Evan S.

I have been doing extensive research on online education and schools and so far this is the only one I have given a full heart to. Let me tell you why. Western governors university is a non profit as opposed to the for profit schools that are all over the internet and it is called western governors because it was founded by 19 real governors who were all trying to do the right thing and help us get a solid and less expensive education. Read this article by time magazine

http://www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/time

Even Time magazine recommends them! That is a great thing in my book. They seem to focus a bit on education (which makes sense since I'm sure they are aware that we need more teachers) and have educational programs online for every thing from special education to english language learning. They also have online MBA programs too. I am thinking of doing technology and they do offer Online College of Information Technology.

The interesting thing is that they offer competency based learning meaning you get your degree by demonstrating competency rather than by credits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University

"It is notable for offering a unique competency-based learning model in which students earn their degrees by demonstrating competence rather than by accumulating credit hours by spending time attending classes. "

The best part I think about western governors university is the competency based learning which means you spend less money if you graduate early. You do not have to sit and wait to earn your degree. If you complete the work early, you are done and you only pay for a semester of school at a time. Want to graduate early, simply do more work. Amazing model. I do wonder if I could finish early and get an MBA and a tech degree. I think also because the main goal of this university really is to provide education for all of us (rather than making money like the for profit schools) so far this is my best pick. My only wish is that they had more online degree programs than what they currently have. I can't fault them for that but if you are lucky enough to have this online school offering your dream degree then I think this is a great place to start.

Argosy university is both an online degree program and they have actual campus locations too. They are a for-profit university which I am learning does not carry the same reputation as non-profit state schools for some reason. I wish they did but apparently some employers frown upon for profit schools. Argosy college is a little different from other online educational schools in that they offer liberal arts degrees such as psychology, counseling psychology, and behavioral science degrees. The only problem I see with that is my friends who went to traditional 4 year colleges with degrees in liberal arts are having a tough time finding jobs right now so I am not too sure that is a good idea.

According to the US senate hearing on for profit schools including argosy university
http://socialcapitalreview.org/u-s-senate-hearings-fraud-in-for-profit-education-industry/

Personnel at 13 of the 15 schools provided inaccurate or incomplete information about graduation rates. At four of the schools information to applicants on accreditation was either not provided or inaccurate.
College recruiters grossly exaggerated the earning potential of students after coursework completion, and lowballed the actual costs of tuition, in some cases by 20 percent and in one case by 80 percent.

What concerns me and should concern anyone enrolling into their psychology program is this by wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argosy_University

"In 2009, 15 students sued Argosy University's Dallas campus, accusing the school of fraud.[7] They allege that Argosy representatives lied to them in order to get them to enroll in the college, saying that the college was in the process of becoming accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and would be accredited by the APA by the time the students graduated. When the students graduated, the university had still made no progress toward accreditation by the APA, which the students claim significantly hindered their employability and thus their ability to pay off their student loans"

I am not sure if they are currently accredited by the APA but it may be prudent to check before spending all of that money on an education with them.

Anthem offers an online degree program similar to other online educational schools and it also has physical locations throughout the country. One is somewhat near where I live so that is a big plus for me. You can also attend their school online. They have some graduate degrees like MBA. Their school also focuses on some more trade specific types of jobs which I think is great as it seems like those types of degrees and certification may help more in landing a job after one graduates. They have medical assistant degree, massage therapy, X-ray technician, pharmacy technician, medical billing and coding, paralegal and the list goes on. I feel like because they are not trying to "sell" themselves as an alternative to traditional 4 year non-profit colleges and they offer degree programs specifically designed to get you a job in the real world, they seem much more legit to me. But they were still part of the US senate investigation.

http://socialcapitalreview.org/u-s-senate-hearings-fraud-in-for-profit-education-industry/

And still was part of the

"All 15 schools investigated "made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to G. A. O.'s undercover applicants."

Not that I can trust everything like that but it does give me some concern.

Reading about the college on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_Education_Group

I learned that they were also called High-Tech Institute, Anthem Career College, Anthem College, Anthem College Online, Anthem Institute, Morrison University, and The Bryman School of Arizona and that through a series of purchases are now under the Anthem education group. I also learned that "For a period in 2007-2008, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT; former name of the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges) placed all schools in the High-Tech family on probation" Which does worry me as it is only 2011 and what if they slip back into probation? Would I not get a degree then if they were in probation? I would hate to spend money and have the school's accreditation get pulled out.

This online college is probably on the lower part of my list and unless they are really cheap I might consider other ones first. Potomac was more recently built in 1991 and according to wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potomac_College

They ran into some legal problems in 2010... what I am worried about is them running into trouble while I am enrolled there. They also do not seem to offer the wide variety of online degrees compared to other schools like phoenix. They do have a real location but very far from me. I wonder if they have a stronger local presence in the DC area but I really have not heard too much about them.

They too were investigated by the US senate
http://socialcapitalreview.org/u-s-senate-hearings-fraud-in-for-profit-education-industry/

Highlights of the reviews showed

College recruiters grossly exaggerated the earning potential of students after coursework completion, and lowballed the actual costs of tuition, in some cases by 20 percent and in one case by 80 percent.
Sham admissions tests and a variety of high-pressure sales tactics were employed.

Think I will consider some of the other online universities over this one at this point in time, but if anyone has visited their campus and enrolled I would be interested to hear your point of view.

Checked out westwood online education and I do like that they offer a very wide selection of degrees, much more than some other online universities. In tech specifically they even offer cisco certification. Not many offer both MBA and JD degrees and that makes me feel like westwood online education can give better online degrees than other types of schools. Westwood does have both online and brick and mortar campuses though none are really that close to me. Nice to know the real campuses exist and it does make them seem more legit to me than the other ones out there.

Again they were listed in the US senate hearing investigation

http://socialcapitalreview.org/u-s-senate-hearings-fraud-in-for-profit-education-industry/

This part in particular causes me to worry

KEY LINK #2: Testimony Of Joshua Pruyn, Former Admissions Representative, Alta College Inc., Denver, CO, to U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, 8/4/10. Â Pruyn worked for Westwood College, an Alta College unit with 17 campuses around the U.S. and an online degree program.

A high school diploma or G. E. D. And $100 were all that were needed for initial enrollment. A fake interview process was designed to convey the appearance of selective admissions. A B. A. cost $75,000 but was deceptively marketed as costing $4,800 per term. Unlike most schools where there are two to three terms per year, there were five terms per year at Westwood.
Westwood's Denver college was not regionally accredited, meaning B. A. credits would not transfer to qualify for post-graduate programs elsewhere. Fictitious endorsements were promoted for Westwood's highly-promoted gaming industry training program. But it produced only three graduates in three years, none of whom was employed in the industry.
A "boiler-room" operation fueled dozens and dozens of calls in short succession to "leads" who filled out online forms requesting more information. High-pressure tactics based on fears and hopes of prospective students uncovered in conversations and interviews were regularly used to "close" sales.
Sales quotas were strictly enforced for "assistant directors of admissions." The quotas were for student "starts," meaning enrollees who attended class for 14 days after U.S. government financial aid had been secured. After 14 days, even if they dropped out, the government financial aid could be, and usually was, kept by the college, according to Pruyn.
Trips to Cancun were awarded to top salespeople, but those behind on their sales quotas were forced to make 150 calls per day. Prospective students were "often characterized and described among admissions staff as stupid, lazy and generally unaware of what was in their own best interest." Lies were openly tolerated. One assistant director of admissions was presented with a "Best Liar" award at a team event.

Doing a little research on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood_College

It appears that transferring credits has been an issue and resulted in lawsuits against westwood college. But if I am only going to graduate from westwood with a career possibly in IT or maybe even getting an MBA then do I really care about the whole lawsuit problem with transferring credits? Online MBA programs do not ever discuss transferring credits because people do not typically transfer. This is one of my top picks so far and is really between a meh and a cool, but would like to see what others also think.

In my search for an online school so far kaplan I think is ranking the best. They it seems are owned by the washington post I think and seem at least very legit and have been around for years. I remember people in high school going to kaplan for their SATs. They offer more degrees it seems than many other online schools including an MBA and JD degree once you finish the bachelors degree. It appears you could become a lawyer all online if you can take out enough loans to pay for it all.

The cost is about the same as other online schools and I think the fact that they have a very long history is a good thing. I was surprised to see that they too were investigated by the US senate hearing

http://socialcapitalreview.org/u-s-senate-hearings-fraud-in-for-profit-education-industry/

And they had this to say about the 15 schools including kaplan that were investigated

All 15 schools investigated "made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to G. A. O.'s undercover applicants."

That worries me. But I am not sure if there are any online schools that are any different in this regard or at least ones that I can get into easily.

Another big advantage of kaplan is that they have physical locations as well and are not purely online. That makes me feel better that I can at least visit my local kaplan office for help. The pure online schools cannot offer that.

According to wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaplan,_Inc.

They had a case against them that they defrauded the government and inflated students grades to help them graduate... I cannot see anything wrong with that! Help me graduate, heck ya! Would the government rather kick out the students?

Not a bad online education I think but would like to hear more from others.

I see on their homepage... don't be afraid to take that chance. What I am afraid of is wasting my money. I would like to talk to some people who actually went to this school and landed a really good job later. So far out of the online schools I have investigated they seem better than most. What makes me afraid of Taking that chance as the everest college tag line seems to be is that they were investigated by the US senate in some sort of hearing against for profit universities. I had not realized there was such a big difference between for profit and non profit schools. State schools I guess are non profit and seem to have a better reputation whereas these for profit schools seem to have a different accredidation and are not as good. I just don't know what to do. The US senate hearing had this to say about some of the schools they investigated and everest was one of them

All 15 schools investigated "made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to G. A. O.'s undercover applicants."
Four of the 15 schools encouraged fraudulent practices to help secure federal grants or loans to be paid to the school for the applicant's course work. Two applicants were encouraged to falsely increase the number of dependents to qualify for a Pell Grant; two others were instructed to conceal personal holdings of $250,000 in order to qualify for federal financial aid.
Personnel at 13 of the 15 schools provided inaccurate or incomplete information about graduation rates. At four of the schools information to applicants on accreditation was either not provided or inaccurate.
College recruiters grossly exaggerated the earning potential of students after coursework completion, and lowballed the actual costs of tuition, in some cases by 20 percent and in one case by 80 percent.
Sham admissions tests and a variety of high-pressure sales tactics were employed.
Certificates for completion of specific vocational or technical class sequences were anywhere from 10 to 27 times more expensive at some of the for-profit schools investigated by G. A. O., compared to the same training at a public college in the area. Associate's degrees at some of the for-profit schools ranged from 6 to 13 times more costly than the equivalent programs at a public college in the area.

If anyone knows first hand I would like to hear about it.

After researching attending the university of phoenix the next most advertised one I heard about was devry university and unlike UOP devry does have some college campuses that were close to me. I do like the fact that I can get in person training as compared to the other online only degree options. I have asked around and it seems they have better connections with employers and devry graduates in general seem better than the online only options out there for education and training. Devry had the degree program I was interested in as well--information system.

They seemed on par with expense as compared to online only and you get the benefit of having a physical location to boot. I will say that my main concern are some the things I read about devry on places like complaintsboard and I hear horror stories of how people paid and took out loans to the tune of $45,000 and then still couldn't get a job and were stuck paying back all of that money. I know a degree doesn't guareneee a job but I can't afford to do that. They said the same thing about devry as other online education in that many employers want you to graduate from a traditional 4 year school like a state school. Not all of us can afford to take time off to go to a 4 year college. If anyone has good or bad experiences from devry I would like to hear about it.

Like everyone else looking for a job I keep thinking that if I had more education or training or something I would get hired for a job. I don't have the time or money to go to a 4 year school. I can't even go part time to a local community college. I see everywhere they advertise online education at university of phoenix and they have the degrees I want to get. They have great loans and I was looking at their degree in information systems. If I am going to take out huge loans to do an online degree then I would hope that I could use it to get a job afterwards. I did some research online and what I found somewhat scared me. First everyone seems to say that a degree from this online school doesn't mean anything and second many call it a scam. They even have an entire website dedicated to this so called scam.

http://myphoenixmistake.webs.com/

I understand that with any education it does not guarentee a job or a career and that it is only a stepping stone in that direction.

Then I saw this video by the huffington post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/19/university-of-phoenix-rec_n_*******.html

The sad thing is that I really want to believe that if I can get an online education I can get a high paying job. Not sure I can risk this type of money. I read on the above report that only 2 percent of people enrolling graduate and that many defaut on their student loans at university of phoenix. I can't afford to go bankrupt again and my credit will be ruined.

If anyone has actually got a job after going to the university of phoenix I would like to know about that. I am sure some have and I know the people who complain make the most noise. Or are there other online schools that are more reputable?

While desperately looking for any extra source of income I have been looking at work at home and home based business job opportunities. I came across work at home united while doing a google search and the website looked very promising. They say they are partnered with a inc 500 company so they appeared to be very big and legit. Working at home has always been my dream. What I quickly realized was that they wanted you to sign up to sell products and get them referrals to sell products by this company called Melaleuca. Melaleuca is a wellness type of company and I am not really sure how they are affiliated with work at home united or if they are really the same thing. I did read on other message boards that people would have to refer crazy amounts of people to really make any money off of this. I remember amway back in the day and this just seems like the same thing. I suppose if you had a social network of thousands of people you could sell them on Melaleuca products through united work at home. I will pass on this company though as I need a more guarneteed level of work at home income.

I am debating between 2-3 stars and I can not decide. The good news about this card is you can load it up with money and then use it like a credit card to buy things online or to make purchases. Great for people like me that cannot get a standard credit card where you make monthly purchases and pay at the end of the month. My only problem with this is that I have done some research online and have found that the card lacks the buyer protection typical with other credit cards meaning if you get over changed it is difficult to get your money back. Partially because you already prepaid it whereas with a traditional credit card you have not paid it. Achievecard gets a bad rap because of this but it isn't a scam and they are partnered with mastercard MC which is better than some of the other ones out there like this. I just wish they had better protection along with the card. I have also heard of some people getting their card number stolen and then not being able to get their money back too.

Note that there is no visa or MC symbol on that credit card you see on this website. Net first platinum is all over the web as getting people to pay for their so called credit card but with an application FEE. Yes, that is right. I like others need better credit to get a credit card and I looked up this site and was going to apply as they make it seem so easy. I never have heard of paying money to get a credit card before and it turns out that if you pay the money you still might not get anything in return. I will admit it is probably a good business for them though. Netfirstplatinum should really have a disclaimer on their site about how they charge a fee to get a card

Next to Tivo this has to be one of my all time tv media altering experiences. I love my slingbox and it is really better than any of those free tv or satellite tv type of services. I hook it up to my DVR at home and I can stream tv to anywhere or any device I want. I even let my close friends and family have access to my device and they can get free TV by using my slingbox. Great for college kids away at school because they can mooch off of their parents cable subscription and get free tv on their phone or laptop this way. There must be people who just share their cable subscription with friends like this all of the time and I suppose it is perfectly legal as it is your subscription to cable tv that you share with others. Great way for people to all chip in and buy cable tv together and then just distribute via the slingbox device.

I am going to give my opinion on all of those people who ruin MMO games by cheating. Evony otherwise known as civony is a web based or browser based MMORPG with a little RPG real time strategy thrown in for good measure. They are famous for their naked women advertisements and forum spam to get people to play it. It is a pretty good game though and it is a bizzare mixture of civ and starcraft and a little wow too. You have to play to understand. The problem is because it is browser based it opens itself up to many hacks and exploits otherwise known as bots. A bot being a program that just runs on its own so you dominate the game. I will admit using bots as far back as in Ultima Online but it does ruin the game experience. For everyone. See the problem is if one person can use a bot, then we all have to use a bot to compete. I would prefer if bots didn't exist but if they do exist I have to use them to compete. So i give a site that creates cheats for these games a $#*!D UP rating. Evony bots ruin the game and we should avoid them but we can't. Evony itself being a browser based game cannot stop them really.

Warez, where do I begin if you don't know about this site. They have literally every movie, software, tv show, free internet anything all available for download. They use both bittorents and they have sponsored links to sites where you can pay companies to get some sort of download software to get the free software. My problem with these sites is both that they are illegal and they are potentially full of viruses. If someone was going to be illegal and download software, there are better sites for that type of behavior. Just do a google search for the word torrent and you can figure it out for yourself. Warez has been well known on the net for downloading pretty much anything.

I was looking for more places to watch free internet tv and free movies online but I did not want to really break any laws and I was assuming most places make deals with hollywood but maybe that is not true. This site is everywhere and then I googled watch movies tv and found they were recently shut down by the FBI

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/06/tv-shack-piracy/

They still have links to movies and they still operate but I cannot watch movies online anymore. I am not sure what point this site still has or if they are operating illegally now.

For the love of God read reviews on this site before you download their medial player. I downloaded something off of their site and for some reason my pc kept crashing due to some anti virus program. Then I looked online about this website and found similar stories all over the internet. I don't know exactly what is happening, but my pc did not work the same afterwards and I read that they have some sort of program that gets downloaded that is a spybot, I don't know that is exactly but others have reported this. Hit google and go

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tv+shack+review

Does anyone know where they have free tv that doesn't require that I install something on my pc, I don't trust nobody to do installation of tvshack or any other type of programs that may be a virus but i do want free tv or internet tv.

For the love of God read reviews on this site before you download their medial player. I downloaded something off of their site and for some reason my pc kept crashing due to some anti virus program. Then I looked online about this website and found similar stories all over the internet. I don't know exactly what is happening, but my pc did not work the same afterwards and I read that they have some sort of program that gets downloaded that is a spybot, I don't know that is exactly but others have reported this. Hit google and go

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tv+shack+review

Does anyone know where they have free tv that doesn't require that I install something on my pc, I don't trust nobody to do installation of tvshack or any other type of programs that may be a virus but i do want free tv or internet tv.

This is a notorious company that when you give them your bank information, you may unknowingly be giving them access to withdraw money from your bank account. Follow this link and read what has happened to many. I was almost going to use this site and then read reports of them online

http://www.ripoffreport.com/internet-fraud/ez-loan-protection/ez-loan-protection-took-out-m-4bcf5.htm

I am now very wary of giving anyone my bank account information. I don't think it is fair how there is fine print on these websites that just take from us and take from us and call it legal because we hit an accept button.

If that isn't enough for you to stay away, before I signed up with this company I did some research and found BBB gave them an F rating

http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/payday-loan-companies/e-z-loan-protection-in-washington-ut-*******

Ezloanprotection I don't think is going away so I hope others can read this and learn something valuable.