Thomas Edison State University

"This place is a total degree mill. And I let them know just that when I received my alumna survey two to three years post graduation from the Bachelor to Master’s program. Some great things I could say are the excellent bandwidth of internet courses and resources, help, ease, and the way in which the classes are organized in general. There is plenty of flexibility and interesting courses to choose from. The huge problem is, the STUPIDITY of the students that you share classes with, and that are even accepted into the school to begin with. Students copying and pasting my work on discussion boards, not participating in class discussions even though there is a parameter by which they have to answer, whimsical professors responding with emojis to questions, and mentors that instruct as if they are instructing grade school kids and grade their assignments as such. I cannot believe I went onto the Master’s level program only because my undergraduate was in liberal studies and it did not have a specific concentration. I chose to finish a in Professional Communications, to which still has no real point or use. My fault. The absolute icing on the cake was in one of my history of civilization courses, where, within the discussion board, a MASTER’S level student replied to some degree, that dinosaurs and caveman were both walking the Earth at the same time, something about the difficulties of foraging food. This is a well received myth by many people, but how embarrassing that you chose to write that without doing any research, let alone the fact that that revealed her lack of knowledge or insight into actual coursework or factual knowledge. I was absolutely baffled, but no more baffled at the fact that my mentor did not correct her on it, say anything, or advise differently or the class about this total inconsistency. There are constant misspellings, sophomoric grammar skills, uncollegiate-like discourse, lack of engagement issues, even given the age of technology that we are in, the lack of desire for students to proofread their work, edit it, or even have enough pride to take the courses seriously and present themselves in the best academic light, again to which I will reiterate, the obvious copy and pasting of my thoughts, and ideas, which is still plagiarism, which my mentors did not choose to acknowledge to the class, and gave them full credit for. I was warned by a REAL professor there, a Doctor of Sciences, that college is very much still a business, regardless of how I wish to see it. I was stunned by her blatant honesty, to which looking back now, I truly appreciate the sincerity and boldness of that statement. Some good things about the courses are that books are affordable through many different venues, and that the mentors do more than enough, in fact, overboard, to avail themselves whenever you need them. While you are enrolled, the school is constantly emailing surveys and also two alumni post-completion of courses and course evaluations and professor evaluations. They are also constantly accepting feedback about the technical support received, and will immediately remedy any technical issues that occur within minutes. The ancillary support staff is friendly, kind and effective. Whenever I needed to get to the right department — more frequently than I would like to admit — I was always put through to a live person and not to voicemail box. BOTTOM LINE: this is the university to go to if you work with a support staff or office team in human resources, you like to rub shoulders to get ahead in life in a business setting with “colleagues” and seek some type of accolades through jobs that require a specific title or level of education to open different doors for you. In my opinion, everything else is just a mishmash of vague degrees that are not applicable to real world job applications that provide any real merit or value to a working, dynamic or technical/medical/scientific career. I have literally spent about seven minutes proofreading this Google post, more than students there would even do for class."

"I graduated with my BA from TESU in 2020. I had a great experience with this institution and would reccomend it for any non-traditional student who is comfortable with online classes. I fit in relatively well as someone who had many varied credits from stints in college here and there but in a year I was able to piece all of the credits together and finally finish my undergraduate work. However, this school is for self starters. If you are someone who requires a lot of 1 on 1 attention with an educator this is not the best option for you. I have taken online courses at more traditional universities and actually found TESU to be more rigorous. (My theory is that since it's an online only school they put more into the online curriculum then a brick and morter school with online options) Bottom line: if you are motivated this is an affordable and great option to put a degree to your name."

"My wife is graduating from here and after paying for your education they charge an exit fee. Supposedly to do a transcript review, their computer does audits for free. After complaining they said it is legit, if you plan to attend be prepared to pay 300 out the back door. I have not found other universities charging an audit fee? Maybe a graduating fee but no more than 50."

"They will NOT grant military members extensions with activation orders. If you are 88% complete (just one exam missing) with a course Mona Spera will recommend you drop the course and loose the credits. It is even bizarre to the mentors. Very passive aggressive and manipulative. She would tell my recruiter the request is being reviewed, but then tell me something different. Also she’d discuss everything with my recruiter and then email me about FERPA, right after she already corresponded with him. Almost like she was being cynical. It’s cheap, but if you have to deal with anyone, it is conflicting information and they will play with you. So just make sure you do your coursework and remember that nobody there wants to do any more work."

"I will begin by saying your experience with this university directly reflects your participation. Let's start with the admission process; it was easy, and your ability to do everything online. Next, let's talk about financial aid; I didn't use it since I paid (an excellent value) as I went along. Moving along, we have the advisors. The advisor, Amy, gave me great advice and showed me how to get my degree quickly while learning so many new ideas. She pushed me outside my comfort zone and made this experience truly enriching. I started with 68 credits, and 11 months later, I had 125 credits and a bachelor's degree. To do this, I had to use TECEPT's, testing out of classes. I came to the school with a great deal of knowledge I gained from life experiences. TESU was able to show me how to prove that knowledge was worth college credits. Was this easy? No, it was tough, but it was cost-effective and much faster than classes. I took several courses and had tons of homework and tests. I just kept up with the work. My professors were great. They all did most of the communication with emails, and that was wonderful for me. Once I completed my studies, I applied for a new position only available to someone with a college degree and got it. My life has changed 360 degrees, and it would not have been possible if not for Thomas Edison University. I will say one last thing. You have to be focused and self-motivated to become a graduate. There is no free ride or a fake degree; you must complete the work and do it mostly on your own. If you want this, you will be successful."