University of the Southwest

I started the online doctorate program full of optimism and motivation. I talked to several people at the school administration office who assured me this was an interactive program with zoom calls and instructor participation. Well - I was lied to. By week 2 of my first class, I realized this was not the experience I wanted. The instructor was MIA for most of the course. They will respond to emailed questions but these classes are very boring. The focus is on word count and APA vs a challenging/rewarding... Read More student experience. You are paying tuition to teach yourself. The school will say that you learn by reading the books, having a weekly discussion with your peers and getting grades back with comments from the instructor. There is no cohort, no teamwork, no team assignments, no student association, minimal student support and no support for your dissertation until more than a year into the program. They have less than 10-graduates of their program. I fear these guys are only in it to make money. They do not care about the student experience at all. The academic advisor for the doctorate program was defensive when I voiced concerns. The faculty brushed it off as "this is way online education is. It is NOT this way at all institutions. At $800 credit hour, I expect to have an instructor who is present and actually instructs us on something. Is that too much to ask USW? Save your time and money and go somewhere else. USW is a joke.

The MBA program is solid. They offer no prerequisites and no GMAT or GRE. You just jump right in. They offered the first class free to me (I dont know if that is still the case). They also provided a lap top after I completed 6 hours and it was very nice. The courses are offered on an 8 week schedule (online). Each course is set up very similarly. You have 8 weeks with two assignments each week. One discussion and one written paper or problem sets (finance and accounting). The professors grade the... Read More work quickly. One area that I would like to see improvement is that the professors don't interact in the discussion board. You get grading comments about your answer and that is it. Otherwise, I have had good interactions with my classmates. The rigor is appropriate for an MBA. The books are included in the tuition and are linked into the courses. Overall the MBA is a quality program. I recommend it.

This school was a huge disappointment. First, their mission statement states Christian values and beliefs; however, the material and worldview is extremely secular with a negative view towards Christianity in the three classes that I took. I am in my fourth class now. The professors are very unorganized. The quizzes for 3 of my classes had questions on them that weren't even in the material that was being tested. I contacted the professor and he admitted that they were questions from other chapters... Read More and asked me to look through the book to see if I could find them. I ended up going on the internet for some. Also, in one class, I would be graded differently for different assignments. It seemed that an assistant may have been helping grade and didn't have the same grading criteria as the professor. I received A's in all my classes, but the time spent was not beneficial to learning and very inconsistent. Because I want a faith based education and want to attend a professional university, I plan to transfer to Liberty University after this class. I do not recommend this school!

This is not a good school to attend...they are very slow about getting things done. When you ask them too,  they want something from you. They expect you to get it done right then. In the financial department, they only have one person working on things that need to be done right away and when she decides to take a vacation, she leave for 2 weeks and no one else is there to help. The attitude of the staff is also terrible...I thought it was an Christian school but it is really not....If you can help... Read More please decide to look at other schools before you go there.