University of Arizona

My son was a 2020 high school graduate who went to a four year college. With Covid, that meant fully online for the first year from home. By the second year he was used to this and wanted to continue to go online for the flexibility it offered. Midway through his sophomore year he transferred out of state to UofA online as the four year college couldn't see him through to graduation online. UofA was great at first, very helpful with the application process and the first semester of counseling. And... Read More then the great advisor switched positions and he was left to a new advisor who was terrible. After 2 months of back and forth with her via email (and looping in the previous advisor after a month of this craziness) he still didn't have answers to very basic questions (which class to take to satisfy a particular requirement needed - she told him it changes each semester but not what it was for the current semester!- and being told spots were added for a class he needed but weren't there when he looked. She told him to go take it at a Phoenix community college instead!). Certain classes are only offered in the first or 2nd half of the semester (they run two 7 week sessions of classes per semester), which left him with a gap where he could only find 1 class to take for the first 7 weeks. They claimed he would get through just as fast as a 4 year school, but he lost almost 2 semesters worth of work when he transferred, and was only allowed to take a total of 4 classes each semester vs. 5 at a university. By our calculations it would take him 6 years (not going summers) to graduate after being in school already for 2.5 years. When faced with a $6K tuition to take only Spanish 101 the first 7 weeks, then Spanish 201 and another class the 2nd 7 weeks, we decided to go the community college route. That Spanish 101 class was not going to be worth $3K! We felt like it was more about stringing him along to get the tuition than helping him find his way. As a parent I am VERY disappointed. While this may be fine for working adults, they are not set up to help younger students looking for an online option. I would think twice about throwing your money away on this program.

I'm currently enrolled in the online Digital Marketing Science Program, which upon academic success and completion awards you a Certificate from the U of AZ for the Program, as well as 3 additional Leading Industry Certifications (2 Google, and 1 HubSpot.) You do have to take each certification test and pass it. So this course technically falls under the U of AZ professional series programs, but it's part of the overall academic umbrella of U of AZ. The Instructor for this April-June Cohort, is Steph.... Read More She is an amazing instructor. I've had programs before at other facilities where the instructors aren't up to speed on current thoughts in the industry, but she really is highly-qualified to teach this program. We will have 2 more instructors - I believe a new one each month, and for that I'm a little apprehensive, but for now, the experience with her has been amazing. She is able to answer and communicate to the class technical information, and you know she is just not winging it. I'm submitting this review anonymously as well.