American InterContinental University Reviews

This school makes sense. The curriculum is designed around real life scenarios that can help you with your job. People try and discredit this school because of the instructors, but it's no different than any other college. Some are good and some are bad. I got my BA there and I'm getting my MBA there right now. I feel as if I've earned my degree and that I learned a lot.

Over the years of online browsing, I have read a lot of negative comments about AIU and decided it was time to put in my own two cents worth. I will try to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Keep in mind that my experience was with a master’s degree. I don’t know about their undergraduate programs. I found the courses to be very challenging. There is a lot of reading and a lot of writing. Courses only last for five weeks and most courses had at least two textbooks to cover in that time period, plus multiple assignments, papers to write, and a group project to complete. You will almost certainly reach a burnout point somewhere in the middle, but you just have to take a breath, remind yourself of the end goal and regroup. It wouldn’t be worth it if it were easy, would it?

For me, it was worth it. I learned a lot. I have heard others, who attended other colleges, say that they learned nothing practical in their degrees—everything important was learned on the job. That was not the case for me. Almost all of the assignments were designed to teach what you would actually need to know on the job, and you tailored your projects to fit your own career.

Each week there was a mandatory interactive lesson online. The lesson was short but very well done. Also, each week, the instructors were required to schedule two sessions, either in the chat room, or through audio, to give opportunity to interact with the students in real time. Attendance was optional. The session was recorded and available for review at a later time.

As with any college (and, believe me, I hopped around in my undergrad degrees, so I know), there will be some instructors you like better than others. I had one instructor who never gave me credit for an assignment I turned in and ignored my emails, which kept me from finishing with a 4.0 GPA. With that one exception, all of my instructors were excellent, and available to answer questions and explain assignments. That last was important because some of the assignments were not written very clearly. Hopefully, they have since been edited.

I could not have been more pleased with my classmates. We were in a Masters of Education program (Instructional Technology) so my classmates were professional educators from around the country, some in K-12 and some in higher education. Through the discussion board and the group projects, I learned from them. In my undergrad degree, I was the one who carried almost all of the weight in group projects so it was a relief to be with a group of people who were willing to shoulder their share of responsibility. There was one exception, of course, but she did not make it through the program. It was not easy coordinating meeting times with classmates in other time zones, but that is a skill needed in today’s workplace. We made it work. Another thing I appreciated about my classmates is that we all recognized that there would be times when life or burnout would keep us from doing as much on a particular project as we normally would. As long as we kept the communication open and did our share overall, we accepted this and were willing to make allowances.

So much for the good. There are a couple of things that left a bad taste in my mouth. When I started, the AIU website and online student handbook specifically stated that we could attend graduation, if we chose, at any of AIU’s brick and mortar campuses. The website promoted that as a selling point to prospective students. However, when the time came, they not only did not honor that, saying it was too expensive for the campuses to accommodate all the online students. It would not have been a big deal (as least, not to me) if they had just said they changed the policy. But, instead, they flat out lied to us. A number of us had phone and email communication with the administration about it and they claimed it had never been their policy to allow attendance at a physical graduation. Of course, all references had been removed from the website, but we all remembered it being there. It makes you wonder what else they would lie about.

The other negative was their placement service. You expect to get little or no help from most not-for-profit schools but more is expected from for-profit schools who make placement assistance a selling point to prospective students. (Keep in mind this was quite a few years ago—I don’t know how they do it now.) I was already working in higher education but not in my field of study so I was looking for a change. I finally called the Career Services department in exasperation after they sent me yet another job announcement about a business looking for a data entry clerk (for someone with a master’s degree in education???) I told the career counselor I wanted to know about only jobs in my field and I didn’t care what part of the country. She said their system wasn’t set up that way. Apparently they just copied any job, no matter the relevance, that was anywhere in your home state and only in your home state. I don’t think I ever got one job lead from them relevant to my degree.

Fortunately, I did not need their placement assistance. Eventually, I moved up the ladder at the college where I was working and did end up in my career field without having to go anywhere else. My pay increased by over $20k per year so the investment I made in my education did pay off. In spite of the negatives I mentioned, I would highly recommend AIU. The courses were excellent. There was none of the hassles with scheduling or purchasing books that you go through at other colleges. All of that is taken care of automatically. The cost was lower than at other colleges I compared—especially when you factor in books and fees that you pay elsewhere.

I thought I can finish with this school. I can not believe some of the instructors i had. I think they pulled them from the street. The instructor speak about the homework only. You learn nothing from them.very bad reputation,when I tell people that I go to American Intercontinental university, they say "what is that?". I am like it is online school. They say it sounds like a hotel man!!!

I graduated in 08/2011 with my Associates in Business Administration- Focus in IT Administration. I WILL NOT be pursuing my education with AIU due to the low quality "fast food" educational curriculum offered at almost $25K. IT WAS NOT WORTH IT WHATSOEVER! I am searching for other schools to pursue my Bachelors. AIU is an institution that utilizes Federal Education Loans to profit at the expense of a low quality, "accelerated" (drive thruogh) degree program. If you want a degree without the knowledge at overpriced credits, go for it. If you value knowledge and want what you pay for, RUN!!!

I chose this school becuase the student services and counseling was more than I expected. Each person gave me individual attention and guidance, where having been to a on-site college, I did not get the same assistance. In fact, my daughter attends one of the largest universities and her counselor just told her to check out the web site that it had all the information she needed. Which was a lie.

The expense of this school is much cheaper than a on-site school. You do not have the additional fees you are expected to pay for (student association, computer fees, parking, etc, books). You are told up front by the instructor what is expected and given some great challenges. There are many labs to help you to pass your classes and graduate successfully from the school. I checked this school and it is an accredited college. So no bunk here.