CTU ONLINE - Colorado Technical University The worst job you will ever have downers grove, Illinois

The OP is pretty much dead-on in his/her description of this company's sales practices. A lot of times when i worked at CTU i felt the exact same way about what I was doing to a lot of these students.

What was written here is the truth.  I am a former "admissions rep" at the Downers Grove location and can say that they do not care about you as a student.

My main job was to get whomever I talked to to enroll.  Pure and simple.  The inbound calls we received were from dubious advertisements at best.  Most people are aware of the "Obama wants you to go back to school" ads.  In these adds it is made to look like there is free government grants.  When someone is foolish enough to fill this out, withing 3 minutes of submitting they will be bombarded by schools like CTU.

Our call "screeners", the ones who made initial contact with the prospective students, had one thing on their mind, keep the person on line long enough to get to an advisor.  Their spiff package depended on the number of completed transfers they made.  Many of times I would get the call from a screener, who would tell me who they were transfering, all thewhile I hear the individual in the background screeming they do not want to talk to anyone about this.


When you speak with an advisor, the first thing we did was an "interview". This interview has only on purpose.. to get enough information on your state of mind to use it to mentally coerce you into attending later on in the process. I would find out why you wanted to go back to school, you motivation both positive and negative. What  you wanted to get out of school. If you told me you wanted to be lets say a veterinarian,this was all you ever wanted to do, I would tell you we could help make your dream come true. Even though we offered no lab science courses. If you did not have your associates, I would tell you to get your gen ed associate with us or possible your associate in business, cause after all once you become a vet you need to run the business. Would your degree transfer to a 4yr university?... good question. To us it didn't matter what your end goal was there was very little you may want to do with your life that we could not offer a possible "solution" for. The good reps could sell this to you, rather it made sense or not.
Online school is not for everyone. There are many people due to various situations where attending their local J.C. would be the better bet. Not if you talk with an admissions rep. I had one student, who,in talking with him, I could tell he, to put it politely, was a bit slow mentally speaking. I knew in my heart of hearts, that he would not be able to do the online courses and all he would have to show for it is a student loan. But I was an "advisor" in name only. I was a salesman, once they drove off the lot wasnt my concern. When I was helping him fill out his application, for. However he had what was needed to get enrolled... $50 and a high school diploma or GED.
That is right this is all you need. I guess I was use to colleges having some sort of standard that had to be met to get in. Not here. I always laughed inside, when I told a prospective student, upon getting their $50 and completed application, that I would present them to the Director of Admissions and give them a call tomorrow saying if they have or have not been accepted. Did I "present" them.. ya i told my sales manager(DOA, most schools have one director of admissions, not here) of the client. The concern was the admission fee, and diploma/ged. I could tell them that they lived in a log cabin with no electricity have to go 20 miles to town to use the libraries internet, but as long as the money and degree was there, they were admitted. The money ($50) was so important that I heard a advisor get into a heated discussion with a potential student asking them which was more important, getting his daughter a WII for christmas, or getting him the degree he needed. Did the advisor care about the guy, heck no. He cared that with out the fee, he couldn't submit the application thus meeting his sales goals. In the small print of the admissions forms you will see where there is a 24hour buyers remorse clause, which would allow you to cancel and get your $50 back. After that the money was ours. If you did try to back out... be ready for the fight of you life. We would do anything needed to keep you, this included emotional blackmail (remember the origional interview?) We always said that as a student one of the"perks" would be early admittance to class. That is right you could go into your class a week early and get started (all beginning students had the same intro to online learning class). What we didn't tell you is we were doing you no favor here. Again, in the small print of the admissions contract, it stated that if you attend one class in a class, you had to pay for the entire class, regardless if you want to quit or not. It was to our advantage to get you in class. These are just some of the things that go on behind the scenes. The masters program is another story in itself. If you got your degree from this school, would it be accepted by employers probably. Reason being is your diploma would read Colorado Technical University Denver Co. Not once will anyone see you went online for your education... So you tell me is this the school you want to spend over 50k with?

CTU treats their employees like their students, more where you came from.  WhenI first interviewed wiith them the DOA was proud that they had a 75 percent turn over rate.  That came down from the 98 percent in previous years.  When I went to employment agencies after being let go for not making the numbers they required, each and every one knew of CTU, and their churn and burn policy with their employees.