Looking for UofPeople experiences

[jsd]

People here tend to shy away from NA degrees.

[dfrecore]

Most of us here want an RA degree, and if you're looking for the cheapest, I know that WGU is only a bit more expensive. My favorite payment plan is to save up and pay, but WGU does take financial aid, so you have a payment plan built right in.

[cardiacclep]

Wondering how many people take a school with this name serious?

I do not think many actually do. I also doubt many of their academic partnerships in reality value it. I would need more proof about statistics to see how many people successfully transfer to UC Berkley etc. Do classes transfer if so? I highly doubt it. Their curriculum looks great but I have many concerns. First, the name University of the People just sounds wrong on multiple levels. They need to change their name to sound something less......well weird. Second, they need to gain RA accreditation. Despite all the negative complaints above, I highly respect the work they are trying to do. This is the future of higher ed in many ways....they are just not their yet on multiple levels. I would love to have this model ported over to some state schools who can clear up the above complaints. I want them to succeed but they need a makeover but this is just my opinion.

[nykorn]

I'm at UoPeople for my Master's. The education is really well-rounded and presents points from all sides, unlike the other 6 universities I've been to where course curriculum was biased not only in opinion but in country of focus. My professors have PhDs and 20+ years experience in the field.

The course material is stuff like the following each week per course: 12-15 links to required reading of articles, videos, and/or research papers. A forum post with 3 replies to classmates, and a 4-6 page APA formatted paper. I personally would much prefer if everything were gathered into a PDF like a textbook instead of needing to click on the individual links. I've heard from several students a portfolio of UoPeople classwork got them a job, sometimes as soon as 6 months into the degree.

I've heard the Computer Science degree is based off Ivy League schools, has many Ivy League professors and is tougher than many other school's Computer Science program. The Master's in Education was created with IB (a world-famous school system) and the curriculum contains info about worldwide educational systems, unlike several other Education degrees which only cover the local domestic system. I heard the Health Science degree is one of the few BAs in Health Science that covers both physical and mental health.

Overall the education seems fine, especially considering the price. If you're getting the MBA or a Computer Science degree you have a lot of options, so in my opinion UoPeople is most worth it for the Master's in Education or the Health Science degree, which can't really be found for cheap elsewhere.

Finally I often recommend UoPeople because you don't need to have graduated highschool, take the SATs etc to get accepted and there are no in-person lectures. This may not be an issue for you but it's big for people who didn't get a GED or who would get an elite status in their country with a degree taught in English, yet their English isn't up to snuff for live lectures.