in line for anything. I can't help but compare my experiences at Ohio State and Columbus State to Franklin. At OSU, I felt like I was a number, there were always 500 or more students in every class and I never seemed to see the same person twice. I felt it was way too big for my learning style. At CSCC, I always had to stand in line to schedule my classes and at the financial aid office, I had to wait over two hours in line each term. This was awful. I did like the smaller classes and the campus was very nice, but most of the classrooms were in disrepair, and the teachers were not lenient if you had family or work issues.

Franklin is a good school for those looking for a quick degree with minimal effort. They have an extensive online course offering, almost every class available. The are a bit more expensive than their local rivals, but you pay more for convenience and ease in completing. They let a good deal of lesser quality work slide under the radar, so if you're extra busy you can still get by. Don't expect world class help with questions, though.

I attended this school online, graduated August, 2009. After many years I decided to complete my bachelors degree. I looked at many schools and found Franklin. What they offered and the enrollment department was great working with me. I had a couple of courses that had some issues, but overall I think the professors adjusted fairly with due dates. The time I spent there was well worth. I wanted to complete my Masters there as well, but they don't offer what I was looking for. Very happy with my education from Franklin. You do work hard, but I took a lot away from all my courses.

I recently earned my bachelor of science in eMarketing at Franklin and I really had a good experience. The classes were rigorous but I had all the suppport I needed. Like any university, some professors were exceptional, some not good, and most were somewhere in the middle. All were more than willing to help any student putting forth effort. Their system used for synchronous discussions could use some upgrading but other than that, I think this institution is excellent. I believe I received an excellent education there.

When something in the course is wrong, they don't care, and I have found multiple things wrong with every course that I have taken. I have gone to two schools before Franklin University, and I have never been this frustrated. I would have transferred out of here, but I can't afford it. The online material is weak. The teachers for the online courses are only part-time and have another full-time job so it takes up to a week to get an answer back. Its not all bad, but it is definitely more of a hassle than it is worth.

I have one semester left to graduate with my BS in Financial Management. I obtained my AS in Business Management from my community college, and through their partnership was able to take additional courses at my CC and receive credit through Franklin. I love just about everything about this college - especially the online format. There are tons of supplemental materials if you need help, the library and tech support are wonderful. My advisor is probably ready for me to graduate, but he is so helpful I can't help but ask questions. I've never had a concern that hasn't been addressed. Most testing is essay based if possible, or you can arrange for proctored exams whenever essay's won't work (such as finance courses). It's on my time, so I can work or do whatever else needs done - school around my schedule. The technology for online meetings is a bonus as well, you can share applications and chat live, no need to use the phone for conferences. Highly recommend!

This is an excellent program encompassing all areas of web applications (programming, design and graphics, marketing) My student service associates have been excellent and timely in their assistance helping me to monitor my progress, register for classes, and any other information I need. I have been in the program since 2002 and plan to graduate next year. The program is more robust than I thought and doesn't just cover web programming but all concepts and considerations required for a successful web site (marketing, graphics design) I actually like the Franklin Live technology since the professor can record the sessions for later viewing. It also has the ability for users to share their desktops and applications which saves time and minimizes confusion. We have used both in team assignments as well as scheduled professor lectures.

I've found Franklin to be Top Notch in all respects. Very throrough and organized and all my expectations have been met. They offer classes in multiple lengths of 6 weeks, up to the traditional semester. I was impressed that everything was covered in 6 weeks in a depth that will really help me, instead of glossing over things to get thru it on time. Great professors. The online format is proprietary but easy to use. Credits run about $225 for undergrad. The only knock I have on it is the use of Franklin Live!, a voice Internet system, which doesn't add anything but hassle to the courses it is used in (which isn't all).