No, you have not stumbled onto one of the countless ads for the University of Phoenix. I’m an actual graduate of their business program and want to take the time to be an advocate for the school. I found the program to be incredibly successful for me – I was able to get into law school and managed very well in this environment. My academic success was closely related to the quality of education I received at Phoenix.
You typically have two options at Phoenix: on-ground or on-line. I chose on-ground for my undergraduate business degree and couldn’t be happier. I was taught by local professionals who knew their industry and understood the issues facing them day-to-day. I found the quality of information to be top-notch with my instructors taking the time to provide timely further reading and industry-specific content for us.
I have had the recent opportunity to go to law school and contrast an archaic learning style with that of the modern model at Phoenix. Law school is somewhat unique in that grading is entirely competitive, the classroom style Socratic (“Mr. Hornor, would you please stand and tell me about the Capron case” followed by 15+ minutes of getting grilled), and the environment EXTREMELY high-pressure. The result is that many students avoid genuine networking so they can keep their knowledge close and retain competitive advantages. You can imagine the kind of cut-throat things that go on. It’s not a pleasant place.
Phoenix, on the other hand, has a learning model geared around socializing – you read on your own, discuss on forums, talk in class, write and present as a team, and you also write on your own. Part of the grade is how well you work with a small team to produce a final product. You are eventually going to present this product as a team after working together for several weeks on it.
Phoenix is big enough that they can afford to keep class materials up-to-date. I went to a small private college before later going to Phoenix and saw how old some of the materials were in relation to the industry. Sometimes this is fine – Property law has had few significant changes in the last few HUNDRED years. But would you want a book on websites that’s more than 3-4 years old?
Phoenix often has several textbooks they use in each class. So you will read excerpts from common textbooks as well as current articles in journals. They did not limit themselves to one textbook or curriculum, which I found very useful.
One of the biggest advantages to me as a professional who values lifelong learning is that I get permanent access to the school’s online library. This has hundreds of textbooks in eBook format and access to millions of articles from VERY EXPENSIVE journals.
I frequently read through Harvard Business Review or Journal of Marketing articles…for free. I can typically get these article the same day they hit the streets, sometimes before. This tool alone will be worth the price of tuition in the long-term.
I found the education to be top-notch. I had to work hard for top grades and went outside the curriculum for more information on a topic. The school gave me all the resources through my instructor, the materials, the library, and my peers to be successful. While it is expensive, I could not have taken the time to go to a traditional school. The money and experience I earned while attending school made up for the extra costs many times over.
So my experience has been very positive. I know others did not have the same positive experience, and that is just going to happen in an organization as large as Phoenix. I, too, had a few bad instructors along the way. But education, like life, is what you make of it and often the quality of the experience is in direct relation to the effort you put forth.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
