Northern Arizona University

Staff is unhelpful and very unprofessional. Took 6 months for them yup review my application and transcripts... looking into other schools that are willing to help people achieve there goals not held them back

I think most of the other reviewers were correct, very unprofessional. When I started I was told my "mentor" would contact me regularly, but this particular subscription I haven't heard from her once. Also some of the professors seem like they don't even read any of my submissions. For instance, I handed in an essay and was given the score of 76, meaning I had to redo and resubmit. I ended up adding one more citation to the several already in the paper and handed it in again. I eventually heard back a month later with the score of 98. It's amazing how adding one quotation can raise my grade to an A. This isn't the first time I had to wait over a month to get my paper graded. Also getting feedback on your projects can be like pulling teeth. It seems like they delay you in anyway possible to siphon more money out of you. This will be my last subscription. I have wasted enough money on this school.

This program is completely unprofessional. The graders are adjunct faculty with little to no experience in the field of study. They will not provide any feedback when grading and if you complain about it and get on their bad side your mentor will flat out ignore you until you file a complaint with the dean. The textbooks they use are ancient in terms of technology and most of the material is obsolete. If you value your time and people who respect your concerns and want a valuable learning experience run away from this program as fast as you can.

I came across NAU Personalized Learning or when I was researching accredited competency-based degrees. I decided to try to apply for a Small Business Administration BS program to see how much work it would be for me considering that I already had an AA degree from an accredited school. My experience has been a nightmare from the start: After I requested more information from their website, I received an automated email from them with general information and a link to create a "Prospect Profile." I completed the profile and saw an option to attach my transcripts. I did that right away. Soon after I received a phone call from a lady who first said she was calling from the University of Phoenix, than apologized and said she was calling from NAU. She asked me what she could help me with. I told her was interested in SBA BS degree and that I'd already sent in my transcripts. She said I probably sent them in to a wrong department -- a traditional side of NAU, not PL. I responded that everything in my prospect profile and the email that I got indicated that I was contacting PL dept, not traditional. She said she didn't know that prospective students could send in their transcripts online. When I asked more questions she said she really didn't know much and was there to connect me with a transition coordinator. She said the guy who I'd be assigned to was busy and would call me back. Wow, what a waste of time that phone call was. The guy later did call me back and spoke a 100 mi/hr spitting out basic info and not letting me speak. When I was finally able to ask how soon they'd evaluate my transcripts he said that I first had to take their readiness assessment. I said I'd do that but still needed an estimate on the transcript evaluation time. The coordinator responded that they couldn't find where my transcripts went to. Really?? Such confidential information just fell between their cracks! I explained to him my transcript submission process step by step again, including the email address that their system gave me to send the transcripts to. He just brushed me off. He said he'd sent me an email with details on what to do next. I received the email shortly, which again requested me to submit transcripts through my "Prospect Profile." I responded to him that I'd already done that. His reply was again that he didn't know where they went. Long story short -- a whole WEEK later he wrote that they found my transcripts and that I could access my Readiness Assessment. Even though named an "assessment", that really was a set of exams, including reasoning (logic), reading/writing and math. They took a few hours to complete and I was done with them the next day. As soon as I was done I notified the transition coordinator/Admissions Counselor. He responded THREE business DAYS later saying that they would start evaluating my transcripts. FOUR days after that I received an email from another person, a "Program Coordinator" requesting that I complete their online application for admission before they start evaluating my transcripts. Their application is free. I tried completing the application, but ran into another problem -- under education you have to enter the name of your high school and graduation date. Unfortunately, their system is set up with only a list of US-based schools and no way to enter a foreign one. I promptly contacted that Program Coordinator to ask what to do. She responded with some ridiculous "tips" such as "try a different browser, refresh page blah blah." I responded back that I've tried all that and that their system was simply not setup to accept a foreign school name. SIX days later I received a response from her confirming that their system was indeed not set up to accept foreign school names and that I should enter a random name and she'd have it corrected from her end. Why waste my time telling me to "refresh browser" etc.?? I entered a random name under high school and reported back to the counselor momentarily. The next day I receive another email from her now saying that someone else would be contacting me, because "clarification of my legal permanent residence was needed." WTF? I am a U.S. citizen and clearly indicated that on my application for admission, but I guess she didn't bother to read it and made assumptions based on my name and the fact that I attended a foreign university. At this point it has been it has been 28 days/4 weeks since I requested information about their PL degree and provided my transcripts and they haven't even started evaluating them. This does not sound like a place to enroll in if you value your time and resources.

I attended a community college for two years, transferred to NAU's Flagstaff campus for one year, and completed my last year in their online program after accepting a job offer which required me to move away from Flagstaff. Positives: Overall, my experience was very good. The campus is very nice, and the city itself is beautiful. Most professors were helpful and willing to talk after-hours. I had one "bad apple" in the entire experience, which isn't bad at all. In the online portion of my degree experience, I had technical problems submitting a mid-term once during the Fall semester, and both the support staff and the professor were extremely helpful - almost "above and beyond" type stuff. I know they say that "10's" won't generally be approved, but the NAU support was amazing so I'm giving them a 10 because that's how I feel. Negatives: I have seen better examples of teaching in an online format. NAU is good, and few students will have problems - but "good" has a lot of room for improvement. Some professors use old, out-dated materials to teach from. I took those as opportunities to write papers debunking the assigned readings - and I received high scores, so this might not be a fair "negative?"

Professors do not interact with the students online. They do not participate in the BlackBoard web forums which is supposed to mimic "in person" classes. Since they do not write to students online, I suppose this means they don't even show up in person to classes? Professors do not make use of available technologies to create great online classes--no video lectures, no online chats, no online blogs... They just dump a bunch of reading materials on you and you're left to read it and write posts that they don't even read. This is not academia--I could be doing this online in random web forums for free. Don't waste your time with this diploma mill if you truly want an education. Enroll in another online school as this degree isn't earned through intellectual writings and conversations with a professional teacher... you're just paying for a piece of paper!

They totally ripped me off. I went there for one semester entirely online. paid the tuition in full before i started, got a 3.75 GPA, went to enroll for classes for the next semester and they tell me that i owe them 5000+ dollars because they decided to classify me as an out of state residnt. i called so many times beforehand asking them about this and they said it was all set, i was all paid, instate, and everything. and then boom, they hit me with this. i tried to fight it and they said that i was supposed to contest the out of state residency before i started. EVERY ADVISOR will tell you something differet, they really don't care about the student at all. They dont want to be inconvenienced with student issues, dont interupt their day might as well be thier motto. DON'T GO TO NAU UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE GREATLY RIPPED OFF AND NEGLECTED BY FACULTY AND STAFF!!!!

The classes are about jumping through hoops and not truly about learning the information. There is a lot of busy work and a lack of learning. There is very shallow interaction with other students. Minimal input from the professors except for checking off assignments.

The courses in this program are worst I've experienced in taking advantage of the online environment for promoting learning. I completed one class and started another. Both were based on the Allyn-Bacon series of textbooks and the lessons came straight from the texts. There was very little interaction among students, even in classes where it would have been easy to implement. Each week was the same - read, post (but with no interaction), turn in papers, and take a test. Verrry borrring. This is the type of program that gives online learning a bad reputation.