Grand Canyon University

I started my doctorate program and wanted to drop out after 3 classes, but I attended my first residency and the passion of the faculty and the support I got changed my mind. This was not an easy road by any means, there was no hand holding, no nonsense, I work full time and have a husband and two children at home. From day one the faculty tell you to read the syllabus and follow the dissertation templates. My Chair (Dr. Dooley) is amazing, my Content Expert (Dr. Scott) I found on my own, and my dissertation is right on track. My counselor (Ms. Roundtree) I have had since day one has always worked with me when signing up for classes and billing (I pay out of pocket), so I save a little out of every paycheck and make every submission count so I don’t have to take additional extension classes. All of the resources are available (free): refworks, the online library (even inter- library loans), through the DC Network, even writing guides and research guides are made available for free.

Honestly, it is so much easier to leave a bad review. When you are upset, you want the world to know but when things go great you don’t need to publicize your experience. I am currently in year 2 of my education and it has been amazing. Of course the price is high. But it is distant learning that accommodates your schedule, can’t expect it to come a cheap price. Classes are smooth sailing and faculty has always been responsive. I literally just got off the phone after reading a review of someone who is also from NYC saying that their degree isn’t accepted in NY. My field experience counselor reassured me that my program leads to licensure, and fully accredited and accepted in NYS. However, there Are many programs that do not lead to licensure, so be sure with your enrollment advisor and Be sure what you are signing up for. I don’t regret it yet! I’ll be back in another two years to give my final thoughts.

I have just completed my BSN and will begin my classes for my masters in nursing ed next month. I LOVE this school. The professors are outstanding and have all given my classes a way to teach them. In fact, several have their private cell phone numbers so that they could be reached anytime. I love that the classes are taken one at a time and that they are only 5 weeks long. I chose to take breaks in between classes, which was nice. At GCU, you pace yourself. The tuition is high, but if you take the time to look for scholarships, you'll be fine.

I think due to rolling enrolment and the online platform, it is easier for the university to accommodate and accept more learners. Many of the lower functioning students fizzle out in the first year or two and certainly by the dissertation phase. I have found the program to be great, lots of work but providing a great breadth of information in a cutting edge technological setting. Ive spoken with students at residency who are disgruntled about grades and different stuff, much like Ive read on here, and in most cases its surprising they’ve gotten this far given their current abilities. The university is of a far higher calibre than these individuals would have you believe.

In 2015, I enrolled in GCU to become a teacher. I was determined to gain as much information necessary to be the best teacher possible, but failed. In 2019, I completed my degree but learned that I was not taught what is needed to pass the Teacher Certification Test for Arizona or any other state. The only thing I did learn was to write an essay with the correct in-text citations and a very long lesson plan. Nothing on teaching the content that the State requires. So $50,000+ in student debt, $120 for every test attempt (8 as of now), and 4 long years of jumping through the hoops I am still not a teacher or teacher candidate. As soon as I graduated my counselor would not return emails or calls, I was no longer paying them. I am now on my own trying to figure out what to do next to reach my goal to teach.

As someone else already posted, I'm glad I didn't read the negative reviews before I began. The first two classes were all about learning how the online classes and resources work and were crazy easy so if I had stopped there I would have been disappointed. Since then the classes have been incredibly relevant to my job as a special education teacher. My student adviser is kind and helpful. Some professors offer a lot of helpful feedback, others less so but I haven't had any bad ones yet. I'm over half way through, was able to get a teaching job on a provisional license, and continue to learn valuable information weekly.

I enrolled in an online grad program with GCU. The first few days of class were treacherous to locate help. I dropped the classes in the first week. GCU staff explained I would not have any charges if I dropped the first week. A month later, I received a 900 bill for initiation fees which was placed on my credit. I really can't see how GCU purports Christian values when it's clear they arbitrarily charge whatever amount after a student has been enrolled. I asked multiple staff to apprise me (4 years ago) at what part of their documents expressed I owed an initiation fee, but no one provided this information. Thank God I'm receiving a master's degree with another university that offers much more academic excellence and integrity. I'm glad I had this adverse experience at the beginning since it prevented me from getting a degree at an opportunistic nest of iniquity.

I notified the school I had not received my tuition reimbursement on multiple occasions. They finally recut the check. I again notified them a week later I had not received the check. They said I had to wait 9 days. Upon waiting more days I still had not received over 3,054 check. I notified again. This time someone had forged my signature. Had to ask for it to be filed as fraud. Now the school refuses to give me any updates to move the situation along. They will not give me anyone’s Information aside from one school person to talk to. She won’t provide me any information or follow up. She only tells me to call the bank who cannot talk to me because I’m just the payee. The institution is the claimant. I have all of the emails as evidence. I’ve done everything in my power and the school refuses to give me any information on the money that they took from the federal government and refuse to release or give me any information on.

Going on a super long rant. I got my Master's degree from GCU which was stupid. Didn't learn anything just did a shit ton of homework. This was paid in full. Made the stupid decision to go back with them for a doctorate degree along with my husband this time. First week in, and its a shit show. We turn in our assignments. We get the same fucking grade! It was a B which is not bad, but you have to wonder what you can do to improve. Well, the feedback is so unhelpful and to make matters worse, identical. Emailed the idiot instructor and she said to refer to the feedback she left, again, unhelpful. She absolutely sucked. Came to realize really quick, that this program was a joke and dropped it within the week. Didn't matter though, they charged. I refused to pay it out of principle, but now I need a transcript of my masters degree and guess what? I have a hold on my account and now my master's degree is pretty much nonexistent unless I pay $1,600. They are holding my degree hostage for ransom! Fuck that institution. And the christian bullshit is well.. bullshit. They will give you that shit however they can but are totally okay with kidnapping my degree. Ugh!

I am currently attending GCU. It has been a complete waste of time, energy and money. I have take 5 classes, so far each class has taught me nothing. The classes are meant to "introduce" you to college, I feel like a freshman in high school. The classes "teach" you time management and how to take notes. Assuming you already graduated high school you will clearly know to do these basics. To sum it up DO NOT waste your time or money at this joke of a "college", they are just money hungry and over priced.

I just wrapped up my online ADN to BSN program and decided to look at reviews of GCU as I am getting ready to enter their MSN program in mid November. I am glad to say I had the wherewithal to not look up reviews prior to starting my BSN as I think all the negativity would have turned me away from such a great experience. Yes, it is a very expensive place to pursue undergrad and grad school education but I fell this is worth it with the course design being setup the way it is. I worked full time and spent 10-20 hours a week on school. This was mostly done on the weekends as my job is Monday-Friday. I believe you get out of it what you put into it. I had to put myself on a rigorous schedule to be able to work and obtain this degree. It is my degree I am working for not someone else's so I took full accountability for each success and failure. There were a few struggles. The instruction for the Stats class I took was very vague, the SPSS program that was utilized was difficult to navigate and the class itself was very hard, it also did not help that the instructor did not seem to very familiar with how to make the program work. During my capstone there were several different signed documents that were needed that had very which resulted in having my mentor sign several documents over. The professor was very forgiving in that she understood how this confusion would come about and allowed for them to be obtained and turned in late as long as we had reached out to her as soon as we or she noted the error. I was successful in this program because I put in the effort, as would anyone seeking an online degree from any institution. The instructors make every effort to be available to you during times that work best for them which is more than anyone could hope for if they sought out guidance at a brick and mortar university. One of my professors was so impressed with my level of work that she swayed me to pursue my grad degree when I wasn't sure I wanted to continue. For anyone who can stay focused and accountable for their work, I HIGHLY recommend GCU for obtaining your online degree!

This supposedly Christian University did not apply my district discount for tuition. I was told I would receive a 10% discount because I was an employee at a school district. After I completed the Master’s Program for Educational Leadership. I checked online to see what my balance was, only to find out I was being charged full price for tuition. When I attempted to resolve the matter with them, they basically told me there was nothing they could do and that I would be stuck paying the full amount. If you plan to attend here, make sure you get any discounts confirmed in writing, but honestly, save yourself the headache and pursue a quality education elsewhere. THIS UNIVERSITY IS THE WORST!

Where. Do. I. Even. Begin. The student support system GCU has for their 100% online program is absolutely ridiculous. My student support advisors have not been helpful since they transferred me twice form my original advisor. HOW TERRIBLE that I have been misinformed with my financial aid, putting me in debt +$7,000... Having to wait +6 months to restart my education with GCU when I technically did not need to wait if I DIDNT CHOSE TO, and when I give them my availability, they chose to ignore it and call me whenever they feel like it. I am an adult taking my classes online BECAUSE I have tremendous time restrictions. When I am unable to get in contact with my student advisor, they email me a few times a week and still chose NOT to call me during the availability I have provided them (which is 2-2:45pm CST, not unreasonable time frame considering it is during operative business hours). Here is the tickler, I myself am an Enrollment Advisor and work with 100% online students. The level of support I provide my own students by FAR exceed ALL levels of support GCU has provided me during my journey with them. I regret ever spending money on this school. This is FAR from an investment. This experience had so much more potential to be excellent, but thanks to my last 2 student advisors, you made my entire experience an absolute nightmare.

After beginning my education with GCU I discovered this university hires a majority of adjunct professors. Which means that these are other full-time working professional who are adjunct professors working part-time to make extra money. They are not full time faculty nor are they set up for tenure. Some times you will get a great teacher but most of the time these are people who have never taught in a traditional university setting before. I wish I had known what I was entering into with GCU before enrolling. If you are lucky enough to get a full time faculty professor they are GREAT and worth every penny. However, all of the adjunct professors are not worth half of what I am paying to attain my master's degree.

Do not go here. I got sucked in by the Admissions Officer/Sales Person and thought that it was a Christian University and that the learning/instruction would be better here even though it was pricey. I am a 4.0 student and my experience has been horrible. I am going back after 20 years and finishing my bachelors degree and after the fluff classes that I was told were required, not sure they were, I am now in my core classes. My first one is being taught by a woman who I do not believe is even 30 years old. (checked her linked in page) But..... she has her Masters!! Apparently that makes you magically able to be an instructor. She has taken points off for lack of citation, even though I gave a whole list, not using APA style, even though I downloaded and used the GCU template, for not separating my DQ support comments into 3 days. She's has not done anything to help even though I have begged. She has been rude and flippant! And now my GPA is down to a 3.77 which is unacceptable. For the money, you can do better elsewhere, and based on what I have read here, I should have done my home work. I got sucked in!

It's difficult to be too hard on GCU when their degrees are accredited and do actually help you get a job. That being said it was a very poorly run program from start to finish. I did a 100% online masters degree in special education that terminated in full licensure for my state. That is the only saving grace of the whole program. Licensure. But the degree is NOT respected by anyone in education at all. I know from experience just how looked down on GCU degrees are. I'm just grateful when I tell people I have my masters....very few ever ask from where. I think the biggest pain point with this degree was the complete and total lack of help or guidance with my practicum and student teaching. You finish your degree TOTALLY unprepared to teach at all. In my opinion, I shouldn't even have my degree with the lack of planning and help that was given to me. You had to go out into your local neighborhood and find schools that would let you do your practicum assignments. Which can be hard in special ed to ask total strangers to let you come in and work with their kids. All I had was a form for them to sign saying I had completed the tasks. They never talked to anyone at GCU, and if you couldn't find a school that let you do a particular practicum, GCU would just change it anyway to make it work. I live in Utah and teaching schools in Utah require hundreds and hundreds of hours of practicum and student teaching. When teachers I worked with found out how little I had done it was a running joke. Nobody could believe I could have got my license with as little as GCU has you do. And the worst part was that GCU doesn't communicate with any practicum schools and even with your student teaching school.....they barely communicate. My student teaching school was floored at how little communication there was. All I had were sheets for them to sign each week. My school even asked me what type of things I was supposed to be doing and who they could call. I had no idea. I was just told that the school would take me on as a student teacher. When I showed up nobody really knew what to do with me. As my student teaching progressed, the school got more and more frustrated and it was really uncomfortable. They were realizing before I did that GCU's teaching program was very poorly run. With GCU online you really have to do everything yourself. At the end of the day though, I did get a Masters in two years and became fully licensed to teach in Utah. For as crappy as their program is, for as much as I cringe when someone asks where I went to school, I'm a teacher.

I just started my pre-practicum for the Master of Science in Professional counseling. I will say that GCU as a whole has room for improvement. With technology there are bound to be technical difficulties. With that being said, I'd expect the professors to have the same level of empathy; however, some of the professors use English as a second language and have poor grammar when typing. Some of the curriculum contains typos along with unclear instructions to assignments. Some professors were extremely helpful. On the other hand, there were a handful of professors that were passive aggressive and defensive in the forums to myself and other students. At times I felt that the online instructors were not educated enough to be providing feedback, let alone use a basic online dashboard to interact with students. As a whole I would rate GCU at a 7 on a scale of 1-10. My field experience counselor has been more knowledgable than my actual advisor. My advisor is difficult to get a hold of and doesn't always respond in a timely manner. I found issues in my undergraduate degree at Eastern Washington University and that program was not online. All in all, I think we are bound to run into issues. I will say that the online program has been just as much of a commitment as an on campus program. Reviews are going to be based on personal experiences and interpretation. Not a horrible school though! It just needs some work.

I was hesitant at first, but my Advisor Ashley Sears has helped me every step of the way towards obtaining my Masters Degree. Even through grief, medical issues and late night 12hr shifts at work she was a phone call away to say," Let's take a break and regroup and come back to your courses." I have had a great experience with their online instructors. If I had a issue or any questions I could always send a message and get a quick response. I am in my final 8 weeks Practicum and I am so exited. I am working with my Field Advisor Cody Maiocco who continues to provide guidance. I highly recommend GCU!

Overall I enjoyed being a student at GCU. I was a student from 2011-2016, completing my MS in Professional Counseling, which is a program that has been discontinued and replaced with another program to meet the state deadlines. I completed 62 credits, however have to complete an additional 2 credits due to the fact that I did not complete the needed 700 total hours. I have to re-enroll in the program and take a course which is offered rarely in order to receive my degree and have my transcripts state degree conferred on it. Make sure you keep track of your hours so that at the end of the day you do not have to experience what I did. Now they also have a system so that the hours are electronic and won't have to be faxed or e-mailed in weekly which is a bonus. I would say overall I have made an effort to be a great student and I have put in work and time and dedication. The only thing that took me so long to graduate was the practicum. Finding a site proved to be difficult, so you have to make sure you start the process sooner. GCU does not assist with that at all. As a student it is your responsibility. It is difficult when you have the responsibility of working a full time job and have to take care of yourself, but you have find a site that is suitable for meeting your needs. Overall the employees of GCU do appear to care and the professors are accessible online or over the phone. I love my student advisor and love that I am able to speak to an actual person over the phone. She has been very helpful, though I have had several student advisors over the course of being in the program. All have been very helpful and knowledgeable. I would say apply and go for the program. The program does not appear to be very difficult, but you have to make sure assignments are completed on time and you can really flourish if you apply yourself! I would recommend the program overall and believe that it is worth the time, dedication and committment. I enjoyed the flexibility of this program and never had any issues. I found it very convenient.

Horrible school! Professors are terrible and complete morons who can't even open an attachement. Was an A student and my last professor [removed], is a complete retard who can't even open attachments and gave me a C+ in my capstone course. Tech support verified my assignments were complete and on time yet, my professor gave me two F's on assignements because he claimed I did not do them or he could not open them. When I contacted him and gave him the tech support information line he sent me an email that the course was closed and grades submitted. What a total douche! Never will recommend this school to anyone!

I graduated from GCU with my M.S. in Professional Counseling. The only reason I chose this program was because, at the time, it was the only online program that would lead to counseling licensure in my state. I had to continue to work full-time during my master's, and since my work schedule rotated, a brick-and-mortar school was not a possibility. I recall being shocked that most of my GCU cohort had graduated from high school, let alone college. Many students did not possess the most basic writing skills. Engaging in discussions online is difficult when half the class cannot communicate effectively in writing. And I am not talking about typos and some issues with grammar. I truly cannot believe these students passed a single college class, ever. Further, when it comes time to locate an internship, you are completely on your own, with no support from GCU. I almost thought I was going to have to leave the program, deeply in debt with no degree, because I had such a difficult time locating an internship, and I worked very hard trying to find one, contacting over seventy-five organizations. GCU does not mention this when they are taking your money. The program was so-so. I had some excellent instructors, but I did not feel prepared by the time I started my internship. Almost everything I learned was from my internship supervisor and colleges at the clinic where I (finally) ended up working. I realize there are many of you who have no choice but to continue working full-time while finishing your degree, like I did, so I know you will have to complete an online program, but please consider other options besides GCU first. If I were to re-do by master's, I would have gone elsewhere.

I have been attending GCU for almost a year in their online program. You have two people that assist you continuously through your study: your academic adviser and school counselor. In my experience, they both are pretty consistent in their availability and promptness in responding to any of my needs. Classes are through Loud Cloud, which is an easy program to use. The books are predominately an e-book that you get free through the class site, but those not covered are easily purchased as an e-book through online vendors (thank you Crtl+F for quick searches btw). To be brutally honest, some of my classmates have been clearly academically disadvantaged and are probably getting their grades at a steal... reading their posts hurt my feelings at times because I am producing college level work and theirs resembles a high school students challenged attempt at sentence structure and spelling. That being said, the course content is very strong and the class format has a higher focus on comprehension of the content rather than just a study and test format. Papers are required, but they are rather short (less than 2000 words) and geared at helping you show what you've learned. If you take the online program, you can guaranteed do well as long as you consistently meet deadlines and follow the grading rubrics. The teachers are very hit or miss, but I have had a couple that were awesome. Some professors were clearly just there to grade and post bogus responses though. I have been just ignoring the negatives and focusing on my own work and learning the subject. Hope this helps! :)

I am still currently in the RN-BSN program. I did not do my research and now I am stuck in this program. It is not like a traditional university where you can withdraw at the beginning.... but they don't tell you that. When you sign up you are signing a contract!!!! They do not care about you. They care about getting your money. I have had a terrible experience with my advisor. I told her how I work full time nights and to please to to call me after 3pm, yet she calls me every single day at 2pm. The only way to get communication across is to email them because then it is a legal document. The tech support has been great. They are polite and prompt and very helpful so kudos to them. As for everything else.... When I signed up for the program they were very misleading and told me the program was set up so that I could work and go to school. I definitely got more than I bargained for. This program has been nothing but stress and I had the opportunity to talk to some of my other classmates during our CLC group projects and they expressed the same thing. I truly believe there are better schools out there. Make sure you do your research and read the fine print before you sign because otherwise you will be surprised by all the stuff they didn't tell you upfront. Good luck.

I am about 1/2 way done with the online portion of the Masters in Counseling program. That being said I also hold an MBA, a teaching certificate and undergrad degree in finance. (I'm not stupid). This is the most frustrating program I've ever worked with. The other classmates seem to be on a different level- a much lower academic level. There is a huge amount of copying that goes on for weekly question posting. Once your answer is posted its free game for anyone to copy and re-word as their own work, there is no recourse. I am also well versed in APA format, some facilitators (I hesitate to call them professors) give full credit on APA while others will take off points for APA formatting. I've been using APA for over 10 years and my format certainly doesn't change from class to class. Some assignments are pointless, I am currently in PCN-515 and most weekly papers are personal essays yet these require references? I've had classes where weekly 'papers' are simply outlines and the entire class focuses on how to write a research paper outline, rough draft, final draft etc- in a graduate level program I would expect people to know how to assemble a 'paper'. No assignment has required more than 2000 words. Other classes have multiple powerpoints and not papers. I also realize this is a Christian University but I am not in the Christian counseling program, many of the classes have a strong religious overtone to them, which is off-putting to a secular person. Honestly- this program takes very little effort- less than 3 hours a week and I have over a 3.8 GPA. If I had to do this over again, I would pick a different online program.

I have been taking graduate courses for Healthcare Informatics at GCU for the last year or so, and have maintained a 3.9 GPA.... Thta seems like it may be changing though as GCU has an annoying habit of randomly assigning "Student Instructors" to these courses in order to save money. This is a problem because these are just students as well, and oftentimes do not fully grasp what they are supposed to be teaching, and end up trying to overcompensate for this by pretending to be a Road Scholar, or something. That is fine by me, but becomes a problem when you get one that is overly harsh in their grading of your work. I realize that a strict teacher is not something that can really be complained about, in fact it might be a good thing, but it IS a concern when they start taking points off of your work for little things that you KNOW you did correctly because they don't even know what they are talking about. Case in point, my current instructor is constantly riding me like Seabiscuit about my APA formatting, and references for projects, but she obviously has no clue about APA formatting herself, and seems to be just making it up as she goes along. I KNOW APA format like the back of my hand, but she finds something wrong in almost every sentence of every paragraph of my papers. So, I submit a solid 'A' paper, and when she finally gets around to grading it, I end up with a 'C-' because she is confused. Also, there does not appear to be any recourse for an online student to complain about an instructor available from GCU, and their mentality is basically, Oh Well, we got your money so tough luck. Maybe you should have thought of that before you enrolled. As well, you are almost ALWAYS directed to contact your Student Advisor about troubles with the school, but they are really just a switchboard to direct you to somewhere else, and after a while you get tired of being ping ponged back and forth by people who obviously do not care at all. The "system" (stretching that word) in place at GCU seems to have ZERO to do with helping you learn, and more to do with getting your tuition payments, and I am seriously considering dropping out now, even though I am only 3 courses from completion.. I have to warn anyone who is considering this institution to BEWARE, once they get your money, they no longer give a hoot about you!!

I completed RN-to-BSN in GCU. Currently. I am working on my MSN. My experience with GCU is very positive. The course materials are up-to-date and related to my work. If you make your efforts in reading all materials and completing all assignments, you will learn a lot. I am very happy to have the opportunity to recharge myself. What makes my learning experience even better is that my company pays 80% of my tuition.

The enrollment process was a nightmare. And then I was bounced between two different counselors who never told me the same thing. My professor was non-existent as he felt free to access YouTube videos were an acceptable substitution for teaching. Vague directions with specific expectations. Just not a positive support network. I stayed for one class and then left as quickly as I could. They charged me nearly $2,000 without applying financial aid for a non-education with an absent professor. Sounds fair, right?

Since internal review board (IRB) approvals for each student's capstone project have taken such a long time for GCU to complete - many students in the DNP program have been forced to take additional extension courses in order to initiate, complete, write-up, and submit their Capstone projects. Extension courses cost almost $2,000 each. Additionally, the program now requires DNP students to have their Capstone project reviewed and edited by a professional editor which costs another $3,000 to $5,000. The DNP students are further required to stipulate that their editors submit an affidavit to the school attesting to what they changed or recommended be changed. Many students are stress out and contemplating leaving the program as many believe GCU will never allow them to graduate. Students considering this DNP program should do their due diligence, they may never be allowed to graduate.

I had to take 3 courses in GCU to obtain my permanent license to practice since I wasn't trained in the US. I don't like online classes because I don't get half as much as I would attending an actual class. But I didn't have the time to go to a campus and this was more practical. The level of expectations from the teachers was very low - I could read the crap, non-sense, stupidity that most students would write and they would still get full points. No argument, proper reasoning and everyone sharing their own personal struggles to use as examples - who cares, this is not your personal therapy or space to vent! Not only that, a lot of times some students who were commenting just to get points and had no real clue about what they were writing, would basically repeat what I was saying in their comment - copy my ideas - and get full points. I don't know what kind of professionals these people will be but the intelligence/academic level of the students is VERY low and they still get the grades to pass. SO many times have I wanted to correct them or tell them off for copying my ideas, but I just had to bite my tongue. They are just dumb and some of their comments were just plain BS bla bla with no real content, bad writing skills (bad English as well), and no logic, and beneath any university-standard I have ever seen. Teachers in the 3 courses have been very nice, accessible and knowledgeable and admin in the university as well, very helpful and quick to reply each time. The actual content of the course is pretty complete and interesting. It's the type of students that bring the quality down. But if you make an effort and focus on yourself then it should be ok. The other day I met someone who was also enrolled in GCU with a different program who told me she felt the exact same way. I'm sorry to sound harsh but I wanted to be helpful to others by writing this review.

I graduated from GCU's online BSN program in 2014. My experience was great! It was very time consuming but I loved the shortened classes. I chose a different school for my MSN simply because I wanted a slower pace for a while. I am about to graduate with my MSN in education and will be returning to GCU for my DNP. I have found over the last few years that most of those who complain did not put 100% into the program. I had great instructors and my advisor was excellent. She was faithful to call me every 5 weeks and she also would change me out of a class to a different instructor if I wanted someone in particular. School is not easy and it is not a free ride. I spent upwards of 20 hours a week on school work during my BSN education but I learned so much. I know the DNP will not be easy and it may make me insane but I will dedicate as much time to it as is necessary to be successful. I recommend GCU. If you are having a hard time or don't have a great advisor, request another one. You are paying them so they work for you. Be sure and ask questions and make sure you understand the rules and regulations. This is adult education and we have to be responsible adults and own it.

I have been a student at GCU since the summer of 2015. With any school, it has its positives and negatives. I have two bachelors and two masters from different schools. At any rate, the campus is absolutely beautiful. I'm sorry that many of have not had a good experience with school; however, I have had just the opposite. The professors are like professors at any other school I've attended, the positive and the so-so. I have not come across any professors who wasn't there to answer my questions when needed. I have participated in 8 classes and 1 residency. I've learned a lot and all the classes are coming together to where I better understand what I'm shooting for in the program. Some of the material is slightly dated; however, we are research students and researching is paramount to our success in the program and completing our dissertation. The curriculum is spelled out and it's not difficult to understand, at least for me. There are two discussion questions, the first one is due no later than Saturday at 11:59pm (Phoenix time) and the second one is due no later than Monday at 11:59pm (Phoenix time). Three responses are due to fellow students and/or to the professors' questions on three separate days. I do not understand how confusing that process could be. Normally, the initial question response and response to either the professor or other students is between 150 - 250 word count with at least one reference and in-text citation. Again not difficult to understand. All documents state this school uses APA format and again, this is something that a student should have learned in high school, if not during their bachelors' program, especially if they had to write papers. Even with my most difficult class (Statistics), the professor provided great help and I pulled an A out of the class. I am not a numbers person. The professor provided his personal phone number and email for any of us who needed extra help. and boy did I need extra help. To be honest, when we enter college life, we should not expect a babysitter because professors are not there a day camp. Loud Cloud appears to be stable and since starting last year, I have run into only two problems. One were Turnitin was down nation-wide for a day or two; however, we were kept up to date of the process. And the second were, my assignments would not attach but we came up with a work-around to ensure our assignments was submitted in a timely manner. I cannot speak on student loans that some many others have spoken about because I have not used it; though, I was told that it was a requirement to submit the FALSA (or however that's abbreviated) paperwork even though I told them I wouldn't be using student loans. I have been paying every month out of pocket and hope at the end, the government will not chase me down to repay something I never used. I supposed I had better verify with my student advisor.

I completed my BSN at Grand Canyon University this spring and entered directly into the Master's Program. If one attended the RN to BSN program prior to the Master's Degree program the Master's Degree program is much easier. The technology is great (major MSN with emphasis in healthcare informatics). There is some vagueness in curriculum, however, having taken other online courses this curriculum rates a 10 compared to what is out there. Questions are answered promptly and, for the most part, office hours of the instructors are reasonable. Some instructors provide better ancillary instructions for assignments than others do. The enrollment counselor and advisors are superb. The school tuition is prohibitively expensive. There are ample resources and instruction provided for any student who possesses a good mastery of English and wishes to succeed. Ample free tutoring is available for English as a second language students however, there are those who do not qualify or belong in the programs trying to make it through without legitimately doing the work. GCU has taken steps to address this issue.

The RN to BSN program is pretty good for the most part. The instructors are pretty much hit and miss. Some of them are great and some of them are awful. They are either very easy and don't care about APA format or very strict and deduct for every little thing. There is no in between. The Capstone program has been an absolute nightmare so far. The instructor I have refuses to teach me. This is the last course I have in order to graduate. If you ask her a question she screams at you in all caps. It has been an absolute disaster. She has totally ruined the whole graduate program for me. I have hated every minute of this capstone experience. I sincerely hope they get rid of her. I have never had such a bad teacher. It is a shame someone gets paid to be this bad!

To obtain a college degree, any college degree, you have to want it. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to attain the level of knowledge that is associated with a college degree. The level of instructors is no better or worse here than at ASU, UCLA, or USC where I have obtained other degrees. That isn't the problem that I have with GCU. My issue lies in the competency of other students with whom I must converse via the online classroom. There are some students who are barely literate, let alone the caliber of student that should be required prior to admittance to a university. While my success or failure does not depend upon my fellow students on a routine basis, there are occasions when we must enter the Collaborative Learning environment. What a JOKE! On all but one occasion, I have written the majority, once the entirety, of the project while my team mates accepted the "A" grade. In one instance, four team members had worked fairly successfully together for the week. On the last day, the fifth team member took the finished product and submitted it as his own. I filed a complaint with the instructor, but I never got resolution on the matter. This is my biggest challenge with the university. I believe it is unnecessary to require people who have never seen each other, who are often employed full-time and have vastly different schedules and availability, to work together to create a cohesive, truly collaborative end product. GCU is no better or worse than any other institution with regard to finances and response from representatives. College is expensive. College should be challenging and the level of literacy and intelligence should rise accordingly. Students who can't form a complete sentence should not be enrolled in a university. They should attend a community college where they can get remedial help before moving on to attain a college degree. In closing, GCU is a good school with excellent programs and adequate instruction. Entrance exams should be mandatory however.

Grand Canyon's DBA program is fairly new. I have been in the program 3 years now and have entered by dissertation phase. I do not believe I will complete my dissertation by the end of the dissertation courses and fully expect to use at least 2 or 3 extension courses. I have heard of people needing 5 + extension courses to finish in the program. The course part of the program is very soft skills heavy. There is not enough emphasis on accounting, finance, etc and too much on strategy, HR and such. What I liked: 1. The coursework was generally pretty interesting. 2. A few of the instructors were top notch and fully engaged. 3. The online classroom and resources seem pretty bullet proof. I can only think of one time that I could not log in during my three years in the program and it was resolved within a couple hours. 4. I like the idea of the residencies - however see my comments in don't likes. The residencies were great for networking with other students and honestly the other students were more helpful than the instructors. Feedback from instructors at the residencies was often contradictory. What I did not like: 1. 2/3 of the instructors are useless. They provide little useful feedback and are typically slow to respond if at all. 2. In the program, they state that you are working on your dissertation from day 1. However once I got to the true dissertation phase that was rubbish. What I thought I had was not fit for purpose or even truly useful. I more or less had to rip it up and start from scratch. 3. The residencies are disorganized and for the most part very little information is imparted to the students. They main problem is the student to instructor ratio. There are just too many students in each class during the residency and each student is working on a unique research proposal. Generally speaking the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the loudest student gets the most attention. I would have gotten more value from a solid 4 hours with an adviser one on one than a week at a residency. 4. No breaks in the program except for Christmas. It is a marathon that never ends. Classes are 2 months long and the day one class ends the new one starts the next day. It is exhausting. I would prefer a couple week break between classes even if that meant graduating later. 5. My dissertation adviser is new to GCU and has not a clue. Additionally as I mentioned before I had to pretty much start over from scratch. My adviser tries hard but just does not have the experience needed to support my needs in the program. My final verdict is that the program is average. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone but I would not try to talk someone out of it either.

I may be wrong about all of this but online educators seem to get meaner at you progress through the program at GCU, especially those in the Capstone courses (DNP 955, DNP 960, DNP 965). I am beginning to wonder if they really want us to even graduate since so much minutia is required to moved forward. The program chair is particularly abrasive toward students. She has both a PhD and DNP but her arrogance toward students seeking the DNP is unbridled. I have been at GCU for many years and have been successful with several nursing degrees there (MSN, FNP, etc), however, there seems to be a cloud of animosity that nursing educators, retained by GCU, have toward to students. I believe much of that comes from the program chair. The Chinese say, "the fish stinks from the head down." I do not currently believe that I can or will graduate from the DNP program, although I've made almost a 4.0 average in the program. Of course, I will continue to strive ahead to meet the demands of the program. I've never failed at anything - but this may be a first. If you are planning to do the DNP at GCU - ask some hard questions first. How many DNP have they graduated? While this is a relatively new program, I know they have graduated one crop already - many of which are used as on-site educators. Honestly, I'm not a complainer - I understand how life goes, but I'm very concerned about the current DNP program chair at GCU and the contract educators that she uses. Regardless, I wish everyone the best ever as they seek out a DNP to move their career forward. Regard,,,,,,,,,,,Anonymous

I completed the RN to BSN program in December 2015 and my experience with GCU was phenomenal! Everyone from the enrollment councilor to my last instructor was everything I thought it would be. The course work is all laid out for the entire course and it was all very well organized. It was a lot of work and required you to put in the time, but the end result was worth it. The best part was that all of the course work was applicable to the practice of nursing. If you are an ADN RN looking to earn your BSN I highly recommend GCU.

My experience at GCU was excellent. From my initial counselor who enrolled me, to my final experiences on campus for graduation, I recommend this school. My initial counselor provided his cellphone number, and it was very easy to contact him and he always returned my calls quickly. I had no problems with classes, as once one was finished the next in line would show on my portal. My professors more often than not held doctorates, and were generally very helpful and communicative. I did not care for one professor's style, but that is bound to happen and does not reflect on the University as a whole. The classes were challenging and I was required to do a ton of research papers. The other people in my classes were very professional and a joy to do projects with. Never at any time did I have any type of financial discrepancy with GCU. However, I have seen many people on this particular review site whine and complain about things that were their own responsibility to take care of, not GCU's. They blame GCU for not being accredited, or they blame GCU because their degree did not lead to certification/licensure. Really? The blame lies solely with them for not verifying these things up front. With anything in life, do your research and make an effort to get a positive outcome. Be proactive, not reactive. I am glad I did!

I have read a few negative reviews about GCU and that may be their experience but it is not mine. I have attended the Bus Adm. program online for 3 years now and I absolutely love it for the most part. I have gained a wealth of knowledge that I can use in the corporate world. There is a ton of work and some of the assignments are very challenging so you really have to work hard in order to be successful. If you do not have any experience in classes like accounting or marketing, I would suggest getting a tutor because they can be really hard. I am excited because in 8 more weeks I will receive my BS in Bus Adm. and I have a 3.0 GPA. Since I have attend GCU I have had maybe 3-4 Advisors but for the past 2 years, I have had the same one and she is very helpful and she always return phone call. One time I had to call the top person over the program that I am in and I received an immediate phone call back and my problem was resolved. In order to be successful at GCU or any online school you have to stay on top of your work and put forth a lot of effort but in the end, it is truly worth it. I will say that they can afford to charge less for the classes because I think they are to high. Yes, you may come across an instructor that is not so good but that happens at any university. What I would say if that happens, stay in touch with your Advisor or someone higher and keep notes of the issue, I did and it worked to my advantage. GCU has one of the best online setups and I would not change that at all.

I AM JUST ONE WEEK SHY OF OBTAINING MY msn from GCU. I have had a very good experience with the school in general, it is true that I went through a few lecturers who were awful but I also had lots of very good instructors . If you are disciplined, hard working and ready to study, GCU is a right fit for you. I will not hesitate in recommending this school to anyone. I was an online student with a bachelors degree from a different country, it is true that they will not spoon feed you but of course am used to not being spoon fed, therefore I have worked so hard to succeed and I will finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in a week's time.

Grand Canyon University does not require any sort of testing before being accepted into the M.S. in Professional Counseling program, and unfortunately, this shows in the quality of the many of my classmates. Some classmates are not able to form coherent sentences. Most are barely able to write at a high school level. The quality of the instruction is lacking in most cases as well. There have been times when I, and other students, have asked for feedback and the instructor is unwilling (or perhaps unable) to provide any insight into the topic. Other instructors have been so awful, I've lost my interest in learning in those classes. I've felt like I was alone. I am basically teaching myself and learning from textbooks. I listen to my coworkers talk about their counseling program classes, and I am envious. They're actually learning how to do counseling. I feel like I'm learning how to fake my way through it. If I were an employer, I would require some serious intelligence testing before I hire anyone with a GCU degree, simply because the program does not actually teach, but still passes out counseling degrees. It is not surprising then that GCU is not CACREP accredited.

If you do not know what it means to pull they wool over someone's eye's, well then let me introduce you to GCU. AT first the state that they will do what it takes in making sure that all your credits are transformed over and that they will assist you in making the correct chose when attending GCU. Well the only thing they did was to pull me in to the school and about half way in turn around and tell me that the credits that I had would not be transferred over. When asked why it was that they did not meet their standards and that there was nothing anyone could do about. The Christian values that they announce and stand behind are not for them, but more of a line that is used to attract students. This school was all about money, money and more money. The instructors for the most part know how to read off a book and some do have experience but not in the field I needed. Most of their material was obtained from FEMA web-sites or other free sites that anyone can get at no cost, but GCU makes sure that they will charge you. My advice to students is make sure you research the school not once or twice but three times and have someone there with you so that they can bring you back down to earth when they try to paint a pretty picture. The values that GCU has are none, I would be a shamed if I were them to say Christian views and values.

Really not what I thought it was gonna be. Lots of silly deadlines, group work sucks the most, and you all get graded for whatever free loader or should I say free loaders that fail to do their part. I am 45 years old A honor student even in nursing school so yeah I have no problem putting out the effort, but this school is terrible. Price is also very expensive, I was being told something different from my financial adviser when I found out I had been charged 4,000 more worth of student loans than I was made aware of. Honestly I would look into UTA they have one of the best ADN to BSN programs around.

Would not reconmend! Much like the majority on here have previously said, this school is just in it for your money. I was originally instructed to apply for a grant and was approved up until my first class ended. Then they continously called asking for $800 to pay for my "books" that I used in my online class and that I would have to continue to pay for the classes because somehow my "grant" readjusted itself and was denied last minute. Then, when I asked for my full course schedule, they kept running me in circles, telling me to check the website when I demanded to see my personal schedule. They were attempting to sign me up for fluff courses explaining it was all mandatory but yet I saw it nowhere on their website. Everything feels so insincere and it became clear to me this was a scam. Even now I have fully withdrawn from the school and they still try contacting me to see if I want to continue my degree. No thank you! Be honest up front and definitely don't tie religion into your lies. They should be ashamed..

Everything was going well. I spent four months communicating with my contact at Grand Canyon University (GCU). I thought that I had asked every question imaginable. Once I made my first post as an online student, suddenly a wealth of information was provided. Much of the information would have influenced my decision to attend a different college. My biggest complaint is being lied to by the people at GCU. I started recording my phone conversations with GCU. It is only fair because they record all of the conversations that I have with them. As far as I can tell, I am within my legal rights as a first-person member of the conversation to record the conversations. I have caught them in several lies. I do not get myself involved with litigation, so these recordings are merely for my benefit. It took several months before I could get someone to admit the “mistake” that has cost me about $18,000. I could have stopped attending this university and gone somewhere else, but I had spent a great deal of time convincing the VA to pay for my classes and filling out paperwork. I am not sure that the VA would have continued to pay for a different school. I will never be proud enough to hang my diploma on the wall. I will be obtaining my master’s degree from somewhere else. This time, I will be sure to let the person know that I will be recording the conversation.

I am at the end of the first class that Grand Canyon University, said I must take and pay for. But, the degree I wanted was social work and I was told I could take the social work class, but I had to find somewhere to get the hours I needed as volunteer services which was 400 hours. I called the board for social services in my area and found out that GCU is not accredited for social work. So when I contacted my student adviser. She told me that the degree does not lead to a license. Of course I asked her what was the degree valid for if I can not get a license. This was something I truly wanted to do. To help many in the community who are less fortunate. Now, they are telling me that I will have to pay for three classes even though I have not taken nothing but one class. So, now I am stuck at their school that lied to me about having a relevant social worker program. I am so disappointed and I believe that this type of fraud to students who are receiving student loans that are guarantied by the US government should be looked into. They should not be able to commit fraud at their leisure.

I am in my third class in the RN-BSN program. I really enjoyed my first instructor but this last one has been a mess. She is very vague on assignments on exactly what she is looking for and takes off points for everything. I really try hard to make A's on my papers and she will demerit you to death. A lot of the problem is really her lack of clear instructions. Also, the group assignments are awful. So many people don't really care about them and they expect everyone else to carry their load. It really makes it hard to make a decent grade on them. I don't understand when they give you the end of course survey and you honestly tell them this stuff, nothing seems to change. It is still a mess on the next course. I am really not too happy with my experience so far. I will continue on but it has not been a very encouraging environment.

Let me start by saying this is part review and part frustrated vent. But please think twice before starting a Master's program here. My experience so far has been fine as far as the teachers, staff and curriculum. I have many years in the behavioral health field but need the Masters to get to the next level. I'm truly enjoying what I'm learning and have good experiences with my profs and their teaching. What is really starting to leave me utterly disappointed is the quality of students in my online classes. The majority of the discussion posts are written by students who cannot write complete sentences or critically think. Almost weekly 90% of my class doesn't read the instructions on what the discussion posts are about. Assignments are turned in that completely leave out the answer to the very specific question by the professor. They either don't answer the question at all, they don't cite their work, they call five sentences a solid post or they tell each other,"GREAT POST!" when the work is clearly below high school level. I just find it incredible that this is a Master's level class with the academic work being produced from students that are in these classes. They don't know how to comprehend the work or write at the graduate level. And like another reviewer wrote...it's the same people in every class! It's sad really, I'm paying a lot of money and spending all my time on these classes...which I should...only to feel like there's not a University level quality among the students. I'm getting A's so I know I'm doing something right, but my patience is wearing thin for what should be an vigorous academic environment and just isn't coming close to what I thought a Master's Degree would be like. If you're looking for an on-line masters program consider yourself warned.

The platform they use for their online classes is horrible. You cannot tell what needs done and when - a due date for a discussion post versus when comments are due. The syllabus stinks. You have to go the student handbook for late policies and finding numbers for IT help is like wandering down a labyrinth. I wanted to talk with my program director and was told I could only talk with my adviser. The assignments are poorly written, the syllabus had typos. Stay away!!!

In short I have never seen a more unethical University . I was billed for fees that I was not advised of and registered for a class without my knowledge or consent. I have complaints filled with both the BBB and Arizona Attorney General's office . I only wish I had done a google search I would never gone near GCU

Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY from Gran Canyon. First off, they have about 300 potential students (mostly Seniors in High School) assigned to what they call an Admissions Representative. This person is actually a COMMISSIONED SALES REPRESENTATIVE assigned to a region of the US. They are very difficult to reach and difficult to get answers from. You find out very soon that everything goes through them - I MEAN EVERYTHING! You cannot contact anyone at the University for real, only your representative. If you want to talk to someone at GCU, you have to wait until your representative gets you an answer (in our case it was sometimes weeks). We missed a deadline and were not told by our Rep that there was a fee associated with it. When our child decided not to go to GCU, and told them we were unaware of any fee, we were repeatedly billed for the fee. They would not cancel the fee regardless of our struggling financial circumstances. We also found out that the school has a pretty low reputation across the board and yet the tuition and fees for GCU are among the highest for a Christian school in the nation. Overall, the lasting impression is that this is a BUSINESS first and NOT a ministry. They are not interested in helping mid to lower income families get a degree at a Christian University - they are mostly interested in making money, building their facilities so they can compete with Liberty University (which is very similar by the way). There is no financial assistance for those in need of help, no compassionate response to those who cannot pay their exorbitant tuition, and no access to department heads, faculty, staff, student information representatives for parents who want direct answers to questions in a timely manner. It's kind of like the whole goal is to get your kids signed up for a program, get them to sign a contract (PLEASE DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING!), and then gouge you for fees if your child withdraws or decides not to attend. Advice: Send your kid to a junior/community college the first two years and then let them finish at a reputable university so they have a degree that is worth something! This will save them about half of the total cost of a college degree! Be advised, the directors who run GCU are hard core businessmen, living lavish lifestyles, building their financial base, and living large under the covering of a "Christian University". That's not right! As Christians, we are supposed to help those in need, provide assistance to those seeking education, making Christian Education accessible to everyone, not just wealthy parents who want to send their kids to a "Christian" baby-sitting school with bed checks and separate dorms so nothing bad can happen. WAKE UP PARENTS, get smart and skip GCU!

DNP Instructors mostly over committed adjunct faculty mostly from other institutions; as with many institutions (some with high ratings) these faculty in quality vary considerably Syllabi woefully poorly written especially discussion questions and have not been routinely updated throughout; it appears because they are seeking AACN accreditation for their DNP program that they do not want to draw attention right now to this problem. Typhon is not intuitive and poorly organized and explained despite several references or documents trying to explain it. When this program is advertised and listed as Self-Learning...believe it!!! An online fast paced self-learning format is not for everyone. GCU should certainly stick to the Post-MSN with an APRN certification for this program consisting of 12 eight-week courses.

I am a new student to Grand Canyon University. After taking two classes and passing both with an A I can say I would enroll all over again. There is a lot of work and research that goes into being an online student. One must be disciplined and dedicated. I will be graduating in 2019 and plan on obtaining my Masters Degree as well.

I am an online student at Grand Canyon University. Advisor Derek Harada is wonderful. Professor Sheia Dwyer is wonderful. Love Grand Canyon U. I am an online student in the Master of Science in Professional Counseling program at Grand Canyon University. My enrollment advisor, Derek Harada, is a wonderful enrollment advisor who gives me a phone call every week to see how I am doing in my online class. My professor, Sheia Dwyer, gave me a phone call because she was concerned that I wouldn't successfully pass the online class. Professor Sheia Dwyer is very responsive and asks thought-provoking questions during the class. This is the final week of my online class, and I am sad that the class is coming to an end. My experience as an online student at Grand Canyon University has been very positive and wonderful. I highly recommend Grand Canyon University.

If you're considering this degree program, there are several things to consider: 1) If you want a government job in counseling, don't go here. The university is not CACREP accredited and the VA requires this. Unfortunately, no adviser told me this initially. 2)Very solid curriculum. I am licensed and working in the field but please see point #1. 3) Internships are required and must meet your own State licensing requirements in the end, though you can meet the State of Arizona's to get the degree. It's a great program for people working in the field who have a network in place and have a place lined up to intern or 'real' options lined up. The internship is the student's responsibility entirely. 4)Like most colleges, GCU is a for profit institution and the online programs are a 'cash cow'. As you can tell by other reviews, they will gladly take your money if you decide to drop out or not attend after classes have started. You better be a responsible individual to do the program and don't complain about not reading their refund policies. 5) IMPORTANT - I measured their curriculum against my peers in the field and GCU is solid. Spoke to two librarian friends at major universities (U of Michigan, U. of North Carolina) and GCU has exceptional library resources. They give you most tools to be successful but the lack of CACREP accreditation is problematic. You will be prepared for your State licensing exam coming out of here if you do the work but if you are planning to work for the Federal Government, go some place else. I imagine it is just a matter of time before individual states start following the Fed's lead, so beware. Hope this helps. I had a great experience here but trying to keep it real for potential students who may not be aware of Federal licensing standards.

During the first full week of online classes, I tried to drop my online class and withdraw from Grand Canyon University. I was told that if I dropped my class, that I would have to pay off a 1,495 dollar balance within 3 months. Most real colleges/universities allow you to drop a class within the first 2 weeks without penalty.... Now, I am stuck and have to take this online class, even though I have significant health problems....The Grand Canyon University Policy Handbook states that students are entitled to a 75% tuition refund during Week 1. However, Grand Canyon University is threatening me, telling me that if I don't pay my balance of 1,495 dollars within 3 months, my case will go to collections

I highly recommend not going into debt getting a degree from GCU and here is why. I am a foreign educated Elementary school teacher who was required to have an American degree to teach in my state. I hold multiple bachelor degrees from another country and have taught as a teacher there for 9 years. At the time I chose GCU because they were accredited and were available for online education. I was convinced by the financial counselors there that the cost of the student loans would be able to be paid back because of the teaching salaries I would earn. I was told that because I had foreign degrees that were accredited, I could achieve an American degree in 3 years instead of 4. The truth was that even though I was a student that achieved a 3.8 GPA, it still took 4 years, the student loan kept piling up to the tune of almost 50K. I constantly found my professors far from adequate to teach these courses and my experiences with GCU staff were horrible. It required intervention many times through the years by the Dean to get continuing messes they caused cleaned up. Although I have great American references from my student teaching and a good GPA it has been over two years with no job opportunities. Lots of substitute jobs which don't pay the bills. I have excellent reviews by teachers and students and their parents but no prospects for a classroom of my own. It seems that in this field it is so political and that nepotism is running rampant. My loan interests have risen beyond the point of no return. None of these issues in this field were ever brought up by GCU. They had an extremely hard time finding a school to take me in as a student teacher as most schools were looking for student teachers from more well-known universities. Bottom line is GCU Degrees in Elementary education are not the ones you want to present to a future school for a job. They are not well looked at unless you want a charter school or work in a risky area where they are desperate to keep teachers. Save your money and look for a better institution to spend the next 4 years at. These are my opinions but this mistake will affect me the rest of my life and the debt will stay with me past retirement. You need to consider all the facts from all sources before you make these types of decisions.

Gaining internship is very difficult to impossible. There are too many counseling students per internships. I live out of state and the places I have tried to acquire an internship told me the school needs to first inquire for their students. The schools in this state set up the chance for the students. Now I have completed all my bookwork and received a 3.1 GPA and cannot find a place to work towards an internship. University doesn't seem to care and if they care too much they no longer work for the university. I owe all this money for schooling and do not a place to complete an internship. Be careful when you go to this school if you are looking for a counselor's.

What a great experience! Approximately 44% of students starting a bachelor's or master's degree will not finish! That is a sad fact! It requires great effort, study and commitment to complete a degree program. Unfortunately, those who do not see it through need to vent. They use this website as an outlet for their frustrations. If you take the time to view many of the colleges' reviews (regardless of which college or university you choose), you will see that almost half are negative reviews. This is in line with the 44% failure/drop out rate I was talking about earlier. GCU is no different. My experience has been wonderful. I was an online student that finished a master's in education. Immediately I saw my pay increase over $10,000 annually. Many of the frustrated individuals that could not hack the requirements and want to blame the university for their failures don't seem to understand that GCU is a respected regionally accredited university that provides an excellent education. Had they 'stuck it out' they would have realized that.

You will never get into any graduate school in any sort of a traditional degree like English, Sociology, History, or Anthropology because you don’t learn the same things at GCU that the students are apparently studying at the regular schools. So your only option is to get your Master’s degree from GCU too or go to University Of Phoenix or Walden or one of the online schools to get one of their degrees and then hope you can get a job teaching at one of the online schools because regular colleges are never going to hire you to teach at a regular college with a degree from GCU or University Of Phoenix. So just hope that University Of Phoenix and GCU floods the market with so many graduates that finally someone will let you into graduate school. Even if the other schools would let you in they would probably realize you don’t know anything pretty quickly then kick you out. The employees constantly change at GCU and the “professors” are not permanent and you end up dealing with a bunch of GCU graduates as your teachers and they work for GCU too, so that is how you get your degree. Forget going to conferences and stuff like that – it isn’t happening. It is basically like a giant University Of Phoenix thing with Christianity and cheerleaders mixed in so that it appeals to parents and kids who have tens of thousands of dollars to throw away on a sort of fake degree.

The BSN degree program suffers from multiple weaknesses. Below are some of the sophomoric behaviors of these instructors: -Instructors deduct significant points for exceeding word count with no notice. -Students are forced to work in groups where the other group members drop out without notice or warning and being responsible for the missing work. -The "spirituality" class which is a thinly disguised Christian fundamentalist xenophobic oratory. -Teaching assistants making corrections on style supposedly to the APA- in opposition to what the APA blog specifically clarifies as the proper method (this writer has an MA in English Literature, and degrees in 2 other subjects as well) -Reading assignments are often egregiously overloaded, obvious attempts to cover the reported curriculum and not actually addressing the issues. -Disrespect by a number of the instructors to working, experienced, intelligent, well established RNs, which goes against the very issues concerning validation of nurses' experience and value as addressed in the courses. -Obvious errors supposedly covered by "that was a mistake you were supposed to find"- rather questionable, given the experience If you use this program, you will learn about the issues covered. But if you put true effort and spirit into the course, you will have a lot of frustrations. Be advised to look at GCUs settled litigations, (misrepresentation of job placement- federal fines of $5M), and other issues which may be found by "Googling" 'GCU complaints' or 'GCU instructor problems'. If you want a quick (though intense) course, then this fits that category, but I will not be pursuing my MSN here, nor do I recommend this program for a decent overall learning experience. Good luck, don't let them push you around (funny how the worst of the instructors list 'anti-bullying' as one of their foci) and caveat emptor, and spread the word- together, we can combat these disgraceful institutions. Oh, and by the way, to those who might thing this is “sour grapes”: I have a 4.0 average- strong 4.0. This review is for fair warning based on many years of real life expectancy of educational programs. -k

This University is 100% about money and doing whatever it takes to get your money in their pockets. One of their enrollment counselors visited my school and completely lied about the cost of tuition for a degree. I enrolled at the school and was about to begin classes when I read over some fine print that the counselor had glossed over and discovered that I didn't actually qualify for a grant he has promised me and guaranteed me I would qualify for. This doubled the cost of tuition and I was so outraged that I called his boss to report this. She didn't seem bothered at all that he had directly lied to me. Needless to say I dropped out as fast as possible and began attending a real school where counselors were very honest and helpful instead of salesmen trying to close a deal. Also, you will never ever be able to reach you student service adviser. I called this person often and she never answered the phone or returned any of my messages.

I am at the tail end of my Bachelors degree at Grand Canyon University. I have been an online student the whole time. I have had a very good experience. I have had conscientious advisors who have responsible directed me in the student loan department. I have not been encouraged to borrow all I can. They have worked with me to make wise decisions all along. The classes have been decent and worthy. Yet, I admit there are some classes I would have preferred not to take but I would probably say that at any University. Since I have been on the Den's List this whole time I have been here, I can not really give any information on tutoring services. I have passed each class with either an A or B. The Instructors are great and will generally work with anyone wiling to apply themselves. I had health issues that forced me to take a couple months off and I got alot of support. I have never been made to feel like a number. It is apparent that there is general care about my success at GCU, what more can anyone ask? I was told that my review would not be excepted if I scored GCU a ten so I was forced to lie to give it a smaller rating. I believe that GCU is worth a ten star rating. Name one perfect school! In my opinion Grand Canyon is darn close.

I have just completed my studies in Secondary Education leading to certification here in New York in February of 2015. I am starting my student teaching in the fall. I have read the some of the reviews posted on this site about GCU. I must say I have experienced none of these bad experiences over my course of study. All of the counselors and instructors went out of their way to insure that I understand the required for each of my classes and they helped me with all of my concerns. Over the year I have been there, I have never had a dispute that was not address and taken care of. I must say that on some occasions my professors were late getting back to me on issues with my class but they always text or email me on the classroom board or on my personal email. My experience was great and the staff was very very helpful. Cons, Would be that the DQs were not very clare but the professors were very good at posting add-on to the syllabus to insure we understand what was to be done. I would strongly recommend GCU to teachers if they are willing to put in the time required to complete the course. The classes were very very challenging. You will have lots of deadlines and group work that must be completed on-time. Great School GCU!

Most of the good reviews here come from undergrad and ground students and Masters. I'm an online student which is why I gave them a 3 in technology. To the student who rated GCU and has not attended yet, why are you on the board talking about the students who did go. I attended GCU last year for a year. I recently left and decided to go to another school that I was accepted at. I see the reviews have gotten a lot worse since I read these reviews last year when I was looking for a school. I was a doctoral leadership student I left with a 3.6 grade point average. I worked for that 3.6. The professors are constantly rude and don't know what they are doing. They don't reply to discussion in 24 hours. They are rude to their students online. One professor said the dean was telling them to stop giving out A's if the students can't write the paper should have no errors. Most of the professors don't know APA. The professors don't go by the rubric a and barely read the assignments and papers. My advisor told me that the financial aid paid for the residencies, which is not true, a residency will cost at least 3,000 dollars. They say they are the cheapest but they aren't. They don't have scholarships and my advisor told me they are told to push the loans and not even talk about outside help the student could get. Also your advisor is your financial aid officer and your academic advisor. The school I'm transferring to already gave me 5,000 dollars in scholarship money. They prefer loans to cash because they can ring up the bill, young students don't pay attention. They tried to put a charge on my account after I withdrew. I called the federal financial aid and told my advisor what the federal financial aid said in an email. Guess what they dropped the charge and my account cleared for a Christian school looks like I have god on my side.

I find the online learning system to be a bit buggy here and there, but overall it works pretty well. I found out that they are building it in-house, which is providing a live learning environment for tech student as well as an end-user product. I, quite frankly, was shocked by the bad reviews. I have completed two other online degrees, and there was nowhere near the level of difficulty or attention to detail paid to my papers. My current instructor has been late getting each grade submitted, but based on the detailed notes, feedback, and correction that she includes within the papers, I'm not going to mention it to anyone. After four years at my other school, I never one time feel that anyone actually read through a single paper that I submitted as I never received such a high level of constructive criticism. My instructor checked every citation and reference as well as providing comments on how I could improve my content, or a call out where I provided a good section. My first instructor didn't provide quite this level of detail, but it was apparent that she read the papers. I too noticed poor writing skills in the initial course, but my second course is much smaller, and I think that some folks were not able to proceed. I have had to work hard to meet the expectations of my instructors - harder, honestly, than I initially expected, and to call this a degree mill is an insult to those of us working to succeed in the programs. My adviser checked up on me every week during my initial course, they had a couple of issues that I had to work out - extra documentation and the like, but overall, admissions, enrollment, registration, and now attendance have been smooth. My adviser now checks on me only at the beginning of each course, and that's more than other school has ever done for me. I do think that there is a bit of turnaround in the admissions and enrollment areas as they have students working a lot of these positions, and they may have to leave to focus on studies, or perhaps they have graduated. It's understandable to me. My adviser does seem a little amped-up sometimes, though, so I will be approaching him with questions to at least put my mind at ease based on what I've read here. I hate that others seem to have had a bad experience, but I am writing about what has, to date, been positive to try to counter that a bit.

I started my degree back in June. It took a lot of work on my end but the support I received to get into GCU was wonderful. There is a lot of work that goes into getting any degree. I am learning so much about different techniques to use in a classroom. The instructors do a really great job with feedback and taking students through assignments that can be confusing. If you are looking for an easy way to get a degree this is not the program for you.

50% good instructors and 50% incredibly awful instructors in the nursing program. The marketing department at Grand Canyon University is exceptional and has managed to give the nursing, and all other programs, a remarkable reputation. In this case, it is undeserved. The clinical placement people did an amazing job getting students clinical experiences in the local hospitals and great hands-on experiences. Some professors really cared and went out of their way to help students while others were collecting paychecks and couldn't have cared less. They were condescending and unhelpful and hostile when challenged. I graduated with honors from the program this past year and am especially proud of that accomplishment because there was very little support or help from half of the instructors. The good ones -- and you know who you are -- deserve medals for working in that environment. It's expensive and time-consuming for all involved. I understand all programs have their areas where improvements may be implemented, but this program could use them at almost every level. The Dean of Nursing appeared to be too busy having meetings, luncheons, and her photograph taken to supervise her personnel. Very disappointing.

Decided I decided I wanted to be a nurse after having been in education for 12 years. Went to a cc and then decided on GCU for the BSN bc of cost and convenience. RUN RUN RUN. My first class was an absolute joke. There were others that did not do what is required in posts and yet got all the points. Good for them for not having to work and get an A. Then my second class came. For week 1 the instructor did not use the same grading criteria that had been provided. I informed her that her criteria was different. Her response, "Your paper is graded. What do you want?" I informed my advisor and sent screen shots. She tells me the class will be audited to ensure instructor is professional and doing what is necessary. Week 3 she again grades with a different rubric, in fact it was the rubric for the next weeks assignment. I get 70% which is failing in nursing bc passing is 76%. The issue had not even been addressed and I seriously wonder how I even got 70% bc the entire paper was graded with a rubric for an assignment not even remotely related to the writing prompt. I have attended and graduated from ASU with honors. I am proud of this. A degree from GCU is worthless and will be seen as such by others. I am eating the cost of GCU and have enrolled at ASU.

I had nothing but a wonderful online experience! First, before even starting, find out if your State recognizes GCU for your increase in pay for a masters degree if you are a teacher. I did. While attending in 2005 and 2006 I was studying concepts and strategies that I only began hearing about here regionally until 2010. I am continuing to be pleasantly surprised when attending professional development sessions and hear about something I learned through GCU.

I am almost done, well, four more classes. I am so glad I chose GCU for my RN-BSN degree. ALL of my Professors are GREAT and so HELPFUL. I remember I used to attend Western Carolina University, Cal Poly, Pomona, and other community colleges. I have NEVER met any Professor that are SO GREAT, so helpful, professional, kind, and understanding like professors at GCU. I am doing online, but feel so close to my professors at GCU. I learned SO MUCH, all up-to-date information. I am currently in "Trends" class and my co-worker thought I'm doing my Master degree in Nursing. My co-worker received a Master degree in Nursing Educator from Cal. State Fulleton and her CLC assignment (course re: "Support your BILL SB 352" they (five students) only wrote one page letter "Brief" to oppose this "BILL". I feel I am learning so much more in BSN program. I am so ADMIRE my Professors and GCU staffs. They all are extremely helpful. Of-course you have to study and do your homework in order to learn and earn your degree. I am strongly encourage anyone to return school for BSN choose this school. You will be so GLAD that you did (like me). I don't work for the school. I am just an experienced RN living in California, returning to school for BSN. I am just a student who just LOVE GCU, and SO GLAD I chose GCU. Just in my Cardiac (Tele) unit there are seven of us attending GCU. My CNO asked us if I like GCU. We told him what a great school to attend! (our hospital and Benefactors given us scholarships to return to school).

I have taken seven RN-BSN courses and really love it. Instructors are EXCELLENT and counselors are GREAT (especially Millitary Enrollment Counselor are the BEST). Instructors are very supportive and EXCELLENT. Courses are very interesting with latest information for learning. I just don't understand why some people given bad reviews about GCU. You have to read and do your homeworks no matter what school you attending. All my professors are very very good and graceful. I am so GLAD I chose GCU to do my BSN and I highly recomanding to anyone that have a very busy schedule, then this school will fit well for you. My friends went to University of Phoenix, Brandman, and were very unhappy because they have to attend class and stand up in front of class for presentations, plus many more on top of it. I don't know what more I can say except I am VERY HAPPY with GCU. Four more courses for me to EARN my BSN. I am so proud of GCU. Most nurses in my hospital already graduated from GCU and said the same thing about this university "great school, great RN-BSN program". Some of them already started MSN program.

I took Statistic, Patho., Health assessment, Speech/Communication, and two Psychology courses. I don't need to retake these class. GCU is VERY supportive and AGREED I do not have to take them, BUT GCU added two more classes which I do not need (to make up for money ??). This will prolong my graduation. The thing is English is my second language and I have been trying extremely hard to pass all previous classes with good grades. Two extra classes is a lot for me due to English. It has been extremely stressful making me so depress and just want to stop all total.

I was scared off initially by all of the negative reviews. Once I started my courses I soon realized that a lot of the people who failed probably deserved it. I put in a lot of time into each and every class. I see people answer discussion questions that appear to have little or no effort. They seem to be trying to skim by and BS their way through. Which in my opinion is why some fail and get angry. You only take once class at a time and the work load can get heavy at times. I agree the most annoying part of the class are the CLC projects. I have had really great groups where I spent less time than I would writing a paper, and others where only a couple of people do the majority of the work. But this does not only happen at GCU, I have a friend who had the same experience at a local University. It is true that each instructor is different, but each instructor is different at any college you go to. Nurse should have experience with this as nothing is ever the same. I feel so supported at GCU, they always check in on me and have always helped me to succeed. Do not be fearful of what people are saying to you. Not every student tries 100% or does work honestly. My guess is, someone who goes from an A to an F probably plagiarized. Someone did this in the last class and the teacher flipped out and made it clear that you will be failed. I see that sometimes people post things that are sighted incorrectly and that is a form of plagiarism.

I started college at Florida state and ran out of time and money. Years later with a career and kids I chose to go back and get my degree online. I chose GCU and obtained my Bachelors degree. I graduated and I am now finishing up my Masters here at GCU. My wife is also an alumni of GCU with her BSN and MSN from GCU. I have nothing but great things to say about GCU.

GCU is simply wonderful! I had the pleasure of doing the MEd degree online several years ago. The program was excellent as where the vast majority of the professors! The university truly takes an interest in each and every student . My degree allowed me to earn more. It has also made me a better instructor. For individuals who are not afraid of working hard as so many seem to be these days, I highly recommend this university.

I went on this site to read reviews and was very surprised at the negative responses. I was initially concerned and then questioned why I was even researching reviews. Virtually everyone I know who has gone here to obtain their BSN has been very happy with the program and personally I have found them to be very welcoming and supportive every step of the way during the admissions process and I look forward to achieving this degree with them. Nursing school by its very nature, is not easy and I do not expect that this will be either but I am willing to do the work and as far as the grading process, all nursing programs have a more stringent grading scale with 75% as a failing grade. This should not have been a surprise to anyone. I will post an update further into the program.

AWESOME SCHOOL I have been going here for a year and I love this school and have recruited one of my friends who is doing the exact program I am doing. I think that with any school it is what you make of it. I did have a problem and had considered transferring but I remained with the school and gave them the opportunity to fix the problem in which they did and Iam set to possibly graduate if all goes well in may of 2015.

I live in Illinois and was assured by the recruiter that the University's program would be accepted. I contacted the state, they never responded to me. I completed the courses and earned me masters...then months later, Illinois tells me they do not recognize them. Have a masters I can't use now. Online teachers were not bad, but it became frustrating that my counselor always changed and no one had direct answers for me.

I am currently enrolled at GCU for special education and have two classes left before student teaching. The counselors vary when it comes to returning emails or answering questions. I noticed I was paid more attention to during the first few months. Now help comes and goes. The teachers also vary just like on a regular campus. Some are GREAT and go out of their way to answer questions. Others are often MIA. I've asked and seen other students post questions just to wait a few 3+ days for an answer. Every week we need participation, two DQ's, weekly journal, and a 1250 + paper, so returning questions needs to be done in a timely fashion. The question to instructor forum will often get you no where if you have a professor who is not "present". BUT like I said, I've had excellent professors that reach out, so it varies. Technical issues are not uncommon (right now I cannot access the forum due to tech difficulties), but you can live chat with tech support for smaller issues. They are very helpful and patient. The tech people for Taskstream and the library are also great. Small tech issues are not a huge deal, but I've had one paper not fully submit and although tech support contacted the professor (So did I four times) I ended up with a zero. Contacted my counselor and got in return "The grades have closed. You got an A for the class. Good Job" Hello? that was not the issue. I went from a 97-98 to 93 but I guess that does not matter. The work we do is challenging and absolutely relevant to my field of study and I enjoy gaining the knowledge through material etc. So far, it has been expensive (as expected from colleges in general) but I've received help ironing it all out (so far). I am too invested to go elsewhere, but I don't think I would anyway. I like this school overall and would recommend it to others (So far). I will leave another review after I finish the program if my opinion changes. To others also attending - stay strong!

I'm shocked by the comments that I read here about GCU. I'm finishing my last class right now. I've had excellent communication with both the academic advisor, Jordon Alsop; and the financial advisor, Amy Lapa. My progress has progress exactly as promised and I graudate in 3 weeks. The instructors were a mixed bag. Just like you would get in any University. Some were excellent (Glenda Deahl) and some were average. I had instructor support through every class, from day one until the last day. I got responses from instructors within 24 hours every time I posted and I only had one grade discrepancy throughout my year long journey and it was resolved the same day. I've had numerous colleagues go through the same program and I haven't heard one single complaint except that it's expensive. I looked around at other RN to BSN programs and this program is a steal. Most estimates that I received for other programs were double what I've paid at GCU. I'm highly recommending the program to every new grad that I know.

I just completed the RN-BSN program at GCU. 8 people from the floor i work on have also completed online nursing degrees there including my nurse manager. It was very conducive to my active work schedule and not overwhelming. I can see where people who are not comfortable with technology may have some problems however, if you know the basics of powerpoint and Microsoft word you will be fine. This is a great option for people who are seeking a BSN without having to take all the " fluff" classes many universities require. I was able to simply take all nursing classes, aside from one short statistics class. Overall, i strongly recommend this program to all RN's who want to continue their education. I received a 3.8 cumulative GPA and worked 5/ 12 hour shifts a week and planned a wedding. Definitely do-able for anybody to succeed. I never felt scammed or mistreated. It is somewhat pricey but, to be able to complete the program in one year and not take extra chemistry, biology, ethics, and whatever else courses it was worth it to pay a little more.

If you have apprehensive about joining a school 100% of the time it is not worth the heartache. It is one thing to to be a fake, and straight blasphemy to use religion as a cover up.Leave Christ out of the phony formula. Anyone can go online, and study , without pay, noble articles and learn with out wasting hard earned money.

Like another review on here I was proud to go to this school too, at first. I'm half way done and it has been the worst experience ever. First it is way to expensive, second the teachers treat the students which are professional RNs horrible, disrespectful and the instructions are vague. I am upset almost every week with this program. I wish I went somewhere else. Also there are group projects in every class and most of the students don't help, so if you don't do the entire project yourself you get a bad grade along with your group. This is just a horrible program period.

Grand Canyon did not properly file paperwork to collect funds for the military G. I. Bill. They did not contact, but instead listed it on my credit report and put a hold on my transcript. I had to resend the paperwork to the school a year later and the military paid them in FULL. I'm still unable to get my transcript and promised to clear my credit and never did. I've called and emailed many MANY times, but once they got there money they are unwilling to help.

I have graduated with my Masters of Health Administration, and landed a position within a top tier hospital within two months. The education was phenomenal and the amount of time I spent doing the EBP was well worth the experience. Those that have complaints obviously were looking for a Christian experience or a handout with funding. I was well prepared and had no religious feelings about my education!

I am learning so much from GCU materials. I love my on-line professors. I don't believe any bad comments about GCU. My instructors are all very supportive and very understanding. I love Ms Chrystal Davis Carter. She is enrollment counselor. She ALWAYS there for me. She never tired of me asking questions over and over. I feel like I am her only student. She never hang up phone until I am fully understood my subject. I really love everything about this school. And of course you have have to study hard to pass your class. Courses are very interesting and everything are up-to-date. For a private University GCU prices are not bad. Library and tutoring staffs are incredible. They are soooooo helpful and NICE. I am not an easy student but I love this school and have NOTHING bad to say about GCU. I would love to obtain MSN after my BSN.

This is my experience as a student of GCU who took nine courses and was enrolled in the B.S. Elementary Education/Special Education program. Everything was fine until a few months ago when I had to contact my local school district to request practicum placement. Most of the 12 courses that make up the major courses for this program require field experiences that must be completed in an actual classroom. My contact with the school district was positive until right after they asked me for a formal letter or email from my school officially requesting placement on my behalf. My adviser sent the email right away, and that is precisely when I stopped hearing back from my contact at the district (they hadn’t asked me what school I attended before this point). I followed up with them several times afterwards via phone and email, and no response. My heart sank. I am left to assume that the name Grand Canyon University does not turn heads in my area (NJ) as a viable provider of teachers. Also, I do not feel that it is the job of students to do public relations for them. Since few in the education field have even heard of this school much less their online teacher education program, they should have PR people travel the country and establish relationships with school boards nationwide before placing unsuspecting students in the awkward position of having to win the confidence of the powers that be. Considering the ridiculously high price they charge per course, roughly $1,800, they can certainly afford to do so. Speaking of price, I am now enrolled in a local not-for-profit university, and the price I pay for tuition is roughly $900. Yep, I can take two courses at a locally reputable college for the price of one Grand Canyon University course, a name that prompted local educators to cease communication with me. Academically speaking, the courses can be rigorous and relevant. Instructor quality varies (there were some excellent ones in my 9 course stint, but they were in the minority). One constant, however, is student quality. Just like the three other for-profits that I attended prior to GCU, they have an open enrollment policy, and let me tell you, they do let ANYONE whose financial aid clears in. Here you are working your behind off on your assignments and you’re in a class full of people who I just cannot believe ever passed the sixth grade in terms of writing skills, comprehension of what is being discussed, and ability to stay on topic. And what’s more, you see these same people in class after class. This does diminish some as you get to the more advanced courses, but please know that I did take one senior level course and a few junior level courses, and I still found too many of these students than I cared to. If you don’t mind explaining yourself to EVERYONE who asks you what school you attend AND have money to pay off an undergrad loan for the rest of your life, then I would say go for it. If you care about the quality of your education and the reputation of the college that grants you a degree, I say go elsewhere. In all fairness, Grand Canyon University might be respected in the Phoenix area; if you live outside the area, however, there are no guarantees.

Please read this and the other reviews and take them seriously. I have begun my BSN education after being a nurse for 8 years. It is a terrible waste of money and time at GCU. My instructor is irritated at questions for the instructor. My counselor tells me to bear it because we're veterans and we can. I am utterly overwhelmed and the technology to assist me on the GCU website takes a class in and of itself to navigate. If you have time and are not working and have a lot of computer tech experience, this college may be right for you. If you are looking for ease if use and classroom support you must look elsewhere.

I received my MBA from GCU in October. I found the coursework challenging but managed to graduate with a high GPA. I had no issues during my 21 months as a student. I found the support to be exceptional - especially as I am a product of a public university so that was all I knew. I would call with a question and always had a rsponse that day or the next. With my two boys both attending a state university now I can tell you that IS NOT the norm. Peoole complaining about financial aid sound like they are 1) chasing a stpend or 2) failing courses and not understanding you pay for every class you take. If I lived closer to AZ, I would have my boys attend ground campus without reservations.

GCU is my third online college. The cost of the degree I am taking (MS in General Psychology), and the one I completed here (BS in Psychology) have been great value. There is no way on Earth this place is a diploma mill, I work very hard for my grades, and this is not an easy place to study, and nor do I want it to be. I want it to be something I have to work for. When I completed my BS I looked at other institutions and had no problem being accepted in two other colleges I applied to for my Masters, but in the end chose to continue my degree with GCU. The only downside I have ever had was one "instructor" who referred me back to my Academic Advisor because I was struggling in the course. Not very helpful, but ever other instructor, and my advisors have been amazing. Love this place and have recommended it to others who are also enjoying their experience.

This program is really overpriced, you can get the same instruction at any other school for about half the price. The philosophy aspect was interesting, but is it really all that relevant when there are so many other issues facing education today? Instructors will not hesitate to give you a bad grade because this school can make more money off those who are forced to repeat a class. Not very ethical. This school is run like a business. They spend all their money hiring Dan Marjlee to coach B-ball and on expensive commercials instead of hiring good teachers.

I have been attending GCU for 2 years and will finish my Masters in Gen Psychology in a few months. One of the things I enjoyed about GCU was you do not waste time writing papers about your goals. I have attended other graduate schools where goal statements centered around every program change. These were in depth papers. If you do not know why you are in graduate school, there may already be a problem. Also after studying graduate level psychology I see benefit for goal statements and the encouragement they can offer, but it was not for me. All my professors have been responsive and knowledgeable, and my academic advisor has been assessable. I did have an academic advisor change during the first year, but there were no issues. Financial aid overall has went well. I did not realize my thesis course (last course) was only 2 credits and as such financial aid will not cover the expense, so I have to pay $1050 out of pocket. This would have been better to know sooner than later. I have taken 2 leaves of absence (more than 2 weeks) for summer break with my kids, and appealed a grade which was changed to an "A", without any issues. Regarding the CLC assignments, they can be tedious if the group fails to plan and communicate daily. Expect to work harder than you would if doing the project yourself, as you have to effectively communicate with others, and everyone may not be as motivated as you. I can report in 3 out of 4 classes where CLC assignments were required, the CLC project went very well. Keep up with progress daily. There is no "hand holding" at GCU, but the professors in psychology want you to succeed. I expect to maintain a 4.0 through my last 2 courses and it has been challenging and rewarding. I am reviewing schools including GCU for possible enrollment in a doctoral program. There will be issues at every school, but if you want a quality education in psychology GCU should be considered.