Lindenwood University

There isn't an option on this list for the degree I was in, but I was in Game Design with a Concept Art emphasis. The two courses I took weren't the worst, definitely could be better, but ultimately this wasn't the degree I was advertised so I decided to transfer. That's not what I wanted to talk about though. I like to think of myself as a very patient person, in fact I waited months in order to get any sort of response on an important financial situation (I did try to ask for updates every week or 2 weeks just in case my email got lost. I didn't want to overwhelm them), but I have been pushed to be pushy because without this situation being resolved I cannot even transfer to get away from this school (transcripts can't be sent until my financial holds are fixed). The only one that would respond to my emails was my kind advisor, and beyond that no one could get back to me, email or phone, on fixing financial holds on my account. Maybe all my emails were getting lost, maybe the staff is underpaid, I'm not sure what the situation is and I empathize for the poor workers if they are underpaid or overworked and can't get back to students, but regardless I have had the most unprofessional experience with a school ever in regards to communication. I never even knew there was a problem that should have been addressed to me until I looked into transferring and the new school I am transferring to kindly let me know immediately about accessing my information. If it weren't for the new school I am now transferring to I never would have known, and when it comes to money, especially exorbitant college prices of today, it is no matter to have a lack of communication with. Tldr; very unprofessional in communication, otherwise I guess it's an okay school. Communication aside I would probably rate it a C. Communication included, I would not recommend this school. Also, I am an online student, so any ratings on the physical school life is null and should not be taken into account. There's no option to skip, so I put "B" for those. Perhaps my experience only applies to online students, but I would keep it in mind just in case.

1st Year Male -- Class 1925

University Resource Use/ spending: B, Faculty Accessibility: F

Full disclosure: I'm currently an online student, but I have attended on campus classes in the past.

First the good. The school is cheap compared to other schools like UMSL, but I guess you get what you pay for. The other online students all pretty much keep to themselves, but are generally friendly when engaged with either through private message or on the discussion boards. Being close and convenient if you're local to the area is nice, and the campus is beautiful. I've also have had a few decent professors and been reasonably challenged in a couple of my classes... That's pretty much it.

Now for the bad. I'm mostly going to focus on the online student side of things as that's my most recent experience:

1. Lack of caring and attention from professors. The amount of online profs I've had at this school that just use an old syllabus, have a program grade everything (or for papers just slap a grade on it and don't offer any feedback), and only sometimes answer their email and call it teaching is ridiculous. I've had better luck with online professors at community college actually giving a damn. Be prepared to teach yourself everything as more than likely your professors will not be any help to you even when you ask for their help multiple times. I've literally been told to "google it" when I was having trouble with a concept or a specific question. As if I hadn't been trying that before I emailed them.

2. Advisors are worthless. Twice I've been paired with advisors who did nothing more than unlock my portal each semester (which is a stupid practice to being with), and offered me no advice even when I asked for it. No check in's, nothing aside from "look at the BINGO sheet."

3. Not making sure profs have basic computer knowledge. It astounds me how many professors can barely type a coherent sentence and/or don't know how to use Canvas properly. Each professor has things in different (sometimes bizarre) places and sometimes the same rubric or assignment has two different sets of instructions depending on which one you click on. Apparently you're just supposed to guess which is the right one as every time I ask for clarification the professors act like I'm wasting their time for wanting to know what they actually want. Professors need to be given better training in using Canvas and LU needs to have a standard on how classes should be laid out so students aren't playing "hide-and-go-seek" with assignments.

4. Textbooks. Online students should not have to purchase physical textbooks if they don't wish to, but I had one class when I know several student literally could not buy the textbook because the only place that sold it was the LU bookstore and they were from out of state.

5. Once you're at LU you're basically stuck as their credits don't transfer to most other schools. So if you're set on going here, be sure you're going to stay here unless you want to retake all of your classes. I know because I looked and even though I'm currently at Senior status I would have to go back to being a sophomore or at some schools a freshman all over again.

6. How the weeks are set up. For being promoted as flexible for working students, the deadlines each week are ridiculous. They open and close each week at 6pm on Friday. So if you worked all week and wanted to finish up an assignment Friday night? Too bad. There is 0 flexibility from instructors on this. What online school has classes close and open at 6pm?! They can't even make it midnight on Friday. It's asinine. Every other college I've taken online classes at open and close assignments either at 12am Sunday night OR they treat their students like adults and either give them all the assignments at the beginning of class and/or have flexible dates on when to finish them, and as long as everything is turned in by the end of class you're good. You know, actually being flexible so students with busy lives can do things when they have the time. I didn't pick taking online courses so I could be stuck in the same regimen as traditional on campus students.

7. Online students are forced to take accelerated courses. Each class is only 1/2 a semester so everything is "cram as much information in as you can before spitting it back out on the test". Not sure how it's supposed to make things easier or better for online students as overall I've found it sucks for everyone.

8. Proctor U is a joke.
Closing thoughts:Basically, if you're looking for a less expensive school and don't mind paying thousands of dollars to teach yourself pretty much everything then sure LU isn't your worst choice, but honestly? You can do better.

3rd Year Female -- Class 1921

Campus Aesthetics: A, Scholastic Success: F

I went to the accelerated degree program. It is expensive and a joke. I went for cyber security and some of the classrooms didn't even have computers, yet they charge you fees every quarter for a technology fee.

If you miss more than 2 classes, you automatically fail the class, yet almost every quarter the instructors missed more than 2 classes.

The dean of the program, Gina Ganahl is a self absorbed piece of work. I would highly recommend not to waste your money on an education from here.

4th Year Male -- Class 2019

Perceived Campus Safety: C, Education Quality: F