Grand Canyon University

Date: Nov 07 2011
Major: Sociology (This Major's Salary over time)
First, I am an online student, so some of the questions did not apply to me.

For comparisoon, I was a student at Tulane University and transfered to GCU in Dec 2010. I like GCU much more than Tulane. Tulane faculty were focused entirely on research rather than teaching and would not teach comprehensively, but only their little research niches. The students were often drug into faculty/administration politics giving me the feeling of being a child of divorced parents. However the library facilities are amazing, and I still use them.

On the other hand, the professors at GCU are focused on teaching their classes. I have never had a problem with getting help from them, and I have never had any problems getting administrative issues dealt with. My counselor calls me during the last week of every class to make sure that there are no snags. This last course there was one. Most textbooks are ebooks, but the one for a math class and the next one is one you have to buy as a bound book which means it can't just go on your bill with the school. I couldn't afford the book right then. When he called, I told him this, and he pushed that course out 7 weeks and I took another course I needed instead that had the billable ebook. I was able to get my next financial aid check by the time I needed to byy the math book.

As far as physical convenience, it has been amazing. I have been an investigative journalist for 20 years, I and am very skilled at research and know what libraries should have for resources. I am able to cover almost all library research from home, and occasionally have to use one of the many academic libraries in New Orleans. But, as a personal eccentricity, I am obsessed with using the "perfect source" more than most people are. For most students, GCU's online library will be more than adequate. The course delivery system is very staightforward and easy to use, even though it does have a cookie-cutter feel to it. The benefit of this is that you always know what the expectations are. The curriculum is in no way less challenging. There is work to due with very strict deadlines and very strict but clear grading rubrics. The course material is developed by the departments and prescribed to the professor to teach. This may sound like there is a lack of academic freedom, but professors do infuse their expertise into the course. The prescribed structure is to make sure that certain topics are covered adequately without professor wandering off on their own tangents at the expense of important material they may be personally bored with. That was one of my chief complaints at Tulane. The routine at GCU is: Write well developed responses to two discussion questions per week and give substantive feedback to students in at least 8 other posts. Then there is generally about 100 to 200 pages of reading and one or two research papers a week, or a research paper and a test. Some courses have group projects that you have to do with a couple of other students you are assigned to work with. These are sometimes hard to handle considering that most of the students do the online thing because of schedule conflicts. However, these have been a great learning experience in how to manage group projects at a distance, something that is happening more and more in the work-from-home and out-sourced professional world.

You may have noticed that I felt that many of the students are "closed-minded." That may be a little harsh, but in sociology (my major) many people will tend to just say things without thinking them out (crime rates, drug abuse, administration of justice, welfare programs, etc.). They will make judgments based on widely reported media coverage that may be strongly contradicted by academic research. I may just be more sensitive to it having been in the business.

One other thing is that many people think that they don't have the personal motivation to do online school. I was afraid of that myself, but found that because I am usually at, I don't have the outside distractions, such as someone coming up and asking if they want to go have a beer or something. Also, if I get groggy and want to take a nap in the middle of something I am working on, I can. The time it saves in commuting is by itself worth it, and I don't expect to go to a brick and mortar school for grad school later either.

The whole experience has been a big improvement academically for me.