Devry University/Keller school of Management is a great school from a perspective of being very flexible. I received my undergraduate degree at Devry and it was a mostly smooth transition into Keller. I retired from the military back in 2011, and it was almost an eventless transition. Now the only issue I had an issue with Devry was with the graduation verification. I was late on submitting my application, but I think with a little more help from my adviser, this could have been a little less stressful. But I must admit that the fairly new “degree works system” they have for tracking your degree plan is one that I just LOVE. Also the streamlined functions of the staff/advisers into a one stop shop is good. I do love the idea of being able to talk to one person for all your needs to include financial and academic. This made it much easier to track my progression using this system. Now the VA enrollment requirement was OKAY simply because the staff was unfamiliar with the process. I think (at the time) they had only one or two people that were familiar with the process and it made it a little hard sometimes getting to them to ensure all the right paperwork (from the school) was submitted in a timely manner. Now understand that it’s a two way street. The VA also had its issues with replying back to submitted documents. I happen to know this from first hand experiences. I read allot of the reviews from other former and current students and the issues that had with Keller. Well I will tell you that I really like the blended course concept, and if you want to be "Spoon Fed" your Graduate degree then maybe Keller is not for you. If you want to be challenged and learn from people that are in the industry and have firsthand knowledge of what’s going on in their field (oh by the way many of them currently are still working in their field) you are in the right place. As a 23 year veteran of the US Army, I have learned the best way to learn is to open your ears and listen and to rely on your own information that you research. Even the Professor will concur that they are facilitators of Graduate Students and they guide discussions but the discussions are from your peers. I love the school and I'm a living witness that can attest that it can be done if you work at it. While serving I was still able to meet my class requirements while deployed overseas, and still maintain my CGPA of 3.85 graduating Magna Cum Laude (BSTM),and on track to graduate with distinction with my MBA from Keller. Devry University/Keller School of Management was the right school for me.
Taking these courses is equivalent to reading a text book on your own, which one could do for a lot less money. There is no real interaction. The discussion amounts to all the students answering the same question with no feedback or correction by the instructor. I requested help from at least 4 instructors and only one called me. They also have an inane rule about posting three times per week. I posted to three different discussion questions on two different days and it counted for only two posts. Since there is no explanation there are times that I spent two to three hours doing research on one discussion question. I guess it is better to repeat the same answers everyone else does rather than try to learn something.
DeVry University is a for-profit institution and one of the more well-known online universities. Their costs are higher than some other online universities, but their programs don't necessarily have a better reputation.
I very much regret ever signing up with "Keller". I have had a hell of a time with the finance office getting my account straightened out because my VA enrolls were messed up. When I called several months to ask about the refunds I was getting, no one knew and said to wait for someone to call back. I finished my last class and still had a crazy outstanding credit on my account, so I called and asked what the deal was. Again, no one knew. So I called the VA, found out they had overpaid my account. TWO MONTHS after I finished my last class I finally got someone to look into it for me and found that they had misplaced my top-up vouchers and billed the VA for the wrong thing. No one caught this because they don't look at your account like a real university does. I had to bring the problem to their attention.
PLEASE do not go to this school. The classes are way easy, yes, but you don't learn ANYTHING from the professors. My experience with the "professors" has been slightly negative. I have asked questions (via email for most...some actually call you and check in), and probably only got an answer 10% of the time. I'm not sure they even understand some of the problems in the text.
To sum it up: The administration is poorly organized, their internal protocol is not student friendly, and they take forever to fix any problems that arise.
If I could do it again, I would go to a real university - one that would allow me to be proud of the work I put into the degree; one that truly has the best interests of the students at heart.
Anytime I had a problem with this online school it seemed the financial aid department and academic departments were never in sync. Neither ever knew what was going on with the other. The instructors were very knowledgeable, but the quality of education was somewhat lacking.
