Lamar University

I earned my B.Sc. in Criminal Justice from Lamar (Brick and Mortar) and am currently enrolled in their online MBA-Criminal Justice Management degree. Pros: The dorms are fantastic--very private and spacious. Facilities are overall in good condition and... Read More clean. Student life and sporting events are available if you want them, but they are not as in-your-face as A&M or UT. Prices are extremely competitive, especially for their online programs. The class sizes are small, so most professors really care about you and take time to answer your questions and get to know you. Their application/enrollment process is streamlined, easy, and fast. Lamar advisors call at least twice a semester to check up on you and make sure your degree progression is running smoothly. Their MBA program is AASCB accredited which is a very prestigious accreditation. The LU PD are present and respond quickly to disorder and crime on campus. Cons: While some online classes are thought provoking and engaging, others have an extremely heavy workload and have absent professors who do the bare minimum (30-40% of classes are like this). Crime in the surrounding area is relatively high, so be cautious if you are off campus at night. Their engineering program (which I dropped out of in 2015) was chock full of disengaged, tenured professors who simply read a powerpoint and did not care about student success. Their criminal justice and business programs, on the other hand, are staffed by experienced professionals who personally helped me find internships. Overall Lamar is a high-quality public university. I had a job waiting for me after college and almost all of my classmates had jobs waiting for them upon graduation or were hired within a few months. This institution has enhanced my life by gaining me many close friends and wonderful memories, raising my salary, and making me highly employable. I highly recommend that you consider this school. Peck 'em.

The online degree's are a bit of a joke, don't believe the advisor when they tell you about college credit for prior learning or life experience etc. Its a lie. You will spend 40 hours attempting to create a paper they may get you 3 to 6 college hours,... Read More much easier to just two classes online, again the online classes are a joke, just a ton of busy work and some classes dont even require proctored exams..

The program was fine for getting my Masters however one VERY important thing to note is that I missed one 5 week course in the winter of 2016 due to illness and it set back my graduation date by an ENTIRE YEAR. For some reason, even though the classes... Read More are online and all the materials are available upfront- they only offer the courses in a certain rotation. I didnt realize this when I applied and certainly would have powered thru if I knew. So now I have to wait until Spring of 2019 to take my last two classes. Very frustrating (and costing me a full year of the pay raise that comes with the degree).