Strayer University Online They Only Have $$ In Their Eyes ripoff Newington Virginia

Before I get flamed for attending an online university, let me just say that I work full-time, commute 30 miles each way to work, and have a 2 year old son at home whom I only get to see for an hour or 2 every day.

I started at Strayer University in the Fall of 2004. Things were smooth for the most part. I was pursuing a Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems. After a few semesters I began getting into some core computer classes. I soon found out that these type of courses for me would require more hands-on experience. I switched my major to a Bachelor's in Business Administration. I've learned a lot in most of my classes. I've had a couple of "professors" that were obviously just in it for the money and could care less if you understood the material or not.

Strayer is a rather expensive school. They've been charging me $2500 for 2 classes each quarter, not including books. For this kind of money I expect a competent and professional staff.

The first problem I had was when I got married. It took me almost a year to get my name changed with the school. It took several phone calls to get this rather simple task completed.

My main beef with them has been with the financial aid office. My federal loans have always been enough to cover my costs and every semester I would receive a $200 - $300 overage check.

Before this past summer quarter began, I called my financial aid officer to get a book voucher number. I left several messages and sent several e-mails only to receive no response. I finally got through to her after a couple of weeks. She just said "the bookstore has your information" and basically hung up on me. That had never been the case before, the school always gave me a book voucher #.

I called the bookstore and of course they had no clue. I called my financial aid lady back and explained to her that they didn't have it and she wouldn't speak. She just looked up the number, read it off, and hung up on me; nice.

The next day I got an e-mail from her that was barely understandable because of the extremely poor grammar and spelling. Basically they wanted me to sign a form transferring any excess funds to cover my tuition. I signed it and faxed it back to them.

Weeks go by and I received an e-mail from another financial aid person. He tells me there is an outstanding balance of $1200 that must be paid immediately. I wrote back and told him this was impossible because I had signed over my excess funds to the university and the costs have always remained the same and I had never owed them money before. We go back and forth for a couple of weeks and he has me sign another excess funds transfer form.

One week later I received a check for $300. I wrote him and asked why. He said it was a computer mistake and that in fact my balance is now $2200! I mailed the check back to them and had to request a private loan to cover the rest.

My loan has been approved but it just sits waiting for information from the school in order to be disbursed. I decided to transfer to a different school after all this but of course they won't release my transcripts until my balance is paid off. So now I'm stuck and missed the deadline for the fall semester at the other school I want to attend.

If they never allow this loan to be disbursed my 2 years of credits will just sit there and I'll have to start over again at another school.

Strayer has a very uneducated and unprofessional staff. I actually had high hopes in the beginning but now I realize that this place is a joke. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the professors have been great and I've enjoyed several of my classes, it's just the student services staff that I've had problems with.

Sometimes it seems like they're outsourcing some of their work to India or something because almost everyone I talk to has a thick foreign accent and I have trouble understanding them.

I hope this is helpful to anyone who is considering attending Strayer University Online.

Megan
Valparaiso, Indiana
U.S.A.