Rasmussen University Online Reviews

"For those of you that are considering attending Rasmussen online University you should know that it requires you to be 'self motivated'. This means, you're not going to be spoon fed information from your instructors. There is content organized each week for you as the student to view, read, or watch videos so that you understand assignments that will be due typically by the following Sunday. You are responsible for your own learning. There will most likely only be once a week where your instructor will hold a live lecture further explaining the weeks objective. These are always recorded and can be watched at your leisure. I currently work 4-5 days a week at a restaurant and spend almost 2 whole days working on school work. Sometimes I have hard weeks and I'm up until 1am just to get something submitted, sometimes 2 days isn't enough and I have to work on school before I start a shift. I've had classes that were incredibly easy and some that took more effort. I've never gotten below an A-, these classes aren't impossible but you do need to pay attention, take notes, and take your time on assignments. What I feel are the pros to Rasmussen online would be that the semesters are broken up into 5.5weeks. That means that you start 2 classes that last 5.5 weeks then directly after you start 2 more classes for another 5.5 weeks. So you're taking full time classes (a total of 4 classes per semester) but they're broken up in a way that shouldn't overwhelm you. I also feel like the content for the Graphic Design Program works in a very smooth way. The classes start simple and progressively get more advanced. You can tell that your schedule was carefully constructed avoiding the possibility of putting you in a class that's above your skill level. Another pro, your instructors are mostly understanding when it comes to 'life happens' and you're unable to finish your work on time. I've had this happen 3 times where I've had things happen or I had to work on my day off. All 3 times my instructors have let me turn in my assignments a day late with no grade penalty. Con: I've had instructors that don't give proper instructions on assignments or don't give examples. It is so important that I know what I'm doing before I submit something. My biggest pet peeve is when I look at an assignment detail and description and theres missing pieces of the puzzle. Then I go to view live lecture thinking maybe they'll specify or pull up a prior students assignment for an example and theres nothing helpful. In these situations, you may contact your instructor to clear it up but by the time they get back with you, the time that you set aside for school work is over and you get busy (at least in my situation). Another con would be pricing. 4,200$ roughly per quarter. The value is in all the adobe products that you receive through the school and ultimately just getting that degree. Don't get me wrong, you're getting a ton of education specifically for your field of study but you are on your own when it comes to learning. They just provide you with the tools to do so. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to earn a degree but it does come with a price. All in all I would recommend Rasmussen if you feel like you can sit at a computer 8hrs straight, 2-3 times a week. It feels very fast paced, I feel like I blinked and now am 2 semesters from graduating."

"Very disappointed with this school. I will be finding another college to complete my bachelor's. DO NOT EXPECT THE SCHOOL TO WORK WITH YOU IF YOU HAVE A LIFE ALTERING EXPERIENCE. My home was destroyed when hurricane Ian hit. I tried reaching out to my professor explaining what happened asking for more time. I never got a response. I then attempted reaching out to my student advisor explaining the same thing. No type of support was provided, as far as extentions. I was told that I had been put on probation and that if I was unable to complete my class I would not be eligible financial aid next semester. When I asked to appeal I was told it wasn't a good enough reason to appeal and I would get denied. Excuse me that my house getting flooded and my roof caved on from a tree falling on it was legitimate enough. Straight bogus."

"I almost feel like they don’t want people to graduate! The work load is absolutely ridiculous. Financial aid never called me to discuss anything, they just use payment pop-up screens over your login screen. I found that careless and DISCOURTESY to alert me in that manner that I have a balance, no matter how big or small. It’s a MONEY game with this school & now that they have changed their name to Universities I feel it to be undeserving. You teach yourself. So don’t waste time writing, copy and paste from text for notes, feed off others discussions, skim and go. You are alone learning on your own. Work smarter not harder. Hurry up and get out of there! I don’t even think I’ll go to graduation, Just BYE!"

"The platform is super consistent, which is nice. The issue is that just about everything else with the school is inconsistent. I constantly have to fight for better grades, but I am tired of it. I give up. The dean doesn't care about student success, so why should teachers? This school needs to monitor the work of teachers. There are teachers here that are way too underqualified and the experience is extremely inconsistent. One of my biggest frustrations is when the instructor does not know their own subject they are trying to teach (how can I learn if the teacher doesn't know the subject?). I would love to write a great review, unfortunately, it's not going to be about Rasmussen "University.""

"I have been in attendance for about 1 year online and learning Blackboard Ultra has been challenging but I understand it for the most part now. I agree with some of the reviewers that you won't hear much from your Academic Counselor in regard to guidance unless you are receiving an admonishment for something. Furthermore, I contacted Financial Aid for an understanding of my obligations and never received a phone call but did receive a few email responses which added to the confusion and ultimately did not completely resolve my understanding. Most of my instructors were pleasant individuals willing to work with me and ensure I understood the assignments and expectations, you will run into 1 or 2 here and there that are ornery but I think you will find that in any walk of life. My biggest challenge is not being able to attend most Live Classrooms because the greater portion of mine have been during daytime work hours and I can almost never attend. This adds another layer of strain due to not being able to ask clarification questions with immediate follow up leading to long threads of messages to cipher through."

"Do NOT go here if you are looking to learn animation. Go anywhere else but here!! They sell you an animation program that is mostly design, meaning you'll be making greeting cards and posters or writing papers instead of hands on learning actual animation. I came for an animation degree not a design degree."

"Rasmussen College was completely fine until blackboard turned into blackboard ultra. Why fix something if it isn't broken.???? Blackboard ultra is one of the most terrible, disorganized set up there is. It is difficult to locate majority of the course material. It's more difficult to access live lectures unlike before. The course itself if fine but, blackboard ultra is the MAJOR issue and interference for learning."

"GO ANYWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!! Paying for a degree. No one there cares about you. They only care that they get their money. You will only get emails for getting your financial aid set up (so they can get paid), and emails to nominate a potential future student for a $500 scholarship (so they can hopefully keep getting more money). You will regularly question if the teachers even know what they are talking about. One teacher plagiarized all of her tests from the internet. A quick copy and paste of one test question into google came up with all of the test questions WITH the answers for the entire class. The computer system they use is the least user friendly interface I have ever seen. The teachers can't even figure it out. Practically every online lecture begins with, "...I think this thing is on" from your teacher while their eyes are darting around their own computer screen to see if it is working. Then the lesson plans. Get ready for a teacher to read from the ebook they give you for each weeks lecture, only to be told to read the same chapter. You are paying tens of thousands of dollars for essentially an ebook! The academic program that I applied for had a start date 11 months from my application. Yet, somehow without signing up for any classes yet I have been enrolled and in classes for 5 months. I have sent email after email, and calls after calls, only to get no explanation. Only more emails and calls back that I owe them money. If you are alright with buying a degree this is the place for you. If you actually wanted to learn anything, do not go here!!!"

"I had high hopes when searching for a new school to attend. Rasmussen at first looked great. The price was right and they seemed to offer a decent online Graphic Design course. I enrolled and was slated to begin November 2020. There's an orientation section you're required to view. My advisor registered me for the orientation but every time I tried to log in, I kept getting error messages saying I was not registered. After speaking with my advisor and tech support, no one could figure out why I couldn't view the course. That should have been a red flag right there. They finally fixed it 2 days before classes were to begin. The very first class required the use of Adobe Creative Suite which the school is supposed to provide for free to all students. I had more technical problems with the schools website and was unable to download the software. I kept getting different answers from each person I spoke with at the school. It seemed no one really knew how the students were supposed to get the software. It was now the end of the first week and assignments were due the next day and I still was unable to get access to the Adobe software. I was so fed up with the total disorganization of the school I ended up withdrawing completely from the school before my very first week was even over with. Don't waste your time with this place, they have no idea how to run a Graphic Design program."

"I started online courses with Rasmussen in February of this year. I have taken other courses at other colleges before so thought I would do just fine. From the moment I started their online courses, I was lost. Their website platform is the most confusing website I have ever been on. By the time you figure it out, you are either going crazy with stress or getting behind in your classes. With all the courses I have taken before none of them were used for credit. So I have to take the CBA courses to try to test out of them just to shorten my program by a year. I am only going part time and I have homework every single night of the week, there are way to many assignments and videos to watch each week. There is no time for yourself, your family or anything other than homework. I work a full time job during the day and to come home each night and have to stress over homework and getting it done and turned in on time. I have not had any trouble getting any Instructor, Advisor or even a tutor to respond to me. I have needed help with the navigation of their platform since I started. I do have to say that they have the most intense enrollment I have ever done for anything. There was so much, that I forgot what I had done and haven't done to get enrolled. So Beware of the enrollment process. If you decide to go here, I wish you all the best. I'm going to try to finish my program, if it continues to be too much, then I will cut my loss and see about an online RHIT program elsewhere."

"I am a current student and the online classes are not helpful at all. I am a very smart student but I am failing my classes. Each quiz says it has 15 questions and test have 25 but the system is only letting me see and answer 9 quiz questions and 21 test questions. The system they use to is not good. I am failing and it is something that I have not even done myself. I have reached out to the school and teachers and have gotten only the run around. This is not ok. Plus this is something I am paying for mostly out of pocket because FAFSA does not cover it all."

"So I finished my CDA through the school a few years ago and recently started chipping away at my degree through them because of it. I actually have really enjoyed my time through the school. While it is expensive, it's online and convenient. I have only had one complaint and that was one of my teachers was TERRIBLE. She never gave feedback or reasoning for any of her grading."

"Most of these reviews seem to be the fault of the student. EX: Not following up on pricing, not reaching out before the last minute, not understanding the school is for online, self-motivated students. I have completed one term (4 classes) with Rasmussen so far, I will probably post another review when I complete my degree. From the beginning I have been in contact with my adviser and despite many reviews saying they disappear after enrollment, I still speak to the same one today. After the first week of class our communication became less but I never felt ignored, I could always reach out with questions. Most reviews I have seen are negative because they didn't like the instructors teaching style or curriculum. What do you expect with online courses? All online courses are designed to get what you give, if you read and truly push yourself with the material then you learn. If you leave it up to the instructor who's main purpose is to grade and clarify concepts, of course you'll feel like you're wasting your time. Honestly I have not had any issues yet. The courses are interesting and can be challenging. The instructors I've had have all been responsive and informative.The school is pricey but i'm fine with paying for the shorter classes and fully online experience. I would definitely recommend this school if you work full time and need an online schedule."

"I am very disappointed in this "education". $13,000 later, Basically, I could have read books and gained the same education. The instructors pretty much read the reading material back to you in the live lectures, and nothing beyond what I read in the book was giving my any advanced insight. I'm very disappointed that I am paying back the government $13,000 for something I could have done on my own. My advice.....Avoid this route!!!"

"I have been in this program for 9 months and it's not easy...BECAUSE ITS COLLEGE. I really like this school because it uses real life scenarios in my program the professors are helpful/ successful people and the academic advisor Marvin Parrish has been wonderful since day 1. The school is sort of cheaper than other online schools even if it's "for profit". Will check back in if anything changes. Good luck!!!!"

"I wish I knew where to start with this school and their processes. The spam contact saying that I owned money was annoying. I finally had to send them notice to stop trying to collect a debt under the Fair Credit Reporting Act as I literally owed them nothing. I am self-pay from family savings and am not using financial aid nor have I filed a FAFSA so the emails that they have received my FAFSA results were also alarming. Inability to complete online courses in computer fundamentals because their online program was incompatible with one of the most common Windows programs out there (Windows 10, at the moment of writing this) strikes me as particularly ironic. They refunded me for the non-refundable class since it was their issue, but it got pretty funny to see that they misreported the tuition as a "grant" on my 1098-T and overreported the tuition I paid. I wonder how the IRS would view that? Payments made by a WOIA program were sometimes listed as student payments. Received notice tuition was unpaid, logged in to make a payment, thinking the error was mine- resulted in them debiting my account for $2,550 in tuition twice. Inquiries result in them saying it is a 2-week wait to hear back from the Business Office on why they would make a deduction when there was a zero balance after the first payment was accepted...This is an easy fix with a check and balance, folks. Someone could have needed that $2550 to pay their mortgage or eat. That is just good business practice. The have zero idea what they are doing and now I know to trust nothing I get from them. I waited 5 days for a response to my observation that the link to a missing lecture that I needed to do my work was missing. Last week, I uploaded the wrong assignment and immediately contacted them to let them know. Simple errors happen, should be no big deal. It ended up that the information that was inadvertantly cut and pasted into my assignment when the cat jumped up on my computer desk - rather than my 13-page paper - was given a "B" before I received a response from the instructor- days later. It had *nothing* to do with the assignment. So, to recap: some junk my cat cut and pasted is B-level work. I should have just submitted a copy of the Nutrition Facts from my NutriGrain bar. I have in the past informed instructors that there were obvious errors on the final: no response, so I hope no one flunked it because of that. Other gaffes like terrible typos in course materials were met with censorship by class instructors. How about we learn the difference between "casual" and "causal" (especially important distinction in human reproduction, huh?) and avoid the irony of presenting Visual Communications coursework with white lettering on a light yellow background? I just can't respect myself if I get my degree here, so I am going to transfer out. I had a miscarriage and am retaking one class because the school has no "Incomplete" policy as reflected by their for-profit mentality, and I could only finish one class rather than two as I was busy burying my child. Other than that, I have a 4.00 GPA and am a former National Merit Scholar, so I have a pretty good idea of how processes should work. You needed me more than I needed you. I'll let my cat know in case he wants to earn his degree. Nevermind, he respects himself. He's out, too."

"This is a terrible college if you are trying to improve your learning by becoming a daycare teacher. It is a waste of time and MONEY! Especially money! They do not care about you at all and honestly, you will NOT make that much more especially in Minnesota. If you do not renew your CDA on time, which they do NOT tell you how to do it, you are on your own! So if you do not renew it, you have to start ALL OVER! Which is a waste of time AND money! What did you pay for? Nothing but some math problems that you do not need to know in a daycare. Plus, their CDA is ONLY good for TWO YEARS! When it is really supposed to be good for three years. You do not need your Associates Degree in a daycare setting. This place is absolute b***."

"I graduated with a Bachelors in HIM. I was able to pass on my first try. I completed the degree while working full time and was able to find a rewarding job in my field. The program was difficult I did have to juggle time carefully. You do have to be self motivated. I did have one professor I could not see eye to eye with. I simply focused on passing and getting past here. Was it worth the time and effort yes, but you have to be dedicated and driven to succeed and I am not sure I would of chosen this school with the new 5.5 week format. 11 was difficult enough. I was able to certify as an RHIT and RHIA first try."

"I am currently attending Rasmussen College Online. I am 45 years old and have raised my family and lived life while intermittently taking classes at a local community college. I have always taken the online version whenever offered. Recently, I decided to look for an option with more flexibility and I started to search for online programs. I have known many people who have successfully completed online degrees that greatly helped their careers. I must say that I do not take all the programs seriously. After a year and a half interrogating and pricing these colleges, I decided on Rasmussen. I have not been disappointed. I feel that I am receiving a quality education. Both the instructor-led and credit by assessment courses offer knowledge on a college level. They are taken seriously by the instructor. Papers are written with sources and graded with integrity. Discussion forums are respected and if a student does throw in an lol it is addressed. In my opinion, in reading the negative reviews, the common issue is that the students are not disciplined enough to complete an online program. They want their degree handed to them and when it doesn't go their way they leave a negative review. I have spoken to universities to continue a bachelor after I complete my associates and they have all agreed to honor the credits that I am receiving with Rasmussen. One thing I have personally learned in my lengthy career is that unhappy people are more likely to post a review than a happy customer."

"I would recommend not attending Rasmussen. I just completed their associate program for HR and Organizational Leadership and an left wondering where to go from here. I understand that online school you really need to put the time and effort into things if you want it to work, however, I felt that Rasmussen's Instructors didn't care. Most of their instructors work for Rasmussen part-time while holding very high jobs such as IT Directors and even CFO's and professors at more prestigious schools. It seemed as if most professors took their full-time positions more seriously and didn't give any effort into their jobs at Rasmussen. Another issue I had with Rasmussen, is the advisor's lack of follow up and communication with you regarding your program progress. I was less than a month away from my graduation date, my advisor told me I was on track to graduate, but after calculating my credits, I realized I was a whole 4 credit class short. I wrote my advisor and she made me pay a $99 fee for a test out class so I could graduate on time. After going back and forth about this, I was refunded my $99 due to the mistake of the school and not checking my progress correctly. Lastly, I feel that my degree has given me ZERO pull when applying for jobs. As Rasmussen is smaller and only regionally accredited, companies will overlook your education if they don't really recognize the school. Also, you can't compete against other people with the same degree who have gone to a better school. I reached out to the career services advisor and that was the biggest joke of them all. This advisor is supposed to give you advice on job searching, resume advice, etc but all he did was tell me to go to the Optimal Resume website that has resume templates on them. Funny thing is I used an exact template from that website, emailed him a copy of my resume to review and all he says back was "there is good info on your resume, however the formatting is wrong" and directed me to go to the same website that I got the exact template on. I am continuing my education elsewhere at this point."