Level with me: how bad is Liberty University?

[SarahEGage]

Run away...far away!  Long read...I started with Liberty University for a BA in Psychology in Feb of 2020. My goal was to be a middle or high school counselor.  But once I got my degree, I was hired by a middle school in my district to be an art teacher.  I decided to stick with Liberty to get my masters in secondary education which I was told included the teaching license.  The only thing was, I needed to take art classes for the content area that I was to teach in as if I had of taken a BA in art. I was told by the advisors that I could take the MAT classes along side the art classes. This was true to a point. Because they are not a part of the master’s classes, FAFSA will not pay for them, but they are required for me to get my license and I cannot afford to pay out of pocket Liberty’s prices. I had 7 art classes left that I needed to take as I could not take them all alongside my MAT classes.  I was then advised by their advisory team that I could finish the MAT classes (including student teaching), then come back to school for an Associates degree where I could finish the last 7 classes having then completed the content and get my license. So, based on what I was told, this is the path that I took.
I then went to register for the student teaching as that was the last course, I needed to take to finish this all and was told by student advisors that I could not do the student teaching until all the art classes were taken. A direct opposite what had been told to me before. I had to stop the licensure part of the MAT and finish with a capstone. I was told by advisors that I could still do the associates degree. This last month with a few weeks left for the MAT classes, I went to get registered for the associate’s classes only to be told by the advisors I could not do it that way as I had too many credits that would transfer and would not be able to take the art classes. I was then told by student advisors that I could take another BA in art and it would cover the 7 classes I needed, plus taking two more extra.  This morning I got an email from the content advisory telling me that only 5 of my art content classes would be covered by a BA in art as two of them are graduate level, which I could take with my student teaching, but would have to pay out of pocket.  My only other options according to their advisory team is to start a new MAT and take another 60 credits to be able to get those 7 classes and finish my student teaching.
All of this has cost me close to 80,000 in student loans now, because of their lies or ineptness whichever it is, it is taking me twice as long to get my teaching license which I have already been teaching on a yearly stipulation license for 2 years. I’m about to be fired again as they do each year to those without licenses, because I have not been able to finish this. I was told today that I could be hired back as a building substitute, which is a huge reduction in salary. I cannot live on this as we are barely making it on my teaching salary. (I help support my retired parents and one of my sons who is in school). All of these things are because Liberty has lied over and over again and pushed more classes, most of which are completely unusable. This capstone has us watching a video of a live class each week, but we still have to do student teaching once back in the licensure content. It is a waste of money and my time.  I am heartsick that they are messing up my future because of greed.  My brother also attended Liberty university for his BA and in one class accidentally turned in his notes instead of the essay and got 100 points on it, she never even looked at it, that’s the teachers they have at this school.