Capella University Reviews of Doctoral in Criminal Justice

Choosing Capella was the best decision I have made for my Ph.D. Program. The counselors are there to help you every step of the way. Some people may feel that counselors should be contacting them, but it is up to you if you are willing to put in the effort to keep in contact with all counselors and advisors for your needs. It is easy to set up appointments to meet with advisors and teachers. All of my teachers have been helpful and friendly. Both faculty, students, and former students are available... Read More to help you with your questions you have about your program and classes. If you have any questions about attending Capella do not hesitate to leave a comment or contact an advisor at the University and they will be happy to assist you.

I have been attending Capella for several years and I am now in my dissertation program. The biggest complaint is the extreme slow turn around time from when you submit work to your mentor to when it gets returned for approval or corrections. I was told by my academic advisor that the mentor has 10 business days for review and return work that is substantial. In one case, I had to add a chart in which I did the same day and it took 13 days and several text messages and emails to get this work reviewed.... Read More I should have been able graduate in March this year but due to the slow turn-around process, maybe in August. There were times I am waiting weeks to get replies and if you considered the charges associated with attending, I am paying over $600 a week to do nothing. Now I have to go into another maybe two more quarters thus accumulating more debt. What a joke...Maybe it is time for a review of their business practices or even their accreditation..

I went to Capella for my masters and then transferred into the Ph.D program. The Ph.D program started out great, no real issues. All the issues started with the comprehensive exam. I attended the required residency weekends which was supposed to prepare you for comps and milestones 1 to 3. Three weeks before comps started Capella emailed my the comprehensive exam manual, however when the course room open up there was a different manual. The new manual was the opposite of the one that was sent to... Read More me. Under the old manual you had to the end of week 2 to get your questions, which I was planning to do as I had to go for foot surgery. However, under the new manual you had to get questions no later than Monday of week 2. This 2 days before I went for surgery. I emailed the dissertation advisor and as the manual said that in situations like medical an extension would be granted. However, Capella did not want to work with me. I ended up having complications and was not home until Thursday, which eat up most of the first week. I passed one of the questions and got rewrites on 2. The grades feedback was made no sense. I was told in one part that something was right and than the next sentence said it was wrong. I turned in the rewrites on time, and they were supposed to have a grade it within 7 days. I ended up waiting another 3 weeks before I found out I did not pass. The new grading system is terrible. You need all proficient/ distinguish to pass the exam on all criteria and if one of the grades gave you something that was not proficient you failed. Under the old system all you needed was 30 points per question which you could get 20 points on just APA alone. With this in mind I was sure I was going to have no problem. However, my cohort was the first group under the new grading criteria and after speaking to students most of us did not pass. It seemed like they were just failing students. I took their writing class and the instructor went over the results from comps, by looking at our papers and I was told my responses were passing and the instructor could not find the problems even with the feedback that I was given. This set-off alarms for me. It was then I found out that the only thing Capella cares about is how much money they can get from the students. I also requested being moved to the DPA program and I requested made that request after I failed the rewrites, but the advisor never processed the degree program change request until it was too late, so I was going to be stuck in writing classes wasting time and money. I ended up transferring to another school.

Capella runs a good scam. They play a game of bait and switch on the comprehensive exam. Their so call residencies/ Colloquiums are supposed to get students ready to take the comprehensive exam. Well they did under the model that Capella University used to used, however the Capella changed the model this past quarter Summer 2015. Under the model I was trained under all a student had to get to pass was a total of 30 points out of 50 per question. The model did not care how you got the 30 points per... Read More question, all 30 points could come from contents or it could be split between APA and contents. Under the new model students have to get 80% or better under each of the 7 grading criteria to pass and if anything is under 80% on any of the 7 grading criteria it is an automatic fail. However even if the average comes out to 80% even with the grading criteria it is an automatic fail. Capella only cares about how much money they can take from students. They max out the student loan amount. They don't care about the students. For example this past quarter I had to go for major surgery to fix my foot. I was told to drop out of comprehensive exams by them because I requested an extension that was allowed within their own manual. I know another student who had the same issues with Capella playing this bait and switch game. It is not right of them. They act unethical. This school/ educational company needs to be shut down.