Southern New Hampshire University Online Reviews

"My experience with SNHU was a positive one in every way. I loved the courses I took through SNHU. The professors I had were great, highly qualified, and gave needed help or direction when needed. I would reach out and they always responded and gave feedback. I had a fantastic counselor and I used their online tutoring for a few classes. Tutors are available 24/7 and extremely helpful. You get what you put into it and I gave it 110%. You have to be motivated to do the work. I would highly recommend this school."

"The Professors at this school are all different, what I mean is that you do the work in these classes with zero feedback and your work may or may not be wrong then you start a different course and your work is all wrong. You go from one class getting an A to the next getting F because there is zero guidance from SNHU Professors. SNHU is laughable and I highly suggest if you want an actual education look elsewhere. I am currently enrolled in this school and deeply regret my choice of ever coming here. I did not get a good education here, I am now doubting my work as a graduate level student. I wish I had Professors correcting my work and giving me feedback, if you work off of feedback don't apply at SNHU. Avoid SNHU at all cost."

"At a graduate level, the classes seemed to be more at the undergraduate level and at times at the associate degree level. The classes were too repetitive and the required reading material was useless as if you have common sense, you can do the discussions in minutes. Papers were boring to write, no challenge to any course work. Perfect grades in five classes and I am transferring to another university with higher ratings."

"I attended SNHU originally to complete my associate's degree. Then to finish a BA in Political Science / History. They were very transfer-friendly and allowed many ways to earn credits instead of needing to sit through an entire semester. They allow you to take Sophia, CLEP, and use your life skills for college credit. I left SNHU and got into multiple tier 1 master's programs elsewhere. SNHU really changed my life, and for this, I am grateful. As for my career, since graduating from SNHU, I started a job working for DHS with the federal government, and I am making 23-27% more annually."

"Like any education - you get what you put in. I am working on my Bachelor's in Data Analytics while working in as a Data Analyst. These class are tough. I have an instructor for stats right now who reviews our Statistical work coded in Jupyter notebook and and leaves us a voice message each week on our work detailing what we did right and where we may have gone wrong. Not all teachers are this hands on, but the amount of relative information I am learning is so inspiring. Perhaps I am unique because I already have the job I want, I just need the degree to keep it. But what they are teaching me is exactly what my employer is asking me to do, and I work for a major automotive company which I think says a lot about the course composition and it's awareness of what the industry is looking for. I do agree SNHU does not have the reputation I wish it did, because the course work is very challenging. Perhaps that's a marketing flaw from the commercials that cheapened what they were really offering. I pursued SNHU after seeing someone I knew graduating from SNHU . I did want to address a few comments I saw about being approved 3 days later after applying. That is nonsense. I had to get my official transcript and have it reviewed by my academic advisor and admissions in order to see what credits were applicable and which weren't. If you have questions about this school, talk to someone who actually attended. I am pleased with my experience overall and I recommend this school."

"My experience has been excellent! I saw a review saying they accept you without any relevant information such as a high school transcript or college transfer transcript and that is NOT true. I was required to send both before being accepted. Online school is not easy - you need the self motivation to do it. No one is going to hold your hand to get it done. I’ve been at universities the traditional way and the courses online are just as competitive if not more. It is in no way “easy” because it’s online. They are accredited so you will have no issue finding employment compared to “diploma mills” you hear about from other online schools. I feel really happy with my choice and if you can schedule your week - what days and times to do your school work around your job and family live, you will be fine. A lot of people make excuses and then blame the school when they fall short. I’m a single mother and work full time and I’ve managed to do the work and do well."

"I consider SNHU to be a great choice! This is the best online school out there! I found out about this opportunity from an article https://sharksmind.com/online-computer-programming-degree/. I have absolutely loved my experience at SNHU! From my amazing advisor to the instructors, to the Financial Aid office. They are helpful, knowledgeable, and caring. I am receiving a great education, with challenging module assignments, classmates that helped me learn, and instructors that were ALWAYS available. If I had a question the instructors would be available through email, text, and/or a phone call. They were willing to help me understand the material, spend time walking me through something I was confused about, and all along the way the school continuously encourages me to reach my goals! Overall I'm happy with my education at SNHU."

"I am nearing the end of my first year at SNHU as a full time online student. It has been fantastic. The application and enrollment process was the easiest of any school I have attended. The online platform SNHU currently uses is Brightspace. Going from Canvas to Brightspace was a little confusing, but ultimately simpler and more user friendly. Before term starts there is a walkthrough tutorial on how to use it so if you read a review where someone complains about the online set up, it's likely because they skipped the tutorial. It is mind numbingly easy to navigate. I will say that online learning is not for everyone. After graduating high school in 2013, I took 7 years off so I was a bit older when returning to school. I found online learning easier for me as I could maintain a home, work, and learn all in a way that fit my lifestyle. I have read some reviews about the workload being difficult, but I truly can't understand where this comes from. There are times when I become frustrated because my courses aren't challenging enough, but I'm sure that has to do with your own particular major. I'm sure I wouldn't want to do engineering or other math heavy degrees online. I cannot recommend SNHU online enough, especially for older individuals going back to school."

"I will be graduating in January of 2023, and my experience at SNHU has been great. I actually enjoy the way they have the curriculum set up for you for every class. You work towards your end goal of completing each final in a methodic way. I have never experienced that before at any other college. Most of my classmates that I have interacted with during my studies feel the same way. I have read through a few of the negative reviews, and these people give some lame excuses for not completing their degree. I enjoyed my time here, and I plan on pursuing my Master's Degree at SNHU. I hope this helps any potential students."

"I will make this short and sweet. SNHU is a great school, with a great system if you apply yourself. It's just like any other institution of higher learning; you will be successful if you put in the effort. The students who complain, were never scholars anyway, and make excuses and try to blame SNHU for their lack of knowledge and perseverance. Online courses are harder, because you don't have anyone there to hold your hand and guide you along the way. If you need this, you need to attend your classes in person, because completing classes online is not for the meek."

"I got both my BA and MA from SNHU and had an amazing experience all the way around. My take on it is this: people need to determine what on-line learning environment works best for them, in addition to price shopping, time commitment, and of course, accreditation. I chose SNHU because I am an introvert whose day job takes all of my energy. I'm also a self-starter and very autonomous. I love to write and will write papers/create relevant projects all day long rather than take tests that don't prove anything to me in terms of my ability to transfer knowledge learned into practical application. I also like the feeling that I am making steady process, even when taking 1 class at a time because the courses are 8 weeks for UG and 10 for Grad. My employer provides tuition reimbursement, which SNHU will wait for, so for me--SNHU checked all my "must-haves,"--not just the online and cost considerations. Because I always turned my assignments in timely and received good grades, I spoke to my advisor three times or less per term: once at the beginning to ensure I had everything I needed; once mid-term to see how things were going; and sometimes, once near the end of term just to check in and see if he could be of help with anything. SNHU was VERY understanding when I had to postpone a term, which happened when my mom passed and again, during the height of Covid. My advisor rescheduled all of my courses for me to ensure I never got shut out of a class due to it being full. All of my adjuncts have been responsive; some were newer but very capable; others were tenured and I learned as much from them as from the course itself. I have subsequently connected with many of them on LinkedIn for networking purposes. Bottomline, SNHU does everything possible to set students up for success, but you have to do the work, including the time management. Students also may have a different interpretation of "being set up for success" and because of it, may expect more hand-holding or spoon-feeding, but this is a collegiate environment that is configured to set you up for success in your career; i.e.: no one will hand-hold or spoon-feed you in your career."

"I have been with SNHU for several years, transferring in from a Community College. Prior to that, I attended a private four year liberal arts college for two semesters, which is what SNHU started out as before investing heavily into their online program. So, I have a good idea of how the university world works. In addition, I currently work in a public university in the midwest. In short, I am no stranger to college. That being said, I want to clarify a few things I have noticed in the reviews: 1) I see many people upset that they had to take "pointless classes" that "had nothing to do with my degree" well, those, my friend, are called general education credits and every single college has them no matter what your major is. Are they fun? No, but they are required. So, if you are majoring in Psychology expect to take a History class. If you are majoring in a STEM field expect to take an English class. This has been the way it is at every college I have attended as well as the one that I work for. Be grateful SNHU has no foreign language requirment, most colleges also have that in addition to those pesky general ed courses.. In fact, SNHU's general education classes are actually quite seamless. The 100 level classes are designed so that they are not so hard so you can get through them to get to your major classes. Even better, they are only eight weeks! The community college I came from was on a semester calendar which meant that those tedious general education classes were 16 weeks! 2) I see a lot of people complaining about extenuating circumstances such as childcare or illness making it difficult for professors to work with them. This is college. Not high school. The people teaching your course are paid professionals. Treat them as such. Often they have deadlines as well and often juggle multiple classes in addition to a day job because most of the instructors here are adjuncts. This isn't a bad thing at all, every single one of them I have had has an advanced degree in their field as well as relevant work experience. I'm a history major and I've had high school history teachers with an M.A. in History teach my classes and I've also had P.h.D's who have been published in magazines like National Geographic. Every single one of them has been knowledgeable and the few times I have needed to turn something late they've been extremely understanding as long as I emailed them with an explanation. I do want to point out that because they are adjuncts and not tenured full-time professors you have to understand that they are not making a lot of money nor as they treated very well by the college. They get no benefits such as healthcare. It literally is often a side job for them or they are trying to break into academia. So treat them well because they are often overworked and underpaid and most of them really do want you to succeed because trust me, they've been in your shoes as an undergraduate. 3) Financial Aid issues. I have only ever had one problem, SNHU accidentally overpaid my aid one term and as a result they corrected their error and used funds from their own account to ensure that the overpayment did not effect me in any way. In fact, they called me and emailed me explaining the whole ordeal and were very pleasant about it. Every other term I have had no issues. Like every other college you do have to maintain a certain GPA and make sure you are passing your classes to keep your loan eligibility. From what I have read in other reviews it seems that folks are either not doing well in their courses which does impact their aid or they have withdrawn from a course which does indeed impact your aid. 4) Reputation concerns. Recently, I was reading my local newspaper and stumbled across an article that a new city manager had been hired where I live. In her bio it listed that she had an M.A. from SNHU! Jobs like city managers are very competitive and often attract top tier candidates. Obviously, if where she had gotten her education was an issue I would think she wouldn't have been hired. In addition to this case, the college is regionally accredited which is the best accreditation a higher education establishment can have and as a result SNHU credits do transfer and many alumni are often accepted into prestigious M.A programs. 5) The layout of the courses. Yes, each course is structured the same. For working adults, who the target audience is, it makes the transition from class to class much easier than it would be in person. Going into it you know you will have discussion posts and "milestone" projects but the predictability of it is actually quite nice. When I attended in person classes the instruction was all over the place, I either had instructors demanding a paper per week or a paper per term or random tests which never occur here. Again, this makes the process so much easier. 6) Expect to put in effort as because this is distance learning you must READ. You must take initiative. Someone isn't standing there lecturing you for two hours every other day so in order to succeed you have to do some self-teaching. That isn't just at SNHU that would be in any online program. If that does not work for you I would not recommend any online class at any university. 7) Academic advising. Yes, they will phone you. But how much they phone you depends upon you. Your advisors are monitoring your coursework and grades whether you realize it or not. If you start getting a lot of phone calls it means that you aren't up to par with where you ought to be. My advisor seldom calls me aside from the start of the term when he sees if I need anything or if I want to drop the course or change a course. Other than that, I don't hear from him because I am consistently turning in my work and getting A's. In short: do your work and they won't bother you. If you aren't doing a good job expect them to hound you because that is their job. Also, I have seen some reviews saying how folks would get different advisors from time to time. Again, this is not uncommon, especially in the current labor market. Academic advising often is a stepping stone job in academia, people do it for a few years and then usually move up. I imagine SNHU is no exception to this. I see it happen as the college I work at. Overall, I hope my review put to bed some of the misconceptions that some of the bad reviews might be putting out there. As of my time writing this I will be graduating in less than two months. I have nothing but good things to say about SNHU. As an adult, working full-time, I appreciate the opportunity SNHU offered to a nontraditional student like myself. The online platform was very good for me but to succeed here you must be self-motivated, have the ability to read a lot and follow instructions, have the ability to ask for help when you aren't clear on something and understand that college isn't just about taking a bunch of classes you want to take, sometimes you have to power through the stuff that isn't fun. You also have to be okay with not sitting through traditional lectures and getting. Unfortunately, the marketing from this school has, I believe, attracted many first time college bound adults who may not be ready for the academic rigor of college and as a result many are often underwhelmed and even disappointed in the experience. The truth is, college, no matter in person at somewhere prestigious like Yale or an average state school isn't designed to cater to your every need. They are schools, you are there to show up, do the work and learn. Only you can make that happen, the college provides you with the tools. SNHU is no exception."

"I think it's fair to say that every school has their problems. SNHU has a dozen classes in my major they should just toss in the garbage and rebuild... so basically most of them. The instructors are hit and miss, but it doesn't matter, you will not likely talk to them. I should graduate soon, but honestly, this was a huge waste of time and money."

"I am a busy guy so when the time to go to college came around, I was looking online to both save time and money without commuting, room and board, etc. SNHU is a legit school and all but I regret not looking into other online schools and comparing my options. Ever since I enrolled I have honestly been too embarrassed to even tell others that I go to college, primarily because SNHU has a poor reputation to many people. When I've told people that I go here they always say "Oh that school with all the commercials?" and in general I just can't help but feel that SNHU is not taken seriously by many, hence why I don't even bring it up anymore. . Although I don't 100% think its a diploma mill, so many times it has felt like one since I enrolled. Literally when I was in the admission process I was expecting them to need my high school transcripts or whatever to see if I was even eligible for the school. It was weird when all I did was fill out some application with basic information and like 2 days later I was "accepted". All they needed from me was tuition for my first term, and ever since it has just felt like they want money with all the pointless class materials and crap you got to pay for. Speaking of class materials, the classes generally vary but from the tech related classes I've taken so far, you CAN learn if you put time into it. I was expecting it to feel structured like an in person college but online (lectures, exams, etc), however the professor isn't the one teaching you, its whatever educational software you had to buy an access code for out of pocket. The professors don't feel like they are there at all, their profiles look like google stock images, and in a way it feels like an artificial school. You can literally put no effort in and get a A which is very demotivating when you are paying thousands to learn. By the time the second semester started I was already getting a little demotivated and bored because of the fact it felt like I wasn't striving for anything, so I ended up starting my own business a few months ago. Funny enough it has been going pretty well to the point that I am planning on withdrawing from SNHU soon and putting a hold on college as a whole and focusing on growing my business. Especially with the new Loan Forgiveness program ideally I can get out pretty close to debt free. I am still figuring everything out but if I end up going back to college I will definitely do a lot more research this time around. I have heard many good things about ASU's online program, or I might even just go in person if the time comes."

"I am in my final semester at SNHU for an MS degree. I personally have found my experience with SNHU to be very positive. I can't speak to the Bachelor's online programs, but the Masters so far has been great. I think some of the people leaving negative comments might be having difficulties adjusting to the form of work. At least in the Masters programs, you are provided with all the information that you need, but not information on how to think. That portion, and the research associated is on you as it should be. Your outcome is dependent on the level of work you put into your assignments, which is made evident by every paper you complete. I did experience some confusion related to working effectively within the online system itself, but after two weeks of review, and the assistance of the Academic Counselors (which are fantastic by the way), I've had no further issues that weren't "me" created. The Professors are responsive to your questions and circumstances, but they expect you to reach out to them when needed. This can be done openly in a discussion board, or via email (I have used both and have always received helpful responses). There is a great deal of writing for obvious reasons, so if you weren't the best writer coming in, you will be by the time your finished, and that's a very good thing."

"I did my research on schools before deciding on SNHU. All of my credits transferred from UOP so that was amazing. I have 6 months left and I will be graduating. My advisor is amazing and always checks in with me. Even when I had to take time off for having a baby he still checked in. Financial Aid is also great and I have had no issues at all. I believe this is a great school and is definitely worth it."

"The grading at this school is poor and the instructors provide little to no feedback. The dean at the school does not hold the instructors accountable so there is not much that has changed. I have tried to go about this issue the right way by filing a complaint with the school and the issue was not resolved."

"I am honestly surprised by some of the negative reviews I've read here. This is my 3rd year attending online classes at SNHU and my experiences have all been positive. I must say that I what I read in another review regarding an individual's motivation to write a review being in direct connection with their level of anger/agitation seems accurate. Additionally, some reviews mentioned having to be tech savvy or not being able to follow the course instructions. I am 47 years old and I have not had any trouble with technology or navigating through the content. My first term was initially challenging, but after putting forth the time and effort that the course required, (which is pretty minimal considering I work and still have an active social life) I soon found myself completing course content with ease. I also read some negative comments regarding the academic advisors who have honestly been amazing throughout this entire experience so far. One individual wrote that they were called too often but had a list of other complaints as well. That is what your advisor is for and yes they do call in the beginning to help you and to make sure that you have everything you need, etc., unlike some schools where the enrollment and FAFSA process are left up to the student. My academic advisor calls me once per term to check in and to see if I need anything or have any questions. The student finance department has been amazing, friendly, and extremely helpful as well. If you want to go back to school and are considering online, and are willing and able to follow simple directions, correspond with instructors, staff, and other students (as needed), and have the time to invest, than SNHU is the perfect place to get an education, grow as a person, learn new things, and gain a new and rewarding career. For those of you who are wondering, I am an actual student at SNHU - I am studying for my Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Services with a Concentration in Substance Abuse. I intend to be a drug and alcohol counselor initially while I continue with my Master's Degree - at SNHU. Good luck to you all! Best Regards."

"Pros: If you are young and have online class experience it may work for you. Con: If you are older and not really tech savvy this is likely not the program for you! I was sold on this program because I was told there are lectures online that we could watch. The reality is that there isn't a single lecture. I couldn't figure out what was due when and stumbled across assignments by clicking on various screens. -Biggest problem and why I would warn anyone from starting this: The "academic advisors" call you to the point of harassment and they are your ONLY touch point for communication. I told them to stop calling me and drop me from this program and they insisted on continuing the harassment."

"The first few classes at this school were amazing, the professors provided great real world content, examples and lecture videos. Around class #4 is when this went downhill and fast. You pay for a course and the textbook however each week we are just asked for read 3-4 chapters and write a paper. There is no actual teaching or learning outside what you understand from the required reading. By the time you figure this out you are already a few weeks into the course and unable to drop it without paying for the entire subject. The dispute team doesn't provide any actual resolution and I honestly think its just there to allow you a chance to vent and move on. I am currently looking at other schools as this is a waste of money."