I am a second year student (I am between my 4th and 5th quarters - doing 2 classes at a time). First we'll start with the positives: They take up to 28 classes in transfer credit and have a residency requirement of 12. I had 36 classes from another school (I got an A.S. in computer Info Systems and 4 certificates from HCC in MA, graduated in 2008) and Strayer gave me 27 classes in transfer credits. I also have the A+ and Security+ certifications by self-study as well.In many ways this is both impressive and not. I graduated from HCC in 2008 with a 3.917 GPA and did a lot of work! It is nice that they took so many credits but they still have a residency requirement that parallels other schools, so considering all the work I had previously done this was really nothing special.
I have been at Strayer for 4 quarters as I said before, completely online, and I will say outright that you bust your tail in the online classes and earn EVERY credit you get online! So far I have a 4.0 through 8 classes and I have done very well. The classes have been challenging and there has been a lot of work for each class!!
The open book tests are very helpful, provided you have read the material before the tests, and some of the classes
even give you the whole week to start the test, do some of it, and come back and finish it later and change answers before the week ends if you need to, while other classes do not, so it depends on the professor and the class.
I felt like I have learned a good amount from the books I have read about each subject I've taken so far. The books are generally easy to read (the published-by-Strayer books are an especially easy read!) and the expectations are spelled out pretty clearly.
My impressions of the professors are mixed through the 8 classes I have done (2 with the same professor, by my choice, which I did b/c I did so well the first time, not b/c she was that good, she was very impersonal to be honest). Some are very bright and are very much in touch with regard to the information in their field, while some barely speak English and seem to be ignoramuses (my Contemporary International Problems professor was Iranian and English was clearly NOT his first language). They teach from a standardized formula, so the professors don't write the curriculum, the school does, and many different professors teach the same subject.
Many are very busy and teach classes at multiple schools at the same time. Many of them do seem snooty and uninterested in you as a student and are clearly there to get you in and either weeded out or pushed through. There have been a couple that have been outstanding (Professor/Dr. Russell Fail for my World Religions class, for example), but many seem to just see you as a number.
One or two were clearly arrogant, but the others were OK for the most part, but being online there's no real ability to build any kind of rapport. And like anywhere else in life, you have your smart people who deserve the PhDs they have, and some who you wonder how they got a PhD in the first place. You have your arrogant jerks and your helpful professors, so it has been a mixed bag for me!
I did take a lot of computer classes at my previous school and did get a lot of credit for them, but I am disappointed that many of the classes Strayer had me take are gen ed classes and not for my major.
I was really hoping, being a computer security student, to have classes in things like technical writing and firewalls and the like, but I only had 4 computer classes needed. So the fact that they require so much gen ed crap and not nearly enough classes geared toward your major - any if you look at the course catalog this is a common happening!)is a big thumbs down for the school!
Many of the students on here have complained about them being money hungry...THIS IS VERY VERY TRUE!! If you are a day or two behind on your payments they hound you about it! They do seem pretty cold and self-interested as a whole, so that makes me a little iffy about them.
Other negatives include the fact that I have not been assigned to an advisor, which is a big red flag, and there seems to be a large turnaround in personnel there, as my student account rep has changed at least twice in the year I've been there!
It will be nice to have the degree and I have worked very hard for it, but I don't think I'd go back later or I'd go elsewhere for my masters' degree given the choice. The school is way too expensive for what they give you (with the Pell grant each class is still $1,000 per quarter out-of pocket. I have been taking 2 classes at a time, so it's $2,000 a quarter even with the financial aid help). In addition, there's a lot of unnecessary gen ed requirements, many of the professors are lousy, impersonal, and stuck up, though some are good, and money is clearly the school's main focus. While I am leaving this review as neutral, there should be a "mixed" option. Like any school, it has its good and bad points. I hope this review has been helpful.
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