Penn Foster College Reviews

"I would not recommend this school. You get what you pay for. This is the cheapest program you will find for veterinary technology. With that being said the instructors are not helpful. I do not feel like they have any insensitive to see you pass. If anything maybe they get a pay bonus on failing your skill videos so you have to keep paying an extension. I would go anywhere else, preferably an in person school."

"I regret going to this school wasted my 900$ it was a joke no job placement nothing just the certification I can’t even find job no work in New York with it like was is the point the sadess part is that they don’t offer returns only when you’re in class"

"I took the medical coding program and i wasn't able to graduate until i paid off the balance of my account. Once i paid off the the remaining balance Penn Foster failed to provide me with login information to be able to take the practice test and obtain my vouchers to become a professional medical coder. They took my money so fast then just took their time with everything else. Customer service is no help, so they make it to where you have to submit a case to support online and they take 4-5 weeks to respond. My friend took the same course and it took her 6 weeks to get any response.. horrible customer service i would not reccommend to anyone.Read Less"

"Customer service needs improvement. Been on hold for almost 2hrs. Talked to someone then she said need to talk to someone else put me on hold and that's where I'm at. It shouldn't take this long to get a response from anybody. This all around is bad business practice."

"I have worked in this field for many years and decided to do this program online while working. This has been the most frustrating and disheartening experience I've ever encountered. In a nutshell...there is very little support, the communication is horrible, the information and process is inconsistent between students. When you do get a hold of someone to explain the issues, you're told its the process and suck it up, even though the students are paying for this program and the errors are the fault of the school. An example is they were letting some students do the required hours and skills and other students could start their semester before their externships were completed. When you brought this forward, you're just told they start a week after you so the program changed. No offer to allow you the same or give you a heads up. Just tough luck! I've had a few encounters now that have led my to believe that this school is intentionally put up road blocks for students so they have to ask for extensions for the program and therefore they get more money because you have to pay for the extension. The advertising for the program and requirements is very misleading and you don't get all of the information around what's required until you're finished semester 2. I wish I knew this before paying over $6000 to get half way through the program.Read Less"

"I am very disappoint in this school! I choose to take the tax prep class. All you do is read a book that you can buy at any book store and answer questions. Had I known this I would have just bought the $20 book and saved $700!! There are a lot of typos in the test vs the texbook esp on numbers for example, the answer to a question was 65 but the only answer close to it that Penn Foster had was 66. I've been noticing a lot of these mistakes. There is no real instructor and if you have questions good luck getting help. My advice is go with a local schoool and real instructors.Read Less"

"I was studying the paralegal program and transferred to interior design. Called 5 times literally to see when transcripts were going to be evaluated and no one seems to be able to have an answer. Literally 5 times, I’ve had 5 completely different answers. I wouldn’t waste ur money. Definitely go elsewhere"

"I just recently enrolled, my experience is awesome it’s very fulfilling and educational for my current study, in medical administrative assistant.I highly recommend this school Penn foster college to anyone doing online courses and classes. And complete my course by 2025, and graduate."

"If you are dedicated and have the time to compete an online degree it can be worth it. However, some instructors are incredibly nit picky and can make passing projects, externships, etc. difficult. They also don’t always have the best communication in expectations for some of the classes. It also takes forever for anyone at the school to get back to you with questions or concerns."

"Penn Foster is a great school for certain people with all their options. It is a disappointment that they believe in causing a family even more of an hardship then you already are in. Due to medical bill issues piling up I tried to exit the Tax Preparation course and was told that I could only withdraw from the course 6 days after starting it. Medical issues really don't go by the best time to do this or that. My options were to continue to pay for the course or pay a sum of half the cost for the course. Medical bills are piling up to the point we are struggling to pay monthly bills and know we still can't get a little help to exit the course. I guess the school really doesn't follow their 7th institutional goal. One of those goals that sound good to say and write it, just as long as we don't follow it.Read Less"

"online course for automotive repair is for individuals who have previously have experienced hands on working in the automotive repair field this will further enhance your knowledge in automotive repair. The payment options is feasible and affordable and the self-paced is awesome this will not get you the hands-on experience but this will give you the lecture material reading knowledgeable"

"Not a great school as it seems that all they care about is money. They charge late fees when you can't pay the monthly fee on time which is contradictory. No financial aid help and you can't transfer your credits you receive to another school as no school recognizes Penn Foster. Coursework is outdated and externships are too demanding. They send you to clinics with no experience and expect you can get VIDEOS of you doing the skills in under two months (that's how long or short they are)."

"Encountered a few grade-critical flaws with the GM-UAW Program. There were some questions on some of the tests' I were taking, that covered material that we haven't went over in the chapter yet. These questions were in regard to material in the next chapter. (If I'm doing a chapter 4 exam, why would I get a chapter 5 question?)Also atleast one of the exam questions is broken. A question was marked wrong that their system verified as being right. For example: ("Wrong: you answered 'D' The Correct answer is: 'D'") Also the date I was initially given via Email that told me how long I had until the course ended, abruptly changed to were I had literally a day to finish reading a chapter, take the exam associated with that chapter, then take the final proctored exam. I took pictures as proof of everything. Just to make sure that wasn't messing up on my end. If I could upload them here I would.Altogether the program is too sloppy to pay for. Don't risk it.Read Less"

"I know what your thinking. I'll just do it anyway, I wont be one of those people who writes a bad review. I thought that too. Now enrolled in four programs I don't have acess to one. Not only that but, they continue to charge me when I can't even log in. I am not bad with computers in fact I am tech savy. This program is horrible look for something better like the U.S. Career Institute. Or look for other programs. This is not a good program you will be writing a bad review and wishing you hadn't signed up. Your choice.Read Less"

"The GM apprenticeship program mandates a certificate of completion of two semesters at Penn Foster. It is a few industrial and math-related classes. I have already been through the process of learning how to learn online from Covid. I already have a degree with a 3.6 GPA Not that I’m a math genius, but the ‘Basic Shop Arithmetic’ material had so many holes in it I felt badly for anyone trying to learn or relearn the material. They use archaic tables for the ‘Six Natural Functions of Acute Angles’ that we modern humans know as the Trig functions of right triangles. These tables come straight out of the dark ages, like why use a calculator when there’s an abacus!? They grew tired of me contacting them about erroneous and missing course information to the point they told me that GM provided the course material, not Penn Foster. Which I later learned was a falsity. The proctored testing procedure was a nightmare. Not only do they have untrained people answering their helplines, and making very low-grade and unhelpful ‘how-to’ videos. The videos are so bad, they also apparently hire the bottom of the barrel from someplace like Guam for tech assistance with their online testing. It was so bad, I feared for the safety and security of my identity and all the information on my laptop, and the tech support person was also untrained, so the problem did not get sorted. The tech support sounded to be in Guam where people work for less than a dollar a day. My final undoing was I called my local and also UAW in Downtown Detroit headquarters to tell them of the conditions of this ‘school’ and complain of the level of dysfunction. Penn Foster shut me up by cancelling me due to a breach of their policies. Penn Foster’s policies are exploitive and insidious. What they are doing is profit-making without the slightest consideration of students. I warn anyone of doing business with this ‘school’.Read Less"

"Never again in my lifetime will I go with Penn Foster. I had issues and it took days for the so called instructor to get back to me. I am now on my FOURTH month waiting for my certification. They have yet to send it and every month I call I'm told it is being processed. I am also still waiting for the email copy. At this point I don't even know if this is legit. Why take so long to mail it out? WORST online education program. Save your money and go thru somewhere else. Penn Foster is thru ICS learn as well.Read Less"

"The only good thing about this school is the self-paced schedule, however, if you take longer than their recommended time frame you have to pay extra for an "extension" which doesn't feel self-paced 100%. Also, the externship requirements are a little outdated and a bit "too much" making it harder to complete and continue. They ask for too many videos which isn't realistic working in a clinic that is busy and you can't be bothering people to film you as everyone has responsibilities. Also, you can't claim these expenses on your income tax which is unfair since their degrees aren't cheap for paying out of pocket.Read Less"

"I wish I could go back in time and never enroll in this program. While the material and things you learn aren’t necessarily terrible, the externship process is. If you’re from a smaller town/place with limited opportunities, good luck finding an externship site. I went into this program to test the waters to see if I would be interested in being a vet assistant during the height of the covid lockdown, as I figured it would be better to not physically go to school and learn from my own home… big mistake. This program has done nothing but stress me out in the long run and not even for a great cause considering PF does not help you with securing a externship site. It’s really up to you to do so. I haven’t been stressing because of the typical school stress surrounding projects and grades but the externship process. It feels like I’ve spent so much time on something that I will have nothing to show for. I can’t help but feel I’ve wasted my time with this program and I think it’s so entirely ridiculous that PF does not help you secure an externship site by partnering with certain locations. I’ve tried emailing places, calling and physically going in person and to my avail, nothing yet, as a portion of places literally train people who get hired in and/or will turn you away. I’ve been trying for months to secure an externship site and I can only extend the program one more time before PF basically says I can’t extend it anymore, all progress is lost and I’d have to start over ENTIRELY, paying the full amount again. It currently costs $100 to extend the program and you get 2-3 requested extensions. My point of doing PF was to give me an advantage and come to find out people can get trained on the spot to be a vet assistant. This wouldn’t be such a big deal to me as I genuinely was interested in this program starting out but because they don’t secure you with an externship site, you risk doing all this work, just to potentially have nothing to show for it because the externship process isn’t secured. I feel as if people who landed an externship site got lucky. It feels like a slap to the face. I can’t say it enough that I’m against this program. Maybe this would be better for someone who’s already a vet assistant looking to increase their knowledge but I say that LOOSELY since it seems like most places have not cared about this certification whatsoever/train people on the spot. The whole process has left a bad taste in my mouth.Read Less"

"penn foster did not tell me that if i quit i was going to owe money. they said i can always quit and i wouldnt have a balance. i have 10 years vet tech experience , started the program to get certified but online school was not for me . i rather be in a school than online. it just isnt good school if you are not use to online classes. you are on your own. i decided to quit now i owe money 600 . didnt expct that because they made it seem like easy peasey and you can quit and not owe nothing back. so i agreed to sign up but man i was wrong they lied. they got me to sign up thinking that you can quit anytime without owing any money. i paid on time. but i owe the courses i did now.Read Less"

"I'm going to be completely honest here. I first went to the 2nd top community college in the country and got a certificate in medical assisting and became a Registered Medical Assistant(RMA) through American medical technologists. Because healthcare has gotten so corporate now, nobody would hire me because of my lack of experience. It got too frustrating and finally after 3 years of searching for work in the medical field, I enrolled in Penn Foster for Criminal Justice. I am on my second course and I am loving it. The payment plan is affordable(much more than community college), not to mention I didn't have to spend thousands on textbooks like i did with my medical assisting program.Read Less"