Hi all,

I am a present student at Aiu and for quite some time I thought they were a good school even though the work isn't that big of a deal. I'm in the graphics program for the bachelor's degree and I think that looking the education is subpar for graphics. They send you the software but then when you have questions about it you have to call tech support not the professor. two, don't be fooled by the title, "Professor" most of AIU's teachers went through the bachelor's programs there and made it to MBA. Some claim they have PhD's but they won't tell you where they wen to school. They had one honest MFA Adobe Illustrator teacher who did have a degree form a real school and he was teaching just for the extra money and quit right after I got out of his class. he told students that he had in class including myself that they are not following federal guidelines and they are in trouble with the Department of Justice for a whole slew of matters which he couldn't talk about.

Not onto my experience. I only went to this school because I live out in the country and going to the big city with today's gas prices would have been hell. I actually did more work at the community college I attended then I do here. The admission process is a joke the essay you fill out is totally stupid and I filled out a more robust essay for my scholarship to go to a local community college where I live.

Three, don't let the sacs accreditation fool you. The only accreditation that matters is the Northeastern accrediting organization which accredits such school's as Harvard, UCLA, CU in Boulder, Colorado, etc. These are just a few of the schools that are traditional and considered good schools. Sacs accreditation according to my friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder near where I live say it is fraudulent and they will accredit anyone with a million or so dollars in their pocket.

Four the high ups in AIU are under investigation by the Department of Justice, hardly a good sign for a school. Yet many of our traditional school's have problems but not like these school's.

Five, AIU is about to get their accreditation pulled and it is freaking out the investors. According to one fellow student who actually lives near their Chicago campus they have until December first to convince the government and sacs that they have solved their issues. They still have according to this friend of mine at least a dozen issues unresolved!

Six, don;t listen to those who say that when they lose accredidation they lose government financial aid, that is horse pucky. They lose nothing! There is a technical school right here in Colorado that lost their accreditation and are still getting federal financial aid from the federal government's student loan program.

And as for those who say they were challenged by AIU, I say yes if you are a retard with a fifty I.Q. Most of the students shouldn't even be in an online school like AIU, let alone a traditional school.

By the way beware of the, "You're doing good" and then when you reach the end of your program the last teacher you have tries flunking you on every project you turn in so you have to repeat the class. Right now I am going through hell with my last teacher for my last class trying down every project I turn in. I've turned her into the school and no response.

And yes they give you software, but beware it is bulk license software and once you get done with school and you have to reinstall the software you will find that you have to upgrade to the commercial version! So don't fall for the you get software routine. Get two jobs, and save up and buy the retail version of the software.

Also they like pulling a stunt with students where you submit your resume and they put in your profile, "unmarketable." They have done this to me and other students that I have talked to. I haven't gotten a reply from "Career" section of AIU yet but other students say they have and AIU says to be marketable they have to take the MBA program!

Watch out for this.

They go through help pretty quick as well. Former employees who sued the school lost their lawsuit back in October of this year.

But I do have to say that not everyone at AIU is dishonest or some kind of schemer. I think that some of the teachers do try and help but are limited. You can read on the Internet former employees who have blown the whistle on this school. What they say will shock you.

All in all it is better to just go to a traditional school. I probably shouldn't have been a wimp and sprung for gas to got to CU for the bachelor's degree. If you ask me AIU is an expensive mistake. But then so are the rest of these career school's.

With my recent complaints I have a feeling that they will probably not contact me further except through email. Here are some things that make this school and other's like suspicious:

1. They have people available 24 hours a day! Not even Harvard offers you that for 100G's

2. They do read off of a script as has been stated in this forum and others as well.

3. The school gives you nothing in writing not Financial aid documents, transcripts, class schedules, etc. Face it this school is hiding behind the world wide web. That alone is suspicious.

4. They do not allow anyone on their campus where they have buildings. I found out from a friend of mine who is a cop, there is a good reason for that, because they have a small office in various locations around the country and run everything remotely from the homes of their techs, teachers, administrators, etc. I can attest to this as they asked me to come to work for them and I told them that I did not want to move to Illinois. They responded that I didn't have to, I could work for them as a tech from my home in Colorado!

They have no on campus housing which is not too strange since community colleges with better reputations than this school don't have them either, but for a school that has school's in Paris and Australia?

5. Yes it is true that admission reps are not allowed to talk to teachers, because anybody worth their administrating skills would quickly see that they are talking to somebody in another state who themselves as teachers have never seen AIU's campus. Also teacher's are privy to things that the school does not want admission reps to know about. Like the fact that the servers somehow on their own change your grades from failing to passing or passing to failing as some students have reported to me.

6. If you have a problem with a teacher or another student, they will never call you on the phone, they will send you an email from some administrator who is probably in another state still.

7. You never know how much the school is until you agree to send them fifty dollars which they will then send you a log on I.D.

Let's face facts, this school has its problems and the better business bureau in Illinois has had 195 complaints about them but strangely they were all taken care of internally. Hmmm!

Another thing to watch out for is if you sign a cash promissory note and then not pay they won't turn it over to collection, they will turn it over to the feds and say you reneged on your student loan! How they are getting away with that I don't know but a student who dropped during our web design class got a nasty letter from the department of education about student loan default. He had just quit and was still in the six month difference period.

Whatever is going on with this school they do seem to have some government people pulling strings for them.

Anyway watch out for AIU and others like them.