Virginia College

Do not bother wasting your time with this school. I am in the last year of my degree and it has been a battle since day 1. Like every other review on here, they take your money and demand more, they make excuses when you demand answers, and nothing ever adds up. The other reviews on here say it all. Stay away from this school!!!

I have been attending this college for about 37 months now and let me tell you it has been one hell of a ride. This college is full of nothing but smoke and mirrors. Every year they find something wrong with my financial aid or some other document that causes me to have to cough up 600-1500 dollars of money in order to continue my education. I've had two troublesome professors that have failed me due to differences in ideology. They outsource every aspect of the college so no one department is aware of what another department is doing or committing too. This gives them deniability across the board to continue their shady practice. I have requested arbitration in several incidents and have been given the run around until either forced into doing what they want or be kicked out of school with nothing but debt to show for it. If you talk to a lawyer then you are in breach of contract.

I'm in the online program for a Bachelor of Science in Network Management (have been for 2 years now). I thought the program and classes were great at first, but now that I have seen a lot of the college, I'm no longer impressed. I am getting disappointed, frustrated, and ready to transfer to a different college (Capella, perhaps...) First off, I have about 15 years of experience in IT, but no degree. I decided to get a degree to help get a better job some day. With my working experience, I can tell you that the Network Management degree program is very solid in what they teach. The books they give you are very helpful. What they don't tell you is that with these computer classes, you have to download and install special software (LabSim), which has course of its own that you have to go through, as well as Virginia College's normal weekly material. This is good in that it *really* gives you a lot of information (I still learned a few new things), but the downside is that for someone new to computer networks, it can be information overload to a lot of people. It's also very time-consuming, so unless you are single and have a lot of time on your hands, it can be almost impossible to keep up. Since the LabSim software has to be installed on your computer, you are pretty much out of luck if you have to do your school from a library or somewhere you are using a computer that isn't yours. On the other hand, another bonus for the LabSim material is that it is related to CompTIA certifications. You are almost guaranteed to pass the certification exams after you are done with the LabSims, and you can access the LabSims for up to a year. Some instructors even say the college will reimburse you for the exam cost if you pass. I took (and passed) one certification exam, but that instructor never said anything about the reimbursement option. I didn't hear about it until a few semesters later. Speaking of instructors... since it is an online course, you need to be ready to be on your own. Most don't offer much for instruction, they just tell you to read from the book and do the online lessons. There are some who encourage interesting conversations in the discussion parts of the classes, but not all do. Most of the instructors are very professional and friendly, but lately I seem to have been getting instructors who don't seem to want much to do with the online class. Either they don't have much time (with a "regular" class to teach as well), or they just don't care. Communication with them has been severely lacking. I often wonder how some of them became instructors; they have bad (sometimes unintelligible) grammar, and many times their lesson plans don't match the syllabus. By many times, I mean over half the time. Most instructors blame it on the classes being set up by a mysterious "someone else" and that they "have no access to change certain information." It can be very confusing at times, when the week's announcement says "do this," the syllabus says "do that," and the instructor says "no, do this instead" for the week. As for the support: it's terrible. The site itself goes down very often with little to no warning (or explanation). My student advisor was great at first, then they disappeared with no warning, and I was not re-assigned a new one. I had to email the school and find out what was going on. Since then, I have had 3 other advisors and all have been pretty much useless. They don't listen to a thing I say when I request being put into certain classes. I know certain classes are only offered at certain times, but you would think they would tell you what your options are. They don't. They put you in any class they want, and by the time they tell you, you have only a few days to change classes before your books are shipped. I've had books arrive late for 3 semesters, even though I try to give at least a month of notice for which classes I want. It doesn't matter, they ignore my requests at first, then let me switch to what I wanted, but after it's almost too late, and I get my books late. If there are issues with the instructor, I have yet to find a way to go "above" them and get things straightened out. For example, I had an issue with an assignment that was somehow lost during submission so it showed I didn't submit anything. I let the instructor know, and it was ignored. I tried emailing the school but I got a message kicked back saying my email was not delivered. I tried the help desk, but they said there was nothing they could do. (Keep in mind the help desk company they use does not work directly for VC, and it takes quite a while to find their VC account when you call them). There are no other contact numbers I can find in the student portal, so good luck finding someone to help you out with anything. As for bills, I'm already up to around $35,000 for two years. I'm doing financial assistance (grants, etc.) so I'm not sure what the exact amount is that I will owe. Payments are deferred until I'm done - I just opt to pay interest for now. Financial assistance was through FAFSA and loan payments are through Direct Loan Servicing. I've been trying to get a better understanding of the financial situation, but can never find anyone that knows enough about it, as others have complained. I've asked for pricing breakdowns and have not gotten anything at all yet. It's all generic charging that I see, but it's adding up quick. Now for the learning, the most important aspect... Like I said, I have been learning new things in IT, so that has been great. I have also been pretty happy with the electives so far. Classes have had anywhere from 10 to 35 students in them, and I have consistently seen a lot of the same "faces" in many of them, so I am feeling like part of a group. Some people have dropped out/transferred, but most of those people have been the types who have not put any effort in, and I guess figured online schooling wasn't for them. They would do maybe one or two discussions for the whole semester, and still expect to pass the class with flying colors. That shouldn't happen, but people expect it - and complain when it's not that easy. They also complain when they get bad discussion grades for posting generic "I agree" responses all the time. It takes effort to get good grades, but it's not hard. Overall, I had been pretty happy until recently. I have a few weeks left in my current semester, then I'll be done here. I have mostly electives left for the degree, and I can get those anywhere. My opinion to others right now would be "look elsewhere for computer-related degrees online." My reason would be the total lack of support (and care) for its students.