Liberty University Reviews of Master's in Human Services

I completed a Master's of Art in Human Services Counseling with a cognate in Military Resilience. The MA was 30 total credits and I was able to complete the degree in one year. I set it up so that I would start and finish a class each month. I was able to stagger them in such a manner. During my pursuit of the degree I was placed on academic review after the first term. This was not due to the fault of the university. I was working an average of 70 hours a week and I had to adjust my time management... Read More skills to be successful. Once I got on track with my time management I came off of academic review and never looked back. I have since completed a MBA at another university and I can tell you I learned more at Liberty than I did at the other university or any of my undergraduate universities. Some have said that Liberty is known to give "busy work". I found this to be somewhat true but based on the individual instructor. If you are going to go to graduate school and expect to have 3-5 page papers, your not. I have to complete one or two 10-20 page paper while at Liberty, per course. Yes it seems tedious but it reflects on the amount of knowledge you retain, which is evident when you take the quizzes and exams. In my opinion if you are looking for an easy school then look somewhere else. If you are wanting to learn a lot and can handle the stress of graduate school then Liberty is a good option to look into.

I attended Liberty University online for the Master of Human Services Counseling: Military Resilience. I pursued this due to my interest in expanding my knowledge on veteran mental health. I am a Marine Corps veteran myself and I work with homeless veterans. As such it seemed like a good idea to expand on my knowledge base as much as possible. I will say that I enjoyed my time at Liberty University. Like anywhere else some courses were more challenging than others. You won't like every professor.... Read More That is just how it is. I hear complaints about the financial aid department. All I know is that during my time at Liberty I had no issue with any department. They are very well set in the religious foundation. At times it does seem to be too much so. However, the schools purpose is made clear early. They want to help better you financially and spiritually. I do not feel that the religious aspect was being pushed too hard on, but it was pushed. I do not think this is by some malicious intent. The school just wants you to be well educated in both academics and spirituality. Also, I feel that it needs to be mentioned, if you are looking for easy A's, this is not the school for you. You will earn your grade no matter what grade that may be. The school also has a higher grading scale than many other universities (out of 1000 points) A)940+, A-)939-920, B+)900-919, B)860-899, B-)840-859, C+)820-819, C)780-819, C-)760-779. For those of you that just have to have a 4.0 GPA know out of 1000 points the most you can drop is 60 points through a 8 week course or no more than about 7.5 point per week. With that said there is also the GPA calculations; A)4.0, A-)3.65, B+)3.33, B)3.0, B-)2.65, C+)2.33, C)2.0, C-)1.65. So in this case an any B is not a 3.0 GPA. Liberty is a much more difficult school in part because of this grading scale and GPA scale. Just do your research an know what you are getting yourself into, this is true for all colleges and universities.

I previously wrote a review for the M.A. Human Services Counseling: Addiction & Recovery online degree program and gave Liberty a 5/5 stars for their efficiency and financial help. Due to that experience and the help it provided me with concerning my academics I had initially been pleased with my experience. However, after graduating from Liberty University in 2016 I realized that my degree would yield no salary increase past that of a Bachelor's degree level. I make $31,000/year with this degree... Read More in my designated field which is significantly less than what I was making as a Bachelor's level caseworker in the social work field. This degree is not helpful and may not increase salary by even as much as $1. Please do your research! Money wasted that could have gone to another program.

Look no further! I am very satisfied with my degree journey with Liberty University. They are a personable online school with real professors who want to teach. The school is religion based and some of my courses where heavy with faith and spirituality, nonetheless I still learned practical and applicable knowledge to be practiced anywhere. If you run into any issues or have any questions it's easy to get in contact with someone and everyone I have encountered were pleasant. Great school, I am glad... Read More I choose them.

I have attended two previous private Christian schools. Liberty is non-profit and has the best Christian worldview of any of the Christian colleges I attended. It added to my spiritual growth as well as my educational fulfillment. The instructors are uplifting and helpful but tough and make you do the work. Going to school online is challenging because you miss out on the classroom learning experience but Discussion Board Forum does help. I was assigned a student advisor that called me whether I... Read More needed him or not just to see if I had any questions for the semester or anything I needed assistance with.

I am a busy mother of five (four of those are under four), so it was crazy to think I could go back to school for my masters degree. LUO offered me the flexibility I needed, while also supporting the Christian education I wanted. I was nervous to attend an online school because I was concerned that it would be a diploma mill that would reward a worthless degree for minimal effort. I am happy to say that my experience at Liberty has been the opposite of my fears. From the first course, I have learned... Read More so much - not just about my field of study, but also about my own spiritual journey. I have attended traditional schools in the past, one that is a very well known state school, and I believe that my education at Liberty rivals that instruction. I feel like the work is WORK, but once the work is complete I feel the satisfaction of a job well done. I do not, in any way, feel my professors are disconnected or uncaring. They are all PhD's, they are all responsive, they all give feedback on assignments. In fact, this quarter I have a very tough professor who graded me very harshly. My first response was to be upset, but instead I contacted him and asked how I could improve. Not only did he give me helpful feedback, but he also sent me encouraging emails to congratulate my efforts to improve. My other professor this quarter has written me extensive feedback on my case studies and pushed me to think outside the "textbook" box. My experience at Liberty is second to none. I do not think I will go out into the workforce with this degree and make a million dollars. A degree is just the beginning - from here, it will take hard work and elbow grease to obtain experience and prove my worth. That's what its all about and I look forward to the challenge. I will walk into any interview confident that I bring something special to the table. Liberty has given me that confidence and I look forward to that day. And I am using the post-9/11 GI Bill. I have paid nothing for my classes. I have had to pay out of pocket for books (over the book voucher amount for the VA).

I like this school. I originally wanted to do my undergraduate here but wasn't able to attend because my Mother thought it was too far away from home. As an online graduate student I believe whether the professors attend to me or not I am going to succeed with this degree. My program only offered 30 credits, but I need 48 to get my Chemical Dependency License in the state of Texas. This was a bit of a set back because I did not want to attend classes anymore, however, as a military wife I was able... Read More to supplement tuition with a fee reduction from the school and attend for 18 credits more in order to get my licensure. I currently hold a Chemical Dependency Counselor Intern license and am still able to work in my desired field. I recently was able to get a job with the Department of Family and Protective Services with only a bachelor's in Psychology so I am confident that even with an online master's degree I can get a decent position in the field of my choice. One bad aspect to this university's online programs is that the professors do not push ALL of the students to perform at graduate level. Many of the other student's assignments were sub-par when it came to simple things such as APA formatting, but somehow I ALWAYS seemed to get points taken off when I skipped instructions for assignments.

I spent a year and a half at Liberty to complete my master's program. Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I never experienced any issues with the financial aid department. My funding was always released promptly. Every representative I spoke with over the phone, email, or live chat was always courteous and helpful. My husband also currently attends a graduate program with Liberty, and neither one of us have ever encountered a rude professor or staff member, and we have had hundreds of instances... Read More of communication with people at Liberty. Professors were helpful as well. A few professors were more strict than others, but that is not a bad thing. Quality of instruction was very good. A few professors are slower than others to respond to emails and grading feedback, but you'll find that in any school. My experience with the school as a whole is very positive. The only reason for giving 4 stars for my degree satisfaction is that I was unhappy with the selection of available cognates for my degree. The Health & Wellness cognate for the Human Service degree is very policy-oriented, which I feel is not helpful in a social service type career. I was also pleased with the integration of the Christian worldview into the classroom and assignments. It was refreshing to experience after attending a university where faith was absent. Overall, I feel it deserves the 5 stars. Tuition is very affordable, professors are knowledgable, instruction is good, staff is very friendly and helpful, program selection is good (but could be better), and the values and worldview of the school is a refreshing change from the constant, faithless drab of most schools. Not to mention, this school is going places. They are constantly growing, gaining new accreditations, and will likely add more programs in the future. If quality education with a strong Christian foundation is important to you, then this is the place for you.