university of phoenix

From 2003 to 2006, I took classes at the University of Phoenix Online with the eventual grant of a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree. After receiving the degree, I wrote about my experiences with the school in a five part series. For some background, read the series in these parts: The Decision, Admissions, Course Logistics, Curriculum, and The Team Experience. At the time, I planned to extend the series to share my thoughts on dealing with the administration and financial aid, but the will to continue to series waned, and I ended the series with just five articles, more than enough to give readers an adequate picture of completing this degree.

The University of Phoenix Online is a “for-profit” school, and by this virtue, there isn’t much respect for the school in the academic community — a community that also looks for profit despite “not-for-profit” status with the government. Most of the derision is not deserved, but that is the state of the community today, and it is not changing. There are, of course, other differences between The University of Phoenix and a traditional research-focused university, and those can’t be ignored. The question is whether they matter.

I should also point out what the University of Phoenix Online is not: It is not a research-based institution, which means that they don’t provide grants to professors, faculty, or graduate students to embark on studies that advance the field of knowledge in any particular academic area. It is also not a diploma mill; I am not familiar with the experience at this University at the undergraduate level, but with the MBA I pursued, the courses generally increased in difficulty to the point where at the end of my studies, the only classmates who survived were very knowledgeable in their own fields, mostly upper-level executives in major companies or entrepreneurs who ran their own businesses, and at least twice my age. (I was thirty when I received my degree.) These MBA degrees were not handed out willy-nilly to anyone who paid the price of tuition.

In terms of tuition, the courses were not inexpensive. I wouldn’t have enrolled in the first place if my employer didn’t offer to pay for almost all of the costs. In fact, I was more interested in furthering my education in any way possible; my employer would only pay for a master’s degree in business............