When people go to college they expect that their way of thinking will change from what it was before to something different. Even before you buy your first book, you know you are about to enter an area from which you will never be able to return. Once your mind has been opened, it will be impossible to close it again and the world will take on all new meanings. This seems to be the case no matter what your upbringing or educational experience. It is easy to see that the challenges facing the college community are tremendous. Not only are they expected to find some means of cracking open the sometimes very rusty jaws of intellectual thought in the minds of people who are still largely adolescents suddenly freed of their previous constraints, but they are expected to do this while still maintaining a safe and effective learning environment for adults and cope with the myriad issues that can arise with financial aid, transferring students, official documents, ad nauseam. I must admit, going into college, I was sure I would be entering a world of chaos and confusion where you were either a stuffed shirt academic or a lucky frat boy of the Hollywood variety. This made me somewhat concerned since I like fun as much as anyone, but really wanted to gain significant benefit from my college education. For this reason, I was very careful about choosing which college I would go to and selected the University of Phoenix because it met with all my most important criteria. Now that I’ve had a chance to attend this institution, I have to say that I am satisfied with my experience overall. If I were asked to provide a recommendation for the school, there are some minor things that would cause me to hesitate, but I would probably give it. As with any institution of this type, the university did not meet with all of my expectations and there are areas in which I feel it should improve, but the school has much to offer students at a variety of learning levels and objectives.
The University of Phoenix has a great deal to offer potential students. It is a strong school with a solid academic reputation. One of the things I found particularly helpful was having instructors who had real-world experience in the courses they were teaching. This meant that I was able to learn much more about the practical aspects of my chosen career field and get more in-depth information about what really worked and what was more textbook than true. It’s hard to point out a specific example of this because it was such a widespread benefit to my entire college curriculum. As a simple example that is probably obvious to anyone who’s raised a child but not necessarily to college students such as myself is the idea that all the theories proposed by the great doctors of the past are merely theories of behavior – just because you’re working with a 2-year-old, don’t expect them to be capable of demonstrating all the fine motor skills or thought processes the book says they can do. The benefits I received from instructor experience are far more profound but much more difficult to quantify. Another great benefit of attending this college was its high level of technical expertise and employment. Through the internet, I was able to conduct a great deal of my research at the university library from the comfort of my own room. These types of features enabled me to establish the learning environment best suited to my style of learning rather than attempting to conform to pre-set standards that drove me crazy in my earlier years. This also made it more likely that the school would attract and retain a more mature student body. This element of my education was important to me. I had no interest in attending classes where the instructor was continuously competing for attention from a John Belushi character, but I wanted a friendly and open environment where I could feel secure in exploring the new thoughts and ideas that were occurring to me as I learned. The adult-oriented instruction was just what I’d been hoping for.
Despite all its positive elements, the university did disappoint me in a number of areas. One of the biggest of these was the cost of tuition. I expected the college to cost approximately the same as any other college in the area. When I received the tuition statement, I was shocked to discover the difference between expectation based on admittedly only a small amount of preliminary research and actual cost. At no point in my education at this university did I feel the education I was receiving was so much better than the education I could have received elsewhere that it was worth the extra cost. In this respect I am guilty of behaving like the average consumer, though, and chose to stick it out because it was easier than trying to go through the whole process of transferring to another school and hoping I wouldn’t lose too many hard-earned and expensive credits. This high tuition made it necessary for me to seek financial aid to fund my education. This was another area in which the college failed. The financial aid office was permanently understaffed for the number of students expected and frequently took so long to settle important issues that financial aid awards were processed well after tuition payments were due. Even though the school was willing to make exceptions on tuition payments in these instances, the slow processing inevitably led to stressed nerves, anxious sleepless nights and the over-riding sense of insecurity that distracts one from concentrating on the true reason for being at college – to learn. The final issue I had a big problem with was the level of security at the school. The news today is full of stories of stressed out students and others who are opening fire on others as a means of relieving their pent-up issues. In this area, I have a number of suggestions for improvement.
The security of the school could be improved in a number of ways such as improving the size and range of the university police force, adopting a security escort service and the use of electronic key cards to enter all buildings. One way to provide greater support and security to students is to expand the range of the campus police force into the immediate perimeter around the school. Students should be able to feel safe when they leave campus to go to nearby shopping, dining and entertainment facilities. By increasing the range of the campus police force, the city can gain some assistance in the area around the college, which is usually mostly populated by students and university staff anyway, at the same time that the campus can assure its students protection. While this type of program will necessarily incur expense to the university, the establishment of a security escort service may utilize the volunteerism of the students themselves. This kind of service would provide on-call security escorts for students needing to go out alone on campus and who don’t feel secure doing so. This would reduce the potential for bodily crimes against students committed on campus and add extra eyes to report suspicious activity. Finally, the addition of security keys to access buildings would ensure that only students gain access to the interior areas.
The college could also help to diffuse the potential for violence among students by increasing student services to include crises intervention counseling. A lot of people who get involved in suicidal or murderous behaviors have been struggling with these problems mentally for some time. The problems continue to grow because they have no one to talk to about the frustrations they’re feeling. Some may even realize they need help but don’t know where to get it or can’t afford the treatment programs. Although someone might be able to discover state services, students already stressed about other issues may already be too upset to do this research on their own. By having a call center available, troubled students or students who know of troubled students will have a single, handy number to call where they can get the help they need.
My experience at the University of Phoenix was, overall, a very positive one. I gained a great deal of knowledge that has made it possible for me to progress toward my goals. This education was dramatically improved by the valuable real-world experience of my instructors who were able to tell me what the real world of my career options actually looked like. This helped me refine my ideas of what I really wanted to do at the same time that I was learning the things I needed to know to be a success in that career. There were a number of things that I had problems with at the college, though. Considering the education I received, as good as it was, it is difficult for me to assess just how it was worth that much more in tuition than the local college. This is a question that is probably irritated by the poor service I received in the financial aid office and the stress that was caused as a result of their slow processing of applications. On this point, I am willing to concede that if the financial aid office were more efficient in its function, I might not have such an issue with the tuition cost. A bigger and more concerning issue is the question of campus security, especially when so many colleges seem to be having problems lately. It is in this area that I think the university really needs to improve. I have made a number of suggestions that could be implemented toward this end. Some of these suggestions may not even require any additional investment by the college itself such as the implementation of a volunteer call center or security escort service. While the university is a fine school and was very helpful to me in launching my new career, it has room for improvement.