Colorado Technical University - Online Reviews

"The school is transfer credit friendly. That's one great thing about them. However, they are extremely expensive and they make you take additional unnecessary courses for money. I do agree this school is all about making money and is very expensive. I would say do your research into looking into another college. I've learned completely nothing. And, just because it is accredited doesn't mean anything. I have 7 years of healthcare management experience. And, needed my degree for promotional opportunities. Thought I would attend this school for my associates as that was the minimum requirement. But it doesn't matter to the employer apparently. They look more into the name of the college you have graduated from. When I say I have an associates degree from CTU they look at it as if it is a joke. They don't look at it as a reputable college. And don't take my degree seriously. Hence, is why it has been difficult for me to land the career I desire and deserve to have. This school is a complete waste of time. Do not bother to attend unless you want to throw away money."

"Stay away from this place. They are 100% of degree mill, They also do not have adaptive learning, that is a flat out lie. Their online courses are nothing but a confusing mess, The instruction is Atrocious, All they want is veteran benefits. They will assign you classes you have no business being in, the student success coaches do not care about your education. The material that they present is not useful. This place is only good if you need to check in the block for a position that you're already doing. If you are hoping to gain or learn a new skill or trade and hoping this place will help you, Go somewhere else."

"I have been going here for this year I have had two familyembers to padss away since I started and I explained back at the beginning of school that I could not do 2 classes this year in college but they put me in a rotation anyway after I said I could not do it.I have called them several times after because they kept giving me 2 classes this passed month I dropped this class on time but was told I didn't I dropped on 25th by calling but was told I didn't do it on time dead line was 27th they kept my money now the same class that I dropped last month is back up on my schedule for this 5 weeks along with another 5 weeks I have tried to drop it again with no response yet again from my financial advisor or the other financial advisors because when you call and leave message they don't call back ever I want my disbursement money and to transfer colleges so I can pay my rent because I am going to not be able to pay rent,bills for things for school or be able to eat at all this wasn't the way things were supposed to be"

"CTU is for profit which factors in to many areas. I've been a student for 2 years now in a doctoral program and 2 things stand out to me. First, the quality of instruction is variable. I've had some good instructors and some that are clearly phoning it in. Similarly, the standards for work between instructors is variable; I had instructors that I'm almost positive never read what I turned in. The second thing is financial services and advising. They're not good. CTU pushes FAFSA and student loans. Their invoicing seems designed to confuse (try getting an invoice for a class you're in, you'll see what I mean), and your assigned financial services person won't be able to assist you with anything useful. They'll point you to the FAFSA, sure. Beyond that, they'll give you a phone number to call and good luck getting that office to answer. Advising? Nope. If you have serious questions about your degree or path or research, that's up to you to figure out. I annoyed them enough that I got somewhere but it took some doing. CTU is for profit. As long as they can collect their fees from you, they don't care about the rest of the experience."

"I would not advise ANYONE to attend CTU unless you want to be blindsided with owing the actual school money for stuff that should be cover by your student loans and grants. Instead they will “reimburse” your grants and then charge you for what those grants they reimbursed would’ve covered. I was told when I signed up that everything would be cover and I wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket until I start paying my student loans back after I graduate or stop attending CTU. Now I am being contacted and told that I owe CTU over a grand for unpaid fees when all of the classes I had taken so far should’ve been covered by my grants and the rest of the unpaid fees were covered by my student loans. DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL AT ALL COST!"

"I found the Grant riding class very very useful. I also found the leadership course very useful. I was at the end of my career and used my military benefits to further my career. I wrote several grants that helped a lot of people. I would highly recommend the school to anybody that is wanting to extend their career and help people."

"First of all I would like to start by saying I am not sure why this school has so many negative reviews. I have a Bachelor's Degree from a very reputable Science and Engineering based University and the classes here are just as tough as what I have taken there. Like anything else you get out of it what you put into it. If you procrastinate and do not put in enough time to do the research required of the degree programs here at CTU then you will not do well. I have had wonderful Professors and each one has given me the tools necessary to apply in real world scenarios. The advising, financial aid, and student success departments have all been flawless to work with and I have had none of the issues that others are complaining about. I am a Stay at Home Mom and CTU has given me the opportunity to be able to remain at home with my kids while also accomplishing a Master's Degree which I never thought would be possible. I have two classes left here at CTU for my Master's Program and I am planning on applying to a Doctoral Program after I have completed the current one."

"I am set to graduate in September 2022 with an associate's in management. I have to say, I read a lot of these reviews, and I agree with most of them. The associate's degree is extremely easy to obtain. I was able to test out of 8 courses and maintain a 4.0 GPA the entire time. Intelepath, the system used for coursework, is easy to manipulate to always get an A. Copy the lesson in a Word doc and when you answer questions, use the Word doc to search for words. When you miss a question, copy it along with the correct answer, and next time you won't miss it. easy. Some of the questions in Intelepath are a work in progress, and when you see errors, you can report them, which is nice. Discussion boards are pointless because there is no discussion. It's a 200-word post and 2 required responses with no actual discussion. The extra credit is easy, just show up to a zoom call, set an alarm to show up, get an A, easy. The price tag is also pretty high, but in exchange for easy work and a piece of paper that employers require, it is a fair trade. It hasn't helped me find a better job so maybe the price tag is not that great."

"I have two more weeks and I will have my MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship. The work is challenging and I learned a lot of useful information that I plan on applying to my business venture. They are veteran friendly, the online tools are user friendly and the overall experience was a pleasure. This is one of the hardest programs I’ve ever attended but I think it’s well worth it. I’m glad I found CTU when looking for graduate programs."

"Fantastic experience. This school is underrated and has received a bad rap due to the law suit against it for misrepresentation of employment potential (which for me is silly). I have been studying online and through the mail for over a decade at three separate institutions. CTU is far and above my best experience. The faculty is highly professional and extremely helpful. Whenever I had an issue, they were always there for me. Indeed, without their support, I would not have finished my degree. As with most online universities, CTU is very flexible. I was working for the government full-time and was always able to work with my instructors to get assignments completed within my schedule. Was it cheep? No. But I think you get what you pay for and you get out of that what you put in. So many people want a free lunch. As any business major can tell you: there is no such thing. After completing my degree, I was fortunate to be offered a six-figure salary as Program Director for a prestigious non-profit. I have zero doubt that if it wasn’t for me getting my degree from CTU, I would never have been able to get this position. Furthermore, unlike many who have posted reviews here, I actually learned a ton and feel confident in my current role. I came in with an Associates Degree in Business Management so a lot of the material was familiar. But my digital marketing focus took me to a completely different level. And also contrary to what people have said about the material, it was not easy! That last year was super intense! And lastly, Intellipath is freaking amazing. I learn well with this system. It reinforces the material and helps you to remember it without making it difficult. I honestly think that people who don’t like it either don’t get the science behind this form of pedagogy or they have never experienced other systems that are not even remotely close. I simply don’t get all of the negativity!"

"I have had many issues and my school has been supportive. I have failed courses and was given a success coach to help me in my studies. The school itself has a family setting. The administration has been very helpful actively. I am grateful for having the opportunity to attend CTU. And if I had to choose another school I would still choose CTU first."

"Kinda scummy that If you need a transcript or decide to move schools and you owe money- they will not send your transcripts to your new school until you pay off any or all school fees. You cannot get your diploma until you finish paying off school. Withholding your transcripts means you can't get financial aid at your new school. The first 5 week class you spend over $1,000 on, is about their website and how to use it. Meanwhile, in that 5 weeks you could have been taking a core curriculum class."

"I had a great experience with Colorado Technical University. I started with my Bachelor in Psychology and today, I am graduating with my Masters in MBA Generals program. Its sad to read all these reviews form other students compare to what I have experienced CTU is a very organized school and it has the best professors and the best staff members. I would definitely recommend CTU to other students. The diploma is a 100% legitimate. I am very happy that 'I did it' and, I am the first one in my family to earn my Master`s degree program."

"I've got a year and a half left for my undergrad at CTU. The only value it provides (And yes, I literally mean ONLY value) is the piece of paper at the end. Want to make connections? Forget it. Want to learn - literally anything? Learn it yourself. You'll get an easy A by doing work that I've literally scripted out to do automatically. It's a diploma mill. - But I can work 40 hours a week and get my schoolwork done at the same time - and have all the time in the world to learn software engineering on my own. I would say only a few colleges are actually any good, but even then their price tag isn't worth it. If you're capable of learning things on your own (or if you're actually braindead and need an easy degree) This school is perfect. However, it's starting to churn out lesser qualified individuals - who negatively impact the school's brand. Most work professionals don't hold their CTU peers in high regard based on the literature I've read. - have yet to see this first hand, but from my experience can confirm this school is a facade for a diploma mill."

"I have finished my degree program in CTU with a Bachelors in Information Technology Management. Here is my complete honest review about the school. You do not see too many reviews from people who have actually finished the program, especially with a detailed review. I would rate this school somewhere in between 3.5 to 4 stars if possible. Learning environment The first 2 years were mainly focused on general ed courses which were typically completed through Intellipath. Intellipath is where most people tend to complain about the most because they do not feel like they learned anything through intellipath. For those of you who do not know, Intellipath courses are basically a bunch of small quizzes usually between 8 to 12 questions long per a section. The school provides you with the reading material to complete each quiz, and it is an open book test. If you fail, you have the option to go back and keep retaking these little quizzes until your score improves. The length of each intellipath varies, I have seen some as small as only covering 5 subjects with 5 quizzes, while others can be 12 and can be very time consuming. The grade that you get for your intellipath quizzes depends on the effort that you put into it. Half ass work equals half ass grades. Further down my program, the last two years of my degree Intellipath had remained absent. Now that I was working on my core classes pertaining to my actual degree, I found myself writing 5 page essays from each class every week. These assignments required that we did plenty of external research in order to complete out assignments. This is where I feel that I have learned the most throughout this program, by doing outside research and writing 10 pages every week combined. On top of that, we also had to write discussion boards which also involved additional research and had to write between 600 to 800 words for each class, every week. This school did have a lot of hands on learning to offer as well from web developing, to programming, and even taking lab simulators. This school also utilizes Lab Sims and in case if you do not know what that means here is what I just copied and pasted: "LabSim is TestOut's learning platform. It delivers our certifications and courses, including our best-of-class IT simulations. It also provides tools for educators to manage and assess student learning. The LabSim courses keep students engaged and allow them to monitor their progress." Through Labsims, they made us watch a whole bunch of content that felt like it lasted forever. There was a lot of content to take in but it was all very valuable knowledge. For my degree plan, we used Labsims for A+ computer engineering learning, Network +, and Security +. However, you will not get your Comptia Certifications from this school but it does provide you with the tools to help you prepare for it. There were also a lot of lab simulations where I had to select different components and plug everything in to build a network as well as troubleshoot virtual desktop computers. When it came to learning HTML, CSS, AJAX, Javascripting, Python and other additional content, there were a lot of hands on assignments where I had to create webpages or programs using expensive paid for tools that were provided for free by the School. I have done plenty of these assignments and am glad to have taken those courses. They were very challenging for me but I am glad to have learned those skills. The Professors When it comes to education the professors are the most important part about school. I have had plenty of good professors who were very knowledgeable in their field. Most of the professors that I had were professional and either had their Master's degree or PHD. Many of these professors have a life time worth of experience working in their career field and many of them currently teach at other universities. I have had a few professors who taught at respectable schools including Harvard and worked at CTU on the side. Most professors that I had were very helpful and had no trouble communicating with them. You are able to communicate with your professor directly through emails or the school messenger chat, including through phone calls. The live chats are usually an hour long, some are 1.5 hours. CTU recently moved over to utilizing ZOOM to conduct our weekly lectures since covid had began. Zoom makes it easier for students to engage with the professor using a webcam, a mic, or through text. What I thought was great was that their lectures were also recorded and If you are a busy person working a full time like me, this came in handy because I was able to view these lectures at a later date. I found these lectures very important to watch to complete my written assignments or my classroom projects. However, I did not find these necessary for Intellipath related assignments, but watching these videos are still very helpful to understand the content better. There is no penalty for not watching the course videos, but I think that there should be because a lot of people choose not to watch these weekly lectures and therefore do not learn anything. I have had a few bad professors in my time with CTU who sucked at teaching, breaking down the assignments, and just did not make any sense. I also had a few teachers that were absolutely horrible with responding to my emails and messages, in one incident the teacher did not respond to me until the night an assignment was due. These bad teachers also failed to clarify my questions and just copy and pasted the project requirements. These bad teachers would also just read their power point presentations like a script which I found very problematic to me, because it was hard to learn. Most good teachers that I had encountered had always went beyond the power point presentation and taught from the heart. Many of the good professors I had were also providing information that was always current and up to date unlike many online schools that I have heard about. Tuition and Costs The Tuition is my main concern about this school because is honestly very expensive. I had to pay out of pocket for the first 2 years because my fasfa and military tuition assistance did not cover the entire fee. My first time signing a "Student Agreement" I had no idea that I was actually taking out a $6,000 loan to cover the costs for the school year. Every month I found myself paying about $250 to $300 out of pocket to pay back their loans. If I had missed a payment, then my phone would be bombarded by what felt like blood sucking vampires almost every week which would become very annoying. Therefore, I just stopped answering their calls and paid on my own terms. CTU does give you the opportunity to lower your monthly payments, however there is a catch. Each fiscal year they give you a specified amount to pay monthly, that way your loan can be paid off each year and you will be ready for the next one. If you lower your payments and you do not finish paying off your current loan, then you will be stuck paying for 2 separate loans by the next fiscal year and they will not combine both payments into one. They will always remain as separate loans. Luckily, i was able to use my Post 9/11 GI Bill to pay for the rest of my schooling, otherwise I would not have been able to complete my degree. Speaking of the GI Bill, If you are currently in the service your tuition rates will be lower, but once you get out of the service, your tuition costs will increase and will be paying civilian price, it does not matter if you are a veteran Another bad thing about this school is that if you choose to transfer your credits to a different school, they will not allow you to request for your Transcripts until your student debts are paid off. There is also a $150 fee you need to pay once you graduate, if you do not pay this fee then you do not get your physical diploma. Which reminds me, when you graduate and pay this fee, you also get 2 copies of your transcripts for free, digital or physical, or both. The good news is that Colorado Technical University is an accredited school just like Colorado State University is. Therefore, other colleges do accept any credits that comes from this school except for fast track courses. I have had friends successfully transfer to other schools with CTU credits. My Overall Opinion I did not have much of a problem with what I learned from this school, I feel like I have definitely learned a lot and I had to work my butt off to graduate. Their assignments can become quite overwhelming in the last 2 years of school. I do feel that there is plenty of room for improvement for education in this school. There were some classes where I felt that the subject itself requires the full 16 week semester course to fully grasps the subject. Professors were happy to provide me with PDF books for additional learning that I had asked for, after the completion of the class. Other classes were difficult because the subject was intense and should not be crammed together in just 5 weeks. However, the Majority of classes I took were well paced and I did learn a lot from them. I feel that this school can use more hands on learning than what was already provided, after all, this is a technical school. I am glad that I went to this school for its education and flexibility with my work schedule, but I would not recommend this school because of the ridiculous costs. The costs is where most people tend to complain about CTU the most. Just keep in mind that this is a For-profit school before you decide to attend CTU. This school has also been known to use sketchy marketing techniques to harass and target veterans for their GI bill money, and because of this, the V.A. has blacklisted this school from receiving any GI Bill funding until they fix their marketing practices. I am not one of those veterans who were harassed by this school, my overall experience with this school has been decent. I just wish that the costs were not going to be a problem with this school and that I could continue to communicate with my counselor. My counselor became unreachable after 1 month of being enrolled in this school."

"Great school, teachers are great. For this that say this school is not accredited really need to do some research, cause CTU is accredited. But overall enjoy the classes, the materials are very helpful, and looking forward to getting my bachelors degree."

"By for the friendliest admissions counselor I've ever had although I didn't understand financial aid that much I'm learning to understand it I have a great admissions advisor he is the best I'm so glad that I picked this school because they were so friendly and they made me feel like I was welcome even though I don't have a laptop they have an online app that you can do on your phone which is I thought would be harder than it is but they offered me a laptop when the other schools said I had to have one immediately they were by far the friendliest and made me feel right at home even though I'm going online thanks Marcel you're the greatest"

"Worse experience! Easy to obtain, lack of real knowledge. Financial accounts continously finds ways to create financial burden. Dont respond to emails. Don't assist students well. Low job prospects due to school. Got high remarks and grades, but no real graduate help. Cost extremely expensive! Be prepared for fees outside of what is quoted. Graduation fees alone are $150 and up. Written by current graduate 2021. I personally feel this was a bad choice of a school based on my personal experience. Please don't make the same mistake!"

"I worked at McDonald's and they had a program where you could enroll for "free". I take a couple classes and the course work seemed really simple and not college level. I hit them up trying to leave the school and they threaded me with debt and other stuff. They said I still needed to pay some out of pocket so I did for a few months but after doing research I found out this school was a joke and not very professional. So I figured just stop paying them and ignore their calls. Yup that worked they never called me again and I went back to the community College in my area. Tl:dr: school is a scam if they try to make you pay later ignore them they won't don't anything."

"The coursework within my degree was well written and apropriately challenging. Professors were knowledgeable and approachable for the most part. THe most frustrating part about this program is that CTU does not recognize students in this program for achieving achedemic honors. I worked increadibly hard to earn perfect marks, and for no good reason the university declines to recognize top students in this program. Other universities do. Had I known I would have likely studied elsewhere."