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 | Quite Bright | | Oh, IWU, such a mixed bag you are. Honestly, my experience was different than many people around me. It seemed like a good portion of the kids on campus were just loving their time at IWU, but there wasn't much I enjoyed about it. I can't even tell your specifically what it was, except that everything seemed a bit manufactured. Chapel-They require you go to chapel 3 times a week. When I was there, you got three skips and then were punished somehow. It was pretty much the same each time; same songs, same sermons. It really wasn't too bad except that to require someone to go under the fear of punishment kinda defeats the purpose of organic spiritual growth, right? But as I said, everything felt a little bit manufactured there, even the relationships and spirituality. Of course, that might not have been everyone's experience. Classes-Basically, to get a "well-rounded education", you're required to take a bunch of classes that don't pertain to your major whatsoever. As an art major, there are things that I straight up did not need to take, but was required to take to fulfill an arbitrary set of rules. It's not just IWU that does this, but I hate being forced to pay them for classes that aren't necessary for me. In that respect, though they can say otherwise, it's about money. Plain and simple. Professors-Most of them are actually real nice people. I think I maybe ran into only one or two that were pretty impressed with themselves. However, they weren't always easily reached--especially art professors. They don't hold your hand and walk you through things, but at a college level they really aren't supposed to anyway. The food was just eh, but there was a real nice assortment of it. The rules... were a little constrictive. Like chapel, they did the thinking for you on what you should do and when. As adults (or at least people who are trying to transition into adulthood), it's a little insulting to assume that the students aren't capable of making their own decisions. And worse than that, it does absolutely nothing to prepare them for life apart from the establishment, where they will be facing temptations and making decisions daily. All in all, IWU is definitely not the worst school you could attend. I wouldn't go back because it definitely wasn't for me, but I saw a lot of people who really enjoyed it. It's pretty pricey for the quality though. | Campus Aesthetics: A, Surrounding City: F |  | | |
| | Sep 07 2012 | 1st Year Female --
Class 2012 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste!
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|  | | School is overpriced .. You pretty much pay the school to teach yourself ... No support lines or chatline to talk to staff about homework only help you receive is from other students | Preparedness: -, Reputation: - |  | | |
| | Jun 07 2012 | Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste!
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|  | Quite Bright | This was the worst experience I've had with a university (I've attended a couple others.) Before enrolling in their online program, you must first understand a few things that are likely different than a "brick and mortar" school. - Their academic year calendar starts the day of your first class. Additionally, your FAFSA calendar starts the first day of your first class. Therefore, each students individual academic calendar and loan disbursement calendar is unique. This is different than universities who have a set academic calendar (i.e. academic year 2011-2012). - The academic year starts the day of your first class and ends after the completion of a requisite amount of credit hours earned, and not by time period. For example, my "cohort" division (group of students on the same academic calendar) had a time period of 14 months for completion of the requisite amount of credit hours earned. Additionally, costs for classwork and credit hours earned do not follow logically, resulting in "front-loading" the academic year with costs. - The Stafford loan disbursement is divided equally in two. This results in not having enough loans for the first half of the year to cover costs, while loan amounts for the second half of the year are usually in excess of the costs for class. You do not have control over this with your schedule (unless you want to pay a $100 re-registration fee), but you are expected to know this and know that you will need to pay this amount out of pocket regardless if your upcoming loan disbursements will cover the costs. - Upon withdrawal from the program, your loan disbursements will be recalculated based on the percentage of the time-period you were enrolled during your unique academic calendar. However, the costs may not be evenly distributed, due to the front loading. Therefore, if the time period you were in rolled was 33% of the academic calendar, but your costs during that time period were 45% of your disbursed loan amount, they will return 67% of the loan disbursement, leaving you to cover 12% of the cost EVEN THOUGH YOU "THOUGHT" YOU HAD THE LOANS TO COVER YOUR COMPLETED COURSES. - As a real life example, I am stuck with a $965 bill that I thought was covered by Stafford loans for classes I completed. This may be correct according to federal guidelines, but this was not transparent at all. I even went through great lengths to inquire about any costs that I may incur due to my withdrawal and both Student Account Services and their Financial Aid office and everyone I spoke with told me that there should be no reason I would owe anything. Upon inquiring about the bill, everyone I spoke with was a bit dumbfounded as to how this happened, but couldn't do anything about correcting this issue. It was simply a stroke of bad luck I guess.- Additionally (the reason I withdrew in the first place), the instructors for the online program do not grade your coursework. You simply get credit for turning in your assignments. I tested this by turning in a final project (a 5-7 page paper on project management) for the final class. I did not even complete the requirements in the grading rubric (my paper was a half page short of the minimum length, nor did I have any of the required citations or a bibliography). I received a 100% on the paper. To say the least, their academic program is inferior. | University Resource Use: C, Education Quality: F |  | | |
| | Feb 29 2012 | 1st Year Male --
Class 2014 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste!
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