Liberty University Reviews of Doctorates in Criminal Justice

"The instructors for the courses are hit and miss with some being very helpful and others not being helpful at all. The coursework was rigorous, but the nightmare occurs with the dissertation process. Chairs and readers will drop you with little notice or no notice at all. You will spend a whole semester waiting for a dissertation proposal to be reviewed, when the manual says two weeks, and have to repeat the course because the proposal was not reviewed. Despite approval from your chair and reader, one person is in charge of reviewing ALL dissertation proposals and completed dissertations. This same person teaches undergraduate classes, graduate classes, online classes, has outside commitments and is in charge of the program. Students sit idle for a semester and unnecessarily repeat classes because either the aforementioned person insists on maintaining control or is unable to structure a viable program. Either way, it is unethical and unfair to the student shelling out unnecessary dollars. There are other more cost effective and ethical programs. If you still wish to pursue this program plan on budgeting an extra $15,000.00 for unnecessary tuition."

"An honest review, from a very honest person. I have had both good and bad experiences here at Liberty, and all of the bad experiences honestly are with the graduate level professors. The academic advisors and financial aid offices have been professional and respectful each time I've engaged in conversation with them, and frankly, they are far more honest with me than the majority of my previous and present professors have ever been. One big negative experience is that even when you follow the APA format, follow the professional APA format, or you utilize the APA/Professional APA Template document (where you just edit the title page and then type your paper, as it's properly formatted for you), the majority of graduate professors will state that you made multiple APA format errors on your discussion board posts, on your discussion board responses to other students, or worse, in your research papers and presentations. I utilize the professional APA template that Liberty provides, and I have worked with a few professors on perfecting the professional APA format in previous classes - with the few professors who cared enough to want to teach and help us students - and I made full points on their assignments once all corrections were made - yet other professors are out right rude, disrespectful, condescending, and act like it's an inconvenience that they have to help any student on any academic level by clarifying where the student has gone wrong with formatting - and GOD forbid they have to specifically state where you went wrong, the mistreatment from professors gets real bad. No two professors can seem to agree on what the APA format and Professional APA format does and does not contain, should and should not look like, etc. I've only had two professors in several years actually tell me when the formatting was properly executed, and they gave very detailed and helpful feedback. That's it. Otherwise, folks, you'll be stuck relying on the tutoring centers, writing centers, or heck, hiring your own tutor to review your papers, and even then, when the remarks come in that you messed up the formatting when you know you didn't, the frustration will spike your stress and anxiety. Another negative, the majority of professors I have had, have no respect for emergencies or life situations that present themselves that we as human beings have no control over. You can provide medical documents, legal documents, they DO NOT CARE, yet if it were their kid, or their pastor, I promise you, they would bend over backward to give them accommodations and extensions. I've only had three professors out of over a dozen understand that life circumstances and emergencies happen that we do not control, and as a blessing, they gave appropriate extensions, and I properly thanked them for that and ensured the work got done. Thirdly, another issue you'll encounter (if you're still reading this), is that if your perspectives, opinions, research, or paper topics do not (professionally or personal) align with the professor's "faith" and "beliefs", THEY WILL DING YOU ON YOUR GRADE BECAUSE OF IT. Also, if you are not comfortable with incorporating a biblical worldview perspective for every type of assignment for every class, well, you'll get frustrated quickly -- and FYI, they expect biblical worldview perspectives in your response posts to your peers' posts in your classes but fail to mention this is an actual requirement. The professors expect you to be mined readers. And when they mean biblical perspective, they expect it to have the tone of preaching, conversion, or proselytizing, which those three things are no more appropriate for the classroom than they are appropriate for meddling in politics and law. Liberty and its leadership and professors have long ago lost track of what it means to be Christian, just as the majority if not all Christian churches have long ago forgotten that as well. This university just wants your money, and they expect you to take the mistreatment from professors, and believe me, you can file as many complaints against a professor as you want, this university will sooner protect these professors then every discipline them or fire them for how they treat their students. Look for a place to transfer, as I know I will be doing just that."

"The Criminal Justice program is worth it if you are a working professional. I completed my masters in person at another university, so I value that experience. However, traditional universities make it almost impossible to accept middle aged working professionals. They don’t want you, but Liberty does and it is a means to an end. Don’t expect to be coddled. Don’t expect the professors full attention. You’re a working professional, and so are they. You will do a lot of self study, and take away basically what you put into the program. It is accredited so that is a plus. Was it perfect? No. Was it doable and affordable? Yes. I am satisfied so far."

"First, I would like to make comment on the "racism" comment from "Stella". My first professor was female and African American, I am sure that comments says enough. Aside from a few minor gripes I had on how the professors conducted the courses I found the experience really rewarding. For those who have never experienced a graduate program, their will be very little instruction and a lot of reading, writing, and possible tests and quizzes. The course-work is designed for you to absorb the information and make your own conclusions and theories. Rssentially you are learning how to think for yourself, not being told what to think. If you expect coddling or hand-holding then you may want to decide if you are mature enough to take on such a program. I found online coursework to actually be more difficult than in-person classes. Anyhow, take what you will of this review, but Liberty has been attentive to my needs when I needed assistance and their faith-based coursework makes an education from this university more rewarding and deeper than you may find anywhere else."

"I've been a student for over 2 years now. Completed my undergraduate from another in-person college and took a lengthy break from school to start my career. Over a decade later started my masters at Liberty and due to good instruction (had an issue with 1 professor, but don't we always have that "one") and patience for a student who has taken time away from school to work on his career, I finished my Masters in record time (1 year, multiple classes during the pandemic). Because I enjoyed their instruction and the professors (who all had on the job experience and didn't just graduate and began teaching) who understood real-life scenarios and gave patience when the job was getting crazy and I may have needed more time to finish a project/paper, I decided, after my Masters, to pursue my Doctorate. Never in my 40 years would I have ever thought I would be 3 years away from a Ph.D. but Liberty has been good to me. This online program is a WORKING PERSON's college. People who are complaining have either never been in the job or have minor job experience but for those of us who have worked in the field for 10-15+, this is the college for you. It will bring insight to your job and make you think, and isn't that what this job is about? I am proud to say I have stuck it out with Liberty and will do everything I can to finish this doctorate. I am thankful for a school that understands working persons like myself."