"I am currently a PhD candidate at Walden University. I am at the proposal review stage. I won’t recommend this university to anyone. Run like Forrest Gump from this school. For the most part, I had to trash myself due to little support from professors. I earned a master’s degree at this university while trying to earn my PhD. Worst academic experience ever. The dissertation process is designed to slow down even the best of students. It is all about the money when you run out they will throw you away like trash. The dissertation process is backwards and redundant. The chairs sit on a judgment seat and boast about having autonomy. Unnecessary revision and lazy professors. Run fast from this university!"

Sharleen Andrews

Reviewed: 3/8/2018
Degree: Human Services
Graduation Year: 1971

"I have been in Walden University for 8 years now. I am about to graduate and will be completing my dissertation and graduating next year. I like Walden University because the professors are experts in their fields. The residencies are really in great locations and the curriculum are comprehensive and are meant to prepare you for the dissertation process. Research projects are qualitative or quantitative or mixed methods. The faculty are very helpful and care about your success in obtaining your PhD. Walden University has a great Social Work program which helps social workers to complete research in various areas and populations. Additionally they are committed to help students acheive social justice or actions and make an impact in their work with people in a local or international capacity. We also get to meet people from all professions and who come from other countries for the residencies."

PhD ww

Reviewed: 9/1/2015
Degree: Human Services
Graduation Year: 2015

"Excellent program for self directed, motivated, students. If your grammar is poor don't go or learn before you go. Some teachers are good, some not directive, but this happens at any school. I had the best dissertation chair. She helped me the entire way."

Doug Seubert

Reviewed: 11/27/2013
Degree: Human Services
Graduation Year: 2013

"I left Walden University when I finally realized that I wasn’t earning a graduate degree, I was buying one. When I applied at Walden and saw how easy it was to get in, it should have been a huge red flag for me. And looking back, I guess there was something in the pit of my stomach that just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until I started taking classes that I began to realize that this program is not focused on learning, but rather on money. You pay thousands of dollars for courses that are high school level. If you can read a book chapter or an article and summarize it in three paragraphs, and occasionally write a longer paper, you’ll get A’s. That’s fine if that’s the type of “education” you want. But if you are really looking to be challenged to develop critical thinking skills and be able to analyze information and engage in the type of discussions with peers and coursework that fosters the type of learning that should be taking place at the graduate level, you won’t find it at this school. Mediocre work is acceptable, so you don’t have to work very hard. Sure there is a lot of reading and weekly discussion post (often just a simple 200-300 word responses to basic questions about the assigned readings), but it’s not very challenging work and you won’t learn much doing it. Many of the “positive” comments mention that to succeed at Walden you need to be willing to ‘”work hard” … but that refers to being able to read a lot and summarize the information for weekly discussion posts in two classes over a 12 week period. In other words, this is “busy work” that may take some people a lot of time to do. The problem is, it is not learning. It is not the type of work that really allows you to think for yourself and engage in meaningful dialogue with the instructors and fellow students. Everyone answers the same questions and basically writes the same summaries of the information. It’s dull, boring, uninspiring work. And you pay $2500 per class to do this! I thought the introductory started like this but expected the higher level courses to be more of what you’d expect in a PhD program. But even the 5 credit “advanced” courses are the same. What finally got me to leave the school was the fact that in my last class at Walden, my teacher waited until the last week to grade 5 assignments. This included my final paper which was 21 pages long. The electronic classroom tracks when you submit assignments and when they are received, viewed, and graded by the instructor. These 5 assignments were all graded within a 2 minute time period. In other words, the teacher did not read them. So what pride can I take in getting an A in the course if my assignments weren’t even read? The content of what you write, and therefore the content of what you actually learn in the classes at Walden, does not matter. Just pay your bill and submit something that can be graded so it can appear that actual learning is taking place. It really is a shame. I am actually embarrassed that I was a student at Walden for over a year before I finally woke up and asked myself “what am I actually learning?” … I don’t want to buy a graduate degree. I want to earn one."

Paulette Williams

Reviewed: 10/24/2013
Degree: Human Services
Graduation Year: 2014

"The graduate program at Walden University is a great program and has offered all of the supportive services needed for me as an adult learner. The program staff and customer service is excellent! One of the cons was the process involved in obtaining my PhD and the timeliness with the feedback but I was able to work around it."

Kirsten Skovmand-Wilson

Reviewed: 6/5/2013
Degree: Human Services
Graduation Year: 2014

"sometimes it is difficult to balance online classes with life and work"