Excelsior University Reviews of Bachelor's in Liberal Arts

The good: Excelsior College accepts more transfer credits that almost any other school. They accept over 100 credits of transfer, so you can get a degree with <15 credits from them. That's unheard of. The bad: Their financial aid office is worthless. They promise you huge aid packages, just to cancel it after the disbursement date/final drop deadline passes. Then you're stuck footing the bill for a lot of the money yourself. And no, my external aid sources (fed gov't/Pell) cannot be blamed. Excelsior... Read More miscalculated my aid themselves and promised me double of what they ended up really giving me. Now I owe debt. Classes are painfully boring and a waste of time. The capstone and cornerstone classes are high school busy work, at best. The assignments are petty, pointless non-sense. I suffered taking these mind-numbing, completely useless classes. It's a college degree-- an expensive degree that I suffered through completely pointless classes to get. I learned nothing. No one respects the degree, it's an open-enrollment, zero standards for admission college. You pay, they let you in. But it's a check-the-box-on-a-form degree.

It is what it is. I started at Excelsior to become a Nurse. College misinformation and errors on my part meant I ran out of time. Not entirely Excelsior's fault. Excelsior does a great job when you are salvaging your abandon credits from other traditional colleges into something. Some classes I was able to use were almost thirty years old. (Obviously science and technical courses, not so much.) Some online courses with over 5-year-old textbooks that you can buy on EBAY for 5 bucks makes the course... Read More costs reasonable. Some undergrad courses and fees with books are under 250 dollars as of 2021. My Bachelors of Science Liberal Arts beat the dreaded "some college" on a job application. Just to drive myself crazy. I added up all my cost out of pocket. Then I assumed I worked overtime instead of studying. Then I took the identical percentage of that unrealized money and mirrored exactly what I invested in my current retirement fund. Compounding interest and market growth over 32 years came to $ 237,327.15 of potential 403b/1k money. Almost a quarter of million. Now to be fair. Excelsior expenses and time only represent 12,500,01 of that aforementioned expense. Considering I usually did my work while working and Excelsior's classes are priced reasonably. Excelsior is a great choice. (I should have listened to my Stepfather and became a plumber.) If you are stuck with a bunch of dead credits like I was. Excelsior is a great option. If you are young and do not have a lot of sunk cost into college odyssey. You should become a plumber too! That is where the real money is at. But the good news. I have my degree. The only real advice I have. Excelsior has a nasty habit of moving the academic goal posts when you are nearing the end of your degree. The only thing that saved me from additional classes. I communicated strictly via Yahoo E mail instead of campus intranet. I was able to show the Dean of Students what the advisor said what when and why. Excelsior intranet E mail get purged every 60 days. Excelsior yielded and I was able use my Capstone to cover a suddenly required humanities courses.

Go to ANY other college. This excuse of an institution treated me, as a student, like absolute garbage. Their staff input my courses incorrectly and created an issue with my tuition assistance from the military. They refused to help me resolve the issue in any way. I repeatedly reached out to resolve the issue and was actively ignored. Instead, they demanded money from me that was owed by the military and harassed me to drive me into compliance. To be clear, i understand how to use militsry tuition... Read More assistance and was fully in compliance with the program. This is an extremely unprofessional college.

Really wish I would have chosen another school. Realistically I had no choice since I needed an affordable option. There is no support and if you try to get help its a 30 percent chance that you will receive it. The faculty nor the staff has really any connection to the students it really is not about connection or community. Although there are some good staff and faculty, there will be one professor with a PH.D that will try to discredit you and ruin your career. The online option is fast pace and... Read More if your a beginner invest in yourself and attend a local college or a top tier school. It should not be just about numbers and collecting a check and that is exactly what is happening. There are so many schools that are better I will say that the library and the financial aid office staff are very professional. Even if Excelsior have an endowment they will not help those in need. This school is for military personnel a young student or even an older student like myself should attend a physical school. Please do not attend a mushroom school like I did the greatest investment should be into yourself. It is too late for me to get a refund or go somewhere else. You can not even get a grade change if your adjunct professor has something against you they will make sure they hurt you. Remember it is a computer generated program run by numbers and countless answering of questions. I enjoy answering questions however there is no extra credit and you can not beat the numbers. Its a number games of constantly engaging students and whatever you miss its your problem. Choose a local school if your not a military personnel. The notifications for reminders about assignments is not active in my account. Excelsior requires mid term reports to students and this did not happen for me. This class was not difficult they spoke of super heroes and this was a required class they understood that most student would not take philosophy class on their own. So they named it ethics and we should have discussed ethics on a particular topic. I am liberal arts and would not take a philosophy class because I understood coming from an urban environment who is put in those positions. Do your research and make a list of 10 things you want from a school. Give yourself some time to think about it do a tour of your school. All Excelsior is going to do is take your money.

The Liberal Arts degree program was well planned, and I understood what was expected and how to achieve the requirements throughout the program. I interacted with the advisors on a couple of occasions and they were very helpful, making sure that any questions or concerns I had were dealt with quickly and thoroughly. The classes were a mix, some were good, some were not as good. It basically came down to the professor and classmates within the class to determine the quality of that particular course.... Read More Group assignments are the worst part for most of the classes I took. It isn't easy to get everyone working toward a similar goal with the same amount of dedication. That in and of itself is a learning and management lesson however, and it isn't indicative of an oversight on the school's part. The resources to communicate were there, it was just a matter of having some inattentive students. Overall, I feel like I learned a lot about working with students of all types, received a great deal of information and it certainly has set me on the right path with a job offer pending. I would recommend this college to anyone that was interested in obtaining a degree on a flexible schedule.

I waited 24 years to finish my Bachelor's degree. Over the years, I had accumulated over 150 semester hours, but didn't have a degree to show for it. I researched over 15 schools until I found that Excelsior could help me finish after just 12 hours (two courses were their requirements, Success Strategies and Capstone). It was challenging coursework, to say the least. I didn't care much for the online discussion boards, particularly as they were stilted and to regimented. They are supposed to mimic... Read More class interaction as if you are in a classroom, but you don't quote sources and speak in APA language in a classroom. The group projects were a little difficult to accomplish via message board as well, so I'd recommend that Excelsior scrap that particular part of their Capstone course in Liberal Arts. Professors were available and helpful. All in all, a very good experience that allowed me to check this block off of my list.

RUN! This is the biggest scam and worst experience I have ever had with a college. I chose Excelsior because they took the majority of my credit from chiropractic school and utilized them for a bachelors degree. I was told I only needed 6 credits to obtain my degree, so I enrolled in the first courses and completed them no problem. I then registered for the final Capstone course and was sent an email from the school validating my registration. Flash forward to the day of the class and it is no where... Read More to be found in my canvas portal. They came back and said I was never registered for the class and even accused me of fabricating the registration email and sending it to myself. LIKE, WHAT? They made me wait until the following quarter to take the class which put my chiropractic license back 3 months. Now I've completed my capstone and they are making me wait another 2 months to get my transcripts. Not only that but they are with holding my diploma until I pay them a $1095.00 "enrollment change fee." You see, no matter how many credits you need they make you pay for a minimum of 12, so even though I only utilized 6 to get my degree I have to pay the difference just because. SCAM! These people deserve to be sued and I hope someone does. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCHOOL!

I had a very good experience at Excelsior. I thought the Professors were helpful and responded to my emails in a timely manner. If I had problems with the web site, I got timely help. The classes were good but challenging (sometimes very challenging). I had to study hard: I had a lot of late nights studying and doing homework while holding a full time job for which I travelled. I had very good classmates so all of my group projects were enjoyable and the work was shared equitably (not something I... Read More can say for other institutions I've attended). The discussion boards in most classes I attended were lively and spirited. I would recommend Excelsior to anyone thinking of attending college, especially online learners. The Liberal Arts program was awesome and allowed me to segue into my Masters degree at another institution.

Excelsior College gave me the opportunity to pursue a bachelor's degree in a way that was not otherwise possible. Currently living abroad, sitting in a classroom was not physically possible. Excelsior College gave me the opportunity to learn online and on my own time. My professors were warm, personable, and available via email and phone. I majored in Liberal Arts, which did not directly prepare me for my future career, but did allow me to be accepted to University of Maryland School of Social Work.... Read More I highly recommend their platform for anyone who needs the flexibility of online classes, and connection and interaction with their professors.