Kaplan University

I am finishing my second term of BS Accounting Tax Accelerated program. I am more than satisfied. Student advisers helped me with collecting all the documents needed, including translation of my foreign diplomas. I transferred 90 credits of my AS degree and have 1.5 years to finish BS degree at Kaplan. Tuition cost is nothing to compare what I am paying for Tufts University tuition for my son, very affordable. I got Financial Aid without any problems. I spent a lot of time researching different on-line programs and I am glad that I chose Kaplan despite those negatives reviews. The classes so far tough way better than the same classes I took in Community College (I had to repeat Composition II and Accounting I-II). Discussion boards are engaging and teachers are very helpful. My experience in learning is wonderful so far and I am looking forward of getting my degree and study for a CPA exam.

I have three weeks until I finish my BS in Accounting with Kaplan. While not every experience has been stellar the majority of my time has been good. I agree with others that Financial Aid still needs improvement but I have seen strides to improve things over the past three years. Academic Advising has improved greatly. The majority of my professors were knowledgeable and engaging. When I dig down into many of the complaints I have read about Kaplan many seem to be from folks who are not literate. During my first semesters I encountered a number of these people in classes. As I am ending my time not too many of those people are still around. Makes me wonder if they couldn't handle the college situation and are the ones who are complaining.

I've been reading all these reviews and one thing keeps crossing my mind. If people are pursuing a college degree, shouldn't they be able to think and read for themselves? Yes, the enrollment materials aren't very clear but it's up to the student to call and get answers. I never had any problems with financial aid, they were very helpful and carefully explained all my options. The teachers are generally outstanding - they have real world experience and are willing to share their lessons learned and provide extra help when needed. They make the classes engaging and give positive/helpful feedback. My only criticism is the academic advising department. They are absolutely horrible and next to useless. They set up my degree plan and forgot to include some of the required classes. I ended up having to take an entry level math course AFTER I had gotten a 4.0 in finance and two accounting classes. That was a total ripoff and caused me to pay extra tuition for a remedial course that was clearly a waste of time. Overall, though, I think the education was good and the convenience was well worth it.

I was harassed for money I did not owe. Every day I got different emails and phone calls charging me for money that I did not owe. Each day the amount that I owed was different. I was taking 3 classes a quarter that I was told would not cost me anything out of pocket as long as I maintained a 80% I would receive a scholarship. I kept a 3.79 and started getting harassed during the last month of school when all my papers, projects, and finals were due. When it was all said and done (a month) later I did not owe any money. Then my husband mother passed away at the beginning of a quarter(week 2) and I called (week 3)to see if I could drop one class because of the circumstances. They said I could but I would have to pay $1500 dollars in cash. I am 4 classes away from obtaining my bachelors with Kaplan but I refuse to give this school another penny and I am transferring schools after this quarter is over.

I just finished my undergraduate degree in Accounting with Kaplan. I have 2 things to nag about: The 1st one is that I found that the financial aid department needs revamping or something. They were very hard to reach, but they are servicing thousands of people, so that kind of explains their poor performance. The 2nd thing was ME. Many times I chose to give in instead of working a bit harder. If I had been more disciplined I would have done much better in my over all GPA. After all, I was the one interested in getting that degree. The school is a good school. There are lots of goods, brick and mortar schools and most of them are unknown. So, because this school has its main campuses in Iowa, it doesn't mean it won't provide valuable instructions. Online educatino is here to stay, it will get better and the future generations will benefit from that improvement.

Wow. It seems to me there's a lot of whining going on here. First, let's address the reason each and every one of us use online education. It is for convenience. Others just couldn't cut the mustard in a non-profit setting. Their primary education was not up-to-par. Second, be smart enough to read. Stop blaming the University for YOUR inability to look out for yourself when YOU didn't take the time to read your Master Promissary Note, Financial Aid Statement, or any of the other information provided by Kaplan when you enrolled. Now you whiners want to claim they sold you a lemon. Yes, the tuition is higher because you are paying for convenience. The convenience to roll you lazy butts out of bed and go to school. Or for those of you that have jobs and a family, you have the convenience to go to school on your time left available and not have to sit in one class for hours at a time. When you go to a convenience store, you pay extra. You could have driven further to a grocery store, but that is the price you pay at the convenience store to save YOU time. I have attended non-profit universities on campus and for profit universities on line. Kaplan University gives me just what I need, convenience. Yes, there are times of hold for Financial Aid. That is because YOU are not the only student enrolled. It's not like you can just walk in and have your issues addressed. Stop whining and get the education YOU need to get on with your life.

I decided to go back to school and finish my degree in Accounting. At first I went to university of phoenix, and while I enjoyed I decided to transfer to kaplan because I enjoyed to idea of online seminars. That was the only good thing about the school. I went to Kaplan for a little over a year and about half way through I found out that is college is a mistake. I was not learning anything and I decided that I would have to attend a university to get that the eduaction that I was lacking from Kaplan. I upset that I had not learned anything, and basically bs'ed my way through the course to earn a 3.2 gpa. Things got worse when I recieved a bill from kaplan for $495. They said that it was because financial aide, and student loans did not cover everything. I was confused by this because in the almost 2 years of online classes I had paid a thing because I was covered. When I tried to call the financial aide department I would sit on hold for 30-40 mins at a time and still no one would answer. I would send email to my advisor or whom ever I could think of to get this bill explained, and no one could do it. Recently I enrolled into DeVry University to finish what I started and Kaplan has refused to release my Transcripts to see what classes will transfer because of this bill, that still has not been explained to me. I have filed a chapter 13 because I was laid off from construction, and this new job has not allowed me to catch up on the bills. I put the 495 kaplan bill into the BK, and was assured that my transcripts would be released, so we shall see. The thing 20 mins ago I recieved a collection call from Kaplan saying that I know owe them $4150. How my bill is 10 times what it was I do not know. To sum it up Kaplan is a horrible college, they do not teach nor help their students. That is why they have less than an 18% graduation rate. This college cost to much and if you do not pay they will hold transcripts hostage until you do. To ANYONE wanting to go Kaplan University PLEASE PLEASE do your research. You will see that it is a mistake to go here.

I have been reading a lot of the reviews and I just don't understand what the problem is. I think a lot of the people that are complaining either have/had FA issues or attended a Kaplan College....Not Kaplan University. I attended Kaplan College too and I will say that it got me NOWHERE. This is why I transfered to Kaplan University and I really like it. I have tried other online Universities and this is by far the best I have seen. I am getting ready to go into my third term and have managed to be on the presidents list for my first two terms....with much hard work I must say. If you are a slacker and just want your degree 'handed' to you, Kaplan is not for you. Every college has FA issues. I haven't attended a college that hasn't had issues with their FA dept. If you let that get to you though you aren't really worried about your education. The only complaint that I have is that it is sometimes hard to reach people when you need to but I don't let that get me down. You have to be self sufficient to make it work for you at this University meaning your have to be motivated and do what it takes to get things done by the pre-determined deadlines. If you are reading these reviews trying to figure out what school is best for you, Kaplan University is where it's at. OH and for the people who say it's just online.....there are campuses too. I actually have family that live about 30 minutes from one of them. Brick and mortar schools aren't any better than online. I actually online is better because you have to be motivated since you don't have someone shoving the material down you throat. Kaplan U. is the best decision I made as far as education. CB

I keep seeing reviews from former Kaplan University students who are upset that they are unable to sit for the CPA exam upon receipt of a Bachelor's degree. Seriously, did you not realize that in most (if not all) states require MORE than a Bachelor's degree to sit for the CPA exam?? These days, the state boards of accountancy require 150 semester hours. Kaplan's degree programs are based on quarter hours, which means that 1 semester hour = 2/3 quarter hour. Most Bachelor degree plans are comprised of 180 quarter credits which is equivalent to 120 semester hours, which is typically what any brick and mortar school Bachelor's degree plan yields. I'm shocked that so many people don't do any research about a field that they are supposed to be passionate about! It's common knowledge among serious accounting students that if you want to sit for the CPA exam, you must get more education beyond a Bachelor's degree.

I have been reading all the reviews and I think that the bad ones are written by people with other colleges. Some of the situations that are mentioned are so out of this world. They have been nothing but professional. As far as financial aid goes, I have had no problems. Wal-Mart recommends this school and gives a discount. If they accept their degree then what could possibly be so bad about it. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. I just don't get you people. You get mad because you owe them money. Have you checked out the tuition at your major university's. You are going to owe alot of money and they tell you to only take 2 classes unless you want to pay out of pocket because there is a limit on how much you can borrow per year with FSL.

Just so you know: Tuition cost: I am a veteran. I qualified for no veterans benefits from the government because I have been off of active duty for more than ten years. However, Kaplan reduced my tuition to $230 per credit hour, which INCLUDES all textbooks, ebooks, and software, et... My required electives are open. I spoke with my advisor and arranged enough of the electives to satisfy the requirements for completing a 'minor' in conjunction with my 'major. I will have soon invested 30 months of my life in MYSELF, and will walk away from here with a major and a minor. I have 13... THIRTEEN... employment offers before me now starting at 49K, ranging to 55K starting salary... with benefits... four of those offers are government jobs. I am 43 years old. I left High School in 1983 to join the Army. I did not received my GED until 1998. I have been a truck driver for the last 12 years. In less than six months, I will have my major in Forensics Accounting, with a minor in Criminal Justice. This is your choice. You choose how well you will do. 10) If you want to succeed you will. Good luck and pull the trigger. Kaplan will change your life for the better.

I attended Kaplan for 4 semesters before I found out that I was not going to have enough credits to take the CPA exam after I graduated. When I spoke to my academic advisor about this problem, she said that she would see what she could do to help me. After waiting 6 weeks for an answer she told me that there was nothing that she could do for me, as they did not offer the ethics courses that was a requirement, as well as they would not remove transfer credits that had nothing to do with my degree, so that I could accommidate the additional classes that I needed. I was so made that I called the local university and found out that many of my credits would transfer, and I withdrew from Kaplan effective immediately. I spent in the time that I was there $16,000, still had a year to go, and was not going to be able to use my degree for what I had set out accomplish. For anyone that is interested in Kaplan, make sure that you are getting what you are paying for, a COMPLETE EDUCATION!! Also make sure that you keep an eye on your financial aid or they will make mistakes. I had a few issues here, but was able to get them taken care of quickly.

Kaplan is too expensive!! I graduated last week with an associates in accounting. I did not request cost of living funds and Kaplan started sending me "extra money" the last year of enrollment. Now I barely have enough money to get my bachelor's degree because they were so expensive. I had a horrible experience with their financial aid department. They actually called me a few times and said I did not have enough money and needed to pay like $2,000 out of pocket. Then a few days later called and said they made a mistake. They have also admitted to sending me money they were not supposed to.Kaplan's credits also do not transfer so easily. For me to pursue my bachelor's at Kaplan it will cost roughly $41,000 in addition to the cost of my associates through them.I am in the process of finding another online university that I can afford to pursue my bachelor's degree ; thanks to Kaplan's outrageous amount for an associates degree this has been a challenge.I will say that I had a positive learning experience though. I thought the classes were great with the exception of two classes. I value what I learned in my associates degree.

Several courses had online lectures that appeared to be provided by either a grad student or a temp worker. They consisted of cut and paste discussion questions from the "teacher" and then cut and paste answers. Many professors did not respond to online questions giving me the feeling that no one was actually there, just someone cutting and pasting the lecture. Kaplan provides you with the textbooks for free, but they print them themselves and are largely unreadable and unusable. It felt as if the textbooks had been written in a foreign language and then translated badly into English. I had to go online and to the library to get a real textbook for many courses. My tuition bill changed nearly every month. I could never tell what I was supposed to pay, resulting in large over payments. I am a budget manager and was studying accounting and I could not follow the bogus, non standard and possibly fraudulent accounting practices of Kaplan. They are right up there with Enron and Bernie Madoff. My positive balances between terms were not passed over to the next term. My tuition over payments disappeared from my account. This resulted in collection phone calls every day at home, at work, at all times of the day. If you are lonely and want many, many harassing phone calls, this is the college for you. Also a large financial aid balance from a previous fiscal year was not passed to the next year, refunded to me or sent back to the loan institution. As I have finished the program, when I examine my financial accounts, I see three different numbers for what I owe ranging from $2200 to $600. My calculations show they still owe me around $650.

I have to agree with many of the previous reviews, when it comes to financial and and student accounts, I've never worked with anyone worse. I originally enrolled a year ago, and went for 7 months with no issues. I had no balances due and everything was just fine. I started to get daily phone calls from student accounts saying the I had a "past due balance" and what was I going to do about it. Since I was told all along that I would have no out of pocket expenses, that financial aid would cover my tuition in it's entirety, I questioned the fact that I had a balance due. This is where the adventure begins. Over the next several months the amount changed drastically. First it was $200 then it was nothing, then it was $700. All in all, at different times I was told anything from nothing due to $1200. During this entire time, I was getting daily calls from student accounts treating me like a deadbeat who was trying to avoid paying my obligations. The last e-mail that I received sent me through the roof, when my financial aid advisor told me that I would need to take out a loan. A loan? Really? Nobody has ever been able to satisfactorily answer my questions. I can only say, walk, don't run away from this University. If I knew then what I know now. If I wasn't so close to graduation I would transfer.

I've been attending Kaplan since June 2007 and I absolutely love it! I'm going for my BS in Business with an emphasis in Accounting. They are an open enrollment school which means they do not turn anyone away as long as they have a high school diploma or GED and that was probably the most annoying thing about the school to me at first. In the beginning I was taking classes with some complete morons who probably should not have even graduated high school. As time went on and my classes became more challenging I found that the morons are weeded out (I imagine they are the ones who end up dropping out and come here giving Kaplan negative reviews!) and now I have no complaints at all. The financial aid office is very helpful if you give them a chance - if you're confused or unclear on something you just have to speak up and tell them and they will explain it. I absolutely love my admissions advisor - she still calls me and checks up on me! I have been through several academic advisors but it's fine because, as someone else mentioned, I only need them to enroll me in classes. I am in complete control of which classes I take as long as I meet the prerequisites. The reading material, whether actual text book or ebook, are completely free (included in tuition). It does not at all bother me when a class I take has an ebook instead of a text book because I know I am getting updated information. It takes a lot of time and money to publish a text book - in some cases by the time a text book is published and distributed the material could be outdated. I love the APA citation style that the University follows. I had a lot of instruction and reference material available on how to properly format in APA so the person who said that nobody teaches that obviously did not even bother finding out. The professors are very valuable to me. They are specialized in the field they teach in. For example, in my marketing class the professor was an actual marketing executive so he was able to not only instruct by the book but also by life experience. I value my education at Kaplan so much. I earn every grade I am given. Some of the classes have been somewhat easy because of my prior education and work experience but I still worked very hard at completing the assignments and posting to the discussion boards. Some of the classes have been quite challenging. I had to read an average of 85 pages a week for one class I took, in addition to assignments, essays, tests and discussion board posts. If you're looking for an intellectually stimulating, technologically advanced online learning environment, look no further than Kaplan University.