The University of Phoenix Phoenix Campus

Date: May 18 2004
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
The best thing that I can say about UoP Business Management program is the fact that, because it is a business, it must deal in the real world paradigm of supply and demand. This means that it must make its courses accessible by those who have previously been underrepresented in educational institutions. In fact, were it not for UoP, I would not be five courses away from earning my degree—and I will have earned it. I have worked hard every step of the way, and I've learned much that I could apply to any commercial enterprise.

However, I cannot help but mention that, perhaps because of the application-based learning model, there are others who will obtain degrees without having any fundamental understanding of the material they were taught. This is somewhat discouraging, because in order for success to mean anything, there should first be a real possibility of failure. Showing up should count for something, but it should not count for everything. When those who do not know the difference between a run-on sentence and a sentence fragment receive high marks, it is a struggle to remember that I am attending for an education, not to compare grades. I am receiving an education—but that is partially because I am self-motivated. Those who do not care about the quality of work they produce are not as self-motivated—and that will be true regardless of the university they attend.

I've been to traditional college; I attended Penn State for a year (while working full-time) and earned every bit of my 3.667 average. I enjoyed going there, and the education was top-notch, but because of the way I had to schedule classes, there was a lot of wasted time in my life between classes. I was always tired, because I rarely got more than four hours of sleep per night. I don't have the same problem at UoP, because I waste no time between classes. I go to my class for four hours and schedule my time appropriately to various tasks—including, of course, work, family, and homework.

I also attended a state community college (part time) for a couple of years, and the instructors there were not any better than those I have at UoP. In fact, most of them were worse. I didn't learn a whole lot at community college, unfortunately. Additionally, because I decided to go part-time, I never really felt like I was making progress. At UoP, because every class is completed in five weeks (for undergraduate work), I always know I'm moving.

I've had good and bad teachers at every college. The great thing about UoP is that you're done with nearly every teacher in five short weeks. If you don't like one…don't worry…you won't have to deal with that person in a few weeks.

The biggest gripe I have about UoP is the structure of the learning teams. If it were done differently, I feel they could weed out the skaters who can get by based on the work of other people. Forcing the rotation of teams would be a good way to handle this, because it will discourage familiarity and complacency. At this time, though, if you're a hard-worker and don't want to be doing other peoples' work, UoP might be a frustrating experience.

However, if you commit yourself to get the most out of it you possibly can, it can be very rewarding.

I don't know what other employers think of a UoP degree, but if you're just out to get knowledge that will enable you to be a better businessman or person, and if you're a non-traditional student who doesn't want his time to be wasted idly, you could do much worse than UoP.