National University

NCU was recommended to me by a trusted colleague. When I started my doctoral program in 2015 NCU had a strong curriculum, knowledgeable academic advisors, and rigorous course content. In 2016 they decided to move the corporate offices to California and leave student services in Arizona. At this time it was also decided to change from having academic advisors and financial advisors to each student having one person for both responsibilities. To further complicate matters, they decided to "train" new... Read More people to fill these duel positions. Needless to say advising is now a disaster. They are not knowledgeable, do not respond in a timely manner if they respond at all (supervisors do not respond period). Prior to the change in mid-2016 advisors would answer their phones when you called, solve problems immediately or get back to you within 24 hours, and your course schedule was properly prepared and workable. For some reason my newly appointed academic/financial advisor decided to revamp my course schedule and extended it another year. As if that was not bad enough, in spring of 2017 the School of Education decided to change their curriculum and began "retiring" strategic courses without adequate replacements. The majority of courses that were retired were research courses. This will leave students unprepared to successfully prepare and defend the dissertation. I had heard faint rumblings about students having to take extension courses in the dissertation phase because their committees would not approve their work. Some students reported having their programs extended an additional two to three years. With the change in curriculum I can see this becoming standard practice. At this time, and in spite of all the money I have spent at NCU, I am looking to transfer to a doctoral program that values and respects their students. NCU does not.

This school is nothing more than a bunch of predators. They charge you to withdraw from the school. Also the response time from the adviser/ financial aid person who is one person is horrible. They don't care about the students, the only thing NCU wants is your money. The library resources are what you would find at a community college and the staff is not there to help you. Also they false advertise their programs. The criminal justice program is actually a business program. They don't want criminal... Read More justice topics. I had a professor who said it had to be a business topic, but I was told it had to be within my specialization which was criminal justice. Also I was told business and criminal justice is the same topic, which anyone with any education will tell you they are two separate fields. When a student has a problem forget about getting help all you will get is a the runaround. After you withdraw they will charge you a crazy amount of money and put it into collections because they had to return federal student aid and they want the money they should not have had in the first place. NCU academic calendar is crazy every 6 course are a year. Also forget about doing a grade appeal even when the instructor is the problem such as providing the same feedback week to week. NCU favorite assignment is a 5 to 7 page paper and the final assignment is always 12 pages. The online learning platform is not user-friendly at all, it is a nightmare to navigate . The students in the criminal justice program are taught instructors that have Ph.D's in Business instead of criminal justice. NCU is not worth your time, money, and sanity. NCU will cause the most placid person to turn into the most aggressive person with the antics that the school approves. Also forget about getting in touch with anyone on the NCU leadership team. NCU keeps students away from them and I am sure it is because of NCU predatory behavior, unethical behavior and point blank because NCU is a scam. NCU should be forced to close by the Department of Higher Eduction and NCU should loose their title 4 funding as they are not providing an education all they are doing is destroying people credit rating, taking their money and frauding people who attend the school. I was so happy when I decided to leave NCU and they are still causing me problems after not being there for almost two months.

I am really enjoying my education here at Northcentral University. I like the types of assignments. The experiential learning helps me with the application of concepts in my career. I have been able to apply each of my courses to my current situation. I have been able to benefit from this education immediately and do not have to wait until my degree is completed. I think you get what you put into your education. If you are proactive and reach out to the professor and your advisers as well as respond... Read More to them when they reach out then you will have a good experience. This is an online program and it is not easy. It requires you to manage your time. I love the flexibility because I am a very busy person as most people are and I need to be able to work this into my schedule. I am having a great experience!

The staff at NCU, though in a business school, have *no* concept of change management. Students are getting moved in the middle of classes, having to switch between two portals (with 2 different logins) and simply can not get some of their assignments completed. As a long-time student, I will be getting my first F this week, as there is no longer access to the metrics needed, and the login process is near inherently broken. Perhaps more time on practicing what they teach and less time dealing with... Read More computer administrators who do not perform proper change management procedures would do the school good

It was a great experience. I had just completed my undergrad at a traditional school and had moved back to my home city. I had a full time position and wanted to pursue an MBA fulltime without having to quit my job or move to another city. This school gave me that opportunity. The coursework was challenging yet flexible enough for me to work. On top of the actual curriculum, I fine-tuned valuable skills such as self-teaching and time management. The teachers were fair in their grading and I also... Read More appreciate that we had access to the library even after graduating. Overall, a good experience and it opened a lot of doors in my career. My only wish is that they had career placements/extensive job search resources for students in Canada such as myself.

I cannot with a good conscience recommend this school. You teach yourself and instructors are paper-graders. Faculty and staff pretty much come and go. They had several different provosts during my stay. There are lots of issues with good instructors who feel they are not valued, nor receive tenure. The coursework is relatively easy. The comprehensive exam is a little challenging. Then the dissertation is a nightmare. What makes it more difficult is that being an online school, the student does not... Read More have immediate access to his or her chair. I attended about seven years. Everything is fine until you run into issues, then the truth is revealed. Don't forget it is a for-profit institution and run by business people, not educators. You feel proud (Maybe) to have the doctorate, but you earned it in sweat and money.

I have mixed feelings with regard to the program I completed at NCU. I had no problems with billing or financial aid. I had two advisers during my time and both were fairly helpful. In my experience, the coursework was extremely rigorous. With the exception of two professors, I basically taught myself the material through reading assigned articles, books and conducting online research. I did learn a lot but it was through my own hard work and determination. I had two instructors that I would rate... Read More as excellent and one that showed no support or flexibility. He must have graduated from military school. Several years ago, I completed my Bachelor's Degree in a traditional classroom environment. I found attending classes online to be much more time consuming and challenging than that of a traditional educational environment. Only attend NCU if you have a lot of time to complete assignments. You do not get holidays off and it is a lot of work! I am so happy to be finished with my degree. It feels great to not have a large writing assignment due every weekend!

I would highly recommend National University for the working parent. I tried to attend a traditional college, but found it difficult to focus. After a break and joining the Marine Corps, I decided to put my GI Bill to use and attended classes in-person and online for several years at National. Finally, in 2008, I received my Bachelor's in English. I found the curriculum to be very enjoyable, as well as the option to take classes online. I was very impressed with our graduation ceremony, which was... Read More held in the Convention Center in Downtown San Diego. Meredith Baxter (the actress who played the mom on the sitcom Family Ties) did a beautiful job delivering the commencement speech, which I was very pleased with as I grew up watching that sitcom. Overall, I enjoyed attending National University for my Bachelors degree, so much so that I am currently pursuing my Masters there as well!

I'm not sure if many people get that ALL universities are FOR PROFIT now... even if they don't say that, and many people pay a lot of money for colleges and still get treated like crap. I was at UVA... it cost $40K a year and most of the the professors never had time for you. I had a STAT's 2 teacher who couldn't speak English clearly and no one in the department would help me. I had an advisor who was nuts - even got arrested for grand larceny, but he's still there. So please don't think that in-person... Read More universities are better. I'd rather know that I'm at a for profit university - they know their job is to take care of their customers. I did a lot of research to find NCU. Yes, you have to be responsible for keeping up with your progress and finances, because the advisors are just logistics people, but I've also had some really amazing professors who have far surpassed the quality of instruction I received in UVA's grad program. My research writing has improved significantly because of the professors at NCU. The books that they select and the sequential design of my program has allowed me to build one skill on top of the next. The feedback that I've received from most of the professors has been great. I used to ask for help at UVA and they called me lazy... they made me second guess my abilities during a serious medical issue... so I left. NCU has much better about accommodating me. FYI - it is a great bang for the buck, especially when compared to the money I paid at UVA and got very little back for it.

Friends, the graduation rate of a college is a good indicator of the support you can expect. NU is one of the worst. Learn from my mistake. I paid $70,000 in tuition, took an incomplete. The financial aid office dropped the ball, and now they want $7,000 in tuition before I can graduate and take my final class for my Master's. I don't qualify for any more financial aide, and I am not made of money. So I get nothing for my three years of graduate study and got saddled with 70k in debt. I did get a... Read More teaching credential so there is some hope for my future. They don't help their students at all, horrible school. Go to a better university or don't go at all...in a land of broken toilets the plumber is King. My cousin is in a trade and makes $100,000 with two years of community college. Who needs all the debt, expense and toil of a graduate degree? For most of us it isn't the fast track to anything but debt and disappointment. With NU's dismal 26% graduation rate, the education they offer is little more than legalized banditry. Save your money for a more deserving school.

It looks like for every negative review NCU is posting a positive one. The school tends to keep students away from the higher ups. Financial aid is joke. I can say that the curriculum is rigorous; however, it is designed as a for profit school. Always be careful of the Last Date of Attendance (LDA) if you log in, they will consider that as attendance for the school. In reality, you could be logging in to see if actions were taken on your account. To resolve your issues try contacting the president... Read More at ncu . com Every accrediting agency should be warned about this school and their unfair practices. If you decide that you know longer want to attend ncu, they will butcher your financial aid account to make it appears as though you owe more monies.

There are any mixed reviews of the university, but I can honestly say that every institution will likely have good and bad staff, mentors, etc. I was fortunate to have one dissertation chair for the duration of my dissertation. Many had a change of DCs, which caused more delays for them. My program took me 6 years, 2 months to complete. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it worth the investment of time? Oh yes! Watch your financial statements to make sure loan information matches, so you don't get hosed. Do... Read More your homework before selecting a school. Be prepared to be dedicated to your journey. It's not your mentor's journey, they already took theirs.

One of the worst schools I've ever been a part of. They are money chasers and nothing more. I've been lied to about TA and then charged after being guaranteed I would not be. Prepare to read some articles and just write papers all week. I've made purposeful mistakes just to see if anyone was reading my work. They didn't notice or you get the standard response of some minor grammatical errors. It's been the same response on every paper since the first class. Which is 8 papers a class for 6 classes.... Read More I did have one good advisor but the others don't help much. DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL. It's a waste of time money and effort. The professors do not help you in anyway. They are just a name on a class.

My experience with NCU was positive. The DBA program is a great and it is very rigorous. There were challenges along the way, however, I stayed diligent and worked very hard to complete the program. I had excellent faculty members. Additionally, many of the NCU students and graduates that I have encountered had impressive professional backgrounds (military; major corporations; large nonprofit organizations; government agencies; business owners; etc.) and many came from good B&M schools. I received... Read More great support from my peers at NCU. I completed my undergraduate and graduate programs at traditional B&M schools and found NCU to be just as rigorous (if not more). Working on a PhD /Doctorate is a very hard thing to do and doing independently makes it ten times more difficult. To complete a PhD/Doctorate at NCU you will need to have to be willing to put the time and effort into the program; be self-motivated; and do well as an independent researcher. Many that start PhD/Doctorate programs do not finish regardless of the school. NCU is not easy and you will get back what you put in.