Ashford University, Iowa, Online Ashford University Online, Ashford University, Clinton, Iowa Ashford University Counselors Inept, Rude, Unprofessional, it's a chore to help the student. Internet

My counselors were changed routinely without my notification, so I never knew who to seek help or advice from.  My counselors couldn't be bothered with assisting me with professor issues, financial aid issues, and especially academic issues.  None of my UCLA courses were transferred, and as a history major, I transferred with IGETC and UC certification only to have to retake all courses I'd already completed at the General Ed level.

Academic core courses were transferred as electives only, and new courses were tacked on to my projected grad date, pushing it further and further back, and inflating my balance with Ashford.  It took four months each time for Ashford University to update my financial aid information, and none of the financial aid advisors for military personnel knew what they were doing.  I received different advice from each one.  I talked to four.  My academic advisor, Savannah Coleman, was extremely rude and unhelpful when I asked her to provide some academic information to me about the kind of programme I was enrolled in.  What's worse, is at the request of the Master's programme counselor for the College of Education at California State University San Marcos to please pass that information along to her so she may correctly evaluate my transcripts, my counselor refused, and told me to call Rio Salado.  That was it.  I asked who Rio Salado was, and she replied dryly that it's some community college who helps write the degree programme.  When I complained to her supervisor and asked her supervisor if he could please provide the CSUSM counselor with some info regarding the education programme, he made excuses for my counselor and told me I was out of line and basically asking too much of the university's staff.

Most of my professors at Ashford have been garbage.  You can tell they need the extra income and hate their jobs.  Ashford prides itself on hiring only professionals who have worked at least a decade in the areas they teach.  The problem is, they don't hire people with any real classroom teaching experience, and the result is that most professors online can't be bothered with leaving you constructive feedback.  Be prepared for your excellent GPA to go way down as you wait for days for instructor feedback and if you get anything, you get nebulous comments after your work has already been graded.

I was awarded a $6,000 MyCAA military spouse scholarship, which is now drained to $2,500.  However, I only have two classes left 'til graduation, and only now, after attending Ashford for two years, is the very first MyCAA scholarship applied to my account.  I was irate and contacted the financial aid department.  April Houzenga is an idiot, sorry to say.  I wrote her four different times asking where the extra money went, and when will I see it.  She kept saying Ashford University cannot guarantee excess funds.  BEWARE:  I've had decent albeit late financial luck with them, but since only $750 of the MyCAA has posted to my Ashford University account and I'm suddenly down to only $2,500 on my MyCAA account, I know that there is fishy if not at least moronic business afoot. 

If you must attend any Ashford online programme, the following are the only decent professors I've had:  Mitra Rokni, Wendy Anderson, Mortoza Abdullah, and Stanley Garland.  I didn't always agree with these professors, but they gave the most constructive criticism and genuinely cared about student achievement and how much students learned, not how quickly they could get through the accelerated classes without having to do much.  I even had one Ashford professor mark my final paper down an entire letter grade while I was in labour, even though my husband emailed him while I was pushing out the baby!  He was unsympathetic, said I should have known whenmy due date was, and when I reported it to the school, my stupid counselor at the time (who has changed about four times in two years) took a week to respond "because [she] was on vacation", and by then it was too late, per Ashford's policy, to lodge a formal complaint.

I hope Ashford can soon account for my other $3,500, or they will find themselves in Small Claims Court.