Capella University Reviews of Doctorates in Social Work

"I am in my first year in the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) and my experience as been great. The professors are very helpful and are easy to reach if/when needed. I realize that this is my journey and my financial invest.....WHAT I put in is what I'll get out of it. So far I have been getting all A's but it's a matter of staying on top of everything. NS"

"My experience at Capella was phenomenal. You get back what you put in! I'm of the belief that some students enroll in Capella because they though it's an easy way to get a degree. This is far from the truth! In order to succeed, one has to be willing to do the heavy lifting. With that being said, I definitely recommend this university to learners willing to take responsibility for their own academic success."

"I had completed 90% of the DSW program and had to leave due multiple family members passing away. I was told that I had to write a statement as to why I should continue in the program. I was not mentally stable to write any statement which lead to me being dismissed from the DSW program. I was also informed that I could never apply to any Doctoral programs at Capella."

"This school left me financially devastated. I am 200 grand in debt without a degree. I was 90 percent through the program with a 3 .6 GPA. I had a mentor that was horrible. She did everything to get me out of the program. I tried everything to stay in school. I was thrown out of the school basically for running out of financial aid and a mentor who berated me and did everything to stop me from finishing my degree. Please do not go to this school . This school does not care about anyone. This school does not care about its students. They milked my money dry. They are not senior friendly. This school ifvthe mentor dies not like you watch out the school will use every resource possible to get you out of the school even with my 3.6 gpa."

""I rarely write reviews, but I feel a duty to warn anyone who plans to go to this University. I am surprised that anyone would give this University high scores. The cost of tuition is high; you have little to no interactions with instructors. They rarely give you any feedback on assignments. If you plan to work on your doctorate, you go through 2 years of course work, then are expected to take exams. These exams are graded by instructors and are subjective their grading criteria. Good Luck with that! Then you move to the dissertation or capstone phase, where you are left alone with a template, and a mentor who has no idea how to help you. Semesters are only ten weeks which is good for course work THAT'S IT. It takes two weeks to get any feedback from your mentor. Most of the time, mentors only focus on grammar and punctuation and not content. If you're lucky enough to get it passed to the committee (which are three additional mentor level instructors), they will rip your paper apart for content; this also takes two weeks. So it if you are lucky, you may get two edits in for the quarter. All of them must agree on the content before it goes anywhere else. You can send several quarters trying to gather their approval. If you ever get their approval, then the school (another mentor level instructor) will tear your paper apart for content they also have two weeks to do this. None of these mentor/instructors can agree on anything, and you as the student are left paying $5000 a quarter. Most of your time is spent revising and waiting two weeks at a time for them to review your document. Please keep in mind that a quarter is only ten weeks. So you could easily spend four to six weeks just waiting for feedback out of those 9 because they do not accept papers in the final week. The rest of the time you are revising. Going to this University was the most horrible experience of my life. I would not suggest anyone do this at Capella. Please go to a local university, in State to get your doctorate, not only will you save money, but you will have so much more support. Please also read other comments on this blog, I have experienced a lot of the same things. The only reason why I didn't quit is the money and time away from my family and friends working through this program. I'm not finished and almost $80,000 in for this doctorate. I am a social worker, how exactly am I suppose to pay that back. Capella is a scam. Don't do it to yourself!""

"Hi all, Age: 43 (Wife, mother, grandmother, High School Social Worker and City Councilwoman) I am a current (all online) DSW (Doctor of Social Work) student at Capella University. This was my first online experience and it has been phenomenal!! Supportive faculty, awesome writing coaches, academic advisors, librarians and tech support. The DSW degree includes the leadership and clinical component (micro, mezzo, macro and meta (global) Social Work). Stay focused, manage your time accordingly, and remember this is your financial investment...and you must discipline yourself for success. You can do it!!"

"When you get to dissertation there are costly Capella delays and excuses with no recourse. It costs students money and time. Advisors are not supportive. Teachers are knowledgeable but cannot push your work through so students end up spending more money."

"It is great program. I would highly recommend it. I have LCSW license and I am excited about receiving my DSW degree. I look forward to exploring new career options. I am a transfer student from another PhD program. Capella university counselors were very helpful."

"I rarely write reviews, but I feel a duty to warn anyone who plans to go to this University. I am surprised that anyone would give this University high scores. The cost of tuition is high; you have little to no interactions with instructors. They rarely give you any feedback on assignments. If you plan to work on your doctorate, you go through 2 years of course work, then are expected to take exams. These exams are graded by instructors and are subjective their grading criteria. Good Luck with that! Then you move to the dissertation phase, where you are left alone with a dissertation template, and a mentor who has no idea how to help you. Semesters are only ten weeks, and it takes two weeks to get any feedback from your mentor. Most of the time, mentors only focus on grammar and punctuation and not content. If you're lucky enough to get it passed to the committee (which are three additional mentor level instructors), they will rip your paper apart for content; this also takes two weeks. All of them must agree on the content before it goes anywhere else. You can send several semesters trying to gather their approval. If you ever get their approval, then the school (another mentor level instructor) will tear your paper apart for content they also have two weeks to do this. None of these mentor/instructors can agree on anything, and you as the student are left paying $5000 a semester. Most of your time is spent revising and waiting two weeks at a time for them to review your document. Please keep in mind that a semester is only ten weeks. So you could easily spend four weeks just waiting for feedback out of those 10. The rest of the time you are revising. Going to this University was the most horrible experience of my life. I would not suggest anyone do this at Capella. Please go to a local university, in State to get your doctorate, not only will you save money, but you will have so much more support. Please also read other comments on this blog, I have experienced a lot of the same things. The only reason why I didn't quit is the money and time away from my family and friends working through this program. I did finish but not before spending almost $100,000 in getting this doctorate. I am a social worker, how exactly am I suppose to pay that back. Capella is a scam. Don't do it to yourself!"

"This is an awesome academic program. The program is very user friendly. I am excited to have taken my dissertation journey here at Capella University. My mentor Dr. Hamilton has been an asset, supportive, resourceful and accessible to me when needed."

"Capella has provided me with nothing but an amazing experience. You receive extra support from your academic advisors and enrollment counselor. They will not allow you to put yourself in a situation where you are doing so much work that you begin to stress yourself out. The professors respond to you in a timely manner and make sure you understand your assignments before you move forward with them. This has been one of the best educational experiences I've ever encountered."

"I went into this university with high hopes and expectations. I very quickly realized that my passions and expectations were crashed by a very poorly presented curriculum, overloaded with information that does not pertain to what my dissertation is focusing on, and poor supports from instructors and academic coaches. I work hard on my writing skills, and topic of chose for dissertation, but I do not feel that I am learning anything. I feel like I am being expected to write at the academic level in the first and second quarters without any proper experience in the past. In addition, the instructor is the same for every course, well at least up until this point, the communication is poor and confusing, and the speed at which you have to write and read is unrealistic. I am very disappointed that I wasted few quarters in this school and I am actively searching to either transfer or leave the idea of pursing Doctorate's degree all together, because of one instructor crashed my passions and hopes."

"I have seen many reviews written against Capella, however, in my own personal opinion, Capella is a good school. My second year of classes begin in October 2016 and my first year was awesome. There were many adjustments that I had to make to make my first year work for me and I did quite well. The program is not a cake walk and it should not be. The professors have been very knowledgeable and helpful towards helping me to reach my goal of obtaining my doctorate in social work. I am glad that I chose Capella because with Capella, I am able to work and also be a student. I look forward to realizing more of my educational potential with Capella!"

"Capella provided me with a set of unprofessional counselors, whom were involved in others personal affairs, neglecting my Ph.D. dissertation. I was poorly and inadequately mentored/coached and my dissertation was rejected for such reasons. I appealed my case and they denied the continuation of my Ph.D. program. This is unfair and very troubling for me, since I have a record of educational Excellency. They also, forced us in a way to pay for retrieves out of the state, which was paid by students as well, increasing our loan amounts and this being unnecessary to our program. They extended almost a year my online program for a profit. This is a college cartel and they need to be responsible for such behavior and conduct. I am being emotionally and financially affected, they should pay for that as well."