Capella University

Date: May 06 2013
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
i recently decided to pursue an additional bachelors degree. i chose capella because their online program is reasonably priced and is accredited by ABET. i enrolled in my first class (which is 6 credit hours and required to be taken first) right before making a cross country move. the counselor i had been speaking with was very encouraging and had me anxious to start. i ran into a few hitches during my move and had to neglect the course for two weeks due to travel and lack of internet access. i decided to drop the course. i would have to get every point left to earn a respectable grade if i didn't. i contacted my counselor two days after the refund period. i was unaware of the 12 calender day refund time frame. this is a shorter time period than the university i had attended in the past. not having internet access during my move made it impossible to research this myself. i was communicating with the course instructor via email on my phone while traveling and i informed him of my situation. he was very encouraging about finishing the course, but failed to mention the drop date deadline. now i owed (still owe) about 2000$ for a course i dropped. i made an appeal to have the amount owed reduced. i was denied. in the end i know this is my fault, but i feel that capella should make it a priority to make their policies known at the onset. if i would have known the policy i would have dropped the course within the 75% refund period. the policy is on the website for you to find. and i do mean FIND. i had to use the search engine to find the link to the policy. they do not "advertise" it. if you decide to attend capella university online be sure to read all of the fine print before you start. you might pay for it if you don't. my on-campus college experience was a little different. the first day of class had time devoted to university policies (including drop dates). this is not the case in capella's online program. there was a clear lack of communication in my experience. if they would have reduced the amount owed i would still be excited about their program. location independence while pursuing an ABET accredited program sounds great. there aren't many of those to be found. i feel they do not advertise (make an effort to insure that you are aware of) their drop policy because more people might take advantage of it if they did. they are a private for-profit institution. i now have a bitter view of private online colleges. this experience has convinced me to pursue my degree on campus (not capella). it will be better to meet people in the same program. i prefer meeting people in person better than the internet anyway. just trying to put a positive spin on things. if you choose to attend capella online please heed my warning. it is not their concern that you are completely informed. you are on your own. make sure you know all of the rules before you start. inconvenient situations tend to happen in life. if life happens to you while you are attending capella you better know how to work the system or the system will work against you.