For-Profit Colleges: Good Choice or Bane of the Education World?

[sanantone]

I dunno, I guess I'm one of the few, but I had a relatively bad experience with APU. One example was the grad-level statistics class where the instructor just tossed the work at us, didn't interact, didn't respond to students attempts to contact them (according to others in my class). They also severely screwed up my financial aid. They have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of cool offerings at the grad level, but I can't bring myself to go back there, even after everything got cleared up.

I have read the many complaints about how they handle financial aid.

That's really not saying a whole lot, to be honest... Especially with the glut of doctorates out there at this point and the variable levels of actual skill, knowledge, and comprehension. Some people do great in the process but utterly suck as teachers.

True. Non-traditional schools like APUS think it's better to hire people with professional experience. Some non-traditional colleges even require that the instructors still be in the field. This is not always good because, like you said, not everyone is good at teaching even if they are good at what they do. Sometimes, when you have an instructor who is teaching and working another full-time job, that professor is not very responsive. I had a community college instructor who was an assistant DA. That sounds great and all, but she went out of town several times during the course and was unable to grade or respond to emails.