AVOID - I REGRET MY TIME AT U O PEOPLE
IF I COULD GIVE ZERO STARS, I WOULD. I graduated from University of the People and my experience has been absolutely nightmarish. I paid over 145USD for my graduation documents, and it has now been over four months with nothing delivered. There’s no shipping information, no tracking, I have been told it doesn't exist. What exactly am I even paying for? My entire experience at this institution has been one nightmare after another. Here's a couple of examples, but I have countless. Student Services sent me another student’s confidential information (full name, student ID) along with my graduation electronic document, which is a massive breach of privacy. Another recent example, when I followed up with the University departments about my missing Associates Degree, and missing Bachelors Degree (paper document), I was threatened with disciplinary action for contacting multiple departments, despite not being an actual student anymore. I'm an alumni and asking about my documents, raising to departments so I can get it resolved. The bureaucracy and unprofessionalism is outstanding, unlike anything I've ever seen. Good luck getting help or answers with anything at this school, especially when they take your money. My experience re: curriculum and courses, awful. You get 7 days to learn an incredible amount of information and complete all assignments. Also, the professors are often rude and non-helpful. Many will actually lash out at students if you ask them for help. If you try to escalate the inappropriate behavior, you get in trouble. Each teacher will tell you something different in terms of how they want assignments done, even though the school does a course stating how assignments should be completed in terms of APA citation. If a teacher doesn't like the way you do it according to school policy, they will fail you. University sides with professor. As an example of the outrageous and completely unrealistic workload, this is what I had in one of my classes: over 300 pages of reading plus a discussion forum requiring 3 responses, a quiz (graded or not), a written essay, a journal entry (another essay), and reviewing 3 students’ exams—all in 7 days, realistically less since assignments had earlier due dates. When I brought this up with the university, I was shut down and treated like shit. Throughout my time there, I’ve been given countless incorrect or missing pieces of information and spent months chasing answers, usually with constant pushback. I probably have over 100 instances of unacceptable behavior or academic mismanagement from my time at this school. In my opinion, this institution is disorganized, unprofessional, and completely unreliable. Do not trust them with your money or your education. Go somewhere else, where you can actually learn and be treated with respect. This school advertises academic partnerships with other universities, but there is actually no process to qualify or apply to them. I enrolled based on that premise, I maintained a high GPA, and when I asked about access to this partnership to transfer to a different school, they told me no. There is no information available, no formal brochures and no application process. To me, this qualifies as false advertising and I don't understand how this is legally permitted. I will be escalating for further investigation into this practice and advertisement. BEWARE - I believe most of the 4 and 5 star reviews here and on other platforms are fake, bots etc. I don't think they are not real, they are used to make them look credible. Based on my experience, there's no way they can be real. This institution may be involved with fake reviews, I am going to be including that in my escalation to media and accrediting institutions/regulators for further investigation and determination.
