Norwich University Rankings by Salary Score

I have read some of the negative reviews and these are certainly not reflective of my Norwich experience. I have had only positive interactions with the professors and I am impressed with their professionalism. The course work is challenging and the expectations are high. However, for those who complain about the curriculum, it is not unreasonable nor is the staff unfair with requirements and grading. I am a working professional with two young children and I am carrying a 4.0 in graduate studies. I am highly... Read More pleased with Norwich University.

I came into Norwich this past March as part of their online MA program in history, with a focus on their American History track. Working full-time made attending a traditional program unlikely. As such, the history, reputation, and program structure of Norwich appealed to me. That said, It became clear after the first few weeks I had severely misunderstood what I had gotten myself into. Having read through the multitude of reviews, it seems as if I am not the only one either. The initial professor and associate... Read More program director, Dr. B, began the course with sending out a "rant." Within this "rant" he proceeded to alert the entire course that no one should expect to ever, regardless of fulfilling all of the requirements on a given rubric, to ever score 100% on an assignment because, verbatim, "no one is perfect!" As such, often times you would receive assignments back with both little to no constructive feedback outside of "good" and anywhere between four and ten points deducted for seemingly no reason at all. That was if you received feedback at all. I will give it to Dr. B, however, that as much as he was unprofessional, rude, and ridiculous with his grading procedures; he did stay engaged with the class during the discussions. I cannot say the same for our Colonial and Revolutionary history professor, Dr. R., who most of the time could not have been bothered to leave more than a twenty to third word post in the weekly board. This sort of lacking professionalism pervades this program at every level. All of that considered, the most inane aspect of this program is the historiography essay assignments that take place at the end of every course. Why, you may ask? At the beginning of the semester you receive a reading list, with each course having anywhere between eight to twelve books required for purchase/rent. You will spend the majority of your time in every course reading a book a week and then analyzing, discussing, and performing author analyses over these books. Both the introductory course, the second unit, and third course has had an additional list outside of this one, however. This list is the required readings for your historiography paper and can reasonably be expected to span an additional four to five books that you have to buy ON TOP of the eight to twelve already required for the course. Norwich does NOT provide these texts; you have to buy them or rent them yourself. This would not be a serious issue if this was made clear in the beginning; it is not. Instead, most of the time you are not made aware of these additional book requirements until week two or three of the course. But that is not even the half of the issue. For example, in Colonial and Revolutionary history, FIFTY-SEVEN Percent of your grade comes from this paper. A paper that, again, is not based on the required readings for the course that you spend anywhere between ten to eleven weeks writing weekly discussions, analyses, author-article analyses, etc., over. In fact, even should you get top marks in the discussions, the precis, the AA's, etc., and then receive a poor grade on this paper, you can - and will - fail the course. Allow me to rephrase this for clarity: You can get an A on everything in the course and still fail because you did poorly on one paper that is based on books outside of the required reading list that you spend the 99.5% of the course working on, discussing, and analyzing. It is utterly absurd, to say the least. In short, this program is plagued with unprofessional behavior, lacking structure, and professors who seem to care more about keeping you busy than actually trying to further your knowledge of history. The program is neither worth the time nor the money (being about 30k when everything is said and done). If your goal is to round out your knowledge base for history, or prepare yourselves for PhD level work... Go anywhere else but here. Would not recommend. To ANYONE.