University of Phoenix Reviews

Before withdrawing from the University of Phoenix, the University of the Rockies ran an audit on my account. The end date of my loan was around May 4th 2010. This is the problem; someone at the University of Phoenix changed my end date from May 4, 2010 to January 2011, which means that I cannot receive the needed money for school. I had a balance of about $2,000 credit which has not been returned Sallie Mae as of August 12, 2010. I have called the University of Phoenix many times trying to get this problem fixed with 100% no results. Sallie Mae stated that this is policy.

It seems to me that the University of Phoenix is punishing me for leaving the university by changing the dates on my loan. I am starting to go into a deep depression because I want to better myself and try to work helping other Veterans with PTSD in the future. What has happened to me is wrong and it feels the same way when I returned home from Vietnam. If you need confirmation about the changing of dates, you may talk with Stephanie **, Senior Financial Services Advisor at University of the Rockies.

I respectively request this exception to policy so I may reenter school as soon as possible. Any help in this matter will be deeply beneficial not only in helping me cope with my PTSD, but one day it may allow me to reenter our society and allow me to help other Veterans in need. I have to study very hard in school and at the end of the day. I am mentally exhausted which helps keeping my nightmares and flashbacks down and has allowed me to reduce that amount of medications I take each morning and night. Because of this policy, I am having more nightmares and flashbacks and have to increase my medical dose of Citalopram Hydrobromide, Clonazepam, Temazepam, and Hydroxyzine Pamoate.

After I completed a course with the Goodwill Job ready department a counselor there thought it might be a good idea to obtain another degree here in the USA. I ended up in an interview at the University of Phoenix in June 2008. I was interested in a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology with concentration on Web Development. My enrollment officer was Mrs. Blanka **, and she told me that the University of Phoenix has a department that helps students find a job after they completed some of the classes with good grades. She also said that especially Verizon would hire UOP students.

After I had about 5 classes completed I tried to find out about that department and I learned that the UOP does not have such department. Nobody ever heard about Verizon hiring UOP students either. I decided to stick with the University and complete my degree, because I still thought that this will eventually bring me the opportunity to find a job. I completed so far 20 classes and I had nothing but problems with the team environment. I am an A-grade student and I had a very hard time to keep my A grades. Up to 40% of the grades are related to the team assignment.

However, in every team I have been so far there were up to 2 or 3 people they did not pull their weight. The reasons were primarily disqualifications, time issues, family issues, etc. To make sure the team gets the full grades I always covered up and took in most of the classes the whole burden of writing the paper and creating the PP. I learned that such unqualified students had sometimes a 0 in their homework but the teachers at the end worked something out with them that they passed the class with a C-. This did not help me much, because I had them in my team again the next class. I filled out the surveys and complained about the unqualified students but I was told that unfortunately I would have to deal with them since the UOP has the team environment as a mandatory part in the degrees.

Finally, I was fed up and I wanted to transfer to another University. I am finished with the first term and the funds for the second term have not been transferred yet. This enabled me to stop the classes and change the college code in my FAFSA application over to the new University. Unfortunately, it seems that UOP did something that I have not been aware of until this year. Me and my husband are in bankruptcy chapter 13 and when I have to apply for the new student loans I need to have those first approved by the bankruptcy court. Therefore, my finance councilor has to send me an email with the amount of the loan package that I was eligible for, the amount of what the classes would cost, and the interest rate. I got such email in March 2010 that told me I was eligible in my third year as a senior for $ 12,500. The classes the way they were set up would cost $ 11,000. The bankruptcy court sent me a notification on the first of April 2010, that I can obtain a student loan in the amount of $ 12,500.

That would have covered more than what the classes would cost. After I tried to withdraw from the UOP and I tried to get an official transcript I found out that there was a balance of $230, which should not be there. I saw in the paper work, that the UOP did not apply for the full $ 12,500 instead they only applied for $ 9,600. This would leave me with an amount of over 1000 Dollar short at the end of the second term. Now they put a lock on my transcript so I could transfer my credits yet. I contacted the UOP and suddenly nobody wants to be responsible for that. My finance councilor does not respond to my email and did not return a call where I left a voice mail. I wrote to my academic councilor and got an email back that she unfortunately is not able to help me with that matter since she does not work in the finance department.

I am not sure if the UOP does intentionally apply for less money so they can tie students to the University since such student would not be able to transfer the credits until the difference is paid. I cannot afford to pay out of pocket money and that is why I applied for federal loans, but what can I do when the University does not apply for the full amount without asking me first?

The University I wanted to transfer to is Lipscomb University and now I am signed off the classes at UOP but I am not able to transfer my credits over to Lipscomb to be able to get the application started. This is a bad situation since the loans I obtained so far make up around $ 20,000 since 2008. I want to finish and graduate, especially with an average GPA of 3.8. I am frustrated now and I don't know what to do. I need help to solve the problem with UOP. They just try every trick to keep students in their school. The physical damage is that I have a huge amount of loans out there and I cannot transfer to another University to finish my degree and find me a job. I won't be able to get a job with only half way through a degree. Without job my husband and I eventually will have to file bankruptcy chapter 7 and lose everything. We would be out on the streets, because he bought the house we live in with a VA loan.

I got an email from Sallie Mae November 2009 -- almost a year after I had told the representative that I would not be enrolling. The request was denied by Sallie Mae as I happened to be filing a bankruptcy at the time. I am sitting here wondering if that institution is going to attempt other strange things with whatever information they ran off with. And I need to know what I can do before anything much worse happens. And do I file a complaint against the credit companies as well? Because that should not be on my report. I did not authorize anyone to submit a loan request and I did not sign any paperwork.

I explained to Mrs. Womack that I wanted to attend school for Accounting and she said, "Then what you are looking for is an Associates of Arts degree with concentration in Accounting." She then explained it was a two-year course and around $8000 a year. I then applied for a student loan and due to my financial state to help pay for internet and survive, I maxed out my student loan and was sent a letter for my disbursement dates being May 19, 2010, and August 30, 2010. On May 19, 2010, I received my first disbursement as I was told and contacted my financial advisor Serena ** and asked if I should fill out my financial aide application for the 2010-011 school year and she said no we will do that in August.

So, a week before my second disbursement I called Mrs. ** on the phone to inquire about the 2010-2011 FAFSA application, and to change my disbursement to direct deposit. It was then that I was advised by Serena that I would only be receiving something like $25 disbursement and I should apply for another student loan. I was just beginning my third semester and Serena explained that my academic year for my loan was April 2010 to August 2010, and it was the beginning of a new grant year. I asked what about my second half of my Pell grant, what happens to this money and she explained and then got her manager on the phone to explain.

Her manager explained to me whenever I got around to sending the grant paper work in which should be around eleven days from now, and because we are now in a new grant year we send your second half of the grant back. She then asked, "Do you now understand?" I then replied, "Yes, I do understand because I started school when I did I screwed myself out of the second half of my grant and you are going to keep it." Her reply was, "We don't like to put it that way." I told her that there was no way I could pay my internet bill or pay for Microsoft Word program that was needed for school and I had recently been using a trial that Mrs. ** referred me to and expired in three days from now.

Serena's manager then replied to me, "$2,675 will not pay your bills for any length of time and money in hand is money spent." How long did it take me to spend my last disbursement? I do not know what to do I don't have any money, and now the school is keeping my second half of grant disbursement and using title Federal IV for their excuse. I believe this is unfair and they never had any intentions on meeting my financial needs. This school does not have any care in the world about your financial needs, they just want you to apply for another loan and more financial aide. I want University of Phoenix to disburse my other half of aide to me or use toward my tuition.

I feel this is a complete scam and now that I have built a little self-esteem back up, I would like to know who I contact about these issues. I believe this is very wrong of the University. How can they be allowed to keep half of my Pell? I reviewed Title IV and it says any student dropping out or that does not meet attendance meaning was not going to continue to attend to meet the requirement for the complete year. If anyone can advise me on who to speak with on this matter, I would greatly appreciate it. This school is in it for the money.

Well I got the Pell and still got the loan. They said just use the money. I got for stuff I needed and I would be fine confusing me a little with this. I did get the supplies I needed then I had a problem with a class where one paper was not accepted and I failed that class. They put me on academic probation then I got a C minus in a class and I got thrown out of the school.

They say I can't continue for six months then I have to pay back all of the money and try all over again. Also, I was told that I should have no problems in the school since I did the FASFA and that I would have no problems since I did know a bit about computers. Then with a surprise to me, I had to take four or five classes that where all English classes and basically the same class just with a little change to each. I then got put off and put off about my I.T. classes and all of sudden I am supposed to start one. I get failed for a C minus. And they also knew that I only have a G.E.D and I dropped out basically in the 8th grade and signed myself out in the 10th.

A few months later, I got a call from Angela, which was my enrollment counselor and she offered me a good deal. The good deal was to return to the university and do well in my block classes and I will be forgiven for the outstanding balance that I owed, which was $1805 for 2 classes. In returning to UOP, I finished that block of classes with two A's. When it came time for my reimbursement, I tried to contact my financial aid counselor and he was never anywhere to be found. I wanted to know what happened to my refund for that block of classes. He never called me back.

So I went into my account and I saw where they took the $1805 out of my disbursement after they said they would forgive me if I did well in the block of classes. That whole 18 weeks of classes, I only received $300.00. Whereas my refund should have been 5 times more. I also took a class and went all the way through the class with a passing grade and it came time to turn in the final and working on the final time was getting ready to change over to daylight savings time. I was not aware that Phoenix did not participate in daylight savings time. So I was ready to submit my paper and it was a few minutes before the deadline. I submitted my paper and I was notified a week later that the paper was late and could not be accepted, so, therefore, I failed the class.

It is amazing in what people can get away with. I did 3 appeals and every one of them was denied without a reason. This school is money-hungry and I feel that it is a scam. As long as they have you on the edge, they milk you for all you have. I received my AA in health care administration and I decided that it would be easier to just continue with the BA. Well, to my surprise, I was not told about team learning working in a group. The first week of classes for my BA was unbelievable. For one of the class was for those that were not familiar with online learning and at the end of the first you are put into teams. I called and told my counselor with my schedule and how I work team and that learning was not for me.

Well, the first I heard was the financial counselor will call you and let you know how much you owe for that week of classes. $420 for one week of a class that has nothing to do with my degree. I feel that they are oppressing those that want to do better for themselves and making it harder for them to see a way that it can be done. The result of this experience has left me in debt with thousands of dollars of loans and most of the money I see it not being accounted for. If there is a civil suit, include me in it.

During the following week when class started, I was disgusted, lost, and felt lied to and scammed. After the first break in class I questioned and complained to the teacher and asked him if all the classes pretty much ran that way (everything online and groups). He said yes. I wanted to go off and crazy. The next day, I called my advisor and she laughed and hooked me up to someone else that tried to talk me down out of withdrawing. Then she put me on the phone with an academic counselor and financial aid advisor on a three-way call.

After all the talk and convincing that I was doing the wrong thing because the financial aid papers were already processed, I stayed for another miserable class. Mind you that the first partial check has come in the mail now. I called the school and told them that I didn't want the pitiful check and they told me that's it's gonna cost me more to send it back and drop the coming class than keeping it. Later, I cashed the little check and went to the second class. That class experience was worst than the first. I called again and told them to please withdraw me from there because things were not getting any better. I received more convincing phone calls and laughter persuading me that it will be more expensive and worst to withdraw.

When the third class started, I withdrew, not caring about what phone calls I received from them. Now, today, I owe the University of Phoenix school and student loan more money than I was given. I cannot return to any school and pursue my career without financial aid or grants because the University of Phoenix bamboozled me!

Unfortunately, I was told these 5 months before my expected graduation date, I had passed all of my English and Science classes required by paying full tuition for the class and spending 9 weeks completing it. All I had left to try was the Math CLEP and because of the last minute information about the class, I only had one shot at it. You can take each CLEP test once every 6 months. I took the CLEP test for math and was told that I have passed because all I needed was 50%. My score was 44 out of 60. Even though I had it in writing that I had passed, I received a letter 6 weeks later that I had failed and would not be receiving my Associates Degree.

Keep in mind, at this point, I had been told I had passed and had my degree and I had told my family and friends! So, I settle in with the fact that I would have to take these last 2 Math courses to complete my degree. I was told that I could get funding and last Tuesday, I received a letter confirmation that I had been approved for financial aid. I opened my mail tonight, my classes start today, and receive a letter dated last Wednesday, 1 day after I was approved from University of Phoenix stating that my aid has been cancelled! This university is absolutely ridiculous and I am furious at yet another screw up on someone's part!

As a side note, I have had no issues with the classes. Unlike some reports I have read, I spend an average of 6 nights a week, minimum 2 hours each, online. I find the classes challenging though I think some of the teachers go a little crazy with the grading spectrums. Lesson learned, do not say you are good at a particular subject, the instructors seem to try to prove you're not after statements like that.

The University of Phoenix sent my loans back to the lender and told me that I am now responsible for this money. I am on disability income, and I suffer from acute anxiety. They still call me every single day, sometimes up to 8 times per day to hassle me about the money that I owe. When I gather up enough courage to answer the phone, the company bullies me and talks over me.

While in attendance at the online university, the amount of each class has went up significantly as well as the cost of the online course materials. I feel as if I was conned into enrolling as well as the amount that it would cost me to receive my associate degree.

Now they have stopped me from continuing with only three months left, unless I pay a sum of about 1200.00 dollars. I cannot afford this right now and I should be have funds left from the massive loans they have coerced me to take. I spoke to my counselor and he was very nonchalant about the situation. I feel that as long as you are paying there is no problem. Once you do have a problem, no one cares and no one tries to help out. I am waiting another week before I start to take legal action.

I stayed in school over a year with loans from Sallie Mae. I failed one class because I had an instructor who was very strict and disrespectful. I was forced to take the class all over again. They took that money for that class I failed. Then, they also took the money out again when my second semester loan came along. I became ill, and my husband who is disabled became very ill also. So, I called my counselor and told her I was going to have to drop out because of the illnesses. I no longer could attend class. Now they want me to pay them back, and Sallie Mae does to. I cannot pay either of them. I think they shafted me at the very beginning. Now I am stuck with this on my credit reports. UOP did not contact me but one time. They told me they sent the money from Sallie Mae back to them. I cannot tell I still owe them 10,000 dollars. I need help!

I don't even know what I am applying for at this time. I do know that they are saying my case has been chosen for review by the government, and I need to send in income tax copies and other verification means. I am at the point not certain I want to continue my education and I only have three blocks of courses to finish. The education is no better through UOP than if I was to read a book and learn myself. Additionally, I have tried to contact many of the "instructors" to be told that they are only "facilitators" and that I should "read the material and figure it out. "

The material is a joke. For instance, I used one text book as a reference in my other current class. My instructor blasted my response in a public forum telling me my information was outdated and incorrect. I took it straight from my text book for the other course. The instructors make up their own rules for the courses and deduct points when you don't comply, even if their rules are different from the syllabus they claim is the final word. I have had points deducted for not participating.

Each time, I have went back and copied and pasted my participation, and proved that I was entitled to the points. I should not have to be the teacher and the student. Many of the instructors are not in the classroom for days on end. I have found that if I ask questions at least three days prior to the due date, I might get an answer in time to submit the work correctly. I am a good student with a current 3.89 GPA. This grade came from my own hard work and dedication and working with other students for support. I have reported all the issues to my academic counselor as they happened. I have completed all the after course surveys and to no avail. The lousy curriculum continues. It would be a real shame for me to quit this far into the game, but I just feel that I am wasting more money every day.

From November of 2009 all the way through June, I continuously asked would doubling up courses effect my financial aid. I was informed "no" there would not be a problem. So, I moved forward based on the information provided and reassured by my advisors.

After graduation, I was informed by my financial advisor that doubling up did effect on my financial aid and I owe the school two thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars. I question why was I given the wrong information over and over again. My decision to double up was based on the confirmation given from my Academic and Financial advisor. So now, I am sitting with a balance, I have no way to obtain an official transcript, and I am not listed as graduate status. In addition, I found out the degree I have obtained (fourty thousand dollars) in debt later. My degree is a Science in Psychology degree which limits by employment options. For the field I was intending to pursue.

I was misled, fraudulently informed and through continuously contacting the supervisor of financial aid, I keep getting the run around. I am unable to apply for jobs based on no official transcript. University of Phoenix has fraudulently represented there Masters in Psychology program. Gave misinformation on financial availability. And I cannot get any help from the school, or return phone calls. I am looking into suing the Advisors on behalf of University of Phoenix. Can you please help me. The consequences, presented based on faulty information has put me in debt for "forty thousand dollars." I am unable to seek employment based on the unavailability of my official transcript. And I am not even considered a graduate, although I walked in June 15, 2010. The more time that passes the further in debt I am getting.

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.

A day went by and I received a call from the financial guy and he stated that I have to give them my tax info, that it was a requirement from the federal student aid department and title 4 funding. I asked the financial guy what statutes state that they need this, he said he did not know but my tax info was required for title 4. I called the fsas people and spoke to them numerous times and they stated that it was not a requirement, that they have my info and that the only thing they needed was to know that I had been approved for funding both through a pell grant and loans. I explained this to the supervisor of enrollment and to the supervisor of finance. Both of whom stated that they were each other's friend so they would have to team together.

This school is a for profit school according to the financial supervisor so I'm sure they're going to lead you to get loans instead of grants. I now have to pursue other schools to get my degree. I have lost sleep due to their phone calls and almost a relationship with my spouse due to all the personal info they have requested.

Today, I came online to see what the negative news is all about, finding this site and reading a long list of complaints, of which many I share with others. From being lied to in the beginning by an enrollment counselor about issues of financial aid and zero out-of-pocket expenses, of which I needed to be guaranteed because of extreme financial hardship, to no mention of "Learning Teams", to being told that there are ridiculous learning teams but only in a few classes when they are part of every class. I am extremely dissatisfied with this joke of a school that has no idea of the definition of academic excellence. UP is deceitful and is ripping people off. It is obvious what it is after, money and money only. I cannot drive a block without seeing a billboard advertisement, hearing and seeing commercials and ads every where. I am not a Phoenix and do not want to be associated with this school and only have 3 classes to go until done, so I will ride it out.

My issues are that I have had a lot of out-of-pocket expenditures when I was supposed to have none. We even pay for the price of a textbook, but do not get the books and can only view them online. We cannot reuse the same text and are charged again when another class uses the same text. The tuition is as expensive as topnotch schools when this is far from that. Anyone can be in the these classes if they have the money to, so there are people in my classes that could not pass out of high-school English, which makes it very hard to be in discussions with them. The course requirements are geared for less-educated students, which make it boring for those that are more educated, and with regard to learning teams, they are a joke.

I am typically the only one on my team who understands team assignments, so not only do I have to bring teammates up to speed, I am often teaching them more than the instructors do. Often, I have had to carry the team because 30% of my grade is based on team effort, yet I am not getting paid, and it causes me to put way more hours into school than I should have to. I am surprised to read that some students had failed classes because I have never seen it. Students are promoted, whether they deserve it or not because the school cares way more about bringing that money in than it does about educating people.

With regard to instructors, most are horrid and do horrible jobs. Often is the case when it's obvious that I know way more than they do, yet some are PhDs. From where? Yes, you guessed right, University of Phoenix. Two, including the one that I have right now, have been indescribably inept, yet complaining about anything never makes a difference. They keep teachers no matter what. My first bad experience should have been refunded to me because I got nothing out of it but a bad a grade, and there was no way to challenge it.

That's wrong! The school sides with instructors always. The college where I taught did not and did, as all good schools do, value the students, represent them well, and get to the bottom of issues between instructors and students, but not this one. I was told after the first complaint that I should have complained sooner. This time I complained in the first week, and they still don't care and will do nothing about this inept, unorganized, and rude instructor, and the after-class surveys do nothing to initiate improvement.

In addition to being ripped off, lied to, not receiving value, and having to deal with corporatism and a profit-driven school, I am kicking myself for staying in this very expensive program because I am afraid that my degree will not be taken seriously, though I am a serious student, making certain to get a serious education by taking the subject matter much deeper than the school does. I will not ever return to or recommend this school, nor will many of the students that I have met along the way.

It should be avoided at all cost if one is serious about education for it is clearly making money and passing out easy degrees. I have had many out-of-pocket expenditures when I was told that there would be none. I have been lied to about when refunds will arrive, they never come on time even when the school says that they were mailed weeks before. I wasted 6 weeks and over a $1000 on a course that I got nothing from except to be harassed by crazy instructor and a bad grade.

You can not sit on your rear-end and let someone figure out your schedule and financials. Your academic advisers are there to guide you, not to make the decisions for you.You need to take an active role in and outside the classroom. They have been wonderful to work with around my personal schedule more than local community college in the area was willing to do.People need to own up to their on mistakes instead of blaming others.

If people don't start owning up to their mistakes and expecting others to do the work for them. I may be out of an education that is helping me advance and fulfill my dreams!

I really want to get the answers this week ASAP and be able to graduate soon, next summer in 2011 and then continue my education with CTU and a BA in Network Administration. I am currently taking my AA in the art of Information Technology with UOP. The nightmares about this University of Phoenix seem to become a reality. I called Rhea ** for answers about my financial aid and she said, “Oh, I will call you back. Blah, blah, blah”. “Oh, I was out to the office due to family issues. “Blah, blah, blah” “Uhm, okay you could have your co-worker call me or your manager.” Gee, I thought my financial aid was important, I guess not. So it’s coming down to after the 29th of this month of August, 2010, if this bullshit with UOP continues, I am so dropping out of their university and demanding an immediate transfer over to CTU.

So far, I have too much student loan for what I am getting out of the classes. I am mega stressed. I work two jobs, I have two teenagers at home (good kids) but it take work. My son is coming home from Iraq and I will fall behind, because I will go to NY to see him. If I could talk to my advisor, I would have taken a break this nine weeks, but no, he will not communicate with me.

The letter says it all. I was 4 classes away from receiving my masters in education and because I took a year off, they discarded 12 out of 14 courses that I took at their university. These were not transfer classes. I took every course there and now they are saying none of them are worth anything. In fact, they are telling me to take the same courses again, they just changed the course number. I received student loans for these courses so I am not $15,000 in the hole for nothing. Everyone on those dollars has to be repaid by me and now they are asking me to continue with them and pay another $20,000 and more for the same courses and information.

A week passed and I was still taking classes. I was informed that I needed to go to my tax preparer and pay to have a 1040x done to correct my married status. I had to pay $100.00 to have it done, money I did not have. After that was completed, I was informed that my FAFSA did not go through. I was then told to call FAFSA to see what I needed to do to correct it. As time went on I was in my eighth week of class and was told that I did not have financial aid and that I would have to pay $2,210.00, money that I do not have. Now each week I receive a letter from the school informing me that I owe the money. I am writing this letter too inform others not to go through this. They rush you through the process and you are faxing in paper work, something they should be doing.

As a result of all the stress, I didn't pass my classes. My house payment is behind due to the fact that I used money faxing and paying for taxes to be corrected. Now I am in debt to them and I don't know how I am going to pay this off

In my most recent class, fortunately, I had a wonderful instructor but the class dates were changed 6 times. Each time we were dropped and re-enrolled and were charged another $2,500. The classes were scheduled 8 hours consecutively on Saturdays which was extremely stressful. I wrote to the director of student counseling, my admission counselor, a supervisor in financial services and even the president of the university but not one responded. So I withdrew after this class is over at July 24, 2010. I was informed that my financial aid will be sent back and that I will owe them $2,500 for the current class. It makes no sense to me. It feels like financial blackmail.

Now in May of 2010, I decided that I really should finish my degree. I decided to try a different school. I get accepted and begin the financial aid process and this time everything is explained in much greater detail. Also, I am told that there are forms that I will have to printout, physically sign and return by fax or regular mail to the school. This was never required by University of Phoenix.

A few days later, I got a phone call from a financial advisor that I have a student loan that is in default status. I am confused. I never had a student loan. I had a grant. I even had a refund check because University of Phoenix told me that the grant was larger than I needed to cover tuition and books. There made no mention of a student loan of any kind that was ever made. For 3 years, I received no paperwork and no notices of any kind. The financial advisor at the new school advised me to go onto a clearinghouse type website where I found that there were originally three student loans out in my name.

Two were returned and the third is the one I currently owe. It has taken me 6 weeks to get someone from the collection agency that now owns the debt to speak to me. The first agent was so rude that when I asked to speak with her supervisor she hung up on me. The second agent was very helpful and explained how to file a dispute which I am doing.

No sooner than I hit, send Janne **** had returned my call and was very rude in telling me that I owed UOP money for withdrawing before my block of classes were up. Not only are they taking my $2,210.00 credit from me but they are telling me that I owe them money. I’m sure what they are doing is a scam and is very illegal. I would like to have a class action lawsuit against them because now I cannot enroll in any other school until the balance from UOP is paid in full which is unfair. I do not owe them money. I should be able to withdraw at anytime just like they state.

During my experience, I was struggling with cohesiveness in my learning team (which they require) and could not get advise from any of the professors. As a matter of fact, one professor rarely even showed up for class. What was I paying for? I emailed and called and never got help from the university. Then when I was forced to try to withdraw, I was not told of the consequences and then lost my financial aid unless I retook the entire course. Isn't this legal extortion? Now my aid has been sent back to the government, they will not return my calls, I have a huge bill and a wasted year behind me. I did have one person offer to help me in the financial aid department, but an hour after I emailed him my documentation, he conveniently did not work there any longer.

What kind of higher institution is this? A lesson for sure in deceit but not in decency!

When I was advised by my counselor at that time to drop the class before I owe money for it, usually before the first two classes happened, I did. One of them was Algebra. I told him that I would not be able to complete this class with good grades before I had some pre-algebra or tutoring before it. He advised me then to drop it since they did not have pre-algebra, and I could not make the sparse tutoring classes because of work. So I dropped it, thinking that I did not owe anything because it was done early. My last class - after the F - my counselor advised me to drop since I was in transition of changing schools and I would owe if I attended the classes.

So with the F class to worry about, I dropped the class after so that I would not incur more fees. Now that I am in dispute with my F class, my teacher has not validated my F mark. It is still unresolved. UOP tells me now that I will owe for my algebra, my dropped research class, and now my F class. They are witholding my transcripts until this money is paid for, and I am unemployed. My teacher graded me the F based on a verbal disagreement with the Power Point presentation and not based on academics. I am still in dispute. But UOP want their money anyway.

I live on $145.00 a week unemployment. The unemployment in this state is at 15%. UOP get tons and tons of money because of low income people like me. Now they want something for nothing and are unwavering in their demands. They are nasty and unreasonable. I followed the rules with regard to class dropping and submitting my work accordingly to get my last class to a passing status. Even a D would have been appropriate for all the work that was submitted. All of the research done and all the work was handed in on time. The teachers do not care about us. The school is a liar when they pass their UOP Foundation off as caring for low income families. Read their website on their UOP Foundation. I have submitted my dispute to the Office of Dispute Management. I will have to wait and hear. I would love to join a class-action lawsuit if there was one going on.

Many students I spoke with said that UOP has been strong-arming them out of money for years and no one seems to do anything about it. Their mission about helping low-income people get back to school and earn a degree is a false. They grab your tuition and loans and they get paid while you don't. I am in my second year (16 months) of school at UOP, and have gotten on two financial aid disbursements so far. One of them had to pay for my dropped Algebra class. Tony suggested I take a 6-month leave and let the tuition reset itself. You know what this means? This means that you don't get to go to school and they still get paid for your attendence. Yes - they still get tuition for you and you don't have the benefit of going to school for six (6) months. Now if that isn't crooked, then what is? Getting paid for a student who does not attend classes?

I feel trapped and I feel like my transcripts are being held hostage when I did not do anything wrong. Emotionally, I am drained, fearful, and depressed for my family, my money, and my future. I feel like I have been shylocked out of money, my future, and my family's future. I feel like I did all the work so far to get good grades (every bit of work and research was submitted for that F class and it is on the OLS website but she gave me an F anyway) - I feel like my dreams of a good future for my family, my tuition, and my disbursements have been scavenged. I did not deserve that F and my teacher cannot validate it. We disagreed on something small and minor on the final powerpoint presentation and now I get an F. How can I trust anyone to do the right thing anymore when all they care about is money. And teachers give out "emotional grades" not "academic grades" when I have worked hard to get a good grade in SCI220.

If I had known then I would not have signed on the line. I am trying to get an associates IT information technology. I am currently taking classes that do not have anything to do with that field and I started questioning it myself. I'd like to know if there is a way to withdraw before the second block starts, which is two weeks away. I would like to know if I can get the money that has been applied to my second block, which I will not be attending back so I can go to a school that starts me off with first day hands on training in the IT field. I am in fear of them taking the loan money that I could use at another institute and me still paying it back. I didn't know that this college was like this, I was filled with false assurance and have paid 2200 dollars on two classes that I learned in high school and possibly having to pay for two or more that I will not be taking. I feel humiliated and like a fool.

I have to eat, too, somewhere along the way. I am so upset over this I have not been able to sleep now. I cannot eat because my stomach hurts from crying so much due to my financial problems, and my own university will not do anything to help me get my money. I am going for my AA in Medical Billing Administration, it was my dream that they are bringing to an end. I am so emotionally stressed, and mentally I can’t think to do my home work, I even have a letter of recommendation from one of my instructors in Pathology. They won’t allow me to get a copy of my transcript so I can use it to help me find a job. I can not eat, sleep, and think. I do not know what to do any more. Can someone help me?

I have had nothing but positive experiences. During one class, my father had a heartache and he lives about 15 hours away. I left right away to go help take care of him. I forgot to send my final project for a class before I left. I got a zero on that project, but still managed to finish the class with a low C. Was I proud of the grade? Of course not. Did I blame my instructor or the university for my grade? No. I am an adult, and as such, I am responsible for my life and what I need to do. If all the people complaining stepped back, I believe they will realize that these problems are of their own making.

I started attending the University of Phoenix in September 2008 as a student of Axia online. Having difficulty with online learning, I received a non-passing grade in environmental science. The non-passing grade in conjunction with the grade of D minus in cultural diversity brought my grade point average down below a 2.0. As a result, in June 2009, I was placed on academic probation and was required to retake environmental science before I could continue with my regular schedule.

I retook environmental science barely passing with a grade of D minus. This brought my grade point average up to a 1.9 and I was encouraged by my academic advisor Lisa ** not to become discourage because I still had three remaining classes to reach and maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or higher according to the terms of the Axia's academic policy. At this time, I decided that the grounds campus would better suit my learning style and began the transfer process before my next class at Axia took place.

I started classes at the University of Phoenix Atlanta/Dunwoody campus in October 2009. Shortly after, I received a letter from UoP stating that I have been placed on academic probation starting October 23, 2009. I immediately contacted my enrollment counselor Demetri ** as well as my academic counselor Teneika ** (both by phone) to correct the error. They assured me that they would look into getting the correct information and make the necessary changes. Demetri also informed me that if they cannot confirm the information with Axia, I would have to file an appeal.

By the end of my first class with the ground campus, this issue had not yet been resolved. I then contacted Teneika again by phone in regards to my academic probation dates. I left numerous messages and requested a meeting, eventually I contacted Lisa ** and asked if she would send a copy of the academic probation letter that I received from Axia in June 2009 to Ms. ** as I was having trouble finding my copy. Lisa ** followed up with me a week later, letting me know that she sent an email to Teneika, but had not heard back from her to confirm she received it. By this time, I was nearing the end of my second class with the ground campus and beginning to have growing concerns about my upcoming class as well as the unresolved academic probation issue.

I tried again to contact Teneika by phone, this time she returned my call. I expressed to her that I was concerned that with my upcoming class being a 400 level class that I may not have the required skill set to successfully complete the class. I also inquired about the preferred class sequence, questioning why my schedule was not following this sequence for my program. Teneika told me that the sequence was more suggested then required, that the University of Phoenix does not necessarily follow a prerequisite curriculum. I then told her that after looking at the sequence, I would much rather my classes be scheduled accordingly with the exception of math. I asked if we could try to schedule the two math classes in the summer because I would have more flexibility in my schedule for tutoring if I need it.

She then encouraged me to try the Philosophy 458 class and she would call me after a week to work out other arrangements if I felt I still needed it. Ending the conversation with Teneika, I asked if she would have any information about my academic probation status soon. I reiterated to her my concern for being placed in a 400 level class was also due to that fact that my grade point average has been firm above a 2.0 and this next class should be my final re-qualifying class. I did not want to risk suspension because of a class too high in level for the stage in my program.

A week into the class I realized my concerns were valid. I tried to contact Teneika via phone, email and with another meeting request. She did not respond. I contacted my finance advisor Priscilla ** to see if she could put me in contact with Teneika. Still I did not hear from Teneika. Not knowing what to do, I continue to attend class, struggling every week.

Finally, after the last day of class, I received a call from Teneika. Angrily, I told her I failed the class. I asked what my options were since it was too late to withdraw from the class and how is this going to affect my academic probation. I was fearful of needing to pay for another class retake as well as being suspended. Teneika told me I would not have to pay for an immediate retake, that I would have a balance and it would come out of my next Pell grant disbursement. She continued by telling me I still have one class to re-qualify. I corrected her, reminding her that wasn't true due to the fact that my academic probation started in June 2009 and not October 2009. Her reply was something to the effect of keeping your academic probation status with a start date of October could benefit you since you received a non-passing grade in this class.

I then asked if I receive a correction to my status, but still maintained a 2.0 in spite of my non-passing grade in philosophy, am I then qualified to come off academic probation. I asked this because I had gotten conflicting information from what I received about the policy while attending Axia. She replied yes, the policy states that you have to maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or high for 4 classes after being placed on academic probation. I told her that at Axia I was told, I had successfully complete four classes and maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or high to re-qualify. I asked if the policies were different. She said slightly different, even though they are all University of Phoenix, they are two different schools in a sense.

My introduction to psychology class was scheduled with the same instructor I recently had for philosophy, which I later found out was not a common practice of the UoP when it comes to students who have received non-passing grades from that instructor before. However, I did not argue against this because staying with my learning team was a bigger priority.

By this time, I was feeling very discouraged and helpless considering my prior issues; academic probation status and changing my class schedule were not being addressed or resolved. During this time, a family member attempted to commit suicide. On a family emergency, I rushed out of town. I contacted Teneika to let her know my situation. I told her I would be able to make attendance for class and I asked if I could get a two-day extension on my assignment.

She told me an extension would most likely be denied but I could try for a tuition withdrawal credit. I asked how this would affect my financial aid and academic status. I was under the impression that she was still working on correcting my status. She said that it would not affect my academic status and she would have Priscilla call me to explain the effects on my financial status. Priscilla told me I would be asking for the accrued cost of the current class to be transferred to my next class because of an emergency withdrawal.

Not wanting a withdrawal on my record, I again asked how this is better than a two-day assignment extension. She did not have an answer. I reluctantly, agreed to file for a tuition credit. I received the credit and later entered into human factors in technology, another 400 level class. Upset, I tried again to contact Teneika but soon gave up. I was weary and fighting to get through an elective, I did not choose and did not need for my program. Then around the second to last week of class, I received a letter stating that starting on June 28, 2009, I was being placed on financial probation due to excessive withdrawals and non-passing grades.

I contacted both Priscilla and Teneika by phone. I received a call back first from Teneika during the last week of class, during class, which Teneika stated she wasn't aware I had class and then from Priscilla after the class ended. I let them know that I was never placed on financial probation while attending Axia because during my time at Axia, I only received one non-passing grade which would not count for excessive. I also disputed the fact that having only one non-passing and one withdrawal at the ground campus would qualify for excessive, especially considering the fact that the financial probation policy states that a student will be placed on financial probation for excessive non-passing and withdrawals during an academic year; my academic year started in October 2009.

Teneika said they are compiling all of my non-passing a withdrawals since enrolling with UoP including Axia online. I questioned how the UoP could back date financial probation status and not academic probation status. Priscilla told me that she just recently received information that I was in financial probation at Axia. I questioned this because I had now finished my fourth grounds campus class and just now receiving this information. If I were on financial probation, why would I have been granted a tuition withdrawal credit, which I would not have applied for if this had been disclosed as a possible outcome, and again the policy states financial probation status is governed by academic year.

Eventually, I was financially disqualified without explanation. Feeling extremely discouraged, I did not pass the human factors in technology class. I went on to voice my concerns to Bruce **, supervisor of financial affairs in Atlanta. Bruce thanked me for expressing my concerns, said he was aware of my situation and had been working on resolving the issue. A week or so later, I received an email from Rarkimm ** explaining I was being academically suspended because upon further investigation, the environmental retake class I mentioned above, brought my grade point average down to 1.9 (below a 2.0) which caused me to be placed me academic probation as of October 23,2009. The error with this statement is, although the initial non-passing grade in environmental science had been replaced in the factoring of my GPA with the D minus I received in the retake, the initial non-passing grade is what brought my GPA down in the first place, thus making the science retake my first re-qualifying attempt.

Since receiving the email from Rarkimm, I have requested a copy of both the June 2009 and October 2009 academic probation letters from the central offices. I only received a copy of the October letter and an email requesting I sign a third party release form for the June letter. Without being allowed to continue with classes, my loan money has been sent back to the loan company and I am now being asked to settle the balance as stated by my new finance counselor Kyle ** who also informed me that they have confirmed that my academic probation did in fact begin in June 2009. However, I am still required to settle the balance before I am allowed to return to the university.

I did not believe that this institution would not have the integrity to correct their error and fix my academic status, but would have the audacity to hound me for money I would not owe had the error not been made. It would seem to me that if the university corrected my academic status in October 2009, I would have qualified to come off academic probation after finishing the philosophy class if Teneika's interpretation of the academic policy is correct and maintaining a 2.0 in spite of the non-passing in philosophy would satisfy qualifications. I would then be placed back on for another four class re-qualifying period due to the non-passing in technology.

It would also seem to me that the non-passing grades in technology and philosophy could have been avoided had my classes be scheduled according to my preferred sequence or had I been granted a schedule change as I requested. Furthermore, the withdrawal could have been avoided if there had been more reasonable options in place for student emergencies and if I had received full disclosure about the ramifications of tuition withdrawal request. I would also have received my Pell grant since academic probation doesn't interfere with the disbursement of financial aid or so I was told.

If Lisa's interpretation is correct, I would have been suspended and owing a balance after the philosophy class but not owing a balance for the withdrawal in intro to psychology and the non-passing in technology because I would not have qualified to take them. Now after two years, I am ineligible to receive financial loans, looking at an 1.8 average, 19,000 dollars of debt, forty credits that have nothing to do with my program and no degree.

I am finding it difficult to continue with my education because of this unresolved matter. I have tried working with my local campus and I now feel that further handling is needed.

Due to the conflict with the two counselors, my financial aid awarded to the school was returned. I was told to take a leave of absence and then return to take two courses to avoid being charged for my last classes. Financial services would get back my financial aid. First, I received a bill for over $5,000 because the financial aid was a problem. After I complained about how it was not my fault, the two counselors advised me incorrectly and handled my financial aid wrong the school reduced the bill to $1,800. I asked for an accounting to explain what made up the $1,800. Instead of sending me a listing of what classes, at what cost, the $1,800 covered I got a 6 page report from 2006 for all charges and financial aid applied. What?! Why would I need that for a recent charge?

I refuse to pay and refuse to finish my degree with the school. I feel that I was used for my financial aid; the program was extended to continue getting money from me and the government. Customer service is horrible. No one answers the phone. You can't get a direct name and number from anyone to file a complaint or to follow up. The letter I received did not include how to get in touch with the sender - no email, no phone number. Come on!

I asked if there was anyone filling in for her and he didn't know. He gave me her email address, I tried several times to contact her and was never contacted. I could never schedule a class time now. They're pushing for me to pay for something I never received. Beyond that, they're not even willing to deduct the $375 I've already paid. The way they've cheated me out of completing my education, I don't feel like my debt should be forgiven. One class and I would have been done but they took that away from me.

Now they want $924.75 from me without explanation. They sent back the balance of the student loan to the lender. I call and get no response. He called back once, but I wasn't home. I called him back and left a message. I haven't heard from him since, but I have received at least 3 letters asking for this money, all without an explanation. I forwarded all my information to the Attorney General's office. I am waiting to see if there is a response. I advised Orson that if this showed up on my credit report, I would refer it to my attorney.

If you look online, this happens all the time. It's all about money. They get paid by the government, and then want the student to pay too, for classes already covered. Someone else mentioned being part of a class-action suit. If this is not resolved by the AG, then I would gladly be a part of it. This school is getting away with ripping people off by the thousands, maybe much more! I don't have the money to pay, never mind that the student loans covered it, and they sent some back.

He called me on Friday, June 18, 2010 and said that I will not be able to finish my last two classes because I still owed the school $3,000 and the remainder of the funds that they received from the Department of Education would be returned to them. He also said that I would have to repay the school $3,000.00 out of pocket before I would be allowed to finish my course. When I received my financial aid disbursement notice from the school, the loan period was from 03/23/2009 to 09/19/2010. Also, when I pulled up my loan information on the NSLD, it showed that the loan was paid up until 2014.

Another problem I found was that some of the teachers shouldn't even be teachers. My Dad died a year ago last May, and I had to take of one class night to go to the funeral. I had an A in the class and the instructor deducted 10 points off my overall grade.This killed my GPA, how can I go from an A to a B, just because my dad died. Another problem I found was students were treated different. In my math class, the teacher allowed people to copy from others, even on the exam. How can this be considered learning? My last week of math class I took the exam and it took me almost two hours, I had to leave class and go to the library just to take the test because of the noise.

When I returned to class everyone swarmed around me for the answers and when I did not give them up I started to get threats. I spent over a year at this school and every class I was the only white person and got picked on all the time. I am not prejudice, but the teachers would let this go on because the majority of the school was either Afro American or Hispanic. In my opinion, this school is a waist of time and money and I urge serious students to avoid this school, they will try to make it very appealing. I feel the education I got from UOP was a waste of time and money. Giving grades out to keep the money coming in should be illegal. When I transferred, I had to take English classes over, even thought I received an A at Phoenix. I was sexually harassed by an instructor and had to drop the class and the school still made me pay for that class, how is this right?

I wrote the assignment in third person because we were told to analyze her comments and our paper. I felt like I was a Special Ed student! My life is complicated enough and I sure do not need her opinion that I am white trash. There is a judgment day, everybody gets one. I have a remainder balance of almost $9,500. It is still sitting there on my account. It needs to be sent to someone other then the school. They are making money (interest on my money). It used to take a real long time to get the loan and money, and the funny thing is it was on my account less than 3 weeks. They said that I owed them $750 for the three-week course, but they already took the money out of my loan amount.

I decided to contact Brad and he said I need to filled out an FAFSA form so I did and I got stuck in the part where it said that if I was requesting a loan of 6,000 dollars so I call him again and he said he was going to call me back. I waited almost two weeks, no answer so I called Maya and she said I need to talk to Brad and all of the sudden I get an email from Brad saying that my account is no longer his and I get an email from Maya saying that my account is in collection and to call a number she provided.

So I called the number and it says that yes my account is in collection so I am mad, angry, sad, and I felt many things because I do not understand why I never got an email, a letter, or a phone call from Brad or Maya saying that this class was going to come out of my pocket and that I need to start making payments by a certain date so my account will not be in collections. So I never need so now my account is in collection and they are telling me that they have no answer why they never sent me an email, letter or a phone call. All they are both saying is that financial aid did not cover my class and that I have to pay the $300-and- something dollars the collection agency is asking for.

By the way I called the collection agency and told them I had no clue my account was in collection and that if I can start paying them $200 a month and they said no, that they need three payments of $300 and something otherwise my account will go to third parties and my credit, which is an excellent credit, will be messed up by this account.

Please help, what can I do? I have till June 29, 2010 to pay this off and I help my mother who has a broken foot and a fractured arm with her rent and medical bills and I can barely make payments of $200 and they said no!

At one point, she was failing most of us. It was the most absurd experience I have ever been a part of in graduate school. She was a kindergarten teacher has any clue how to deal with adults and treated us like children. Further, the university supported her every move, even allowing her to assign a mountain of work between Good Friday and Easter, and making Easter a due date of an assignment. When I questioned the ethics of this on a student’s only chat room, she complained about my tone. All I did was pose the question whether it was ethically correct to assign work at that time.

I spent hours of my time filing complaints with counselors and student affairs, as did others. While I got my certificate, and had a B+ average, she made the experience a nightmare. I thought it was all over, that I can just walk away from the nightmare that was University of Phoenix. This ** university demanded a 3-5 page letter, asking me to write an essay on the importance of tone, like I was a 12 year-old! So now I intend to sue on free speech rights, as well as the fact that nothing in their student conduct pamphlets discusses tone because tone cannot be discerned on the internet, as everyone knows. This is a real backwards bush-league school, with an occasional decent instructor, but most were completely unqualified intellectually to deal with adults.

Then they said they never received it, and I re-sent it again and they said they never received it. At that point, I figured something was fishy with that department. I contacted the financial aid department by phone; not only were they rude but they also threatened that I had to pay for all the classes I took and that my account was deactivated. I tried contacting the financial advisor and the academic advisor and until this day I have not heard from any one of them. I lost there months of my time, not to mention the costs of books and sacrifice. My advice is save a headache and time and do not enroll at University of Phoenix.

Millions in fraud. We had 1500 graduate students x $13,600 per year x 86% on federal aid x 48% non-compliant suggests a potential fraud in excess of $8,000,000.

I contacted NSLDS, and they confirmed my correct date of birth as being the same as what is reported to financial aid. The financial aid office does not contact me regarding additional paperwork needed until I contact them about the disbursement and that was the only time I am made aware of additional documents being needed. I submitted the documents, and then, I was told that it will take an additional 14 business days to process.

During that 14 days, they placed another hold on my account for some other excuses they came up with. Whatever I asked for, I gave them. The guarantor is very familiar with University of Phoenix and was frustrated that they kept asking for the same document that was submitted several times. Once that is "received," then they tell me it's going to be another 14 days to process from the date the hold was removed. Guess what happens next?

I called financial aid regarding my award letter, and they told me there was a hold placed on my account because they need some other documents. Then I was being told that it will be another 14 days from the date the hold was placed. At the end of that 14 days, I called and was being told that they need some other document because by the time the many 14 days has come around, I was being told that the letter dated 4/7/2010 was about to expire and I will need another letter before the expiration date.

I got the letter, and then, they opened a ticket that takes 5 business days to clear, once that it cleared. Then I was being told it will be 14 days from the date the ticket was cleared. Well, lo and behold, what happens next. During that 14 day period, I was being told it was placed on hold because they need some other ridiculous document. I even contacted the ombudsman at UoP, and she forward me to someone else who never responded to my email. This school needs to be investigated for their deceptive and unethical practices. They enroll a student to increase their numbers, yet they will not release any monies from the Department of Education to the student.

Then I get a letter in the mail saying that I quit school which I never did. I had to call them up to find out what was going on, only to find out I had new advisors again which I was never called or sent a letter concerning this. I called them up and they said that I had to make an A in my class to be able to take the next class. I had an A until this girl in the learning team caused us to lose a bunch of points which caused me to drop from an A to a B+. Now I was completely dropped from school. I have decided to quit and go to a different school but they won't let me have my transcripts. I wish now I had researched UOP before attending their school.

I was told by Michelle, my financial advisor, that it usually takes 35 to 90 days to find out how much I'll actually receive. So on Thursday, May 20, 2010, I told her I wanted to withdraw from my classes. Needless to say, I did not receive a response back from her. The following day, Friday, May 21, 2010, I sent another confirmation email to Michelle again and carbon copied the two instructors, the academic advisor and the enrollment counselor. I did not receive a response again. The following Monday, I went on to contact the manager. It ended up being at two weeks and finally I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, informed FAFSA and Direct Loan of the situation and begin seeking legal counsel. I then did another follow up to the manager, Kari, again to inform her of the steps I have began to take.

Finally, I receive a response saying if I have sought legal counsel she would have to refer me over to the dispute department. The ending result they wanted to charge me approximately $400 for four days of classes. I will never recommend anyone to University of Phoenix. This college is a scam and only cares about getting paid!

I some how believed their little scam and did not want to be sent to collections so I attended as told. But here is the real kicker. To locked me in before I see what my loans were going to be. My academic advisor got me a job at the University Of Phoenix as a call center out bound call secretary. My job was to call future potential students who were inquiring about the online school. This is so funny I cannot keep from laughing. I was told during meetings that if the students ask if they get a bad grade or a firs F while attending, would the school allow for academic probation or some tutoring if things or classes became hard to attend. Our team leaders and trainers advised us working there to tell them that we do help with tutoring and that they will not pull your financial aid for getting a F or if classes became rough. They told us to tell them that the school provides tutoring and your bad grade for first time or two will not mean that the school will take your financial aide. Well I was irate at this time because I was already attending classes as well as working for the school that just scammed me.

I tried to contact my academic advisor about this and she stated that they do provide tutoring and not to worry about what the trainees just advised me of. Well, after about a year in a half of schooling, things were getting tough and I needed a tutor. Well, once again I called my advisor and was a lot around that time because I needed help with classes. She then started to make her self scarce stating that if I go to local UOP in my area. they will help me with tutoring. I did that and when I hit the doors there of the school, the person in charge stated that they do not provide tutoring for Axia College students. I said wait, Axia college is the under college of UOP and that my academic advisor stated that I could get help here. I was turned away and told that they have never heard of Axia students getting tutoring.

I called my academic advisor back and she was no where to be found. I kept calling her for days and days until another advisor came on the line and stated to me that he was my new Academic Advisor and that there is nothing he can do to help me with tutoring. Oh, he did state that there was a web site for the college for me to send class questions to when needed. I told him that I need hands on tutoring with my Geometry and waiting for an answer back from this website was not going to cut it. He said, there is nothing more he can do for me. Now keep in mind, I was trying for weeks on end to get tutoring for my geometry and nothing happened. Well one thing for sure did happen.

I received my first F. I did not pass the class and they took my financial aide away and then told me that I owed them for the course I failed along with the other class I was taking for that term which were $700 a class. I now owe them 1400 dollars that I cannot pay and loans that I cannot pay. I am now in a community college that allows tutoring and academic probation or warnings when grades get low. They work with me and allow for whatever I need. Now the school needs my transcripts from UOP and I cannot obtain it because I owe them money. I have been going to this college for a year in a half and may not be able to continue if I do not get those transcripts. Can anyone out there help me and tell me what to do from here? All I want to do is get my BA and graduate like any other student but UOP will not let me.

I cannot obtain my grades from UOP due to this money that I owe them. I need to know what to do from here. I am going to lose out on nearly 4 years of education if I do not get them transcripts. Please have an attorney call me and help me.

I am currently a UOP student and think it’s great. My grad team which includes my finance, academic, and enrollment counselors is there for me up until graduation. All the resources are available to any student who needs it. I know that if I have a problem not getting a hold of someone that I need to contact someone else. Considering how large this company is, you will always be able to get a hold of someone almost 24/7. I also know that by me going to school online, just being a student gives me access to grounds campuses.

Just wanted to set the record straight, it's not the school that people have issues with, its people who work for the University or themselves that are the problem. Stop bashing the school, the programs and instructors are amazing and the instructors have more experience in their field than any instructor I've seen at any traditional school.

During the enrollment process, I was informed that the first class was going to be wavered because I was an alumnus and my material fees would be wavered too. I began classes only to discover that I was on academic probation. Upon talking to my advisor, I was first told that it was because of my not taking the first class and it happens to everyone and I just needed to maintain my grade point average at a 3.0 for the next four or five classes or I would be removed from the program. I was bothered by this but continued on because I did not want to lose the opportunity as my advisor has so stressed the importance to me.

My classes went well at first but I began to have problems with some of my grades. I can take responsibility for my own actions but felt it unfair that my learning team partners affected my grade and in essence my probationary status too. I found myself in my last class of my probationary period and three weeks into the class I realized that I may not make the grade needed to satisfy my probationary requirements. I contacted my advisor and asked her if I completed the class with my current grades, would I be able to continue in the program. I was told "no".

She went on to tell me that I would need to pay cash out of pocket to re-take the class as well as take another previous class to help bring my grade point average up to a 3.0, and still be subject to being kicked out of the program if I did not get an A in one class and at least a C in the other. My advisor and I agreed that I would be dropping the class and I would think about the decision to leave the school. She continually advocated for me to speak with my finance advisor about making payments on the class that I would be dropping so that I could take it again. I told her I would think about it and she set an appointment for me to speak with her.

I received an email that I needed to complete a paper and fax it to her (tuition reimbursement form) and I could take the class over at no charge. I emailed her back to confirm the information and she did not respond to the email. I called her and left a message and she did not return my call. I called my academic advisor and asked her and she said that it had been a mistake and that I would need to pay for the class and go through the process previously described. I told her that I was just going to leave the school as I had also discovered that I could not obtain licensure in the State of Indiana with their degrees anyway.

She then told me that I would be subject to fees for leaving the program. She and the financial advisor got on the phone and she first denied that she had been in agreement that I should leave the class in the first place. They then told me that since I left the class my loan money would be sent back, I would owe almost two thousand dollars for the class that I dropped as well as I would have to repay a refund that I had recently received or I could simply pay almost two thousand dollars within a six-week period and remain in school. I am now faced with paying to stay in school or paying double to leave school and I am being given only a few days to decide.

I have called and they say I have no disbursement? I am the one who has to pay those loans back and I want the money. It is not for them to do what they want. They are ripping people off as well as the government now. They take our money and run with it and when you want to talk to someone about it, they make you sound like you are money hungry and hateful and just wrong for calling about the money you have to pay back. They bulldoze you and bully you with conference calls and letters in your email.

I emailed my academic advisor. I do not know how many times, about my issues at home and that I needed to be pulled out until I got my handicapped stepdaughter comfortable and all she kept saying was we need to make phone contact. I had no phone. We are emailing. If I had a phone, I would have called. She was rude and did not care about what was going on at home with us. It was all about the money.

"Well, you are going to have to pay this and that. You will not get a disbursement." Well, lady, I want out now. "Well, you are going to be penalized for not finishing the class." Then, I have to pay for the first week of class they put me in after I asked them to take me out.

I need help getting this money back and it going back to Fasfa. Please call me if you can help.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is April and I am a soon to be graduate from University of Phoenix with a degree in Psychology on May 8th, 2010. I have been a part of UOP since 2006 and my decision to transfer to UOP has been one of the best educational decisions I have made for myself. All of my classes have been online and I share my experiences with family and friends on just how great my experience has been. When I would have a problem there was always an available staff member to help me and the staff remained positive and empathic throughout the process.

It is understandable that educational organizations that offer online studies may sometimes come across errors in a student's academics, finances or other issues. Recently on April 24th I had encountered an issue with my class and financial aid just a couple of days before the start of my last class. I was enrolled in the same class with different start dates and my account balance was off. I sent over a print screen (see attachment 1) to my academic advisor Amy because my pervious financial counselor Janice’s contact information was not longer available. I was confused and worried because I did not know how this would affect me from starting classes.

On April 26th Amy sent me an email informing me that I was not cleared to start class on April 27th because of an out of pocket fee of $595.19 had to be paid and that I was rescheduled for May 11th. I had also received an email from the university that I was dropped. I was never contacted regarding this out of pocket expense which now has left me to make a decision to pay the fee and graduate or not graduate on May 8th and take out an additional loan for one class.

Janice had requested additional funding from my lender to cover my last two classes since my original financial aid was to only cover my remaining core classes. Janice requested $4,616.69 which was over the actual amount needed to cover for my two remaining electives. Attach to this letter are emails from me requesting additional funding to cover the electives. Attached are my financial aid statements and a letter from my lender showing the amount sent to UOP.

Amy requested that I contact Andrea who would be able to help and address why there was not enough money to cover the full amount of my last class. I spoke with Andrea on April 27th and she informed me that since Janice requested more than I actually needed and I was given a Pell Grant in the sum of $2,006. From Andrea's explanation, because of the Pell Grant I would have been short $595.69 for my last class. Why would Janice send me a Pell Grant knowingly that there may be a possibility that I would be short of funding? The Pell Grant was sent back in February and was put toward bills. Andreas stated, "Janice should have told you that you were going to be short and set money aside to cover the cost of your last class." Andrea's last comment was that she was sorry for the miscommunication and that I have to pay the fee out of pocket or else I would not be able to continue on or graduate.

This is very frustrating especially since this would be my last class before graduating and as a single mother I have been put in a hard situation to come out of pocket of money that I do not have. The amount of $595.69 is my entire paycheck; I will not be able to put food on the table for my son.

On April 29th I made a plea to Andrea to allow me to do split payment which I did and have my last payment on May 14th. Although she was willing to work with me after my plea I believe that I should be reimbursed $596.19 to rectify the issue. I am willing to wait one month from the date of this letter for a response or for my request to be reimbursed. If I do not hear back from the university within 30 days I will take other actions against the university to make ensure my request is granted.

I have enjoyed my education experience at University of Phoenix and planned to return to earn my masters. There is a local campus that comes to my place of employment yearly and I have always encouraged co-workers who want to return to school to consider UOP. One influence can impact many individual decisions and I hope to continue to give a good rapport toward UOP not just in my place of employment, but to other known public media resources. I am positive that your committee will help with my request. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and handle my complaint.

Then today, I found out that they have me signed up for the wrong degree program (although I signed 3 of the same forms for Web Design-because they "lost" the other 2) until May. Now they have to submit a request to their committee to change my degree choice, and get my classes set up correctly. Four months after enrollment and I have yet to see a dime from my excess funds and I have yet to see my classes smoothly transition from one block to the other. They are dragging their feet.

If they do not get the classes straightened out, I could lose my financial aid because they submitted me under the wrong degree program than what the loan company shows, they also have yet to send me any excess funds and I am moving this week. I need internet to complete my courses online. If I have no internet, I will be forced to disenroll, through no fault of my own.

They then sent me some checks from the school and I asked them to keep them for my education and Susan stated we can't keep them. So I cashed these checks and she then sent me an e-mail that now they had over paid me and I didn't have enough money to pay for my last class, a 2 unit class, which would cost $1,600. So because I really wanted my degree and I only have three classes left I agreed to take the classes with them. They picked the classes and when I started I was only in one for three days and called and said I really needed to drop the class due to work problems and for three days they charged me $355. Then I find out well now you have stopped school I owe $3,441 for over payment.

I do not want to deal with this school. They are indeed liars and cheats. Now I will never receive my degree and all that time and money has been wasted. Also, I have asked Susan not to call me but she just keeps calling. They have sent me a letter that I am in default of my loans and I can pay them cash or the department of education when I told the advisor that she said sent me the letter because it's wrong. Help! Not only do I have student's amounting to $48,000, now I also have the school wanting money of $3,441 that they want today. I will never receive my degree because I didn't know a school can have such shady dealing with the government and a student and the hand book never explained all of this. I received an exit interview with all the information after I quit.

I am sorry to hear about so many bad experiences, but I also think before you even become a victim of any other colleges for profit, take a harder look at yourselves. Can I really afford to attend? My only concern is to be placed in the right job. My counselor is already helping me with that. All universities online, or on campus, are expensive. University of California Davis is over 60,000 dollars in tuition. But not all online colleges are made for everyone either.

Now, I want to withdraw and 3 days ago I had a credit balance of over $1,100. Today, I am told that I owe the school over $3,400 and cannot get my transcripts because I owe them. How can this be? I am 52 years old and have had a heart attack and I am suppose to avoid stress. They know this and do not care.

I am leaving also for health issues... mainly skin cancer now. I cannot believe this school that I believed in and how many lies they told me. From what I've read, I am not the only one. I need to hear from others, so please write. I am on SSI so they will take my whole check and that will make me homeless. Is that what the reward is for going to school? Am I supposed to use my Associate's Degree as part of a fire to keep me warm while I sleep on the street?

My current mentor is from a very good business school. He is rating me excellent in all the weeks. My other committee member has a double PhD from Penn State. They are all very professional. I do not have problems so far with UoP. Before I got this new mentor, I skipped another mentor with a EdD from Harvard; she has a lot of air but she said she will take me in as mentee.

In short, you get out of life what you put in. Most complaints in this forum already tell me the complainers were first in default and UoP upheld its principle and axed them nicely. If you don't do your job, you get fired. If you don't do your assignments well, you get Ds. What on earth is that so difficult to understand?

A successful online student must be so much more dedicated to their school work than a lazy brick and mortar student who can sleep through classes and just get by with out learning a thing. UoPx has challenged me to meet deadlines every week, unlike a regular 15-week semester at a brick and mortar. The only reason you complain so much about UoPx is because effort must be put into what you want to get out of something. To me, UoPx is my end to a very long road.

Since I have started school, I don't have any other choices. I am a single dad whose only choice is a school such as UoPx. So you tell me what I should do? Sit on my ass the rest of my life and use excuse after excuse simply because it is UoPx or no where? It has been all about attitude with me, and the better an attitude one has, the better the outcome will be. You should heed those words; again, you get out of something what you put in to it. If you can not understand that concept, then maybe you should stay at your crummy dead end job. For me I choose to better myself anyway that I know how for me and my son. In five years time from now, you’re still going to be sitting there complaining about how everything is so damn hard. Do me a favor: shut up or go do something about it then. Last but not least: shut up about UOP already! I’m sick of the negativity.

I believe that I was financially manipulated and cheated by financial aid counselors with the University of Phoenix/Axia College, simply to get me to continue attending the online courses with their university. I have battled with instructors in my virtual classrooms about how they conducted themselves and how I was treated overall. I was also not happy with their learning curriculum. I felt that the majority of classes that were said to be a part of my learning curriculum were simply implemented to add a value to the course. There were quite a few unnecessary prerequisites involving the course. I also felt that some of the prerequisites with the University of Phoenix/Axia College - Online Campus were setup to "stretch-out" the course and overall cost a student extra and unnecessary monies in the long run.

I continued to be manipulated by the University of Phoenix/Axia College's practices and I listened to the advice of my enrollment counselors, academic counselors and financial aid counselors, only to eventually be financially cheated when I became fed up with the University of Phoenix - Online Campus. They used various tactics to persuade me to stay enrolled in the course and further try to obligate me on a financial level to their university.

Time progressed and I got so annoyed that I had to even switch my said "Graduation Team" with the University of Phoenix/Axia College (which was no different than my original one). My new Enrollment Counselor, Academic Counselor and Financial Aid Counselor behaved in the exact same fashion. They both repeated the process of misleading me and deceiving me to continue my enrollment with the University of Phoenix/Axia College. I was told by my financial counselor that I would receive substantial grants to accommodate my financial disposition at that time, which was not good because of the economy. My Academic Counselor simply followed the lead of my Financial Aid Counselor. I eventually reached a boiling point and I refused to continue to be manipulated by the University of Phoenix/Axia College, so I attended my last block of classes and I could not continue any further.

I stopped attending the University of Phoenix/Axia College back in July of 2009 because of the profuse mistreatment I endured from their staff. Since then, the University of Phoenix/Axia College has manipulated my online records, changed my classroom attendance statuses in some classes and possibly even manipulated some of my grades. I have been unable to check or verify the pertinent details of my virtual classroom history due to everything being kept on their servers and my being denied access. This is how they manipulate things on their end, for the most part.

I have also been experiencing the University of Phoenix/Axia College trying to bill me approximately $3,000 when all of my student loans were with Sallie Mae and the U.S. Department of Education. I was also not able to officially withdraw from the University of Phoenix/Axia College yet because they now threaten to cause me more financial hardship with my FAFSA loans by compromising the monies I already received for my subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loans. It is truly disappointing, but I have not given up.

When they received my grant money, I didn't know anything about how was my money spent and where was my money going to until after I got finished taking my courses. And he specifically told me that I didn't have to get a loan. In order for me to start taking my classes, I had to pay 2,080 dollars. And some of the lessons they were giving me were the same thing over and over. And sometimes the instructor has to get advice from me. I feel like I've been cheated and ripped off. I mean there weren’t no receipts until after I finished my first courses and I received a billed $for 2,080. I don't understand how that came about. Now the financial aid counselor who was over me is no longer there and I wonder why.

When I was in the class, I didn't learn a thing. They scheduled classes for me without telling me, even after I told them I want to attend another school. They did not cancel a Pell grant when they told me I need to give them an official withdrawal and that should cancel it. Then way later, they tell me that it was too late for the Pell but not for the loan. They canceled the loan. But not the Pell.

I tried reporting them, but the school said there was no wrongdoing. This is false. They never told me why the tuition was too high. They never told me about their accreditation problems. They won't even help you get employed. They say this in the contract. I want to cancel this. I have more to say but I would like to contact an attorney.

I did that. I felt this wasn't for me. I needed to be in a classroom with hands-on instructors. This online classes weren't for me, so I called my adviser, and left a message that I wasn't going to use University of Phoenix, because I didn't think it was the way I wanted to learn, and obtain my degree, and that to let me know what I needed to do to drop my classes, which I hadn't even started. About a month later, I got a call from their collections department, saying I owed them $185.00 for the 2 classes I attended. I said I never was in any class, and the woman that called said I did.

It showed I was in class for attendance. I couldn't believe it, because I just looked at the class to see if I understood. I am now being charged $185.00. I called the counselor Ms. **, and said I never attended any classes. She said I was on the roll call. I said I looked at the class, but I did not attend. She informed me I did. I was livid, and said I would not pay this, and they were crooks, and this was a scam. Because they did not give me an option to drop the classes without paying something, and I would be paying for nothing, because I did not even do anything, or do any assignment, because I dropped out before I even started any classes. I hadn't even finished the workshops.

I wake up in the morning and have ten missed calls (not exaggerating) on both phones. I would classify this as extremely overzealous recruiting at best, and flat-out harassment at worst. All I did was request an information packet! Now they will not stop calling me, even after I emailed them and (in very blunt terms) told them I would not be interested in attending their university if this is how they recruit students.

Phoenix like any other regionally and programmatically accredited university is bound by accreditation standards to maintain a marked level of academic delivery and excellence. Yet, the school cannot be held responsible for the student's lack of motivation and ability to maintain an acceptable level of academic performance. On a positive note, I noticed that Phoenix has become more active in alumni activities giving its graduates in particular sense of still belonging; greater emphasis on extracurricular activities like other so-called traditional schools and a culture that attempts to give the student a sense of ownership and pride in their university. University of Phoenix also has business program accreditation ACBSP, which puts it in an elite position and is currently the only adult oriented college that has business program accreditation. In my opinion, Phoenix continues to grow and evolve into a well respected university. It is what it is!

I graduated from UOP a few years ago with a masters degree. When I entered the masters program, it was very clear what the requirements were (I needed an official accredited undergrad degree with a gpa of 2.5 or over (it seems UOP doesn't accept just any undergrad school either-they must be regionally accredited in particular), significant work experience, references and acceptable writing and communication skills) and admission requirements to enter their undergrad are more rigorous such as previous college credits, taking English and Math competency exams, high school grad transcript and other requirements especially for non native English speakers. Therefore, I don't understand why individuals keep saying that it is so easy to get into UOP when their entry requirements are basically the same as any other colllege or university.

All one has to do is read their admissions requirements and see that they are indeed basically the same. In terms of pride or interacting with snobs in particular who probably look down at other colleges too, its usually to make themselves feel good which basically shows their lack of academic maturity. These snobs who graduate from so-called top tier traditional colleges who overlook the purpose of going to college and look for reasons to scrutinize someone else's alma mater, usually act this way because they may be looking for a way to feel better for getting stuck with a huge amount of student loan debt and no immedfiate job prospects. Most employers or professional environments such as healthcare, IT and business organizations generally view UOP grads with respect and generally refer to UOP when discussing college training for career advancement because they feel UOP is geared toward preparing individuals for job specific careers as oppposed to the more traditional colleges that include many required courses that are unrelated to the core career curriculum; are not suitable for working adult professionals in terms of institutional structure; huge classes, indifferent instructors who usually have no career background in the professional courses they are teaching and younger generation students who are have no experience and are basically useless in interacting on a professional and experienced basis.

I also find UOP's media advertisement commercials to be presented in a high quality fashion. Yet people can say what they want, but what really matters is that UOP has highly impressive accreditations and affiliations. Their credits are just as transferrable as any other highly regarded traditional college and employers tend to look at UOP grads as professionals with more job specific academic training. I proudly display my framed UOP graduate degree including a framed letter of regional and business accreditation along with my state college undergrad and in particular my UC Berkeley IT certification on my wall and people who have seem my credentials are equally impressed with them all.

In regard to failing courses: exactly how do you do this here? I am carrying a strong 3.5 and I graduate in July 2010. This organization will not work for you, if you are unwilling to comply with your specific instructor's instructions. What works for one instructor, may not work for the next. This is not cookie cutter learning folks; this is independent learning. If you are not capable of being diligent and proactive, this is not the school for you. Maybe the shortcomings of the student should be examined, prior to slamming UoP's name. Thank you and have a nice day.

Besides my financial aid being completely screwed up, my Gen 105 teacher, Kimberly I, decided she would unfairly target and literally bully me in my class. She would blatantly not grade turned in work, would harass me and say I did not turn in assignments I clearly did. And when I finally sought some advocacy or resolution to the matter through the Office Of Dispute Management, which is meant to be a stall wall for incompetent faculty and staff at UOP, they told me the "teacher owned my grades." They never made her change any grades and told me I could do an audit on the class after I received my final grade but there could be no promises of any changes to my grades since they stand by their staff and decisions.

I am interviewing people as we speak. All those interested should contact me. I have been under extreme emotional distress, have had to start back taking anxiety medicine. I have had my GPA effected which hurts my chance of transferring. Also, I had to pay out of pocket cost.

My financial advisor, Paul T, would give me the brush off as well. Well, I called Andy and he connected me through to Paul. We were on a conference call. When I started asking questions, they got very rude and impatient with me. After I said, "Well, I will just enroll elsewhere." My academic counselor hung up on me. Those are the kind of people that work there that are supposed to be apart of your graduation team! Wow! I cannot afford to pay $2000 right now. I did have 60 days to pay them but I had time and time again explained to Paul my financial advisor I was broke. He could have offered some advice as that is his job title and helped me find another way to pay for my classes so I could continue my education with them, at least until I got back on my feet. And I could have continued to pay them. It is extremely disappointing. I wish I would have never enrolled with the University of Phoenix.

The instructor informed the class that two students came to blows in her prior class and I can understand why. She could to control the class and was as scatterbrained as she could be. She said she did not see any management growth. I only saw this woman 5 days and with that one line she attempted to kill my career. The university says I must take the class over. I want all of my money back for the classes I have paid for and money for destroying my career. If this woman who saw me for 5 days can judge my managerial progress, then they should let her teach the first class of the doctoral studies so the students will not have to waste their time.

The consequences: loss of approximately $4500 for the cost of the residency and at least 500 thousand for the libel of the instructor and the refund of my money I have paid for classes. Approximately 50k. I would like to sue them for a million dollars for stress. I am a cancer survivor and this stress is detrimental to my health.

Now that I am here, the university is giving me the runaround and saying that I have not met all requirements. Basically, they have said that because I have not had my dissertation approved and that they cannot help me get a six-year status. Even though, as I have heard others say, when my dissertation is sent in to be approved, they sent it back to be tweaked and fixed. When I fixed the items and resubmitted, it is sent back to me again to be "tweaked."

I have been told that I will have to pay more money to continue the process. Shocker! I have emailed, called, and told them that if they would help me get the six-year status, this would up my base pay; therefore, I could pay them to continue the process. However, they have been very unwilling to help me out.

Now, the student loans are coming due, and I still have no doctoral degree. I just want others to know that the University of Phoenix seems to be very student-friendly when you are considering them. But once you are in the program, watch out! I believe that they will continue telling me no matter what that my dissertation has not been approved just so they continue to get money. Please consider other programs before you look into the University of Phoenix.

This has put me into a financial crisis that I cannot afford to pay at this time because my husband and I barely get by on what money he makes. To be able to finish the course, I would have to take out more loans that I cannot pay for. And it seems to me that the university is only out for money, not to educate anyone. If you call to speak with your financial aid adviser or email him, he never returns an answer unless it is where he is wanting you to sign more papers.

A few weeks later, I received another call from my Financial Aide Advisor. During this call, she informed me that I would have to pay over $400 out of pocket now and that I would not be receiving a reimbursement check. She told me the reason I would have to pay out of pocket was because my previous school somehow received this $400 some odd dollar amount and that I would have to call my previous school to see what they did with my money. I called and called my previous school and received no call back from them.

I had finally had it, but after another week or so of trying to contact them, I was finally able to speak with someone in their Financial Aide Dept. They informed me that whoever I am speaking with at UoP has no idea what they are talking about. I was told that the funds they did receive at my old school on my behalf were used to cover what time I had spent there and that the balance was returned to my lender. I was also advised by my previous school that all this information was enclosed in my Sallie Mae statements (which they were right about). I felt like such a fool for even calling these people.

After reviewing my SM statement, I then called my Financial Aide Advisor back at UoP, informing her of this. After saying that she needed to get her manager involved with the situation, she then informed me that she would call me back. After about a week or so, she finally called me back. During this call, she then informs me that I have to pay out of pocket due to my transferring from one school to another school within the same year. I was told that I "capped my amount on loans for the academic year." It's funny how a story can change in a matter of a few weeks huh? Well, me being the type of person who hates confrontation and arguing, I let that be that and somehow managed to save some and also get some help from my parents with this $400 some odd dollar out of pocket balance.

Now, onward to another issue, I received a call from my Financial Aide Advisor on March 12, 2010. I missed her call due to the fact I was at work. I called her back as soon as I seen I missed her. I didn't receive a call back. I emailed my academic advisor about a class and asked her if she knew why my Financial Aide Advisor hasn't returned my call. I was informed by my academic advisor that my Financial Aide Advisor was on vacation for the week (the week of March 15, 2010). Again, I let that be that. So, I emailed my Financial Aide Advisor on March 24, 2010 after not getting a return call from her upon her return from vacation from the previous week. Surprise, surprise, no response from her via email yet either.

So, here I am, left confused and extremely worried on March 29, 2010. I am in the beginning of my 6th week of this block of classes. I have yet to receive a call or reply to my email from my Financial Aide Advisor. I am growing extremely worried. I checked my student website a few days ago and seen I had a balance of over $2,000 due for the block of classes I am currently taking. I checked again yesterday and now my balance due is over $4,400 (which is my tuition amount for the next block of classes I am to start at the end of April).

I have emailed my Academic Advisor about this. I have emailed my enrollment counselor about this. I have yet to receive a response from anyone about my situation. I feel I am being taken advantage of by this "university". They already have me there, how can I leave without being penalized? I have questions that I need answers to. And no one is willing to help me, which is wrong! Very wrong! If it weren't for students like me, these people would not have a "job".

These people are very unprofessional. How are businesses like this able to get away with what they do? I regret whole heartedly ever attending or showing interest in UoP. University of Phoenix/Axia College is a total and complete joke! Do not go here. It is a rip off! They will get you in and play pretend with you for a while then leave you to hang dry and also leave you broke!

Keep in mind the whole time I was filling these applications out that I was telling Raymond that I would not be able to afford these classes unless I received the financial aid. A loan alone would just put me in debt that much further. The whole time he reassured me that my financial aid would be granted. One week after filling out my college application, Raymond called and told me that my orientation class started the next week and I should go ahead and start this class. I asked him if I had been approved for the financial aid and he said yes.

Over the next four weeks, I have had contact with my financial aid counselor, Nicholas E. In these encounters, he told me that small things needed to be changed here and there and that I had omitted some things that needed to be finished before my financial aid was released. I complied and gathered and faxed all my information to him and the financial aid department, where they told me that everything looked good. Now four weeks into my classes, Nicholas tells me that I would not be receiving any financial aid. I have not tried talking to anyone yet at the university about this because I just found out and I just found Consumer Affairs. I do not know what to do. I cannot afford to pay that money back and without financial aid, I am screwed.

Me and my family scrape by every week. I am currently unemployed and my wife is sporadically on temporary lay offs due to lack of work where she is at. I have two small children that are hard to feed at times. Now I have another $9500 debt that I should have never gotten because I told the people at the University of Phoenix that without financial aid I would not enroll in their classes. Above all else, I have set goals and made dreams that will probably never happen because I'll be too in debt to carry out my plans for my future and my children's future.

I went on to my Learning Team forum and advised my team of the issues and why I was leaving. I then received an email from my "professor" telling me I violated the Code of Conduct. I have read the COC and there is nothing about speaking out. They are afraid of other students finding out about their unethical business practices. Upon telling my financial aid advisor I was transferring to a different school and why, she tried scaring me into staying with UoP. She tried threatening me with everything from not getting my transcripts to losing all financial aid. She failed to realize that I had already talked to the federal government as well as canceled any future disbursements of student loans. I removed UoP from my FAFSA and added my new school.

Now, they are threatening me with owing the school money when all my classes were paid in full prior to starting. I fulfilled my obligations for the financial aid and student loan guidelines and advised them of the fact that I have turned over all conversations and documentation to our attorney. Be careful with UoP! Steer as far clear of them as you possibly can. They will tell you whatever you want to hear just to get you in. Then, when you want to leave, they make threats. University of Phoenix degrees are also not worth the paper they are printed on.

The next time I spoke to my enrollment counselor, I told her I had changed my mind and I wanted to pursue Criminal Justice. She began to talk me out of that major, telling me it was a bad choice and I would be restricted to one line of work for the rest of my life. She tried to talk me into getting a psychology degree. She finally asked me exactly what I wanted to do in my current job and I explained that I wanted to be a trainer of new hires and possibly become a recruiter for my line of work (in the Fraud department). She explained that that line of work would be best suited with a business degree in human resources. I asked her if she was degree specific because I was sensing she was trying to talk me into something because she wanted to get me enrolled at any cost to my future. She said "No, I can assist you with a degree in human resources." I had never heard of this degree until she mentioned it to me!

I researched the degree and actually found it quite interesting. I spoke to my mother who agreed that this degree would suit my career in my line of work. I decided to contact the recruiter and tell her we were good to go with the BS in Human Resources Management. After a few conversations about my transcripts from my previous college, I was enrolled and set to start school. The night I began online courses, I noticed that the class I was enrolled in did not sound like a class one would take if they were pursuing a business degree. I was taking "Introduction to Human Services." As I began to read the course outline, the courses appeared to point me towards psychology or a liberal arts class. As the light bulb went off in my head, I went back to the main UoP website, clicked on my major code and saw that I had been majored in Human Services!

I called my enrollment counselor the next day and asked her how this happened and she re-enrolled me in the correct degree program. She then told me, "Well, I cannot help with a business degree. I would have to transfer you to another enrollment counselor." I know I am not an idiot and I know she purposely sold me on the Human Resources program so she could enroll me in Human Services hoping I would take my classes and never figure it out while she got paid. This institution pays the enrollment counselors based on how many people they recruit, which has led to sleazy tactics and unethical actions! Luckily, I caught it in time with no further financial consequences to myself. My message is others beware!

I definitely owe a lot of money to the school that can't help me return. I am killing myself trying to come up with money to pay for some crap that happened while I attended. The only thing they can tell me is go fetch us our money.

I was told I would receive my financial aid March 1st. I received one partial payment on or about March 4th or 5th for $751. However, UOP received payment for the current class and for classes that I will not be taking until May of 2010, yet they refuse to refund the difference of the Pell grant, which normally should have been refunded on or around March 4th. In February, per email correspondence from Emma P., my financial advisor, she told me that I had met the requirements and should receive payment on March 15th. She also informed me that the failed class was written off.

I received another email correspondence wherein she stated that payment would post to my account on March 18th; yet per her correspondence on March 18th she stated that UOP would be holding the funds a few more weeks to make sure I meet the requirements, even though they were aware that I have been getting passing grades since February. Her reasoning for withholding funds, even after they were paid in full and in advance, was unacceptable and inexcusable. I have been homeless since January and just recently obtained housing as I could no longer afford to pay rent in my existing housing. UOP's failure to release excessive financial aid due me has jeopardized my currently living situation, and as a result I may once again be homeless, especially since I am unemployed and my financial aid is main source of income.

According to Federal guidelines, University of Phoenix is entitled to a pro-rata share of tuition consequent to the amount of time I attended their online campus. This pro-rata sum was to be deducted from my federal loan that had been received by the University of Phoenix. Instead of accepting the payment from my federal loan, without consent, University of Phoenix improperly returned my federal loan monies, informing me that I was now responsible and obligated to pay any outstanding balance that the return of my federal loan had left on my University of Phoenix account.

I provided payment to the University of Phoenix in the form of a federal student Title IV loan which satisfied my contractual obligation to pay for the time I attended UOP. The University of Phoenix's actions extinguished my debt for the institutions own purposes without consent. All efforts by University of Phoenix to collect on the amount they paid off without consent is not based on contract, nor reflects any obligation that I have undertaken with the University of Phoenix.

University of Phoenix's action had no bearing or validation in interfering with my contract between my lenders. The actions by the institution Apollo Group and University of Phoenix to extinguish that debt without my consent gives them no legal or lawful entitlement to collect the funds directly from me. This has not only imposed a prerequisite that was not contracted or agreed upon, but an illegal attempt to convert a federal student Title IV loan owed to a third party lender, which provides certain privileges and rights, into a new and different debt owed to the University of Phoenix.

University of Phoenix now represented themselves that if I were not pay off the debt in full immediately, my account would be turned over to collections damaging my credit. My protest involves abuse with federal monies, breach of contract, false advertisement on University Accreditation, appalling enrollment tactics, breach of verbal agreements. This university has tainted any consumer protection provided to Civilians, United States Military Service Men and Women by the American Government. There are numerous lawsuits and thousands of consumer complaints of this academic institution's practices; and it is time action be commenced on the behalf of American people who have been wronged.

This university has not only misconducted itself as an academic institution, but taken advantage of thousands of North Carolina Civilians and Military Service Men and Women with false advertisement with hopes of a better future, but the whole American Public from coast to coast. I do not understand as serving this country in the Marine Corps, how our local, state and federal governments could allow this leading high profiting university to take advantage of us in this manner. There are thousands upon thousands of complaints to consumer web sites, Department of Higher Education, Federal Trade Commission, and State Attorney Generals offices but action has yet to be taken against this institution and their unethical practices.

Due to the enormous revenue generated by this organization, the company has become so powerful that it can manipulate political entities. One such entity is the Department of Education. If the Department of Education decided to perform due diligence and complete a rigorous audit of the company's accounting practices and uses of Title IV funding, the Department of Education would have no other choice than to strip the organization of Title IV funding. As a matter of fact, the Department of Education could have used the organization's latest legal issue regarding religious discrimination (preference to Mormon's) as a basis to eliminate Title IV funding; however, as usual this body of government chose to look the other way.

Furthermore, the organization continues to walk a thin line in complying with Title IV funding in addition to other compliance issues such as FERPA (Federal Education Rights Privacy Act) and DNC (Do not call) violations. Due to these ongoing compliance issues, the Department of Education could revoke its funding and strip the University of its Accreditation; however, the Department of Education much like many of its other political counterparts chose to ignore the problem by monitoring rather than enforcing.

So why does the Department of Education stand absentmindedly by and let the organization do as it pleases? There are three reasons for the Department of Education's "Hands Off" policy as it relates to Apollo Group, Inc and the University of Phoenix. Those reasons are as follows: 1) the power struggle between government entities and corporate America. The financial wealth of the organization has become so massive and powerful that it can and does influence the political institution that governs its behavior. 2) The power of money extends to its lobbyists, shareholders, and the political influence of those shareholders. The politically influential shareholders have a self-interest in the financial well-being of Apollo Group, Inc. I could list a number of politicians who hold Apollo Group, Inc. shares; however, I fear retribution if I were to name names.

Here in North Carolina, I may even come up missing. Thus, those individuals will use that power to prevent any financial harm to the organization because it will impact their financial stake in the organization as well. 3) Due to the company being the largest private educational institution, the company has the largest number of students that could be negatively impacted.

If the Department of Education decided to stop Title IV funding, chaos would ensue due to the mass exodus of students to other institutions. In addition, how does the Department of Education manage the funds previously and currently distributed to existing students? As a result of these concerns, the Department of Education has taken a "hand off", wait-and-see, monitoring approach rather than perform the duties expected of the organization such as enforcement. By far from taking advantage of military personnel, low and middle class civilians, this institution contains sky-scraping numbers in profit of tax payer's money through federal education programs in this economic downfall.

I plead as a United States Marine and an American, please shoot the Phoenix down already; let the public be aware. Too many families and civilians have been hurt and mistreated and now is the time for action.

Reminder to individuals about to join University of Phoenix: If you're not sure, do not start class. They can schedule you for class several weeks in advance and certify your Financial Aid before you accrue a bill. Why take chances? It is not them who will suffer if something goes sideways. Never sign a form called an "Authorization to Close" unless you know exactly what it means. You need to understand both the good and bad aspects of signing this form. University of Phoenix usually doesn't volunteer the possible negative side of issues. There will be those of you who will say you work for University of Phoenix and have not experienced any of this. Congratulations, that does not make what I have written less factual or the other thousand complaints listed in the Federal Trade Commission Data Base.

On the question of Accreditation: Apollo Group, Inc. educational institutions are not accredited at the same levels of other prestigious institutions for certain disciplines such as business degrees. Please check out the MBA program and its accrediting body. The university misleads students into believing that its MBA degree and other business degrees are on par with other institutions such as Harvard and others. For this alone, the University should be chastised by the Department of Education for using substandard business practices in the recruitment of its business students. This does not apply to only business students, but students in other programs such as Nursing, Counseling, and Education. Remember, Intel dropped their affiliation with the university for some of these reasons and more.

All I can say is buyer beware. How to get out after you get in:

# 1: Ignore your financial, academic, and enrollment counselors. These individuals are trained and coached in sales strategies to discourage students from dropping out or transferring. Also, do not fall for the Financial Aid/Student Loan/Return to Lender scare tactic. These are strategies used to put fear into students in order to keep them in class and not to leave the institution. Another tactic is the two week break tactic. Counselors are trained and coached to keep students from not taking a break longer than two weeks. If a student takes a break longer than two weeks, the student is considered a t-drop (UOPX terminology) student which affects the performance matrix of the counselors. The performance matrix is a measure or device in which counselors are evaluated for raises.

The matrix can be manipulated in several ways and often times done so by management. The intent of the matrix is to force a sales-based, pay for performance strategy at the university. The performance pay structure travels a thin line in being compliant with the Department of Education requirements for paying counselors. Again, the Department of Education has turned its head away from discouraging this practice and forcing the university to use another pay structure.

#2: Make sure your account is paid in full at the time you take your last class. Do not spend your financial aid money if you know that you will be leaving the school. If you have funds on account or received an excess check, do not spend these funds either. This is the hook. If you do not have the ability to pay this back at the time that you quit, you will not be able to obtain financial aid at another institution or have your transcripts sent to another institution for evaluation to be admitted. If you owe money to any institution at Apollo Group, be prepared for a tumultuous journey of leaving the institution. You will continue to be harassed by all your counselors and at some point the collections department.

#3: Demand an Official Withdrawal Form and make sure to get confirmation that it has been submitted to University Services by any of your counselors. Do not violate any student code of conduct policy. Violating this code could prevent you from being accepted as a potential transfer student at another institution.

#4: Do not let them intimidate you. Do not refer people to the institution. Prevent them from attending out of their best interest. Trust me when I say look for other institutions. If you want a quality education from a respectable institution, search out those institutions that were brick and mortar schools that now have established online classes. You may need to meet a more stringent entrance requirement and be required to take a graduate entrance exam, but in the long-run you will definitely receive a better ROI (return on investment) on your education and institution.

If you have been wronged by the University of Phoenix / Axia College / Apollo Group, here is a list of contacts to increase federal involvement and actions: Make sure you file reports and complaints with these Federal and State Offices or Departments. The more filed will increase awareness and investigation on the University of Phoenix. Also, it will assist with legal litigation in your pursuit of judgment against the University: 1) Federal Trade Commission. 2) State Congressman / State Senators. 3) Department of Higher Education Federal. 4) Department of Higher Education State. 5) State Attorney General. 6) Better Business Bureau. 7) Contact your Local and National News Reporting Stations

I value that some may reply to this with their own implications of why University of Phoenix is illustrious and individuals on this form are being immature. Please do be advised that I am a United States Marine who does not take pleasure in going through any legal litigation with any cooperation or anyone at that. Individuals have been harmed and ill-treated by this academic institution. Respect their statements if you have experienced otherwise than they have. If you feel that you have been a victim of this academic institution, please take action for yourself and the sake of other future students. I am not the only military personnel who has experienced this; but accept as true when I remark that I and other Marines will not stand by and be walked on by a deceitful academic institution such as this. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach me at my personal email. Thanks

I have since stopped going to any school and now I am totally disabled with no ability to pay these loans back. UoP knew I was disabled and did not offer me any help finding other resources where I would not have to pay with student loans because I told them I would not be working and could not pay this money back. The advisers would keep saying they would look into it and I would just keep asking and they just kept putting me off just to get that money. Even now I still get phone calls from them begging me to comeback to school.

In April, I spoke with my academic advisor about adding a specialization in Psychology to my Associates degree. I inquired about the specialization because I had twelve Psychology credits which I had taken at a local community college. I was told by my advisor that if I completed two Psychology courses, it would complete the requirements for my degree. I agreed to take the two extra courses, filled out the necessary paperwork to waive the remaining courses due to my completion of the prior twelve credits, and I signed the additional specialization enrollment agreement. I completed all the course, as advised by the University of Phoenix, for my Associates degree in Accounting with a specialization in Psychology on the 23rd of November, 2009.

In January 2010, I submitted a request for my diploma. I received a call from another advisor stating there were issues with my specialization. It seems that I did not have enough credits since it is the policy of the University of Phoenix to require the completion of twelve core credits in house. I was told that I could appeal or take additional classes. I choose to appeal. It is my understanding that the appeal was denied. I wanted to voice my concern, frustration, and anger regarding the guidance I received in the pursuit of adding the specialization. I was advised by employees of UOP, enrolled in courses per their advise, and now I am unable to achieve the goal which was set. I would like to know what the UOP is going to do to correct the mistake of its employees.

I completed the two psychology courses which were recommended after I had completed all the necessary courses for my Associate degree in Accounting. I spent money for these classes and wasted my time to add these classes because of the guidance of my academic advisors. I have contacted my academic advisor, and upper-level advisors, all of whom can do nothing.

My problem is I have committed nine weeks of my life to the course which I completed in full and again had to complete. I am a mother of three children and maintain a full-time job while pursuing my educational goals with UOP. The tuition I pay should insure that my University can provide a learning space that can correct problems such as these when they arise, and that those who are supposed to give guidance have the knowledge to do so. With technical support acknowledging that this is a common occurrence, I feel less than accommodated. It was suggested that I should have to double check every posting that I make in every course.

The UOP prides itself on instructing its student in skills used in the "real world", but in the real world if my clients had to double check every service I performed, then it is very likely I would not have a job. I have been misinformed during this entire process. I am expected to meet the expectations of the University of Phoenix by completing my courses. Yet, the University feels no need to meet my expectations of depending on competent advise from those who are representatives of the University. I feel it is unjust that I am penalized due to the lack of professionalism exhibited by the representatives of UOP. I paid tuition of $975 and a resources fee of $69.49 for each of the courses, and I spent eighteen weeks of my life. Nine of those weeks were spent retaking a course I had already completed and the remaining nine completing two courses which were worthless.

They proceeded to hound him about the money and threatening him on a consistent basis when he is not in his right mind. Basically they made a 65 year old man empty out his entire retirement to pay the debt he can't recall. I truly feel that they should be going after his son. Now that he has emptied his savings, is UofP going to house him?

However, he failed to disclose that we (my daughter or I as the parent) would have to chase people between the Memphis campus and the Arizona main office for this correspondence. Additionally, I applied for a parent loan with a lender and the lender submitted correspondence to U o P on 22 Jan. 2010, requesting for certification of the student's status in order to release funds to school.

Today is 16 March 2010, and the school has not submitted correspondence to me, or to lender, although I spoke with Memphis Campus Financial Advisor on 5 March 2010. When I spoke with the financial advisor, she responded that she was clueless as to what I was talking about and did not understand what I wanted her to do. I asked her to contact their main office in Arizona; and, perhaps she would be able to receive further guidance from them. I further asked her to contact me if there were any problems, or required additional information from me. I did not receive a response from her; however, on 15 March 2010, I received a letter from her stating that the account was overdue and needed to have funds posted by 15 March 2010.

Refunding all of the disbursement will cause me to pay out of pocket for the classes I've already completed. So, I took another class and completed it as they requested. Subsequently, I received a refund check in the mail. I called my financial aid advisor regarding the check. She said it was overage and I could keep it and do as I wish. Three months later, I was contacted to by UOP to pay $4,165. I called UOP very irate about the bill. They stated they had refunded the disbursement back to Sallie Mae for reasons I never understood. I contacted Sallie Mae and they were unaware of this refund. I received several collection calls for UOP and this balance was placed on my credit report as a "charge off". This has impacted my credit score greatly. Please help me! This has impacted my credit score greatly.

About two months into my courses, my brother-in-law called me and told me he had heard some pretty bad things about the school and I needed to call my counselors and find out if they were true. I called and got voice mail so I left a message. I then proceeded to leave several messages and it wasn't until I threatened with a lawyer that Josh called me back. He then said that I had been informed all along that I would not receive any grants and that I had agreed to student loans.

I then asked if they recorded our conversations and he said that several months of their recordings had been lost. Now I receive threatening phone calls and emails and they have referred me to a collection agency. I have been told by Allana and Josh both that I will pay or they will seize all of my accounts and properties. I find this somewhat unfair and unethical. These people led me to believe one thing and proceeded to do another. I was thrown out of my house, my marriage ended, and my credit has gone to waste. The continued threats and harassment from the college have led to an almost complete mental breakdown for me.

I was told today that I have to pay $2,751.40 by tomorrow or my debt will be referred to a collection agency which would ruin my credit. I asked them to work with me since I am a teacher and a single mom. The two individuals I talked to said that I could do the following: 1) borrow against my 401K or 2) get a second credit card and borrow against it; both are unacceptable in my financial situation. I pleaded with them to allow me to make monthly payments of $200-$400 a month and reminded them that I contacted the university to arrange payment.

Both men refused my offer saying that there was no way their computer system would allow me to make low payments. The University of Phoenix only allows credit card payments. My credit will be ruined if the university refers my debt to a collection agency.

I do not recommend this institution. ** it up and go to a traditional college! I am out money, taking a bogus class about learning as an adult and potentially out money for classes since they can't get my financial aid right. And if I drop and miss a whole semester at a "normal" university, then I will have additional time to graduate and it will cost me extra money. I thought misrepresentation is fraud.

In week one, a lot of things were happening and I tried to call my advisors to let them know that I needed to drop the class. I stopped attending in that week and in week two so that all money would be sent back to the lenders and I would not be charged for the class. I even left numerous voicemails and emails letting my advisor know that I would not be attending the class anymore. I had a child death in my family and it was a crushing blow to me and my family. She never responded except once to leave me a voicemail stating that she would be leaving the office in a few minutes. After numerous attempts to contact her, I gave up.

I am now enrolling at a local University and cannot get my transcript from UoP because they state I owe $721.50 to them. I looked on the accounts page and I received a letter in the mail stating that they had sent back $5,550.00 to the lenders. That leaves me owing the balance of $721.50. This school rips you off financially and you can get no information from your advisor unless you stop attending. I am now getting calls from Angela and she states on my voicemail: "I'm am curious as to why you stopped attending. You need to continue or you could be liable for amounts owed to our school for your classes." If they sent $5,550 back to the lenders and kept $1,401 for themselves, how am I responsible for $721.50? Are there no laws out there to stop them from committing this kind of blackmail?

Usually when you owe school money, you cannot come back unless you pay said amount. Yet, I can come back to UoP and the amount will be "forgiven" and I can continue, if I do not come back to them, I owe this amount and it could be sent to collections and it will block me from going to the local university. To me, that is blackmail and is illegal. How are they able to get away with this for so long? You get no guidance while you attend, no person will answer the phone, yet when you drop, they are all about calling you to harass you!

The teacher said he doesn't have the authority to do that. There is no one over these teachers and whatever they say goes no matter if they're wrong or right. You just have to get these grades they are giving. I asked for an administrator to call and for the phone number, they would not give me a number or never a call from anyone or anybody with authority to fix my problem. Everything happens when it's time to get my money. They always come up with a reason not to give it to me. But they put holds on money for me but they always get their money. I am finding it really hard to live without getting the money I'm supposed to be getting. Because of no fault of my own and every time I ask or dispute on what they are doing to me, they just lie to me. They always just say that they don't have the authority to fix the problems. But they lie and create the problems for me. They always pass the buck and I am always the one who pays the price.

This is fraud and I was told that I would have an associate in pharmacy when I was done. I have several classes left on the associates program and hate it for I know that I will not be able to use it for anything at all. I tried to get a job in a pharmacy and showed them what I had taken and was to take in weeks to come and they laughed and told me they would not hire me for I have no educational background that will help me in the field and gave me the phone number to the state to report it to.

Needless to say my counselor is not returning emails or phone calls and I have sent several and my financial aide worker does not always call back or is out of the office. I feel that people that have been taken by this school should not have to pay back money that was spent for a career in a field if the student was not properly taught and the degree usable for the field. This is a joke and fake and fraud in my opinion, making people believe they will have a usable degree and have the knowledge to get a job in the field of study and find out it is useless.

All they are doing is racking up loan bills and getting their cut of it and then dumping the unsuspected student with a useless education if you can call it that. I hope that something is done with them. I am so out of heart working hard to better myself to be done this way and cannot afford to go somewhere else to get the correct one and now I am in debt. This is a disgrace to people who are honestly trying to better themselves and support themselves.

I am not the only one that has been taken by them that I know of and there are a few here in TN. I am so out of heart that someone would lie like that to a person who is trying so hard at my age to better themselves. God have mercy on them, for one day they will get their just dues for doing people wrong in this world at a time the economy is bad and other options are having to be done for getting a job.

I cannot get a job in the field that I thought I would have an associate’s degree in and was laughed at when I applied for a position because I have not had the correct classes or education to get it. I cannot get employment with the degree that I will have for it is useless. Now I am financially in debt over it and I want to sue them for time and suffering and for putting me in debt over a degree that I cannot use for anything. This is time and money and hard work that has been used to help myself that cannot be replaced over a useless degree that I want reimbursed for and my loans paid by the University of Phoenix and compensation for being lied to and fraud.

They said we would not be the same. In fact, I was entitled to more from Pell than she was. I tried calling the school, emailing the school and nothing. This school cons you into applying, taking money you can’t pay back, and then they bail on you. They will not answer your questions or concerns. They also hold your funding past the drop-out date so you have to take the classes.

I think we should all ban together and sue their sorry **! They take advantage of people. They do not explain anything, and from what I have been reading on here, their degrees mean nothing. So now I am in debt with loans and sounds like I will have a useless degree! What a rip-off. I feel like the school just wants to get people signed up and then give them a bogus education.

They are preying on low income families knowing that we can not afford to pay these loans, and yet if you agree to take classes, you are basically forced to take the loans that you have already told them you cannot repay. I mean, who gives loans to someone that does not even have a job! That is what they did to me and my girlfriend. Neither one of us work and she is disabled and now we owe back a bunch of money we cant afford to pay back!

I have been through 6 financial aid people at this university and not one has helped or answered my questions. They deny all responsibility and just refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. I cannot understand how they can get away with this - my husband lost his job and I cannot pay this immediate owed bill for a class not worth 5 minutes of my time. Most of the class had no understanding of basic English.

When I was going to get it, I found out when I got a letter through a lender affiliated from the school, not the bank itself. They did not even use the grant money to pay tuition. They kept using the loan money. When I found out what the first loan, I was very angry because it was 4,500 dollars and then in the fall, they took out another loan again sending me the grant money check and taking the entire loan. They made these loans fixed for subsidize so I would have to pay interest right away also, not mention, I was only going for my Associates.

So anyway, they sent me some of the loan money back to me but when I refused it, they told me that if I did not take the check, I would not graduate so took the money. Then in the summer of 2009, I filled out my FASA and said I did not want any more loans. They then sent me a paper saying that I had no more funds yet to graduate and Pell grants would not be enough. So they then they took a $25,000 loan out on me through the lender again, even though my FASA said no loans. I own now almost twenty thousand dollars in loans. I withdrew before that loan went through in Jan 2010. They sent me a letter and email saying I have withdrawn. Also, that because I met the deadline for withdrawing and passed all my classes, I owed nothing.

Now, they’re sending me a letter telling me I have to pay back most of Pell grant money of $1,175.60 to them in order to get my transcripts. I have nothing but a nightmare with this school. All they kept doing is taking my money. They now have threatened to take away all college privileges around the world away from me if I do not work with them. They sent me a paper wanting me to sign it about my loans and paying them back when my loans are not even a school matter. It is a loan matter and should have been taken up with the bank not the school. I really would like for someone to help me with this matter if they could. Also, on another note, when I called my academic counselor back, he yelled at me and said I would regret for the rest of my life and that no school will be like theirs and that I would not make it without a degree from there. I felt really low because of him.

I recently applied at University of Phoenix in Tucson, AZ to enter a BSCJA/HS degree program which I thought would be the fastest way to obtain the minimum requirements for the University of Arizona's Law School and the application process went smooth with the help of a smooth-talking, very articulate and very nice looking counselor. I mean she called me everyday at least 2 times to update me on my financial aid process. She came across as someone who really cared about my success in reaching my goal, but something happened that changed the picture. About 5 days after I applied, a "snag" occurred. The National Student Loan Data System was reporting that I was in default on a student loan which prevented me from obtaining financial aid. I explained to my counselor that this was obviously an error because I was actually in default 25 years ago but since had that debt discharged in a Federal Bankruptcy proceeding and provided her with indisputable proof.

Additionally, I immediately contacted the US Department of Education and had them update the information in the NSLDS and also I had a 3-way personal conversation between my counselor and a US Department of Education representative which they informed her that I was eligible for title 4 financial aid because I was not in default status. Despite the fact that US Department of Education provided a fax document of proof that a student loan was not in default, my counselor wanted the Department to reword the documentation to fit the UoP language of acceptance. All of a sudden, "red" flags went off. I realized the counselor didn't know what she was doing. She was now questioning the officials from the USDOE, the ones who reported the erroneous information and retracted it.

Thank God for the NSLDS erroneous reporting and the ineptitude of the UoP staff. I was able to immediately read between the lines that their only concern was to obtain and secure my financial aid and after doing a bit of research, I immediately withdrew my application before starting class. I am now enrolling in the University of Arizona, a very reputable entity, and starting over. I realize that it may take a little longer and a little more money to reach my goal but the rewards and recognition will be cherished. Take your time and follow your instinct before committing yourself. Some people aren't as fortunate to encounter "snags" that save their dream. Good luck on your choice!

I was introduced to the school last year, the summer of August 2009. At first, my grades were a 3.0 GPA. And the following day, my grades were changed to a 2.64 which is not a sufficient grade average to continue the program according to admission staff. I am writing the letter to mention that the University of Phoenix did not want me enrolled in their school.

I believe that it was an act of discrimination that I was not smart enough to be enrolled in their school. It seems to me that someone in the University of Phoenix did not want me in their school. I had a college advisor, Mr. Laz ** who was a very nice gentleman who informed me of the requirements about the school. It seems to me that my education was infringed upon because it was informed by another staff member that Mr. Laz ** is not affiliated with the University of Phoenix. Therefore, I know that the school was trying to scam me as a student because Mr. Laz ** is officially my college advisor and some other college representative named Ms. Tiffany ** wanted to inform me in some way that I am disqualified.

The College representative was Ms. ** who simply wanted me out of their school. It was not informed to me that she was my college advisor because Mr. Laz ** is my college advisor. It seems to be that Ms. ** wanted to fire me of being enrolled in the way she had explained to me in a naive way about the requirement of the school. After that, she has told me that I was disqualified and that it would take 6 months to be enrolled again, including the discussion of the course I had to take over, the Health care Marketing course. I originally had a C-. I did not have to take the course over when the length of the course was not completed.

Again, it is quite evident that Ms. ** wanted me to take the class over so that I would not get a decent grade to pass the class. Ms. ** kept insisting on the policy of the program and did not treat me like a student who should be successful in passing the course subject. I should agree that some of the college representative of the University of Phoenix has probably done this to numerous students because to hold on to their grade policy is important to them so a student would not be able to graduate.

Currently, I am not able to complete the remaining course of the online degree program because of what a college advisor has spoken to me. I would just like to report a complaint and the reason why I could not register the next course of the online degree program. I believe that I am a student and I do not like the idea that a college advisor who was considered a stranger to me can tell me that I am disqualified. I believe it is how it happened to the student. The best thing for me to do is to complain about the issue. In the future, I would like to attend Nursing school. I just hope that I would not have any problems with the next school that I attend because I am just a college student. Thank you, kindly for your cooperation about this matter.

At age 49, in June of 2008, I was unemployed and decided to take online courses for a Degree in Medical Records (AAHCA/MR )(p.B1-B6) under the assumption that the economy would improve by the time I finished and I would have an easier time obtaining employment in the growing health care fields. After recently taking a fall and breaking my wrist, I have been put on permanent lifting restrictions, so I had to make a career change. I talked with the Executive Enrollment Counselor Angie ** and was signed up for the program. Angie ** stated she would have to talk with her supervisor Matt **, and the Department of Education to have the course waived for Montana.

The next day, she informed me every thing went through and to fax my signed enrollment form (p.A1-A3) back by July 11, 2008 to start attending classes July 21, 2008 and my credits would be transferable to Montana. My first question is was this course waived through the Department of Education, or was this a ploy by Angie ** to enroll myself because she knew I would be eligible for financial aid?

The next eighteen months, I worked hard to keep my GPA above average, so I would have more opportunity for good employment. As I talked with Academic Counselors: Chris **, Angela **, Julie **, and David ** over this time period, I was still under the impression my degree would be in Medical Records (noted in document p. N1-N3- Letter to Department of Education). As per my enrollment form, General Education courses were taken first along with some of the Medical Records curriculum.

The General Education courses were completed in December 2009. When checking my courses after Christmas break, I noticed I had two courses in the Medical Records Curriculum but the courses: HCR 210 Patient Records, HCR220 Claims Preparation, HCR 230 Claims Preparation II, and HCR 240 Computerizing Medical Data (p. B-5) were not listed. According to the Academic policies, a student must sign a new enrollment form (p. C-1, C2) to change courses which I did not sign.

When talking with Academic Counselor, David ** in January 2010, he informed me I was never enrolled in the AAHCA/MR and I was enrolled in Associate of Arts in Health Care Administration. (noted phone conversation with counselors (p. O1-O3). This letter explains the phone conversation and the courses the University of Phoenix wanted me to take which would of still not given me the credits for the degree I applied for. Courses taken for the AAHCA/MR on document p. D1-D3). They also have a course scheduled for the Bachelors Degree Program which I was going to continue with after I received my Medical Records degree. One of the course was dated for 01/16/1992 for Comm 215 Essentials of College Writing. I already have taken Com 150 Essay Writing, and COM 220 Research Writing.

Though I told my Counselor Angela **, I would like to continue my degree program after I received my Degree in Medical records. I was not told they were going to cut the classes I needed for the Medical Records Degree to take pre-requisite classes for a Bachelors Degree. I presumed I would finish the Medical Records Curriculum first. I have not signed enrollment forms for the Bachelors Program as of date. I believe they wanted me to take out another loan to complete the degree I started with and the degree they changed me to, my counselors took the initiative to change my program without my knowledge.

My next question regarding financial aid payments. I have also contacted Student Aid and received a letter from Michele **. showing my payments for this year (p. M1-M2) which was the amounts I received in student loans and grants for 2009. Financial counselor Samuel ** informed me that I would be eligible for $10,500 for Pell Grant money. I received the payments of $5350 Pell and $1000 SEOG. I had a question on where the other $4150 monies was, I talked with my counselor Joshua ** and asked him, Joshua ** started laughing and replied I received all my money, then told me I had to change my lender, since Bank of America quit carrying my loan.

As I went into the system to change lenders, I had to apply for another loan or the lender information would not be processed. I believe Joshua ** knew this at the time and wanted me to take out another loan for $10,500. I received a letter (p. P) in October 2009 from the Department of Education stating Nelnet has bought my loan, I would think the Financial Aid office would also have record of this. Then I e-mailed Joshua ** to let him know I changed lenders and requested dates and amounts Pell grant monies were issued, he replied the school retained theses monies for courses (p. J1-J2).

According to my account payments and loan information, I qualified for $20,000 which covered all my courses and excess payments to date of $19,800. I have not received a refund of the $200 difference. (p. E1-E4). Printout of payments on courses (p. F1-F6). While looking through my statements, I noticed on my 1098-T form (p. E4) I received a grant for $2397.50. Which I did not receive to my knowledge. When looking at my payment history reports the payment history report shows courses paid for by Pell for 2009: HCA 250- $1035, MAT 116-$1035, SCI 241-$187.50, HCA 250-$70, MAT116-$70.00.(p. H1-H2). I question this, since I had enough financial aid through loans to cover all my courses, unless University of Phoenix doubled payments on theses courses.

After Christmas break, I noticed the University of Phoenix cancelled the classes I needed for my Associates Degree program in Medical Records Program. I decided to put in an official withdrawal stating, I did not receive the training for my degree (p. K1-K3) on January 4, 2010. On January 7, 2010, I called my counselors to do an exit interview, since I received 9 calls in two days from David **, Eric **, and Joshua ** starting at 8 a.m. I noted the conversation on (p. O1-O3). The counselors were intimidating and frustrating to talk with. They were still only going to offer me two of the classes for my Medical Records degree which would have still left me 2 classes short. Claims Preparation and Configuring Medical Data which seem very important for a Medical Records career. As the letter states, I would not of had any choice but to take out more loans for a degree I was not enrolled in.

On January 15, 2010, I received the real exit interview papers and returned them. I was very uncomfortable giving University of Phoenix names and numbers of friends and relatives, since I do not want them to be harassed. I do not understand why this is necessary since my lenders have references already. As I looked through there repayment plans, the estimate for an Associates Degree is Approximately $ 12, 366 (p. L1-L4) which is a little more than Angela ** quoted me during the enrollment process for the Medical Records Program and informed me I could contract from home, or in an office make at least $39,000. Plus I could still work while attending classes.

If I would have known the University of Phoenix cost this much for a degree, I would have checked other options. If I would have continued trying to finish the Medical Records Program I started with would have ended up costing over $30,000 which I would have paid if this was the courses I signed up for to obtain a career in Medical Records. Plus I never did find out if the program was eligible for Montana and if I can transfer my credits. The way I read this credits are only transferable within the University of Phoenix. I question how accredited the University of Phoenix standards are compared to other Medical Records Programs. I am upset with the whole process, I feel like I wasted almost two years for nothing and if I kept going I would not have the degree I set out to complete.

I have written to various agencies trying to receive answers if a University can falsify information to obtain students and questions regarding financial aid. Student Aid office did respond when I sent the first letter but no further information after the letter sent on January 16, 2010. No response from the original letter to the Department of Education on January 6, 2010. I would really like to know how a University can get away with these tactics. Any answers you can give me would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time, I know you must be very busy trying to make changes within the educational system. But when Universities like this take Federally subsidized monies and do not ensure a good education, or falsify curriculum and financial quotes for the course, to enroll students that would lead to a career, as they advertise, not only hurts the student, drop out rates, government loans, and the economy. It was hard enough going back to school after 30 years, but then after all this work and ending up with a GPA of 3.83, all I have to show are large debt with two different lenders ACS and Nelnet costing me $20,000 plus almost $700.00 interest and I'm still unemployed.

I can mail any documentation that may be necessary for my complaint as the original enrollment form, letters, emails. After talking with my counselors after I withdrew from the University of Phoenix. They were still not going to give me the courses that I needed for my Medical Records degree. I would have graduated in May of 2010. Now employment opportunities are opening up in this field in Montana and I am $20,000 plus in debt and unemployed. I already have age and Health restrictions against me when applying for employment positions.

I am currently in the Master's Program. I have always kept a close watch on all distributed funds and disbursements. How ironic is it that my assigned Financial Advisor has different information than Phoenix Financial Aid Office? Many e-mails have been sent to address my concerns. According to the Financial Aid Office, all of my classes are paid up to date. Yet according to the Financial Advisor I owe $3120 for two classes. When I spoke with my financial advisor in October, I was advised there is currently a "credit" of $3120. I did not receive those funds. So where is that credit? Now I am told that it was for a "different loan period". Huh? How could that change? I am absolutely frustrated with the financial department and am ready to slap a class action suit!

I am concerned my FA will be lost due to the poor contact/rt of call and emails. They do not provide phone numbers upon request. I do not know if I will be able to transfer colleges due to lack of information.

I called back a week later to make sure it had gone through this time and it was once again not filed. The school wants me to pay the fees for the classes I was in even though they did not file the paperwork to start the GI Bill coming in. The school was going to charge the fees to my bank account, which would have wiped me out and I would not have been able to pay my mortgage or any other bills. I put a "stop pay" on the school. I told them I was not trying to get out of paying, but I would not be able to pay until the GI Bill starts coming in.

The counselors and financial advisors assured me that not only were my career options going to expand greatly but that I could get a reasonable aide packet. I was so ignorant. I finished all of my classes with great grades and was so excited to see my Associates degree in Psychology. I am 38 years old and I thought that I had finally accomplished something great.

However, not only are there no positions that require only an Associates in Psychology, a partial of my loan was sold to Department of Education. So, now I have a useless degree, unless I spend more money to get a higher degree and two loan payments. Two loan payments that now have increased my loan amount from $24,000 to almost $30,000. Now, how is that fair? I feel like I made the biggest mistake of my life and put myself and my family in debt for it.

My education started off fine and I was pleased with it. However, I had some problems with a couple of classes about one year or so into the program. I repeatedly contacted my advisers to discuss the issue and repeatedly asked to be contacted on the end of class surveys. This is an option you can choose. However, I never once was contacted. One issue I had was an incorrect grade I received in the class. I spoke with my adviser with all the info required and she told me that now that the grade was posted, there was nothing they could do. They could not change it.

I also received notices of my no longer being enrolled on three separate occasions. I did take a couple of small breaks, one for my honeymoon which is allowed and it was discussed with my adviser beforehand. Despite this, I received these notices and had to go through all the trouble of contacting the school and financial aid to clear things up. The school didn't do much and expected me to take care of their mistake.

In my second year of school, I was reviewing my schedule, the credits I'd received and the unsatisfied credits remaining when I found some conflicting information. I contacted my adviser who realized the school made a mistake and had left out three classes (9 credits) that I needed so my program was pushed out even further than originally told. I was told that I needed to take the classes or try to CLEP test out of them. At that time I hadn't decided so I asked her to add those required classes to my schedule so I could visualize it and refer to my schedule. This never happened.

During this time of reviewing my credits, I spoke with my second academic adviser and asked her to fix my schedule (which she never did either) and I was confirming credits. I told her I had x amount of credits completed based on my online schedule which was correct. All the classes I had taken were shown complete with all the credits received. However, she was telling me that I was three credits short than what was shown on my schedule. After my diligence of making numerous calls and emails, my adviser realized that they had put me into a class that I did not need.

Therefore, the credit did not apply to my degree. What was even more upsetting is that I had questioned that class with another adviser because I had already taken many core math classes at a local community college. She insisted I needed it and so I took it. It was also the worst grade (C) I received in my entire program, lowering my GPA and I didn't even need to take it! I was very upset because now I had another class to fulfill since those three credits didn't, pushing my graduation date back even further.

I then insisted they refund my money because I had questioned the class, was still made to take it only to find out I didn't need it. I explained that I cannot afford to pay for their mistakes. In addition they also used up 5 weeks of my life for something unnecessary. They didn't want to refund my tuition and I insisted they take responsibility for their mistake and make things right. I had to talk to my financial adviser, Tera **. I repeatedly called and emailed my academic adviser Stephanie ** who rarely responded to me. I then had to go to her supervisor Matthew ** because I wasn't receiving any support or help with my issues. I forwarded him emails I'd sent to her to show him that I'd contacted her but never heard back.

He said he would speak with her and advised that I stay with her rather than be assigned to another academic adviser. He informed me he had spoken to her and that everything should be resolved and that she was one of his best. Well, I contacted her again and never received a response so I had to forward the info to Matthew. He then switched me to Lulu **. This was my third adviser and also another person I had to explain this entire saga of problems. No one at the university ever communicated to be on the same page. I always had to repeat my long story and still was not receiving resolution.

Finally, I spoke with a financial aid supervisor insisting I be refunded for the class I didn't need. I expressed my concern that this tuition had been gaining interest now for over a year. After 3-4 weeks of literally fighting for myself and telling them I was going to look into my legal rights regarding this matter, I was told they would reimburse my tuition for that class and the resource fees for my last three classes.

Resource fees are for books and other materials. The resource fees are $80 so she refunded me $240. During that time, I had to speak to many financial aid people too because Jennifer ** who was the supervisor dealing with this issue then replied to one of my emails that she was no longer in charge of my financial aid adviser and would no longer be assigned to this issue. So, yet again, I had a new person to deal with. However, I had sent a very detailed email about my frustrations and all the problems I'd run into. I asked them to make sure this new financial aid adviser was up-to-date before we spoke.

I decided to enroll into a Sociology class for the 3 Social Science credits I needed and decided to take the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP exam to test out of the six Humanities credits I needed. Shortly after this, I was switched once again to a new academic adviser. I got my information for the exam and began studying while I was still working full time and in class full time. I had been informed that I needed to take this exam before my last scheduled class ended. That date was Dec. 7, 2009. I set the date of November 20, 2009 to make the deadline. Feeling confident, I took the exam and missed the passing score of 50 by three points. The test is not graded letter wise but each question holds certain point value.

The score sheet I received at the testing center stated that each school has the discretion to accept a different score. I have a 3.5 GPA (which would have been higher had I not mistakenly been made to take the unnecessary math class) and have worked my butt off to get these grades. I am a very hard working student and graduated with a 3.8 GPA for my associate's degree. I had planned on graduating in Sept. 2009 which is the date I was given and with all these problems I was already pushed out to December.

I was devastated and contacted the school to see if they would accept the score as they had the discretion to do so. I explained that I had excellent grades to prove my dedication and that the university had already deceived me so much that I was asking for mercy and understanding to allow me my December graduation. I had to again make many calls and finally spoke with Josh ** who is above Matthew **. in the academics dept. He stated I could file an appeal with the appeals committee but that honestly he didn't think they would budge. I still wrote them a professional appeals letter and sent it to Josh as requested to be forwarded on. In the meantime, I discussed with my current adviser Pam ** as to what other exams would satisfy 6 credits. She informed me the other one was American Literature. I decided to take it and purchased a study guide for it.

I was also informed that I, in fact, had about a year to complete the CLEP exam, I did not have to finish by December as I was originally told. This was more misinformation I received and if I'd known that I didn't have that deadline I would have studied more for the first CLEP I took and I'm confident I would have received those extra three points needed to pass.

So while my appeals letter is being reviewed, I prepared for the worst and began studying for the other CLEP. They did get back to me denying my appeal. They said I didn't demonstrate the knowledge they require and they can't confirm I'm a dedicated student. So I tell my adviser I will continue to study for my American Lit. CLEP and will take it at the end of January.

I emailed Pam ** last Friday 1/22/10 and told her that I needed the school code to take my CLEP exam. She didn't respond to me until Thursday 1/28/10. She called me and left a message. I called her back two hours later and left a message. I called back at 4:30 when I still hadn't heard back. The morning before going to take my test, I still hadn't heard back so I emailed her and cc'd her boss Matthew ** asking to contact me first thing because I needed the code for my exam which was in less than an hour.

Pam called me and was defensive. She then asked what exam I was taking. We had already discussed this and I again told her American Literature. She immediately replied that that was not going to fulfill the credits I needed. She also asked me if I registered with CLEP and told me I didn't need a code. I immediately panicked as I was an hour from taking the exam. I asked her to look into it and when she did, she found she was completely wrong. I did need a code which she gave me. I didn't need to register with CLEP because I'd registered with the testing center and the American Literature did satisfy the credits I needed.

Overall, the entire time I was in school I was never provided with customer service. I had to spend so much time trying to get in touch with people and get responses. If I hadn't been so diligent, these problems would not have surfaced until the very end. I had to fight to be reimbursed for money I was owed and I was misinformed about the time my education would require and the costs. I am upset because this for profit company took $30K of my money and didn't help me with any problems I had. To get things fixed, I had to argue with people and things were made very hard for me. I don't know if my situation constitutes any action but I feel the school just took my money but didn't care about my needs. I am so disappointed at this time that I chose this school. I feel so cheated. Thank you for your time in reviewing my case.

Next, the instructors and course materials have all been excellent. Of course, every student has at least one instructor who is rude, unfair, or "mean". Being a student and earning a degree is not easy. You have to work for it and put a lot of time and effort into it. Just because it is an online school does not mean it is easy! Also, the bachelors and masters programs are way different than the associates. The weeks are different, prices are higher, and there are more group clusters and teams which is not beneficial to some. It has been a struggle for me, but I have made it this far and still have a 3.87 GPA.

Last, I encourage anyone who is interested in the University of Phoenix to look into it. Like any other college online, it is always best to research the school and find its' accreditation (regionally/state as well) as UOP is not "covered" in some states! If you don't, that's your fault and there are other schools out there for you. Furthermore, I am a Phoenix and very proud of it. My education from UOP is recognized by many employers and educational institutes in my state. The academic and enrollment services I received where excellent and the financial services I received were average to above average. Every school has their pros and cons, but it is up to the student to make it happen! I'm very pleased with the University of Phoenix. A wonderful school!

I completed all classes before the Jan 1 deadline, and had the college send UOP an official transcript. They received the transcript in Feb 2009. Following this, I have had to submit at least two SAC (Student Appeals Committee) appeals at my Counselor's (Miller) request to have my units accepted by UOP. Finally, in August of 2009, my Counselor called me to say that those appeals had been denied because they didn't receive the transcript by the Jan 1 deadline (The letter granting my extension does not mention anything about the transcript). Within that same conversation, my Counselor offered me the opportunity to attend three more classes at UOP (one of which I've already taken) and the degree would be awarded to me.

It doesn't seem fair that I would be denied the degree I've worked hard for, simply because they didn't receive my transcript by a certain time, especially since they didn't inform me of this.

I am very upset regarding this matter and I am going to file a suit against the University of Phoenix. This kind of behavior is sinful and tyrannical and will not be tolerated by me. My husband is a very honest man and keeps extremely detailed notes and paper trails, so I am confident that this situation will be rectified to our benefit, however, it still does not negate the fact that I am very disappointed with the disorganization of the University of Phoenix.

I have noticed on several postings of daily questions (UOP's way of doing participation), many people posting in Ebonics and improper English. That wouldn't be so bad if I had not seen the same issues on postings written by those teaching the classes. If they can't type or speak proper English then what are they doing teaching Bachelor's and Master's programs?

As a result of shoddy teaching and dealing with a multitude of students who can't type properly and who post off the wall things on the daily questions, I realized that I had made huge mistake in choosing this university. After much debate on my part, I applied and got into Penn State and will be finishing my Bachelor's degree there and then moving on to my Master's either there or at another good university.

I continued with the program until I reached the 39 credit hours that are required for the Masters in Business without the accounting emphasis. At that point in time I asked my academic counselor for a program change request form. He sent one to me. Then I was told by the financial aid counselor that if I end the program at this point and not take the accounting classes, I would owe the school the entire borrowed amount. And that amount would be due within thirty days. I was told I could not change my major from a Masters in Business/Accounting to a Masters in Business only. She said if I could not pay, then I would be sent to collections. I continue the program with protest. I needed to get out of this contract that was forced upon me.

I told my financial counselor that I am facing a hardship and I needed to get out of the program. My financial aid counselor told me that if I stop now with only one class left to take, I would owe them the entire amount for the accounting classes because the program requirement for the accounting program was not met. Also, none of the accounting classes would be applied toward my degree. My question here is why not? They may set the classes up in a program allotment but to say the ones I passed is not applied toward my degree is to say I just took them for no reason whatsoever.

I’m facing financial ruins. I have been looking and I have not found a job. By the end of February I will have exhausted all of my cash. I have applied for work and with my accounting background from Portland Community College is not good enough to obtain a job. What I am missing is Quick Books. Portland Community College is offering classes on Quick Books. I need to be taking the class from Portland Community College rather than this class from University of Phoenix which is not transferable. The whole idea behind education is to improve ones position in life not to hinder.

I stated that I did not want a loan, and had expressed this prior to enrollment. To make the long story short, I did not continue and left UOP. Two years later, when moving and having a credit check done, it showed that I was still a student of UOP. I called UOP, and asked for proof that I no longer was a student. I was told at that time that there was a financial hold on giving out any information, because I owed UOP, meaning they do not give out any information if you owe them money! I talked to the financial aid office at UOP until I was blue in the face, and with no results. Now, two years later, I am trying move into a home, and that is still on my report.

I called UOP and was told that the financial hold is still on my account, which means that, they will not give out any information to anyone including me. They stated that I owe them $578.00. I informed them that I do not owe them any money, because I had informed the recruiter that I would not want to go to the school, if I had to pay, and he assured me that it would be okay. This has been a real problem for me, and has made it hard on me to move, especially since they will not send any information as to, if I am enrolled or not (yes 4 years later). I want to know if this action is legal or not.

As a result, I have had to try to explain why it says that I am a full time student at UOP, when I am not. I have been told that my file cannot be completed, because unless they can get something that states that I am not a student, then I am stuck between a rock and a hard place!

As a car salesman, I have learned the nuts and bolts of the sales process. I know when I am in the sales process, but I felt safe, since I was dealing with a school and not necessarily a business. I felt safe borrowing money to earn educational credentials. Each class begins with an introduction statement from each student. The trend was single mothers, adults who had lost jobs... Basically each intro described why we felt desperate and needed educations to pull our selves out of our respective ruts.

Another immediate red flag came from the lack of 5th grade written communication skills from my classmates. For these fellow college students to be working on the same course as I and have the spelling and grammar errors as I've seen was shocking. When I sought the individual attention and personal guidance from the instructor to get clarification on an assignment, I was replied to promptly with a copy/paste from the syllabus where I had previously read and needed clarification.

Once my grade suffered from refusal of communication by the instructor, I was offered by my guidance counselor the opportunity to start the class over with a new instructor free of charge to my grade or my amount due to the college. This was what made me realize I was not a college student, but the victim of a scam. Junior colleges don't offer money back for retakes as easily as this school was willing to as long as they kept me on the hook. And this ACS company was dispersing loaned money on my behalf.

I spoke to the company who granted my student loan who is ACS, a part of Bank of America but not Bank of America exactly. I goaded a student loan advisor, associate customer service, or whatever into admitting that it is necessarily an unpleasant way that University of Phoenix funnels money from people.

Prior to speaking with ACS, an associate at Bank of America got involved to contact University of Phoenix on conference call to listen while I was treated very rudely by Emily, my financial advisor, who reminded me that I am an adult who signed an agreement. So I am out of luck.

I would like to remind Consumer Affairs that I had been a car salesman for a couple years at that time. For a car salesman in this economy, to mislead and taunt a customer would be occupational suicide. This is a "University" pulling this on people who are doing whatever they can to squeeze the time and money out of air in order to gamble on the merits of a college degree. Something is wrong there.

I have ducked my loan by telling them I am disputing the amount. The University of Phoenix has a Dispute Management Department. The associate at ACS told me he worked for the financial aid departments at real colleges (he stressed the word "real") and said there is no such thing in any college he has worked for or dealt with at ACS.

Someone help me. Let's write Barack, no joke! He would not approve! It's exploitation in all of its ugliness.

Just today, I had received a voicemail saying that they needed to talk to me to see if I even qualify for any type of college. (He was very rude and made me feel almost like I wasn't good enough for more school which I know is not the case.) Then he proceeded to tell me that he's not a mind reader and needs to know me personally to give me advice. If I need advice, I'll go to someone that I trust, not my so called college advisor. Basically, there is no need to bring a person down because they don't want to go to your school or constantly call them. All I asked for was information, not for harassing phone calls from these advisors.

But when I owed them money, I got letters, e-mails and lots of phone calls. In the end, they kept all my financial aid for the three classes I had to retake and my $1035.00 check that I sent them. If I did not do this, then they threatened me with repaying the full charge of the class again and I would be dropped and had to repay all of the student aid for that semester, which was well over $4,000. I was told when I started in the beginning that financial aid and my loans would cover more than the classes and I would receive reimbursement checks. I have gotten three in the last two years.

I just received my last check and it took me calling the financial aid department and asking for a detailed list of charges and telling them that I had a detailed list of what my student loans were for. Before all this, I was told there was no more money and I would need to ask for more from my student loan. Well that was the last straw. I investigated! I saw what I was charged and what my student loans have disbursed. Needless to say, there was over $6,000 missing. So where did all this money go? I'll tell you. The school took it for themselves.

I know I am not alone it this and I would recommend that others look into the same thing. I bet that they have been doing this for years. I have talked to many people who have gone to school and I have been told that they never had to repay for taking a class again. The financial aid covers it, no matter what. This school is the worst I have ever seen and I do not recommend anyone attend it. In fact, I am going to see to it that this school be audited by some government agency for its accreditation and to look into its financial records. I also want to sue these thieves and help others to do the same. I see that others have the issue and want to do the same. Let's work together and make sure this never happens to anyone again. If anyone wants to help me, please e-mail me with your story and maybe we can do something about this.

I filed a complaint with her manager and he was in protect mode as he offered me no solutions to solve the mishap, so I took it upon myself to contact my enrollment counselor Tosca **, ** and she opted to speak to her manager to get me a new financial aid counselor. I haven’t heard back yet? Is the school keeping our financial money in the school’s bank for interest purposes?

The Department of Education said that I should have had the funds by now! I am in my 8th week of school and I need computer equipment, school supplies as well. I do not think it’s fair that this is happening to me. I am legally blind and that I need that extra money for living expenses as I am on social security (a very limited income, might I say. Anything that you can do to assist me in this matter, I would be grateful.

I am legally blind and I do need assistance, that is why I am working with the disability coordinator Scott ** to make life a little easier. Also, my computer tower is down and that makes it hard to do school work. Also, I have a choir provider who takes me to all of the places I need to go because I am not able to drive because I have had 41 plus surgeries on my eyes since 2005 to date as I am scheduled to have another one on 12/17/2009, as well as two eye transplants as I was blind for 5 years. So now that I can see, I am trying to make the best of what eyesight I have left.

I am a single dad of a 14 year old daughter as I only get $500 a month so things are pretty tight, but that is not the reason for my complaint. My reasons are strictly school related so I am basically at the hands of all who are willing to assist me with a lot of the things I can’t do for myself. So whatever can be done, I would be very grateful to whomever is able to assist me. Thanks so much for lending me your ear!

According to Ohio state law, it states: Repeated phone calls solely to harass any person at the number called is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment or both - whoever by telephone makes or knowingly permits another to make over a telephone under his or her control. I feel threatened and harassed by these constant telephone calls. I have a life threatening, ill husband and I am trying my best to keep myself together. I do not need this type of telephone harassment at home and at work by University of Phoenix. I have no interest in taking any courses from their school now or any other time. I want University of Phoenix to stop calling me immediately.

Now the financial situation was a very big deal for me since my husband and I had just moved a little over a year before this time and we were both making less than half of what we were making in income previous to this economic collapse. I made sure he was aware of this. “Don’t worry, you wont have to pay a penny. You’ll apply for your financial aid and loans and you’ll be able to start.” Now, I didn’t hear anything from Financial Aid if everything had been approved when he insisted on me starting the class the first week of July. I kept questioning him saying I don’t want to end up getting some huge bill in a few weeks because I can’t afford it. “No, no, don’t worry, everything is fine.”

As the start date approached, I had serious concern on starting because there was just so much going on. Starting a new job and a move was a lot for me. Plus, I have 2 small boys. So I expressed my concerns to him and he again persisted on not waiting. “We have you all set up to start on Tuesday. You are going to do great. I will be with you every step of the way. I won't let you fail. If you keep pushing back the date, you will be pushing back your future.” Gee, I felt like I was at a Tony Robins seminar every time I would talk to this guy. This constant persistence turned into, “Ok, I’ll give it a try.”

About the 3rd day into the class, I told him that I have to withdraw, that I wouldn’t be able to finish this class and pass. There was just too much going on and I couldn’t dedicate the time. I also made him aware that I wasn’t getting online enough and did not participate enough. I wanted out so I wouldn’t end up having to pay for the class. “No, no, you are doing great! Keep up the great work. I will help you out. I am with you all along the way. You can do it, don’t give up.” Heck, I was not giving up but this was the reality of life! I just can’t do it now. So on his word I continued another week.

As soon as I got my grade, I almost passed out. I told him to get me out of the class because I was already failing and considering the course is only 5 weeks. Failing the first for sure is putting me in the wrong direction and I didn’t want to have to pay a huge bill for a class I didn’t pass. By the 3rd week I was having stomach cramps from the stress of this all. Again I told him in a much more aggressive way that I wanted out. But again he was encouraging me. By the 4th week I wrote a letter to my professor to withdraw me and sent a copy to the counselor. The counselor was so upset and still was saying I was doing fine and to keep going forward. What?! Has he lost his mind? I wasn’t going well. I was failing!

Now the financial aid office didn’t waste time to send me bill after bill in the mail. I got an email from financial aid and explained to them that there was a problem and we needed to address it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to pay it, but I deserved a credit amount towards it after all the email proof and phone calls I had stating that I needed to get out of the class and being pushed to continue when he should have encouraged me to pull out earlier, so I wouldn’t have this huge bill to pay. Obviously my loan didn’t pay for it what happened with all that?

I would get the very generic BRENDA ** calling and saying, “I am calling to collect on your bill, blah, blah, blah. We even accept payment over the phone. Please call me with your credit card information.” Every time I called or sent her an email explaining the issues that we need to resolve first, she would again continue with the generic scripted BRENDA ** messages, never addressing my questions or concerns.

Finally, someone contacted me who seemed interested to help (forgot his name), and I sent him the email proof and told him that if he listened to the recorded messages (which I’m very certain they record their calls) that he would have more than enough to prove my point. I never heard back from this person. A few weeks went by and our dear BRENDA ** started back with her generic scripted messages to me, never addressing the pending issues on the table. I returned her calls and emailed her over 10+ times and she never called me back. It was obvious to me that she didn’t want to deal with the issue and just wanted the money because a short while after all my calls and emails, she sent my file over to their collections department. I got a letter from them saying if I didn’t respond, they would be sending to a collections agency. I called this person who was not in the office and left a very long and detailed message regarding the issue still pending and that though I had all intent to pay, we need to first resolve the issue so that they could credit me appropriately for all this hell they put me through. I never heard from her or anyone pertaining to my message!

A couple of weeks passed and whoopee in the mail today was a letter from a collections agency! I was so angry. I sent my dear BRENDA ** a message via email to forward to her supervisors detailing everything from start to finish. In conclusion, I believe that the counselors work on a very aggressive commission plan, and this is a for profit company that bases its standards on financial gain, not academic excellence. The employees basically work in corporate robot form, and instead of dealing with issues, they avoid it like a plague. I think that they believe that if they ignore you that you will eventually give up and just pay the bill. Don’t give up! We all need to do something very aggressive with this company who is under the umbrella by the Apollo Group.

When I signed up, I was pressured to hurry because they had a promotion where my materials would be free for the first group of classes. Well, against my better judgment I signed up. I didn't want to miss out on a deal! So eventually my student loans hit and guess what? They had deducted my account for the materials. I emailed my Financial Aid advisor, Jenna, and asked her what happened but got no response. I emailed her again and got no response, so I called her. She told me she would have it taken care of right away, but I never received the refund because the UOP then decided to raise their prices and the price just so happened to be the amount they owed me for my course materials! I kind of got over it and moved on.

I decided to give the UOP a chance because I am a full time working mother and it was all that fit into my schedule. The classes are a joke, and I feel as if I am in Special Ed half of the time. I am paying ridiculous amounts of money for worthless education. Basically, you pay them $30,000 and you end up with an Associate's degree that no one takes seriously.

I also feel as if something fraudulent is going on with my student loan overages. I have been getting the runaround for 3 months now on my balance check. I explained to them that I budget the extra money into my living expenses, and when they tell me I am going to have it on a certain day, I expect to have it then! I was supposed to have it in September, and then I received a letter stating I would be receiving it on October 9th. I didn't receive it, so I called and talked to Jon and he said, "No, sorry. Not until November 7th." That day came and went and I still had no student loan check, so I waited a couple of days and called again - and was told that the date had been changed to December 7th.

Today is December 14th and I still haven't received it. I told them before the last semester started that I did not want to post until I had the money but was told by Jon that the money was guaranteed and to go ahead. I know that they want people to post because they will be able to charge them for tuition. One semester, I dropped a class the Wednesday after it started. I asked Jenna, the financial aid advisor, what would happen beforehand. She told me that I would be responsible for the material fees and that is all. She lied. I had to pay back $183.15. I'm tired of the university and I am so upset that I have already spent $8K on tuition, and if I walk away, I will do so with nothing.

After I failed that class, I had to keep going because I couldn't seem to get them to listen to me that I was too ill to go on right now. They then told me that I had to pay for the class that I failed out of my own pocket and when I got the bill they also billed me for part of a class that I did pass, which I questioned and didn't get a straight answer that made any sense at all. So now I was in debt with them for $2400. I have been trying to take a leave of absence for medical reasons but they keep coming up with excuses that I can't and now I am in a class that I am going to fail again because I am ill and can't keep up with the work. I warned them that this would happen but they said they couldn't help me.

My financial aid advisor keeps telling me to fill out forms and submit them to her and then weeks later she will tell me that she never got the form from me but she also never called to tell me she never got it so the whole time I am thinking that they are being processed by the university. I again sent in the forms to withdraw and to get a leave of absence and still have never heard back even though I call and call. So now I am going to be forced to fail this class, which will result in me owing them more money out of pocket. I am almost ready to give up and just forget about ever getting anywhere in life due to the fact that I owe the University of Phoenix so much money. I just don't know what to do and there seems to be no one to help me figure it out. I want to change universities but they are holding my official transcripts hostage for money. If anyone has a clue on what to do, please help me.

When I spoke to my Academic advisor (Her name is Angela), she told me the only other option for me to get extra credits was to pay for some service called plaq. This service allows students to gain up to an extra 15 credits, but still, the credits are not guaranteed because students have to write an essay and pass. This service cost about $1400.00 to sign up for. Frustrated, I decided not to pay the money. After I found out how many credits the university accepted, I decided to drop out of the school. I was only attending the school for 3 weeks and came to find out they are hitting me with a $595.40 tuition bill. In this bill includes the cost of books ($70.00/each which totals $140.00). When I spoke to Dustin about my bill, he told me since I dropped out of the classes, I have to pay for the cost of books which were originally free for the first two classes once you enrolled. Also, they are billing me $227.00 for the two classes that I was in for only 3 weeks. Not even three weeks, 2 1/2 weeks.

Also, I got behind in my class and wanted to withdraw before I get an F in the class. They are giving my so much crap about it. I have been trying for 2 weeks now and when someone called me, they were so rude I hung the phone up on her. I would tell no one about this school. They dropped my husband and did not call and tell him until after they did it. They also say I might have to pay off this class out of pocket. At my old school, it was covered. I see a lot of people are having the same problem, so why ain't something getting done about this school? How can they keep doing this to us and getting away with it?

I had no intentions of withdrawing and wrote her back with my concerns. During this time, my neighbors, my family and I were involved in a Nor'easter and were needed to assist our neighbors, because there was so much flooding from the days of constant wind and rain with winds of up to 72 mph at times and not being able to reach our kids. My enrollment advisor recommended I try and write an email to my instructor and explain to her my concerns and what had happened to me. She said that it was an act of God and I couldn't help the circumstances.

During this time of the storm, I was unable to log into class and keep up with assignments. I guess you know she never returned any email to me. I had an 83 in the course, but could not finish my last week due to the circumstances. I looked to see if she had granted me a withdrawal or incomplete and instead she took points off already granted grades and gave me a 35%. I was put on Academic probation, even after telling them I needed to withdraw. I was very disturbed and upset! In my career as a teacher, I have never ever obtained a lower grade than a 75% in a Sociology course early on in my academia. She could have granted me an extension or an incomplete, but didn't even return an email.

Now the Financial Aid office tells me I owe for my class and that the financial aid I applied for never went through. I see on this site that there are others who have had terrible experiences with UOP. I wish I had read these stories before I applied to go there. I was so excited about starting my Master's Degree and was giving 100%, until I was let down by my instructor and advisement team. I am sure my horror story has just begun, but I will not be returning there ever again.

In conclusion, I got the $64.50 balance knocked off, but still no word on the Pell Grant! Needless to say I'm fed with UOP/Axia College, and have spoken to other colleges about transferring which brings up another point! I have been told by several academic counselors that they will not even accept credits from your institution, also I'm being charged 1,000 dollars for the same classes that can be taken at a CC for 60 dollars.

I'm very displeased I've never felt so used(!), under appreciated; I set my sights and hopes on a higher education to improve my life, and your institution has set me back and crushed my hope. So now, I have to start all over again and deal with a financial aid debt that has now climbed to 10,000 dollars. You see, I didn't just talk to colleges about you. I spoke to potential employers in the accounting field and they said that your education and training is a joke! To quote a few employers, "If we interview a Phoenix student versus a person from another college, they always hire the person with a degree from another college!" I'm trying to transfer to another school and I can't even get your academic counselor to get on the phone with me! I've sent emails left messages, and even spoke to another academic counselor who said my counselor would call me back and never did.

I have an appointment with the academic counselor tomorrow at 3 pm at the school I want to transfer to and I still have no transcripts to show because of UOP Academic Counseling department!

It is my opinion that anyone thinking about furthering their education should really consider a more traditional college. Most of them offer online courses and actually conduct business in a professional ethical way. Just remember, an accredited reputable educational institution has their students' best interests as the top priority, not profit.

I certainly thought of this when a teacher rated my final presentation for Mgt. 521 with a zero grade. To this extent, I used the formal academic channels to have this grade changed. Basically, I made a game that got the entire class involved, it used verbatim the discussion questions from her syllabus in the presentation. I received the "outcome" of the challenge to this facilitator's grade, and the statement "not relevant to the class" was underlined and in bold. Furthermore, it stated that this was a final action, and no appeal will be honored. I was beside myself in shock.

After thinking about it, UOP as a company, is wholly owned by Apollo Group, now has changed directions without considerations for their consumers, which I am one. I can actually imagine the management of this for profit company with blinders on now, only focused on the holy dollar, and the rest of the people are perfunctory. As a business person, if I treated my consumers of product like this, I would have no customers!

Since UOP has used FAFSA to take money out in my name, I will continue to achieve my MBA/HRM, take my SPHR certification, but I tell you one thing that UOP apparently does not understand, one person telling ten more people not to use them, is much more of a detriment to business operations than anything else. So, I will get my piece of parchment, my certification, and will never look back for any reason!

I would change learning establishments, but conventional schools do not seem to care about a student who works full time. Now other adult learning "universities" that I have looked into shocked me with who they are owned by, guess who, the Apollo Group, Baker U. for one. So that leaves me with the choice of 15 or so other colleges and universities that have questionable accreditations, and strange class structures/practices.

So I have made my choice, and will endure through it, but I tell you now, the more people that spread the word, the worse UOP and the Apollo Group will do. When I graduated, I was even featured on the large screens at the commencement ceremony. My slogan then was "I am a Phoenix, I am determined." To my behest, it is now, "I am a Phoenix, I am disappointed."

At this time, I found out they were sending back $2,500 of my financial aid, so now I have to pay University of Phoenix $2,000. The person said she would get back with me but never heard from her. Then the collections dept of University of Phoenix contacted me and I said I don't have the $2,000 and would like to make some payments. They said it had to be all within 72 hours. I could send a letter to them explaining my issue why I should be given consideration for the money. I wrote and faxed the letter. They called in a few weeks and told me they never received the letter and it wouldn't matter. I told them I want to make arrangements and they said they don't make arrangements. This made me quite upset and they got me mad. I just got out of the hospital from having a heart stint put in and now have to take more than $100 more a month for med. I am trying to solve this problem.

They sent my file to FMS collections and they said they would make arrangements but it was to be about $340 for six months. I said I can't afford that amount. I could give about $50 until I get IRS paid off in March then I can give them more. They wanted me to give my checking information over the phone so they can take it out. I said no because I did this once and the company didn't stop the subscription when they were supposed to and took out too much. The banks said, "If you give it out, you are writing a blank check, and they won't cover it." In the meantime, I have never received any confirmation from my student loan that the money was sent back. In fact, the last information was they hadn't, so I still owe them the $2,500. The collection company said they were going to take me to court to get me to pay. I still don't have the money they want. If they garnish my wages, I will have to give up food and medicine. I won't let my bills get behind. I am trying to clean up my credit now.

Working the normal 40 hours was hard, but the promotion resulted in 60+ hours a week being the normal schedule. I was unable to afford the University of Phoenix the full attention of class presence as in the previous five years, which I called the University and pleaded my case. I was told numerous times by my academic advisor that for any reason I would not be in continuous educational class with the University of Phoenix that I would lose my financial aid and would be in default of my loan.

I took numerous classes after this conversation with the advisor, only to fail the classes. In frustration, I withdrew from the university after 5 years. I refuse to send them another dime. After withdrawing from the University, I received an overdue bill without any explanation about the class that I had withdrawn from in the period allowed by the university. A few weeks later, I received another billed stating that I owed money for one of the other classes I started when I took the promotion six months earlier.

Just recently, I answered a call from one of the academic advisors from the University of Phoenix, who informed me that there is a "leave of absence" clause at the University, and my advisor at that time should have informed me of the university's policy. Furthermore, to continue with my education at the UOP, I was informed that I would need an additional 24 credits to graduate. This is not common for this University to do this to returning students.

I have sent all my information over to the BBB for consideration, and have started the process of trying to be forgiven and released from this university's stronghold to continue my education. At the time of my separation from the UOP, nine credits and four classes were all that I needed to complete my computer science degree.

When I inquired as to why, I was told that they (University of Phoenix) had sent money back to my lender in the amount of $1,164.00 and $2,330.00. I then asked why they did this because my student account shows that they were paid for my last three classes in the amount of $1,560.00 x 3 + $85.00 x 3. This amount totals the same amount that is reflected with the Department of Education and with Sallie Mae, my lender, and shows an excess of $1,100.00 due to be refunded to me. I have inquired about the supposed money that was sent back to my lender on several occasions and was told that no money was in fact returned.

I called the Sallie Mae Dept. of Education on 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09 and on 11/2/09, and was told that the funds were not there. I was then advised by the Department of Education and by Sallie Mae to hire an attorney to investigate what has happened to the money my lender sent to University of Phoenix. My lender is Sallie Mae. I think there has been fraud, misappropriation of funds and embezzlement committed by the University of Phoenix. I have emails and student account pages upon request from Ashley **, an employee of the University of Phoenix and financial aid counselor. I will provide proof upon request.

I was told I was not eligible for a refund because they had to take out payment for three more classes even though they had already taken out for three classes. This made no sense to me since like I said, they would be receiving another disbursement in Dec. 2009 and Jan. 2010. I have been able to look at the account and it looks like they are going to refund the money back to Sallie Mae Lending and try to charge me for the amount that was the originally the credit balance for my account. All I know is that as soon as I get a bill, I am contacting an attorney and my advice would be for everyone who feels they have been dealt with unethically by UOP to do the same.

I contacted the Financial Aid department and was advised that my grant was sent back due to a change in courses. I contacted the Department of Education and I was advised that the grant money was sent to the school and was never returned. I contacted my Financial Advisor and received voicemail. I left various messages and submitted emails, yet none of my calls or emails had been returned.

I am nearing the end of my block of classes and have recently gotten a new financial advisor. I spoke with the advisor about my financial aid issue and inquired about applying for my current financial aid, since my FAFSA has been completed. He indicated that he would review my information and give me a call back. This was three weeks ago and since then I have sent numerous emails and left voicemail messages and have received no feedback. I have even contacted the school's live chat to try to get answers, but they connect me to voicemails.

I am so frustrated and annoyed with the lack of professionalism and customer contact from the school. Since the financial aid department is not in my area, it has been hard to get answers. Once, these classes are over, I will not deal with the University of Phoenix again. Are there any resources or is there anyone that I can contact to complain or get my issues resolved?

I also called Federal Student Aid and Wachovia Bank and told them I was not pleased with the school and did not wish to return the next semester and not to disburse the funds for the following semester. They agreed; therefore, I felt everything was ok, but I was wrong. University of Phoenix sent me a bill for $1700.00 for the semester I did not attend and would not release my transcript. I was devastated because I could not go to another school. Moreover, at the time I had two children with disabilities at home; therefore, I could not pay $1700.00. I contacted the Student Finance Commission and they concurred with me that I did not owe University of Phoenix anything because the money was still in my account. Now, it is on my credit history and I want it off.

I have repeatedly called UOP and of course, I have gotten the runaround. I finally got a phone number to a counselor only to find out she never seems to answer her phone, ever. I was given her email address and after calling again to try to speak with her, I ended up with her voice mail once again. I immediately emailed her and got a response back within 10 minutes! Apparently, I was billed for one night because they said my financial aid was not ready at the time I attended that one night. Also, since financial aid had not been ready at that time, I would be the one responsible for that one night's payment. I was also told that the program itself was $1068.

Hmm, well if the whole program was $1068, and I was billed $263.68 for one night, did that mean that I would finish said program in about a week?! This all doesn't make any sense at all. Her dates in her email were wrong as to when I attended, the amount is questionable and she's nowhere to be found in regards to getting a hold of her via the telephone. UOP seriously needs to have an overhaul of their personnel.

They failed to tell me the increase in price from my associate’s program to the bachelor program and in many cases I had no idea who my academic or finance counselor was. They have poor response in getting back to me with questions or concerns. In some cases it would be weeks before I received a call. The instructors had little to no experience about teaching and many had just finished their degrees with the university. I transferred to my state university who would not give me any credits for my UOP math classes stating they were about a HS level and not university level math classes. The cost of tuition is sky high at $1,500 per class when my state university charges only $870. Do not attend this school without doing your research. Many state universities are now offering full time online classes. Do your homework. Beware of this university that uses fast talking sales pitches to get you in the door.

I immediately called Darla who is one of the managers of the financial aid department. She was the one to inform me of what Ebony did. I informed Darla that I was very concerned of this action being taken without my knowledge and do not trust them with my information anymore. The day before speaking with Darla, I spoke with my academic counselor Cara, asking her about the exit interview letter. She informed me to disregard the letter. I was not satisfied with her response and felt there was something more to this situation.

This situation makes me wonder how many other people have had to deal with this and what is really going on with students' grant/loan money. Why was Ebony able to submit this information to my lender without any type of signature from me stating that I was withdrawing from the college. How many other students could this have happened to and may possibly have a loan to pay back that they never applied for. In addition, why does Ebony have access to my account if she is not my financial aid counselor? This seems to be a very shady situation, and all of my questions are not being answered.

I have 29 emails. Yes, 29 emails in the span of six days that have gone back and forth with GCU blaming UOP and vice versa. Now I have just received a letter saying if I don't pay $2,010 for the current block of classes (why she let me take these is beyond me) I will be turned over to collections on 10/21/09. Even NSLDS has said there is nothing to update! I am caught in the middle of this mess, not caused by me, but unless I can find a solution, I will be paying the price for someone else's mistake. My college education will be over and my credit trashed. At this point, it seems that UOP doesn't intend to do anything to help resolve this situation nor will they talk to the finance dept at Grand Canyon. I have become so stressed about this and I don't know what to do.

I took the first class, which was an insult because it was about navigating the web and UOPs sites. If I needed to take this class, I should have been given it when I first started. They charged me $1,675 for this Mickey-Mouse class. I kept calling them asking about my financial aid, and they said you have to be certified. “It will be forty five to sixty days, but don't worry. We won't let you start your second class.” I called several times during the five weeks of this simpleton class, and they kept telling me to wait.

I had just about decided to withdraw when tonight I was told that my tuition will be disbursed on the fifteenth, but I will owe them two hundred and forty dollars. I am on unemployment, and I cannot afford this, and I told them so. I have been told, “Well, don't withdraw now because you will owe the university sixteen hundred dollars… just don't post in your second class.” If I don't post in my second class, won't that cause problems with my financial aid? If not now, then in the future. I do want to get my education, but not at UOP, and I will need some financial aid. How do I get out of this? I need to know by two a.m. CST, Wednesday morning.

I applied for and was granted financial aid through the first year and subsequently through the second and third years of the doctoral program. However, in January 2009 I was told by my financial advisor I would need to apply for a new financial aid package for 2009/2010. I informed him I had already done that. He looked up my status and told me that I was okay through September 2009, at which time I would be three classes away from completing my doctorate. He also informed me he would no longer be my financial advisor due to growth in that department. I contacted FAFSA and found I was eligible for and had been awarded my financial aid for 2009/2010 to be disbursed on or about September 8, 2009.

On April 21, 2009, academic advisor Misa ** informed me that she would no longer be my academic advisor and that Mellisa ** would replace her. After this change I received two notices from the University of Phoenix (while enrolled and attending Doc 733, doctoral project) that since I was no longer a student at UoP, I would need to fill out the enclosed form and return it to UoP showing that I was no longer a student. I called Mellisa ** and asked her to rectify the misinformation and she assured me she would do that. I did not hear back from her.

I have completed all coursework except the last three classes and IRB/ARB approval. My financial advisor (Debbie **) told me the remaining classes would fall under my current financial aid package and that all I needed to do was complete a new FAFSA application for the 2009/2010 school year. I informed her I had done that and had already received two letters from Sallie Mae telling me I was approved for a total of $30,000 to be disbursed September 8, 2009 - enough to cover the upcoming class, my research fees, and my remaining classes. She told me she would get back with me after she checked the record for completion and acceptance of my financial status.

I did not receive any phone calls from her for two weeks, so I called her. She told me that she had found my records and all that was missing was a promissory note and a form telling the university finance department I agree to apply any excess funds from my financial aid dispersal to any outstanding debt I owed the university. I informed her I had no outstanding debt and I had already done that online with FAFSA as it was a university requirement. I received a check and a billing statement from the University of Phoenix in April 2009. The check stated, "Online Refund, $3835.20.” The statement showed a balance for the current class. I was confused, so I contacted ** and asked why the current student loan did not cover the current class. ** told me it did cover the current class but to avoid any conflict I should send part or all of the balance shown on the statement.

I sent half of the balance shown on the statement, $1117.60, and the excess funds were used to finance my "third year residency". On May 1, 2009 I received a statement showing the original amount of the loan ($3835.20) and a payment of $1117.60 with a remaining balance of $2717.60. I contacted ** again and she stated the balance was for the remainder of the current class and the upcoming class. She said since my loan had already been approved, I would be able to go on with my class.

I contacted my academic advisor Mellisa ** and told her my loan had been approved and funds would be available on September 8, 2009. The class began on September 1, 2009. She told me that I would be able to attend after I made arrangements with the finance department. She told me if the payment arrangement was accepted, she would only need to re-instate me in the class. She said she would transfer me to a collection agent in the finance department. The connection never took place, so I called the UoP operator who connected me with collections. I talked to "Rayshon" who told me if I set up payment arrangements over a period, the arrangement would allow me to be re-instated in my class. I asked him what would happen to the first payment since my disbursement was coming within the week. He said it would show as an excess or overpayment and be sent back to me. I told him that would be excellent since I did not have a job and I could return the loan to my relative as soon as that happened.

I asked why I was allowed to enroll and attend class before the university received my loan money when I was recruited for the master's program. He had no response. I agreed to make the first payment within three days (72 hours) as he asked. I borrowed the money from a relative the same day Rayshon and I made the arrangement. I called Rayshon the next day to inform him I could get the money to make the payment, but it would not get to my bank account until very near the deadline.

As I was about to give Rayshon the credit card number, I asked if he was sure I would be able to be re-instated in my class. Rayshon said he did not remember telling me that and I could not be re-instated unless the full amount was paid. I told him it would be paid in full with my student loan on the September 8, 2009. My dissertation process is 60% complete and has been reviewed by my mentor and dissertation committee. After making the recommended changes, I am now ready for submission to IRB/ARB. I have been dropped from my program with only three classes remaining and 9 months from graduation.

A couple of months later, I wanted to attend the campus. I sat down with one of the counselors and he explained that there is no program at that campus for an RN program. And I come to find out I was put in a class that would not even get me an LPN. I would be stuck behind a desk dealing with billing. When I found that out, I was very frustrated (frustrated does not even begin to explain what I was feeling). I also found out that I was not even taking classes online to get me on my way to become a nurse.

As of right now, I am not taking classes at Phoenix University. I have a couple more months before I am supposed to pay them money. I need to find a way of getting out of this mess with little to no money out of pocket. I am currently not working with two kids at home. If anyone can help me, please contact me.

Theresa got even ruder and threatened me with submitting my account to Collections stating that I would have to pay money out of pocket if I left the school. I told her to go ahead and submit me to collections and I would get an attorney and to keep talking because I was taking notes to submit to the attorney as well. At this point, she stated she could no longer continue the phone conversation. I told her to put me through to a person in charge of her dept. She put me on hold and that was when she put me through to Debbie **.

Debbie assured me that everything would be resolved, told me to fax and hard copy mail her the documents, but I would owe the school still the amount of $287.50. Debbie ** stated that she would personally handle my case and get it handled asap and I could call her anytime to follow up with her. I have now called her for several days and left her many messages on her voice mail and got no response back. I cannot reach anyone at University of Phoenix who is willing to help me process my paperwork and expedite the issue since I'm trying to transfer to another school.

I have been fighting with UOP and Wells Fargo since 2005 regarding 2 loans that were taken out in my name that I didn't authorize or use. Wells Fargo even said they sent money directly to UOP, which UOP said they have no record of. So where is that money! I have tried to resolve this by my self for 2 years. I have called UOP and Wells Fargo several times, and I sent them information and haven't gotten anywhere. I have contacted an attorney to deal with them, and they don't even cooperate with my attorney. And now EdFund has gotten involved, and I've been threatened of having my wages garnished to pay back the loans. I would not recommend UOP to anyone!

I already have my AA in Psychology, and I was interested in getting my BS in Psychology and maybe even my master's and doctorate. My kids are attending high school virtually here in Florida (www.flvs.net), and we are beyond happy with it. I was told my experience at UoPX would be similar, and even though I felt the price tag was high, I could get financial aid. Before I knew it, I was getting call after call; and finally, I agreed to meet with the enrollment counselor.

During our meeting, everything was sugar-coated and I was told to enroll and get started right away and they would take care of my financial aid. I told her I would still need to think about it and left. I was called constantly, even while I was out of the country on vacation. I got a quick call from an enrollment counselor where she machine-gunned information at me while I tried to keep up and take notes. I got another call from a financial aid adviser, and she machine-gunned information at me I couldn't understand.

Against my better judgement, I went ahead and started the day after I got back from my trip. Now that I finally had access to a class and saw the format, I knew this was a mistake. Like I have read from other victims, this is nothing but forced blogging and essay writing. I called and emailed all the parties involved by the second week and told them I wanted to withdraw. I got a call from my enrollment counselor, only since the academic adviser was on vacation for two weeks. She called me a couple of times telling me that she had the same experience but to hang in there. I could hardly get a word in.

With much effort, I completed the useless GEN200 class, which won't transfer anywhere because it's only a class on how to work within their platform. They have you work in teams, and you have to turn in papers completed by the entire team as well as individual papers. We had team members who never participated, maybe because they were smarter and withdrew earlier on. But it forced the rest of the team members to take up their load, because we would be penalized otherwise. There was no restructuring of team to accommodate for missing teammates.

They enrolled me in my next class halfway through my first class, all the time getting "pep talks" from the enrollment counselor telling me to hang in there. The academic adviser was always on vacation. I finally dug around their website to find the official withdrawal form, filled it out immediately, and faxed it over. This was the second day in the new class. To be courteous, I posted to the teacher not to assign me to a team, so that they would not be stuck in the situation we were in before.

You see, all the time I thought my enrollment counselor was "cheering me" on to success, I have found that they get a bonus for every student they enroll. Plus, the longer they keep you in a class, the more they can collect.

Now that all is said and done, I'm stuck with a bill for $1650 (part of which I have to pay $85 for materials. Really? It's an online course!) Plus they are threatening to turn me over to a collection agency for $403 they want to charge me for "a week of class." You see, by being courteous, they claim I met the attendance for class which is different from meeting participation for the class which is 2 blogs, four days out of the week.

I'd rather pay an attorney to fight them than pay for this financial abuse.

This time I am requesting from my lenders to give me detailed summaries of how my money was being applied and still communicating with the University of Phoenix and trying to get this issue resolved. On January 2009, I had a collector call me and leave a nasty message on voicemail threatening me. I still have the voicemail on my phone to be played back. As a result of my complaint, I am asking that the institution release my transcripts and allow me to finish my last three courses with the university so that I can look for jobs. I am requesting that an attorney contact me as soon as possible so that I can get advice on what further action I can take to pursue any further steps.

Approx. 2 months later, I was finally able to reach the voice mail of Mr. Ryan **'s supervisor, Mr. Jason **, and sent him an email. Mr. Jason ** replied stating that, unfortunately, the University of Phoenix does not offer military discounts to veterans or retirees. Students who work for the Department of Defense are sometimes eligible for a military discount depending on if they are located or assigned to an approved installation. Ryan informed me that “It was determined that you were not assigned to one of the approved installations, so you will not be eligible for the military discount..." I work at a Naval Base in San Diego, so it can be deducted that University of Phoenix does not offer discounts to military personnel to any of the bases in the Southern California area, and if one is a retiree, it is even worse.

I filed a new request for a program extension in March of 2009, as I was dangerously close to being unable to complete the program with back-to-back classes. The board denied me a second time, but did not send me their decision until after the date at which the decision would have been crucial. Essentially, I was forced to take another class while awaiting their decision, because if I had not and they denied me again, I would be unable to complete the program with back-to-back classes by the time I received their decision. The grounds they cited for denial the second time was that I would have enough time to complete the program with back-to-back classes. I do not believe that the academic review board has ever granted a request from a student. I have spoken with several former UoP advisors and they have unanimously indicated that the academic review board does not grant requests for any kind of extenuating circumstances.

I had a decision to make in March because I had to complete half of a degree program to avoid losing credits, but I only had 8 months to do it in. I applied for financial aid, both subsidized and unsubsidized, and signed on for a double class schedule so that I would be taking two classes at a time back-to-back, effectively completing 14 months of education in approximately seven months. The financial councilor informed me that only one of the classes could be applied to financial aid in a particular disbursement period, and that the second classes I took would have to be covered in the unsubsidized loan. UoP did not send my loan checks, where were all over $3,000 by certified mail, which is negligent, and the University did not disburse all of the funds to me.

One of the unsubsidized loans was never mailed to me despite my inquiries with my financial advisor. A month later, one of the unsubsidized loans which was held by the University for 90 days, was returned to the lender. All attempts to have the loan funds re-issued by the lender to the University pended UoP approval. UoP flatly rejected having the funds reissued based on the fact that the date when the request was acknowledged was 90 days after the date the funds were wired from the lender to UoP.

I have asked the University of Phoenix’s financial aid staff to give me contact information for a supervisor within their department, to get this issue resolved and they refuse to give me this information and no one is willing to help me. I am amazed people working in a financial aid office don't understand what a deferred loan means. This issue has caused a great deal of stress on myself and my wife. It has gotten to the point where I feel harassed.

They have dragged their feet about my Pell certification and are really late - claiming that they are behind with the financial aid. I am due to receive a disbursement today from Sallie Mae. They refuse to defer the amount owed until the disbursement because they know of my intentions. Therefore, they get to deny me my official transcript. They are a bogus institution of higher learning and at this time I welcome a class action suit against them.

My academic counselor told me in an email that the concentration consisted of only 4 extra classes and for me to pick from a list. One to two months after that, she called me to tell me that the program had changed. The HR Concentration now required 5 additional classes instead of just 4. I didn't say anything at the time because it did not affect my completion date. However, a couple of weeks ago, she said that the newly required class had been dropped because I was the only student and the university requires classes of at least 4 students. I sent an appeal to the school asking that the class be waived because I was originally told it was only 4 classes. I heard back today that the appeal was denied. I am still fighting it, but I have no idea whether or not it will be approved.

On August 10, 2009, I sent an email to my finance counselor, Sean **, instructing to send me a clearance letter saying that I had withdrawn and the funds that would be sent back to my lender. Sean sent me a clearance letter and never withdrew me from the school even though I didn’t have any classes scheduled to take. I have had a credit on my account from my July class and until this day, September 10, 2009, that credit has yet to be sent to me and it is still showing up on the national database that I am still enrolled at UoP.

I have called all over the school and different finance departments trying to get this corrected and found out that my finance counselor did not submit my withdrawal until August 27, 2009 when I informed them that I had spoken with the Department of Education. I also found out that my finance counselor forged a withdrawal form that only had my name, last date of attendance and his information making the form seem incomplete. It is September and I have yet to get an exit interview withdrawing from financial aid and still no refund. I was told by several different schools and upon doing research of my own that a credit is not supposed to be on any student’s account for more than 14 days and anything after is against the law.

If this is the case, I wonder why UoP is being allowed to get away with this. Why has this institution not been investigated for unethical practices long ago? With so many valid complaints against this school, why hasn’t its regional accreditation been taken away? These schools that get accreditation are supposed to be monitored. Lastly, I was withdrawing in the first place because they had me going another two and a half years to receive my undergraduate degree and I already have an associates plus 30 credits from them. And tuition is skyrocketing with them. They charge more than all of the online institutions that I have checked so far.

I would not recommend this school to anyone. They talk a good game but in the end, nothing is as it appears to be and guess what? When stuff go down you can never reach anyone or they suddenly get amnesia. My experience with UoP has been very stressful and time consuming.

This University gambles on the fact that students won’t bother to take legal action concerning these small amounts of money. However, please note well that if they should unlawfully ascertain ten dollars ($10) from one million students, that’s a sum total of ten million dollars. I hereby propose that we solicit the support of others through this very platform and move forward in the immediate future to file a class action lawsuit. I am so ready. I am anxiously awaiting every support on this proposal. We have all learned valuable lessons from this institution; therefore, please let us not become ingrates. Let’s reciprocate in a more dignified fashion and teach them a lesson or two in the area of total quality management, ethics, critical thinking, the importance of proactive PR approach, and the importance of preserving the goodwill of a business. My esteemed colleagues, please be encouraged because there is a solution.

The classes are not taught by an instructor but merely overseen by someone that grades you on your reading comprehension and grammar. You are graded on "talking" with other students in a forum setting. You do not receive any lecture or anything that currently pertains to the subject. As long as you have your word count and your grammar is perfect, you will receive an A, no matter what you wrote in your paper.

I started in January and dropped in May. Within that time, my counselor changed three times without notification, they increased my tuition, missed every appointment they ever set with me and when I asked about my student loan distributions, it took me two weeks to get them to finally admit they had used my loan money before my grant money. Oh yeah, and they actually don't offer my program on campus in my new city like they had promised at enrollment. Once I requested the paperwork to drop the program, I was inundated with phone calls from counselors offering affirmations such as "You can do this," "Don't give up on yourself," "Don't you want to see this through? We know you have it in you." Those affirmations turned to insults when I told them "It's you, not me."

Stay away from the University of Phoenix and any other affiliate of the Apollo group. I was one of the lucky ones. I got out owing the university only what I used. Many of my former classmates left owing money they never used. The Apollo group uses sketchy and manipulative tactics to get your signature and does not deliver on most promises. Don't be fooled. If you have attended a real university before, do not take any certification/re-certification or masters courses with this group. You will be highly disappointed. I wish all those who fell into the Apollo group trap much luck. Do everything you can to shut this mother down. I have opted to complete my master's program with a real university.

When it was time to pay the first resource fee, my husband called the school and authorized a $75 one time charge on 7 May. He expressed that any further charges would be unauthorized. Instead of charging $75, the school charged $150. In July, the school charged almost $700 in fees that he did not incur. He spoke with financial manager, Jessica **, who said that Raquel ** gave false information about the fees and it was my husband's problem. After countless hours and 4 days on the phone, Jessica refunded $486 to the card. That left us with $198.25 charged to an unauthorized card. However, Jessica sent us the copy of the old authorization for a different account and said it could be used for any account we hold.

It is illegal for a company to charge a card that is not authorized, let alone make the fraudulent charges for fees that were never incurred. The University of Phoenix has said this was his problem and the money would not be refunded. Because of these illegal charges, the credit card has been turned off. University of Phoenix put this credit card well over the limit and caused our family to lose the ability to spend the remainder on the card if necessary because Phoenix charges as much as the card would hold over the limit.

We now have to file a dispute with the bank and have been assured by the bank and a financial representative at the University of Phoenix that all funds would be returned to the card because the university's actions are illegal. We are still fighting this battle and it is a lost cause in trying to get the university to do the right thing. If you feel the need to still attend University of Phoenix, never, never give them financial information. They will make up charges that you owe.

My own account is overdrafted by almost the exact same amount, but I have it in writing that their charges are a mistake and it will be resolved by the end of the month. If it is not resolved, the government will be involved because they are fraudulently using FAFSA monies from the Pell Grant.

In the beginning, my classes went great, with me receiving A's and B's. My adviser was Holly. The first problem arrived when I was halfway through. I noticed my program study was listed as general. When I contacted Holly, her response was that for the degree, I would have to go an extra 2 years. This should have been told to me at the beginning.

Then, my muscles did start to swell, and my nerve points started shaking. Well, I went to the emergency room, and yes, it was my fibromyalgia acting up. I e-mailed both of my instructors, and they said I had to take 0 for some of the weeks since I did not give advance notice. I did get an extension, but it wasn't enough time. And even though I received 0 for two weeks in the classes, I still had to study them in order to do the final. I then did what I was supposed to, contacted Holly, and explained the problem. She said it was up to each instructor; however, she would have someone from the disability office e-mail me. I received the e-mail and was stunned at the first line, which said "Welcome to University of Phoenix. We are glad you are considering the university to further your education." As I read further, it stated this progress will take 2 to 3 months and they cannot help with any ongoing problems.

Since the university knew I was on SSI, they should have appointed a counselor right from the start. If they did, I would have never attended the university due to what I read. Everything I was promised was false. Because I could not receive enough time for the classes and could not finish them, I failed both. My GPA was still over 2; it ended up at 2.43, which means my Pell and loans should have still been good. The university is now saying I owe $980.00 and refuses to send my transcript to the university I was accepted in.

In August 2008, I had a balance of $4,289.25 on the books. During this time, I was enrolled in online classes using my personal computer to complete the class assignments. Two weeks into the class, my computer crashed, needing funds to repair or replace, I contacted my financial counselor to request the funds so that I could complete the class with a passing grade, as my current GPA was 368. I feared it would lower with a failing grade. My request was denied, citing the funds were being held for the costs of upcoming classes. Needless to say, I failed the class receiving a grade of "F".

Disgusted with the financial counselor's refusal of my request, I never returned to the school. Within a month the school kept $960.75 and returned the excess funds to the financial institutions and billed me for a shortfall of $596.25. I wrote a letter to complain to the Student Complaints Department, who wrote back supporting the counselor actions, citing the monies I had secured were to be used for cost of upcoming classes.

I feel I should not be liable for the shortfall, as it could have been avoided if the funds had been released, my computer repaired and completing the class with a decent grade thereby finishing my remaining courses and graduating. I am currently enrolled at Berkeley City College. With the release of my transcripts from UOP, I will have the credits to graduate with an Associate Degree in December 2009 and transfer to a 4 year University to complete my Bachelor’s degree.

I would like to know if you can help resolve this problem. I now owe over $25,000.00 in student loans and no degree to show for it as well as a negative debt on my credit file. The school is holding my transcripts hostage until the payment of $596.25 is paid in full. I am one of the millions of American who have been laid off from their jobs due the current economic crisis, and am dependent on student aid to complete my education aspirations. I feel the school has taken advantage of me and violated my rights to a college education.

In October, they were insisting that I register for the upcoming class in November 2008. They were really persistent for me to go ahead and register and that I was verbally promised that there shouldn't be any problem with my evaluation of my transferable credits. After a few months, I was still waiting for the evaluation of my transcript so I contacted them on the status. They did finally provide the official evaluation of my transcript and it had taken them five months to provide this information. When I saw what I had, I was shocked that $36.67 were not being accepted. That is an additional year and a half or more worth of education that I can't afford to have.

I decided that I have to cancel. They were informed, but they came back indicating that I was registered and that I have a balance. I returned the loan money that came directly to me and had a balance of $288.58 because I was registered for two weeks. They wasted all my time and decided to go back to DeVry since they are much better to deal with. I filed a complaint with the BBB about the incident in June 2009. UOP was very unfair and wasted my valuable time. They didn't provide education service, they provided a bank service. You have to be pushed into enrolling while you wait for them to act on your request. I could have been in school during that time, but I waited patiently while they wasted my time and have to pay the balance.

Now it's August 2009 and I'm having another issue with DeVry that my federal Stafford loans were limited because when I was enrolled with UOP. I was informed by DeVry that my loan overlaps with UOP. This was odd, that should have been cancelled but found out that I have another balance with the lender for $408.51. They took out a portion from my loan, not sure why but UOP explained to me that the Federal law can only let them withdraw certain amount. This is frustrating that I have to go through a hard time and now, I have a balance that I owe my school and only have four classes to go. I hope someone can help.

At the first class, my feelings told me there was something wrong with this school. I tried to drop and not continue with this school. Then they were threatening me and said it was too late now because I have signed the contract and paper, and I could be in debt with collectors if I tried to get out from this school. Then they offered me to take one more class so the financial will cover your classes’ tuition. Now, at the end situation, I am in debt with more than $7,211.00 for those 2 classes.

In my conclusion, this school is a trick and a trap for all of us here. I, you or maybe even your children could be a victim right now and in the future. I hope our government should shut down this school for good, or otherwise they will continue to trick and rip-off the other people like me.

P.S. I learned nothing from this school. What I was doing in this school was attending online 1 or 2 hours every day from Mon-Sat and talk all ** to whatever subjects as teacher and students posted, besides nothing related to my major. So, it looks like we use the money to buy our degree. And I believe most students from this school after they graduate they would have no skills at all to their major study beside chit chat online. However, I learned my lesson which is $7,221 for these 2 classes at Phoenix University. Please do not try at home, and please do not try to be like me!

I’ve been laid off and have no job. I do not know how I could pay off for this debt with this big amount of money. Please help me out to talk about this to other people, and please do not be a victim like me. I could get into bad credit because they kept asking me to pay for this amount.

Flash forward to my second financial aid disbursement of December 2008 and once again, it is over 1 month late getting to me because they needed more paperwork. Now that I'm into my second aid year, I anticipated that I may have the same problem as the first aid year so I tried to head the problems off at the pass. I requested and sent in my title 4 letter 3 weeks before it was needed so they would have it on file and wouldn't need to ask for it. Lo and behold, even though I had been proactive and sent the letter before they asked for it, they still asked for it and said they didn't have it.

Well, I sent the letter to my finance manager's boss because he was the one to help me straighten out the first mess I was in. For some reason, the letter never got posted to my account so I called my finance manager and she told me that she was going out of town and that her boss was not available for her to talk to. But when she got back in 7 days, she would get in touch with him. So, I got a call back from her 7 days later stating that she couldn't get into touch with her boss to get the document posted to my account because now, he was out of town for the next 7 days.

So now, we are 3 weeks later, and my funds were due for disbursement 10 days after this. Well, lo and behold, her boss calls me and lets me know he is not sure why there's a problem in the first place. But he got it taken care of and my funds were going to certify on the 31st of July and I should have the money within 3-5 days after.

Today is the 7th day and I have been emailing like a maven, calling everyone I could in finance since 10:00 am and getting the same response: "Sorry, your finance manager or her boss are the only ones that can help you and they are both out of the office today." Now, I am well over a month late on the financial aid disbursements. I have bills due that count on the money that I get from student loans and grants to live as well as going to school. I am very interested in a class action suit against the university as I cannot take any more of their abuse.

At this point, I am waiting on my financial aid disbursement. I am in 2 classes that do not count toward the program I was supposed to be in, and I am about to lose my home, my car and my children have no food to eat. Can there be any more damage to my life? I was better off when I wasn't in school. This school seems like they forget that most people are trying to better their lives when they attend college at 40 years old, not make it worse. Anyone taking up the class action against UoP, please feel free to email me at my work and school at gmail account.

Today is August 6, 2009 and we are not only still waiting for our loan money but have been told numerous times that we will receive it in the next 24 to 48 hours. On Monday, August 3, 2009, we were told once again that are application was 90% filed and we would have our loan money, no later than the next business day (once again in the next 24 hours). I was shocked to find out that not only did University of Phoenix get their money to pay for my classes on the 29th of July 2009, they were paid for all 3 classes. What I don't understand is that one of the main lectures I attend to is communicating and how respecting communication is a big thing with University of Phoenix and no disrespecting would be tolerated. Yet on the other hand, they can disrespect their fellow students, by giving them the runaround and lack of communication.

Not professional at all, considering the only question I have is if University of Phoenix got paid on the 29th of July like we all were supposed to, but we are still waiting for our loan. Question being, "Where is our loan money as the application was approving both my loan and the college class payment. It was approved and the college was paid, what about us?" My husband has to tackle hard times as he is attending college and trying to find a job. As we don't have this financial loan, which was supposed to help us financially while he went to college, my husband has to find ways to work to bring an income into our home. This is effort in his college as the requirements are getting demanding from both angles: the college and the fact that we have to provide for our children and family.

The fact that no one can give us a straightforward answer allows me to believe that no one really understands what's going on and how to help. We need to receive it as we have to pay it back at the time my husband graduates. Please help somehow.

Now, I am dealing with a FA counselor who tells me that my loans will be posted on the week of 7/16/09, so I checked and nothing is posted. I emailed him and he called me and told me, "I have opened a ticket to find out what has happened, but I see in my system that your loans should be posted on the week of 7/26/09." So that week came along, I checked my account and no FA has been posted. So, I sent another email and again my FA counselor said: "Something has happened and I'm not quite sure what, but I have opened a ticket to see what has happened. It shows that your loans and FA are to be applied to your account on 8/7/09.” Well, it is August 5th, so we will see. If nothing is posted on 08/07/09, there is going to be pandemonium. Students that attend this school should never have to deal with situations such as this. Because of their stupidity, students get bills and notices from the financial aid advisors in Arizona. It is a frustrating situation.

When I attended a well known private college in Jacksonville, I never had any trouble having my FA processed in a timely manner. I think the UOP spends more time designing their website for students and spends less time helping out the many hard-working adults that are looking for a brighter future. I am in no way scared to put this school on blast! Many consumers need to be aware of the incompetence of this school and their employees. I am almost embarrassed to say that I will have obtained an AA degree from them in December!

After reviewing my transcripts, UOP has told me that I will have to take an additional 30 Upper Division units in order to obtain my BA degree because the course requirements have changed. UOP has taken 18 Upper Division units that I completed at UOP and have applied them to my G.E. electives. The 20 units I completed at the junior college was not applied even though they were UC, USC transferable credits. I can't believe this. I've completed their required courses and all G.E. units. I don't need to attend another class at UOP. All I want is my degree that I am still paying for via student loans.

This school is money hungry. I've already paid for all the completed courses at UOP and now they want me to pay for 30 more units. This is absurd! I was told I could appeal to the SAC board which I did; however, the first appeal was denied. I was told by my academic counselor that maybe I should be a little nicer in my appeal letter. I'm only allowed two appeals, so I requested some assistance from UOP Director of Enrollment. He stated he would review my case; however, I have not heard back from him.