I toyed with the idea of going back to school for years before I actually did it. I couldn’t make up my mind whether I wanted PHL or ENG. I took my GRE before I had any idea what I wanted to do with it.
My interest piqued when I saw Lamar’s offer – 5k for a degree in 18 months? Sign me up! Yeah, education wasn’t what I really wanted, for for 5k, I could learn to love it.
I am a firm believer in “You get what you pay for”. At least, I’m a firm believer NOW.
I felt like I was the guinea pig for many of these courses – assignments weren’t clear and readings were often unavailable. The worst class of all was the research class – in the first test (which was supposed to be over chapters 1 and 2), we were given questions from chapter 6. I know this because the first time the word showed up in the textbook was in chapter six. We had at least two true false questions that were written as questions.
Is the sky blue? True or false.
Get the picture?
Then, when we all complained about our grades, we were told that we’d be allowed to retake the test, but they changed the test dates on us. Many people missed the test because we weren’t given clear information.
I felt like throughout the entire program, we were given pointless activities to complete just because it was an online course and they needed to justify the degree.
School represenatives push flexibility when they want your money, yet when push comes to shove, they really don’t give a crap. In fact, when they say flexibility, what they mean is that YOU have to be flexible with them, not that they are willing to work with you. Out of the country for a month for family reasons? Sorry. You’ll have to put off your LAST CLASS to earn your degree almost two years.
Currently, I have no academic supervisor because I am not a current student. I do not get any e-mails or updates. When I call or e-mail my concerns, I only get copy and pasted answers from the web page. Have I looked at the FAQ? Does the FAQ *cover* my question? No. Then why bother asking me if I’ve seen it? It won’t help me!
I’ve sent off yet another e-mail (with all of my previous e-mails) to the director just in case she forgets who I am and starts trying to copy and paste answers again.
There are now items/assignments in my portfolio that I have never seen before. I don’t know what they are. I don’t know if I am required to do them. I don’t get any updates! They have 4,500 dollars of my money, so what’s it to them that I don’t finish this program and get a degree? Nothing.
I am just so angry. I gave up so much of my life and have made so many personal sacrifices for this program that I am offended that they dropped me so casually. Ask my friends. Ask my husband (at one point, I counted Sunday morning grocery shopping as QUALITY time!). Ask my co-workers.
I know that there are some people out there who had and are having a great experience with Lamar. I’m happy (if not a little jealous). Just realize that Lamar won’t bat an eye if you really need some flexibility. They’ll easily take your money and quote FAQ nonsense at your if you ask a question.
I swear. I am about to take a day off of work and drive down to Beaumont to talk to someone in person.
The Life of Riley 