University of Phoenix - Learning Teams

I enrolled in May of 2009, and started my first class in August of 2009. When I started, I did not like it because every class that you're in has learning teams. I felt that should have been an option for the student to choose, not part of the learning process. The learning teams can affect your academic status and your GPA. I had already transferred from another school to University of Phoenix in search of a better education, so I did not want to keep starting and stopping. I stuck it out for a year. In May of 2010, I took a math class and failed due to my learning team not pulling their weight. That was the icing on the cake, I was ready to leave the school for good.

So I called my academic counselor, Christina **, and asked her about the withdrawal process. She told me what to do, and then transferred me over to my financial aid counselor. I had no problems with my academic counselor, but I did incur some issues with Michelle **, my financial aid counselor. She informed me that if I withdrew that I may owe the school money. I asked her for what reason that would be, my classes should already be paid for, and the money for any additional fees and books should be covered as well. She never explained, she just said that it may or may not take place. So I went ahead and withdrew and sent for my transcripts to be mailed to the house. At the end of June 2010, I received a letter in the mail stating that I owed the University of Phoenix $1225.00 for the last class that I had taken and failed.

So I called my financial aid counselor, and asked her to explain what was going on. This situation made no sense. I couldn't understand why I owed them, when my student loan had already paid for the class. So I asked her, and she told me that Sallie Mae, my lender had requested for my refund to be sent back. Now I have been to two other schools before; and withdrew and failed some classes and never have I had to repay the school for those classes, so I felt like she was trying to get over on me.

So I called Sallie Mae, and they told me my loan had been sold to the Dept of Education, and they gave me the number to reach the person who deals with my loan. I talked to someone there and I asked why had my money had been requested to be sent back to them. The lady told me that they never requested for the funds to be sent back to them, and I was not the only one who was having this issue with this school. The woman told me that $2485.00 was sent back to them without notice at the end of May 2010, beginning part of June 2010. So I told her thank you, and called Michelle back, my financial aid counselor. I explained to her that I had talked my lenders, and what was said.

Now I wanted some answers. She tried to explain that if a student does not pass a class that the money is to be refunded back to the lender, and if you go two weeks or longer with no attendance that the money is sent back. I was furious, because I withdrew the next week after the last class was over, and that does not make any sense, if anything I should owe the Sallie Mae-The Dept of Education, my lender, not University of Phoenix. So I told her that until they could give me a better explanation, because this was not my issue, that I had nothing to say to her. I feel like this is their problem and I should not have to pay them anything. UoP should not have sent the money back, what was the point, the class was already paid for before I started the class in February of 2010 when my disbursement came. Someone please help me, because they are trying put this on my credit history, and I'm trying to get out of debt now. I wasn't able to transfer because of the debt that they are trying to pin on me.

The second collection call I told the guy that I had two things to take care of 1- my mortgage was a month overdue and 2- my water bill shot up to 1200...it's usually only 40 per month. After paying the plumber to fix the leak I then had to pay the water department. He was VERY rude and said "Well we're coming after you". Months later my boss gets a letter stating that I am in default. No one contacted me after that last person called. The company I work for receives government funding so If I'm in default then I can no longer work for them. So not only did they not give me a chance to work something out.Now they are coming to my employer. I have other student loans where I applied for a financial hardship and my account is currently in forbearance. Why can't these people do the same.

I read what the online student had to say about the UOP's online program back in 2-07. I am sorry to say that things have not improved one bit. I am a a family law attorney with a small law practice. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology and would like to get a Master's in Psychology. I thought the UOP was the best way to do this since I could make this happen at my own pace.

During my tenure as a lawyer, I have never come across anyone as hard to get along with as the instructor in my very first class. It was so bad and she was so unprofessional that I had to get out before the end of 3 weeks. Honestly, it is easier being a lawyer. My areas of practice include criminal law (felony), family law, custody, bankruptcy, personal injury, appellate practice, Guardian Ad Litem for the Department of Human Services. If you care about your education, don't even waste your time. Law school was a day in the park compared to the frustration with this school.

The problem with UOP I think is the fact that they have no policies and the part-time instructors are simply flying by the seats of their pants. When someone with a brain questions them, they get defensive and argumentative. Here is just one example of a problem I had: The instructor allowed my learning team to basicaly become a teleconference class. You see, my team did not know how to get around on the computer. The instructor called me on the phone and told me that my teams was having trouble contacting me on the phone and that I needed to be available for a telephone conference Wed night at 8:00 and I needed to give her a good number for where I could be reached. When I wouldn't answer, she posted what seemed like a treatise in the learning team forum directed at me about being a team player and about being professional. We were 3 weeks into this class and no one in my team had even completed the charter, well except for me....and this fact did not seem to bother the instructor. I had written everything in the learning team forum as to what all we needed to do. for the next assignment (due in 5 days). I had it all broken up into parts. The teammates just needed to pick a section and do it. Since no one had gone into the forum to do anything I had everything ready for them and I had talked to two of them on the phone already and they knew they could find me in the forum at 8:00 each night. I told them to check it out. They said they would tell the other two.

But these girls were not comfortable with the online environment so they called the instructor and told her they wanted to do it by phone. They complained that I was never available by phone, so she decided that she would try and call me. She was mad that I would now answer her call so she left me a post in the team member forum telling me to call her. I didn't. She read my posts to the girls but she didn't care. She wanted me to do it by phone. I tried to remind her that this was an online school and that I felt that she should have referred the team to meet me in the learning team forum, not refer me to a teleconference.

Problem is, I talk on the phone all day long and I don't want to talk on the phone while at school. I took an online course, not a telecourse. She got so mad at me!!! And frankly just had no use for me. She felt sorry for the other girls. She was going to get back at me by making me do the whole project I think. There simply was no reason for not placing me in another group right off the bat. All of those girls were not comfortable with the computer, okay no problem...I don't hold that against them. So let them work together. Why does she have to hold me back because of it. None of them had ever heard of powerpoint presentation, which meant that I had to do all of that as well. I felt that she knew that without me, they would be in trouble and might not make it through the class. This is not my problem.

Is this the reason they force the Learning team environment? So the best can take up the slack for the slowest? My best friend is a PhD in Psychology who graduated from a very high ranking University. She stated that she cannot ever remember one single team project throughout her entire program. If UOP has only a 16% graduation rate, I would have to say that the learning team project is not working anyway. Even though it was the Instructor that ultimately caused this dismal failure, it was the learning team that was the actual problem. Had it not been the University's requirement to participate in Learning Teams, the Instructor would have, in my opinion, never become the cause for failure.

In a nutshell, she didn't see it my way. Things got worse, I told her I was going to quit. I talked to my advisor who advised me not to quit so I went back to class and told her I was going to stay in the class. She said she didn't think so and she was going to talk to her chair; they came up with the idea that I could do the entire assignment myself!! Clearly not fair. I said, how is that fair? How can you punish me when it's the other teammates who are not going about this the correct way? And by the way, I am not doing the entire assignment by myself since the teammates only have to each do a portion of the project. I asked her why she was insisting on being so difficult? I asked her to put me in another group...she wouldn't do that. The next day, I was locked out of the forum.

They have not billed me yet, but I have no doubt they will. We shall see.

I began my educational journey for a Bachelors in Accounting degree at University of Phoenix on 8/29/2005 and withrew August of 2007. Two years of school and $19,0000+ in school loan debt and I do not have a degree to show for it. I withdrew from the college because each class that I took I realized that the University does not care about my education. I 'carried' a number of students through classes in the form of Learning teams so I could complete the course with a decent grade.

When I voiced my concern to the instructors, they only told me I needed to 'work it out' with the team members, because if I do not turn in Team work I would not receive credit for the assignment. Team work is responsible for 40% of the grade. I also asked the instructors many questions on subject matter that I did not understand, and the response was always 'work with your learning team'. Well, I was the only person doing the work, I had no one to turn to.

In the two years I attended U of P, I had 4 academic counselors ALL with different/conflicting information. I had 2 financial counselors, both of which rarely returned my calls (until I contacted their manager). I voiced my concerns about the program and the lack of support from teachers and teammates to my counselor at the time, and her response was, I wish you the best of luck. Zero concern about rectifying the situation or directing me to someone who could.

At one time, I attended one night of class and decided I would not be able to finish out the course due to family emergency. I requested a refund (to me or the loan company) and I did not receive the money back because it could only be applied to another class at University of Phoenix, which at this point had/have no interest in attending.

I am $19,000 + in student loan debt, that I cannot afford to pay back. I do not have a degree. I cannot get any more loans to complete a Bachelors degree because I have 'maxed' out my means. I will have to start a degree program from the beginning at another University because my Uof P credits ONLY transfer as Electives.

Deception and lies about classes, aid, fees, and not receiving an education. Classes are not conducted in a structured academic form to learn and take information from them. Class assignments that are due are being changed mid-week before due. Counselor not fully exposing fees and facilities that are receiving my information for aid. Cost of classes exceed the amount of money that can be reimbursed by state funding. They provide 20 hours total of class time for 3 credits. This includes 2 or 3 breaks and 45 minutes at the end of class for teams to work collectively. Our Lecture time therefore, lasts less than 3 hours. The class meets from 6-10 pm.

I faxed a letter of withdrawal before classes started during business hours. I called to verify receiving the fax to Michell in financial aid. She retrieved it and verified she had it in hand. She stated I had to go through Anita to drop. Ok, but she would not accept it. Come to the first class and see how you like it. Knowing that it would cost over $250 every class I showed up for. I applied to receive aid because I could not pay this. Anita said that I may have to pay up to $200 for the academic year out of pocket. My papers say something different. I said I do not want student loans. I am still trying to find out if I have been send to any lenders and to cancel any and all funding.

I started then I quit because I didn't think the school was all they claimed. I HAD to sign into class 4 days a week, my learning teams were not receptive to my ideas and were always saying my questions/projects were too controversial, the instructors agreed. I wanted to talk politics, race, and religion, they thought those topics were not for the class or to do projects on. My thought was every real university has a degree in politics. Plus my undergrad university had religion as a major and there were an abundance of race relations classes.

I figured if these timely topics were taboo then the UoP was not for me. So anyway I had an outstanding balance of $1455 which was to be paid over a 3 month period. The 1st payment I paid on the date agreed upon, the 2nd payment was to be paid 4 weeks later, but I paid it 2 weeks after the 1st payment which made it 2 weeks early. Plus I paid almost double the amount due. So the 3rd and final payment wasn't due until 6 weeks later, but all of a sudden my phones starts ringing off the hook and the letters beging to pile in.

I finally was able to speak with a UoP representative and he yelled at me and told me that I threw their accounting off by my stunt and that I should just pay the final balance today. I told him I had to wait until payday but he was so angry he hung the phone up on me and promptly placed my account in financial collections even though my payment wasn't due for 3 days! I thought the law said you had 6 months before such action could be taken. I didn't even get one day!

I am now in collections and it has impaired my credit! I was just getting my credit back in order after years of financial devastation and a bankruptcy.

Because of the learning teams causing me to have meetings till 3:00am I fell asleep in a meeting at work. I now have a repremand on my record. I am now in the middle of a class without a book. The University of Phoenix promissed I would have one from a student stationed in Germany with the Army.

My counselors told me that it was okay to miss a class and that instructors are flexible with making up assignments or doing assignments early. Well, my second class (which had already been moved from May 5 to May 20) was going to have its final (including an oral presentation with my team) and I was going to be on vacation. My counselor did NOT allow me to change and said I just had to work it out with the instructor. The instructor hadn't a clue and it was a bit of a problem. We agreed that I would do my 5th week presentation at the 4th week's class. So my whole learning team had to do the same to accommodate my vacation!