Northwood University Florida

Date: Apr 01 2006
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended Northwood University’s Tampa educational center and made a couple of trips down to the main Florida campus in West Palm Beach.

If you are 18 and headed for college, do yourself a favor and go to Miami, FSU, UF, UCF, USF, or any school you can find with a halfway decent regional/national reputation. However, if you are like me (a working adult), Northwood is not too bad. It’s far better than Phoenix, DeVry, or any for-profit school.

I did notice a huge difference between the two campuses: The Tampa campus had working professionals that were smart, focused and dedicated. I never ran into any slackers or encountered any students that I would be embarrassed to “share” a degree with. Most of them were firefighters, county employees, or had good jobs at Nextel, Citibank, or other well-respected companies in the Bay area. I was very happy with Northwood (and sort of proud) until I visited the West Palm Beach Campus.

At the WPB campus I ran into lazy ghetto kids who couldn’t speak English. It was like walking on the campus of Hillsborough Community College and talking to the kids in remedial classes. I would NEVER let my kids enroll at my own alma mater - and that’s sad.

PROS: Good education, qualified instructors, regional accreditation, non-profit status, dedicated staff, convenient for working adults without being too easy or watered down.

CONS: No one has ever heard of Northwood. Even people who were born and raised off Military Trail in West Palm Beach have never heard of Northwood (no joke. I’ve encountered this twice).

I attended Tampa and West Palm Beach, but my diploma says Michigan! WTF? I had to take it out of my office because everyone kept telling me

I never knew you lived in Michigan!

If Northwood plans to continue promoting itself as a school that specializes in business, they should invest in a professional business accreditation. AACSB, ACBSP, or the

bottom of the bucket

IACBE at least would boost the school’s image. Regional accreditation is step one, but now it’s time for step two.

SUMMARY: If you’re a working adult, you could do far worse. If you’re 18 with decent SAT’s you can do far better. I had a good job when I enrolled, and I have an even better job now. I attribute 0% of this to Northwood since it was my experience that landed me a new position before I even graduated.