Colorado Technical University Do Not Accept a Job Here! Downers Grove, Illinois

I am currently enrolled in CTUO and while I cannot speak on how they are to work for I have been very happy with the high standard thay have shown in support to their students. 



I had to withdraw for about 6 months due to unforseen personal reasons and CTUO did refund all federal money and student loans recieved in excess of what they were entitled to to the correct loaner.  When I was ready to re-enroll they were very helpfull and had me back in school in under 2 weeks (the start of the very next session) with full credit for all of my previous classes.



I have found that as a student if you put the effort into completing each class as it is designed you will gain the benefit of the knowledge you need to succeed in your chosen course of study.  I have also found that the majority of instructors were highly knowledgeable about the course material and qualified to teach it.



We are no longer in grade school people!  The job of the university is to provide us with the tools necessary to further our education.  It is our job as college students to utilize those tools to advance our knowledge in our chosen field of study,  which will enable us to find employment when we graduate.

CTU was one hell of a horrible job. I worked in admissions and the ONLY thing they care about, are your SALES GOALS.  CTU will accept ANYONE who applies because ANYONE who applies there is just another profit margin for the company. The school should focus more on the practices of their admissions department. Many of the people working there are uneducated and will tell you anything they can to get you to enroll. If you do not make your sales goal as an advisor, you will be placed on a 'performance plan; where you will be alloted a number of days to hit your budget. If you do not hit your budget, than you will be fired. I got burnt out on this job at month 3 and after seeing the practices and the work environment of the company, I felt nothing but burnout. There is another department called the IRC who basically get information from the internet and provide them as a solid 'lead; to you as the advisor. These are the worst quality leads one can possibly imagine. Most of the time, the people on the other line, do not even know what they're being transferred over to, and a good portion of the time, they are doing something else on the internet, not related to educational inquiries. The ONLY thing that these people in the IRC care about, is keeping that other person on the line long enough to transfer the call over to an advisor. They literally, would transfer someone from their death bed, over to CTU, just to meet their numbers. While working there, i got multiple transfers from people in jail (literally) people without HS diplomas, Drug addicts, children under the age of 15 and people who didnt have a care in the world about attending school.  The hours at CTU were horrible, the bosses called DOA's were all just sales managers with crafty methods to keep someone interested enough to fill out an electronic application and sometimes pay a 50 application fee.  The pay was okay, but other than that, this job was the closest thing to hell that i can possibly think of.

In reading your "rebuttal", my first thought was  were we working at the same company?.... 

Some of what you said was true

1) CEC does take care of its employees, sort of.  CEC offers great benifits, offers good outings (employee night at Great America).  However, CTU online, is not CEC.  They do not treat their people as well.  If you doubt this why is there a 75 percent turnover rate?.  Only  one out of ever 4 people brought in stays.  In most companies this would be a travesty, at CTU it is  an improvement.  When I interviewed with them the DOA was proud of the 75% because it was down from 98%.  Since leaving every employment agency I have spoken to knows CTU for what it is, a churn and burn operation.

2) The school is not a "scam" again kinda.  You are correct,  the school is accredited.  This was really pushed during training.  However this  plus 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee.  I can not speak to the education, as I did not take classes at CTU online.  However based on some of the candidates I spoke with and yes unfortunately got to enroll, the classes can not reach the level of most universities.  If they did, the failure rate would be higher than the employee turn over rate

You say how "you can look at this as a sales job..." then go into the EXACT same speech given during training.  Now anyone entering into this job knows it is selling, however not on the used car level of salesmanship.  Hopefully you would agree that one should not go into a potentially 30-50000 dollar purchase blind.  You dont go to a car dealership, look at a car and buy it. You do your research, check the car and its competitors and reviews before plunging in.  This is not the case at CTU (if the "advisor" has anything to say about it).  All advisers know that if they do not close the "sale" on the first call. chances are greatly reduced.  So we are taught to interview them, get their back story, why  they want to go back to school, what their dreams are, what they hope to get with the degree among other things.  If you are honest with yourself and us, you will admit this isn't because as an "adviser" you care.  You are taught that knowledge is power.  The more you know about what the "motivation" behind the desire, the more you can use it to verbally coerce the potential student.   The ONLY thing as advisers we care about is the enrollment.  Getting the fee, getting the paperwork and getting it processed.  

 You make it sound sound very benign  how potential students come to CTU to possibly pursue a degree, like it was completely "their" idea.  Again be honest here on how CTU and other online colleges get their prospects,  not like most brick and mortar campuses i.e.  college fairs, , but in what best could be described  more  dubious ways.   By dubious I mean such methods as, internet adds that make it seem like the government will pay for you to go back to school. People see this and automatically fill out the form.  Have they given much thought about going back to school... probably not. however if it is free...  And yes they should realize it wouldn't be free but look at the ads and tell me that.  So they fill out the form expecting to get emails or "land" mail.  Instead withing 10 minutes of hitting "apply", they are drowned with schools like CTU calling them.  I do not know how many times when getting a transfer from the "screener" (I use quotes because they do not screen anything, they just make sure a highschool or ged has been gotten by perspective student)that I heard the student saying they didnt want to talk to someone they just wanted info. sent to them.  I feel sorry for these poor blokes because if they do not specifically say to be put on the do not call list, even if they hang up on the adviser (which happens more time than not) they will continue to be hounded.  I jokingly tell friends that if they have a beef with someone, sign them up to get info on online schooling.... 

 You go into , again training 101, speech about how you should not enroll 100%.  Maybe things have changed in the year and a half I have been gone, but I never heard a DOA say this.  My DOA said the exact opposite.  It was my job to get them enrolled if I spoke with them.  The only ones I should not enroll are those without the GED or diploma.  I was not to "accept" a I do not have the enrollment fee, speech, as this was most likely a lie.  I was an "adviser" in name only. They could tell me they wanted tobe a neuclear engineer, and i would get them their associates if they didnt have one.   I was told many times that it was not my job to judge whether I thought our school was right for the client, or wether I felt he was a good candidate.  I had a student who asked me while I helped him fill out his application what a v-e-t-e-r-a-n was (yes he spelled it out) and was he one.  You tell me is this someone who is a good client for online schooling?.... But he had what it took, the admissions fee and  the h.s. degree.  We were not advisers in any way shape or form.

You talk about the application fee and how it was a double standard to go after CTU when most colleges have one.  The difference here is that if I apply to say the U. of I. I have had a chance to do due dillegence. I am not asked to do it after a high pressured sales presentation.  I will never forget hearing one of my fellow advisors getting into a heated conversation with a potential student, asking them which was more important, using the $50 go get his kids Christmas presents, or to get him a education.  This advisor did not care about the student.  He only cared that if he did not get the application fee, by any means needed, he would not get the "sale" and thus make his numbers.  The funny thing with CTUO is we ask for the app fee and completed application.  We then tell them that once we get them we will present them to the DOA (Director of Admissions, sounds important actually just a sales manager) and get back to them if they were admitted.  Truth is, unless the check bounces, or the high school degree/G E D  is bogus, they are admitted. As long as we have the app and fee, you are admitted.  

Now I wont argue the sale matrics with you.  After all this is a sales jobs pure and simple.  Make your quota or hit the road.  It is ironic that in one breath, you say not to get 100 percent enrolled, but in the next you talk about making your numbers....  I will say that any business that has a 75% turnover rate, needs to take a look at themselves and figure out what is going on.  

Now is CTU online degree valid... ya especially since no one will know it came from an online school, as the degree is from Colorado Technical University (no mention of online), but in truth this is the same for all online schools.  
So in conclusion,  CTUO, is not a scam operation.  It is, IMHO, shady at best.  It is a school not interested in you as a student, but you as a source for income.  
  


















 

My friend was constantly getting information from Colorado Tech, or Colorado Tech Online, or whatever they call themselves until he finally did some research. When I was researching potential online colleges just to complete my bachelor's while caring for a newborn, which I was about 24 credits from receiving, he told me about his experience.

First, it was like $50,000 for tuition for a bachelor's, IF you receive a passing grade for all your classes. They called and emailed him on a regular basis for several months, despite him saying he wasn't interested after seeing how they structure classes. The calls didn't stop until he looked online on how to get telemarketers to stop calling. He registered his number at donotcall.gov, but because they were listed as a "college" and evidently claimed he requested the phone calls, he finally had to tell them he no longer wished to receive any information.  They weren't satisfied with that response. The telemarketer asked him why he wasn't interested in improving his life or job opportunities. After a few minutes, he said he wanted to be taken off their call list and asked the telemarketer understood. They said "whatever!" and hung up on him.
When he spoke to his representative from the military about health benefits, he brought up the story. The rep told him that school is all about getting military to enroll because they desperately want the GI Bill grant money.  After hearing this information, I was definitely wary of the school. I have a generic email account I use for stuff I know will likely lead to junk emails. I used this email to get a list of schools in my area that offer online classes and got a list, and also bombarded with emails from all the usual suspects (Phoenix, Devry, AIU,) including Colorado Tech.

I noticed they didn't have "semesters" but rather "sessions." The email said it was to expedite the degree, however, according to another friend's father who works at a high school, he said it's to subvert laws that exist by the government on how colleges can market to students and pay employees. It was complicated, but basically it has to do with financial aid structuring and employee (telemarketer) pay.

Since FAFSA pays grant money (not sure how GI Bill does it) by the semester, it's easier for colleges to say you owe them money, if your "session" is billed outside the semester parameters. So they can collect the grant money, but then come back to you for more money.  And either the same, or a similar law, says colleges can't raise or lower employee pay, based on how many students are enrolled, or they enroll. So CTU considers someone filling out an application, as an enrollment in the college. (By the way, their "application" doesn't seem to be one, since nobody has complained anywhere online about being denied after applying). By considering an application as an enrollment, they then consider someone registering for classes as something else, which means it doesn't fall under the law dealing with enrollment and are more free to hire salespeople and base employment off performance. Performance meaning number of students that enrolled, not like other places which base performance on how they serve the student and properly advising them on the correct classes. An immediate red flag is that the advisor at CTU is the one who deals with telling you which degree is right for you AND doing other things. Where as the college I actually enrolled in, has a registration department that is separate from the advisor who goes over classes and whatnot.

After being told all this information, I decided to test the system and request information under a cell phone, that I was replacing with another company and would be shut off about three weeks later. I got called and the person referred to themselves as either an assistant, advisor or something of the sort, from CTU Admissions. I started to grill her with questions about different degrees and what the requirements were. It took her quite an amount of time to the requirements were for certain classes and didn't like at all that I wasn't interested in one of their degrees and wanted only information on taking a handful of classes, but pushed me toward a degree not even close to what I'm going to graduate in. Despite me often saying I needed only a few general education classes to complete my degree and I needed only to take certain math, science and foreign language requirements and still would graduate from my original university; she did not respond as other actual counselors or advisors from other colleges have. And she wanted other days to call me and follow-up and pressured me several times with "it's only $50 to apply and see what we can do for you."

My advice is to do your own investigation, but for me, this school seemed shady and had I not known what my friend and friend's father had previously told me, I would have been very uncomfortable with the conversation and situation. I also noticed their classes were not valid to be offered in some states, which alerts me that either some states think this college is not up-to-par, or they don't bother trying to meet the requirements of those states despite being a college that is recognized by other universities across the country.

The rest of my advice is to check with your local community college because I was surprised to see how many in my area offered online classes. I chose a community college to finish and the cost there was much lower than CTU and I was able to talk to someone in-person, that I didn't get the impression was working on commission or was keeping their job based on how many people they enrolled, rather than the quality of the work they provided by properly advising students on the correct classes and fields. Also, if you're in my situation and finishing a degree you previously started, it helps greatly to be able to speak directly to someone who can look at the transcripts and say definitively what will meet the requirements.

Maybe this school is right for you, your situation or your only option; but if you have options - such as a community college or likewise to finish the degree, that should be your first path. Also, I noticed on their website that one of their "teachers", according to their online profile, was working in retail not long before becoming a teacher and listed no prior experience in teaching at other schools, let alone other colleges or universities. It's a definite red flag if your advisor can tell you nothing about the teacher, whereas the community college advisor told me a mountain of information about the teachers for the classes I needed.

Colorado Technical should be happy to have an advocate like you

Yes, it is a scam school and all they are interested in is the $50 ( which I might add nobody ever has.

Yes, they are being investigated and do risk the chance of losing accreditation because I have been working with others on this.

Their retention rate is about 30% and that is because the only people that apply there have been refused by everyone else and are really there only to get some free money from grants. It is a known fact with everyone that works there. You  might be able to keep your job there if you can understand the person on the other end of the phone. That is, if they can make  intelligible conversation. Most cannot read or write.

Sorry, you are preaching to the choir.

I am a former employee of Colorado Technical University Online and a graduate. I can say that Career Education Corporation (Parent Organization) places great emphasis on providing a quality work environment for all of it's employees and equally a great environment for students. This is most definitely NOT a scam school. It is accredited (and not in danger of losing) by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association. It is confirmed and approved by the US Education Department and certified to offer Title IV funding. It is also certified by the Department of Veterans Affairs for those interested in using their GI Benefits.

Yes, it is true that they operate a call center as this is a virtual environment. This is the only way to reach out to people who have expressed an interested in attending school online. You can look at this as sales, only because adult learners can procrastinate. Life goes by very quickly and the role of an Admissions Advisor is to Advise. Helping people to realize exactly what it is that they want out of their education and career is to help determine what motivates them. Obtaining higher education is absolutely one way to help people to achieve their career goals. At the end of the day, it is up to the recipient of the education to determine what they are going to get out of it. Having an application fee is standard at most universities across the United States. Even community colleges charge registration fees. Applying a double standard to online education, particularly CTU Online, is wrong.

When the managers state that you should not enroll anyone 100% committed, this is for a variety of reasons:

1) People who do not have full committment to their education will end up failing and have a balance owed to the school. This of course can be a bad thing because most people are going back to school to achieve that new career. In the event they do not succeed, it is a possibility, just a possibility, that they might not be able to repay the federal loans used or the school if a cash balance was owed. Failure to repay federal loans hurts schools as much as individuals, but on a much grander scale. Schools that have too high of a "cohort default rate" can lose access to federal aid. This is the primary financial empowerment used by individuals to attend college. 

2) Schools are also assessed on the percent of students who graduate as well as the percent of students who secure employment in their field of study within a certain period of time after graduation. By not enrolling those who may not succeed, the school is doing itself and the student a favor. Understand that they want and need all students to graduate and get jobs.

3) Like any job, there are metrics to be measured for performance to maintain your job or for advancement. This is not a wrong thing. So, in a highly regulated environment, how can individuals be assessed? This remains to be seen at this time as schools are absolutely prohibited from promoting, providing bonuses, commissions, or incentives based on the number of students who are enrolled. It takes good people who care about others to succeed in an Admissions role at CTU and any other school. 

4) I do agree with you on your last comment about community college. If you are a candidate that is not ready to take the leap of faith on yourself, go to community college for a couple classes or semesters. Get acclimated or re-acclimated to college life.

When you are ready to jump into an online, self-driven, accelerated program, CTU Online is a great way to go. I personally put in about 25 hours a week in the evening, after my small children went to bed, to study. I enjoyed the instructors very much as they are all professionals and subject matter experts in the areas they teach. It was a challenging time for me and I succeeded. I was one of those people who always said, "What can that person do that I can't just because they have a piece of paper?" After I graduated I understood completely the value of education. Consequently it has opened doors in my career that I never would have seen otherwise.

Additionally, I am a proud veteran of the USAF. CTU Online is a full participant in most military-related, or military-friendly programs that truly matter to the student. At any given time there are literally thousands of students and graduates who have found new success as a result of their education. Do not ever limit yourself to the words of another. Investigate, research and give fair weight to all options. At the end of the day, education is invaluable and something no one can ever take away. 

Last but not least, you argue about non-profit versus for-profit. This is a bit of an out-dated, and age old debate that many people take sides on. I have worked for both entities and I will say that making profit through education is not a bad thing. Many people in our economy benefit from this and that, in a free and presently ailing economy, is great. Second, for-profit institutions must stay competitive and they do so through constant reinvestment of resources and technology. The curriculum in a for-profit school is updated on a continuous basis and respectively, so is the technology to stay current. Schools in this competitive market are always trying to outdo each other. As a result the student is treated to a virtual environment that has no parallel with not-for-profits. The cost may be more, but the experience tends to be as well. 

I hope this helps to provide some unbiased and realistic input to those seeking an education at any institution.