Arkansas State University

I could not have enjoyed my time at Arkansas State University more. The faculty was incredibly supportive as I achieved my Master's degree in Education. I took my courses online and felt that the ease of completing my master's on my own time made it a wonderful experience. In addition, the courses were organized well. Each professor made it easy to find what materials and books would be needed for each course I took and completed. Blackboard was simple to navigate and I found discussion boards to... Read More be simple to navigate as well. If I ever had any questions, both the professors and academic assistants were always reachable by email and responded quickly and efficiently. Also, any phone call I had with Arkansas State University was pleasant as well. I spoke with academic advisors frequently and I was always assisted and my questions were answered. I highly recommend this institution if you are considering pursuing a degree.

Quick Summary: The affordable pricing and accreditation are not worth the lack of structure and accountability. This review is based on 3 online classes, 1 of which I ended up dropping halfway through the semester. 2 of the classes (Survey of Business Law and Survey of Operations Management) were prerequisites for the actual MBA program while 1 was an actual MBA class. I will break down the 3 classes below. Survey of Law - This class was the only one that felt organized. The professor's videos were... Read More helpful, the textbook was clear, and the exams and assignment were fair. Final grade: B Survey of Operations Management - This class was essentially self-taught. The online assignments and textbook were enough to pass the quizzes and exams. The online videos were useless. In fact, they were a waste of time and complicated the material more than necessary. Final grade: B Financial Statement Analysis - I was excited to take this class. It was going to be my first master's class of the program. The professor's recorded lecture lacked any structure, his weekly assignments and group projects felt more like busy work than actual learning. The breaking point was the second quiz I took. Basically, the questions were pulled from a larger bank of questions. Some of these questions referenced particular charts and tables. However, there were NO available charts and tables to answer the questions. Ex: Please refer to chart 7d and determine the operational activities effect on cash flows. There was no possible way of answering this question since the chart was never provided. If it was one random question it would have been frustrating but acceptable. The issue was that several questions were listed in this manner. The combination of the lectures, quizzes, and assignments made it an easy decision to drop this class before the halfway point. I was looking for an affordable and accredited MBA program. It did not have to be one the big name schools but I did want a decent program. Look elsewhere because this is an unbelievable waste of time and money. Undergrad GPA: 3.6 GMAT: 640

I would not recommend doing any online courses or degree through Arkansas State University. The price is good sure but they are so disorganized and I ask questions about my program and my adviser and student coordinator don't know answers. The online courses have over 5oo students in them so you just feel like a number. Also, the instructor doesn't even grade your assignments and discussions! There are academic assistants that do all the grading. If you ask the instructor a question they just say... Read More 'refer to the rubric', that may only be the instructor i have but I have her for nearly all my courses online. There are misspellings and different names used for the same assignments in the syllabus and in weekly modules; that makes the courses even more confusing. There were no actual videos of showing step by step how to use blackboard online website so I had to go to youtube to actually find useful tutorials. If I email academic assistants or my instructor is has taken on average a week and a half for them to get back to me; that's awful because my assignments are due within a week. Also, they do not open assignments early so you can work ahead and be flexible with your schedule. I do not recommend Arkansas State University. The disorganization alone is enough to make me regret my decision of enrolling here.