Penn Foster Career School

I just started this school about a year ago and I have gotten nothing but problems for the people that work for the school. First it took them 4 phone calls from me, 3 emails from me, and 2 calls from my mom in order to get an email with my payments for my first semester. Second, I can't get past my first semester (that I was suppose to finish on the 25 th on June) because I've been waiting for my proctor exams and every time I try to contact someone I get the run around or I get someone that says... Read More my exam will be there at this time and they're still not here. DO NOT GO TO THIS SCHOOL!

This is an amazing school and an amazing program!! Doctor Jim Hurrell has taken over the program and it has grown so much. We have so many opportunities as students to attend awesome webinars and programs. Dr. McCurrin, who wrote the book on being a vet tech is one of the instructors and he gives webinars on a weekly basis. It is an online program so you do have to be self motivated. There is a great community where you can meet other students for help and support along the way. I would recommend... Read More this program and school to everyone who is looking for a self paced, AVMA accredited program that is growing every day.

This past October 1 2015, the medical billing and coding world changed from ICD-9 to ICD-10 diagnosis codes. As I was working through the first 4 worthless classes, I began to notice references to ICD-9 codes only. When I read a phrase that was similar to...the future ICD-10 coding system...I picked up the phone. The entire curriculum was still geared for the old system. Had I continued, I would have wasted $800 plus dollars because my knowledge would have been obsolete. When I was speaking to the... Read More representative about dropping the course she told me, "we're almost done building the new website." I advised her they should have taken the course down until the new site had been built. She had no response. I am now in a battle to get them to stop performing auto deductions from my bank account for their so called tuition.

AVOID!!!! I recently had a major issue with the school and up until that point I was really pleased with them. I wanted two switch majors and made a call to them two months ago, in those two months I followed every thing I was advised to do to the T, then I make a call to get the ball rolling only to find out almost everything he advised me was incorrect to the point where I am out $772. That's a lot of money for me.... A LOT>. After more then two and a half hours on the phone with numerous people... Read More at the school (including two hang up from them!) they refused to fix THEIR MISTAKE! I repeat a representative from there school made several mistakes while advising a student and they are unwilling to work with said student. A student with a 4.0 GPA, who was always at least a week early for all due dates, and who PAID IN FULL!!! I did exactly what I was told to do and they screwed me over.

This school has a lot of knowledge to offer it's students through the lessons and materials they provide, though these classes are pretty much self taught and you will reap what you sow. This is unlike any online class I have taken through a university, though I much prefer the format PennFoster has adopted for online learning. PennFoster is not a regionally accredited school so at no point did I expect any credits to transfer, totally fine with me. Knowledge on the other hand, is transferable and... Read More I have gained plenty of that through the auto repair course. This program has definitely increased my appeal to employers and has provided me with a well rounded education pertaining to automobiles (which has yielded multiple pay raises). Furthermore, the automotive program familiarized me with concepts surrounding mechanical engineering, which has really helped me in pursuing a B.S. degree. This school will most likely not give you that 6 figure income when you graduate, but if you apply yourself and pursue something that holds your interest, then PennFoster can be a major help in getting to that 6 figure income. I struggled in multiple universities prior to giving up, eventually finding PennFoster, this school gave me the skills, confidence and clarity to jump back into my education and achieve. I recommend the automotive program to any beginning/apprentice techs, can change your life, or not, choice is yours, materials are there.

Well, let me start by saying, this is a waste of time. I took the course, I get reimbursed through my work educational fund. Even jumped through the hoops of externship for absolutely NO reason and waste of time. Sent in all the forms at the end. Only to find out they changed the review form the supervising pharmacist is supposed to fill out. Changed the format but the one I sent in was their old format. They would not accept. WELL I am not in the mood to bother that poor pharmacy again. This has... Read More essentially held my certificate hostage and I cannot get my money back from work without it. I have also sense taken the PTCB cert without the school and passed. NOT HAPPY. EIther want my MONEY BACK, or my CERTIFICATE or I will say something to the BBB.

The classes are ok but the communication from the department when waiting for approval for your proctors or your next courses to be opened up is horrible. DO NOT trust them when they say they will call you back or e-mail you with the answer because it won't happen and when you call they won't offer an apology, only excuses and a complete lack of caring. I have children and a full time job and I don't have weeks upon weeks to lose because they completely lack communication skills. I would look into... Read More other schools before making the the choice to enroll in Penn Foster.

I am enrolled in the Veterinary Technician Associate Degree program. This program IS accredited. The bad reviews are mostly disgruntled people who didn't pay what they signed up for or weren't ready to put the work in. Yes- you have to make payments or pay in a lump sum. But if you're receiving services like say electric and don't pay what happens? It gets shut off! Electric companies don't care if you had a financial hardship! So why would you expect for a college to? You sign an agreement and if... Read More you didn't read that agreement before signing it- that's on you. Yes, this program IS challenging which it should be. It's a college course, accredited by the AVMA (which allows you to sit for the VTNE exam that certifies you), and it has a lot of content you NEED to know for on the job. If you aren't willing to put the work into it or pay for your tuition, then this isn't for you. Penn Foster may be online but the teachers and even students are so helpful and welcoming. The Vet Tech program has a Facebook group- if you ever have a question, a TON of people respond and help you out. There are so many resources on the Penn Foster site alone.

I thought I did enough research on Penn Foster College before I enrolled. I have read both good and bad reviews on that institution, but decided to give it a try anyway, because I just could not afford a traditional college and I thought I had the convenience of studying at my own pace. My 1st month into the course was really good. Some courses have a discussion group where at the beginning of your 1st lesson, you have to post 1 main post (minimum 250 words) and 3 peer posts (minimum of 125 words)... Read More that are on topic. Every week a there's a new topic and you have to submit those posts until you receive a final grade for all course work. Now I completed my final course work (A research paper) and was waiting on my instructor to post my grade. It took almost 4 days for my grade to be posted. According the PF policy, once you receive your final grade, you have to email the group discussion instructor letting him/her know that all courses work are completed and they in turn give you a grade for class participation (which is in the form of the Group discussions) Anyway, I sent the email 2 times but got now response. After not getting any response, I called student care and I received an email from my instructor saying that I have 9 peer posts outstanding and I can only add 1 post per day. With that I would have to do 4 additional posts as there would be a new topic for the week. All of that work because Penn Foster instructors don't communicate well with students. Also, the online study guide and my text book had so many grammatical errors, it's unbelievable. I was so upset about everything and decided that I would continue my studies else where. Now, this is the part that I found very shocking, I live in Oregon and I called a few colleges to know if they accepted PF credits and certifications and none of them did. So to everyone who is reading these posts, please do thorough researches before you enroll at Penn Foster. What fooled me was all these accreditations on PF website. BUT, I you look deeply into each, you know that their DEAC accreditation is only for Arizona (you can find that info on the DEAC website and do an institution search). Also, on PF website their's a list of all the course that credits can be transferred, again not all states accept those credits. So before you jump on board, do your research.

I signed up for an online grooming certification course on 04/13/16. I started the course that same day, after completing the first "study unit" the program offers (this unit just goes over basically HOW to use Penn Foster's online program, how to get help if needed, etc). After completing the first unit, I tried to start the second. The second lesson will not load on my computer (which meets all necessary hardware requirements as listed by Penn Foster). On 04/13/16 I started trying to contact Penn... Read More Foster for assistance to get the program to work. I have spent the last week trying to get tech support or a Student CARE supervisor to contact me back to resolve this issue. Everyday since the 13th I have been told that I would be contacted the next day or with in 24 hours. The information I have gotten from various employees with Penn Foster has been VERY inconsistent, each person I talk to tells me a different story. The only consistency has been, every one of the staff members has told me that I would be contacted with in a certain time frame and EVERY time no one has contacted me. The team members in the Student CARE area have spent hours trying to offer tech support but they are not the staff trained for this and they have made it very clear that I need tech support, however I am just given the run around every time and tech support will not reach me, I am not allowed to be transferred to tech support or contact them directly. I am also not allowed to speak to a supervisor in the Student CARE area even though I have made multiple requests and I have been told multiple times that they would contact me. After almost a week of this treatment and not being able to access the program that I am paying for this entire time, I called on 04/19/16 to cancel my enrollment and get a full refund. I was told at this time that I could not receive a refund on the money I had already paid because I had had the program for 6 days now and missed my "trial" period. I explained that my whole "trial" period has been spent with me trying to get someone from their company to contact me to get the program to work. I am not paying for ANYTHING since I have not been able to do anything in the program except learn how the program works, which since it doesn't for me, is completely useless. I have every copy of every email I have sent them, they have not responded to them. I have documentation of the number of phone calls I have made to them to resolve this. They have never once called me to solve it. I feel I have done everything that I can to work with this company and try to continue in this program and Penn Foster has just given me the run around. Anytime I ask is this normal that you do not contact your clients/students for over a week when they need help, no one will answer that...

Please do not waste your money on this so-called school. It is not a real degree and employers will laugh at it. Please go to a community college or state university. PF does not give you textbooks, just online "study guides" written at about an eighth-grade level. What kind of school allows students to "preview" the exams before they take them? All you have to do is look up the answers then log in and click them on the test. You also get two chances to take exams. It's ridiculous. Instructors are... Read More rude and unhelpful. Their favorite line is "call Student care". Speaking of student care, the reps are clueless and unable to answer simple questions. This is a business and you are buying a worthless piece of paper. A degree costs about $4000 total so if you are paying $50 a month it will take you EIGHT YEARS to pay it off. Don't do it!