Penn Foster College Reviews

"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"

"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."

"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 Coursework is outdated and externships are too demanding.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)."

"Veterinary technician program is terrible!! I would highly recommend an in person education. I've worked as an unlicensed Veterinary Technician of 23 years. This program is ridiculous and absolutely not looking out for the students best interests. If you have no clinical experience this program is going to be impossible!!"

"The vet tech program though Penn foster is an absolute joke. Some of the course work is outdated and the skills no longer used in veterinary setting. The externship process is even more disgusting. They don’t offer any type of help beyond an email explaining that they can’t help you and you’ll have to figure it out. I’m currently enrolled and will likely not finish due to them not offering any kind of assistance or explanation as to why the skills I submit are unacceptable to them. I doubt any of their externship instructors have actually worked in a veterinary hospital in years or even decades. You will definitely waste money on this program and have nothing to show for it. I’ve looked into Platt college and it seems way more do-able than the joke that is Penn Foster.Read Less"

"Don’t trust anyone who has positive words about this school. It was a disaster for me. The material seemed fine and super easy, books are basically free, but the proctors are IMPOSSIBLE - 6 questions for essentially entire textbook worth of information? I don’t care who you are, that’s ridiculous. The Facebook “group” was just full of drama. If you don’t pay off your semester by the next one, your monthly payments DOUBLE or at least mine did. They threw me in an English class (I have a bachelor’s degree I shouldn’t need any Gen Ed classes). The way they grade papers is stupid - random people are grading them so when you get them back and correct things, you’ll turn it back in only for someone else to grade it and contradict what the first person marked up. I quit basically as soon as the second semester started. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME NOR MONEY. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.Read Less"

"Currently enrolled in Penn Foster VT program. With 17 years experience and having already passed the VTNE via an alternative pathway , I’m finding the classes a breeze. I’m just starting my externship for the second semester… and I began this school Oct 22. I plan to be finished in less then 1 year. I will say I haven’t learned anything new - aside from maybe some livestock stuff ( not my vibe ) yet , and someone the info and techniques are antiquated , and i am able To pass all exams and proctors with out much more then a review of the course. I’ve heard nightmare stories about the externship so I’m curious about that… but I’m able to complete it at my current job and put in as many hours as want to get the min hours done.Read Less"

"I was in the vet tech program and even though I already have a bachelors degree and had taken English Lit in college, they still tried to make me take that course. Plus, all the exams were mainly multiple choice but their finals where essay and short answer. I think the chapter tests should have been set up to prepare us for our finals. Plus, after only 6 days, if you don’t want to pursuit your degree, they try to make you pay anyway. Complete rip off! Plus, I talked to many employers at animal care facilities, vet clinics, etc where I live and they do not accept a degree from Penn Foster, nor will they let you do their externships with them. Complete waste of time and money. Avoid Penn Foster at all costs!Read Less"

"Wow! Never knew this College was this bad! I see everything negative in this school except for 30-40% of people want to help you and the rest of them don't! I can't believe I thought this school was better and had developed ' A MATURITY LEVEL" but that's not the case! I should've went elsewhere and people are right . This school doesn't care and they want is your $$. It's funny I've got to pay a certain amount to them every month and since people refused to contact me about certain exam or test I needed to take and didn't wanna fail..now due to the ridiculousness of others I gotta pay for these classes I'm failing plus repay to take em again! You know it's funny that people who really work there , vet tech dept has been so disappointing and disrespectful in more ways than one! I mentioned someone was a witch and I got blamed for speaking that. It was some stupid code of conduct and the funny thing is they don't bother to look at themselves and how they conduct the students!Read Less"

"Penn Foster is literally the worst just when you think they can’t stoop any lower they do. This back ally dumpster of a school is probably one of if the not the worst institutions of higher learning in the United States. They do not care about their students at all! I can handle working on my own (there are no teachers you learn from the textbook and online material only) but that is actually not the most terrible part. The most terrible part is the externship! By the time you get to the second externship you HAVE to complete your first two semesters. So by the time you find out how awful the program is you’re already too deep to turn back. I am a veterinary technician student going on 2 years in the program and am still working on the same internship that I was working on 8 months ago. You have to find your own internship Penn Foster does not partner with the site so you are 100% on your own. So if they don’t do things that are on your list of skills which is probably many (especially if you work for a GP your completely screwed). Good luck finding places that do orogastric intubation or let you use cat bags which by the way are considered outdated and cruel now in the veterinary field. They even force you to do “grief counseling” should never ever be done by an intern. When I worked for my first site the veterinarian was cruel and mean and yelled at me on my second day of being a surgery intern and blamed me for “not responding when an animal could of died” when it is the responsibility of a vet not an intern to be able to take care in an emergency. I was let go because I was upset and complained that the veterinarian was cruel. I was told by the practice manager that it was “wrong for the her to be paid for her time to help me as an intern”. Penn Foster blamed me for being let go and said it was all my fault and that I can’t be a vet tech and “have emotions”. I mean seriously. So none of the 200+ hours I completed counted. I had to start all over again and it took a few months to find and get started at a new site. I recently finished at that site and I was told by the manager that “nine of those skills can’t be done here and haven’t been done in general practice for years” So I had to find a site YET AGAIN to finish my internship because I couldn’t complete it at the first site. I was approved by my evaluator “essentially a person who checks off all your skills and approves” them. BTW they don’t check in on you or communicate with them you actually have to email them through the school they don’t have a personal email. Otherwise they will never contact you. Anyways she approved of me to do 2 partially completed skills at another site as long as I have 2 different initials and signatures. Then I was trying to process the paperwork and then they told me I couldn’t do that “share skills” between sites. Such an inane rule how are you supposed to complete your externship under these conditions. For most it’s impossible! They can’t even get their stories straight different staff members will say completely different things there’s no consistency and often times the response you get is “I don’t know.”They literally try to make it impossible for you to graduate and they will always blame the AVMA which is the veterinary accrediting body. What kind of “college” doesn’t even insure that it’s even POSSIBLE to complete REQUIRED course work. This is so messed up! They treat their students like wallets and take full advantage and bully you into accepting their backwards despicable practices. They are terrible! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!Read Less"

"I can't speak for all the majors, but the Veterinary Technician one is absolute CRAP. The materials are very, very often misspelled and overly wordy. There's so much fluff to pick through I sometimes has to read the same sentence several times before it actually makes sense. The proctored exams are horrid. 7-8 questions constitutes the entire final. They are so random that you can study 98% of the material, and the questions on the test will be from the 2% you didn't study in depth. Also, their student services department is just about useless. They are never able to answer any of my questions, I get told I'll get called back and it never happens, AND they put a hold on my account without even bothering to tell me why, or that it was even going to happen. Don't waste your time here, all they care about is getting as much money out of you as they can while giving the minimum amount of effort on actually teaching you.Read Less"

"The program as a whole, is fine. You definitely get your money’s worth of material. The only thing that makes this review negative, is the externship process. I went through so many hoops trying to get my second externship in order. I live in an area where farming and agriculture isn’t big, so trying to find a large animal site was a nightmare. I called about every clinic in southern New England for months, and was rejected several times. The vet who finally agreed to help was two hours away, and also voiced to the school that she hated the skills we have to perform. A lot of stuff that you would never do in a normal circumstance, but they required it because it’s “AVMA” required. Some of the small animal skills are weird, too. Perform necropsy procedure? We don’t even do that at a normal small animal practice. When doing my large animal skills, I misplaced three tiny videos of me doing things to a goat. They wouldn’t except any alternatives.... seriously?! It’s a video! Why should I have to arrange a four-hour round trip to my large animal site again just to get three 30-second videos? They are so AVMA set, that they have absolutely zero toom for compromise or alternatives, especially during a global pandemic, where every school in the country has had to bend rules.Read Less"

"With zero study notes, I managed to pull a 3.75. The Computer Application Class is awful. I recommend just taking a computer application class from a traditional college. I wish I had, the instructor was as helpful as a white crayon. The material is sooooooo boring, can barely stay awake from just reading. With zero assistance from ghost instructor, spoke to her once, that was enough."

"Amazing program. A lot of the reviews that I am seeing are people complaining about howe much work there is to do, or how much they are required to remember. This program is made for people who are going to be self motivated to finish. You do have a a lot of things to remember and go over, and yes you're constantly studying, BUT THATS WHAT COLLEGE IS!!! I suggest this program it is wonderful, I can work full time and study on my days off!!!!!"

"Don’t fall for it. I signed up and didn’t like it at all. When I tried to cancel they said I still owe over $300. I’ve already paid $600 and completed zero courses and received zero materials. The semester itself is under $2k so why must I pay for half a semester of courses I didn’t take."

"This school's testing is IMPOSSIBLE. I can't speak for other lines of study, but for the Veterinary Technician course it was absolutely ridiculous. As stated by another reviewer, there is a lot of content both in the online coursework AND in textbooks. Now, the length of the content isn't the entire issue. The biggest issue here is that they expect you to retain ALL information they give you. You are expected to learn sometimes 200+ terms and their definitions for just a single section. The questions for the tests and exams are just randomly picked from the entirety of the content they give you, so they set you up for failure. The questions are very random as well. You'll be tested on a whole system from bone structure, to parts of a cow's stomach, and then they'll ask you something arbitrary that seemingly didn't have much to do with anything. They are not flexible on grading either, and demand more money to retake these proctored exams. If you fail twice, they expect you to pay $400 to retake the same exact course that you've already paid for in full.Read Less"

"I do not recommend this school at all. I have over 20 years of experience in veterinary medicine. I wanted to enroll in a program to earn my credentials instead of being grandfathered in. BIG MISTAKE. Not only did I not get my degree, I missed the missed the window for a grandfathered RVT. The courses and material are great. The lessons are pretty well laid out but are almost impossible to test on. Lesson X gives you over 500 pages to read, the proctored exam has only 8-10 questions pertaining to those 500 pages! And chances are, if you read 495 pages of reproduction, the test question was "how many teeth does a piglet have?" If you have a question regarding your studies, might as well ask Dr. Google. The staff are clueless about what you are asking and make you feel incompetent for asking. When writing research papers, it takes FOREVER for them to be graded. The next class/portion of your studies will not be unlocked until you receive a passing grade. Biggest kicker, I completed my 4th semeter, 96% completed with this whole course. All i needed was my externship to obtain my degree. I could not find a large animal vet within 3 hours that will take on a Penn foster student. Reason? The ridiculous requirements of each skill. Each skill has to be performed numerous amounts of times. Some clinics don't see that many of the same case in the time frame you are asked to complete them! Don't give a skill/requirement if it is almost impossible to complete. Since I was unable to find a large DVM for me to complete my clinicals, my program expired. All that time, money etc....wasted. Im not saying I did not gain anything from taking these courses, but having known what i know now, I would have never spent the first dime. I am thankful that this profession allows on site training and teaches you more than any text book ever will. Good luck and best to all! TRead Less"

"I just wanted to change programs and now they are claiming I have to un-enroll and re-enroll which would be a fee of $700 plus another semester of tuition. Been trying to do this for over two weeks and after being on hold forever they hung up on me when I try to do online support they tell me to call. After asking why I would be charged I was told it was the course work,test I took, and the books. So I took three test and have completed 12% of a program and did online books. This place is a SCAM!!!!!!!!!!Read Less"

"I have read many of the reviews and it seems like the people that are complaining are having issues with cancellations. I have completed almost my first semester & so far I can say that its not been bad. I can work on my own schedule. Complete classes as fast or slow as I want. They are nice enough to return assignments that need a little more work so you can get the best grade possible. Although the coursework is tough its thorough. I have learned quite a bit in these first 6 classes and I think for the money and the ease of enrolling, its a good accredited online school. I already have a job lined up and being a student of an accredited school helped. Cons: None so far.Read Less"

"I don't even know where to begin with how terrible this school is. I have a BA already but I decided I wanted to be a veterinary technician so I needed to go back to school. Working full time prevented me from attending classes in person so I thought an online program would be a great solution. I wish I could go back in time and warn the past me that enrolling in Penn Foster would be a VERY bad choice. It has brought me nothing but headaches and frustration. When I have to call in person for help, the people are relatively friendly but also have no clue how to answer most of my questions. My main complaint is the student portal. The entire platform from which all things are done is ABSOLUTE TRASH! It is difficult to navigate, redundant, and not helpful AT ALL. DO NOT ENROLL IN THIS SCHOOL!!!! ANY OTHER HAS GOT TO BE BETTER!!!!!Read Less"