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Go"Good Experience"
I have been attending Kaplan for the last 2 1/2 years and will be graduating in April (2011) with a B.S. in Psy. I have read all the reviews on this message board and despite the good experience I had some of the complaints on this site are valid. Financial aid was a headache for the majority of my stay at Kaplan, but they have made some vast improvements. Do not discount them for that because they are not the only school who has issues with their financial aid department. My husband goes to a "traditional" college and has issues with his financial aid department as well. To smooth out some of the problems they were having with their FA department, they now have teams assigned to students rather than one individual. This means you, the student, are able to get the answers to the questions you need immediately rather than having to wait for someone to call you back. The whole school as updated their site, which for the student means things are more accessible. As for the class work and teachers, I had some really great teachers. What I a mean by great is that I had teachers who were actually practicing or retried therapist. The upper level seminars provide additional information that is not in the text, in other words the teachers actually teach. There are mock therapy secessions and virtual field trips to websites that are usefully to the material that is being taught. Oh, not to mention the majority of the seminars are now audio. Most of the classes are challenging and if you apply yourself you will walk away with knowledge in you respective field. There are other classes that are not so challenging, at least in my opinion. Speech, intro to computers, and a few others were not very challenging, but that is not the school's fault those classes are not challenging anywhere. My academic adviser is great she calls me when it is time to register for classes and checks-up on me mid-way through each term to see how I am doing with my classes, grades, and if I am having any problems with any of my teachers. It just recently changed to the team format where there is more than one person who may call you to register, but they still are all friendly. As far as the cost goes, I did some researcher on a traditional university in my area and compared the cost between the two. Kaplan was higher per year than the traditional university, but for me the difference in the cost decreased once I added in the cost of daycare for my son, gas money to and from school because it is not close, and the cost of books. My suggestion to anyone thinking about attending Kaplan or any other on-line school is to do your researcher and ask questions before you decide to go. In fact ask the same questions repeatedly if you have too. There are some degree programs that Kaplan and other on-line schools offer that will require you to still take and pass your state test guidelines e.g. teaching certificates. I hope this review helped someone, it is a great school, that is striving to provide a great educational experience to it's' students.
