Reasons Why SNHU Is NOT The College For... Anyone.

There are just some experiences you don't wish on anyone, not even your enemies.

Trying to continue your education is already difficult. First of all, you have to know what you want to do with your life or have a semblance of an idea of what you might want to do. You have to make a choice - what degree do you want? What degree level do you want to get for your chosen career path? How many years are you willing to dedicate your life to earning that? Then you've got to research the best schools for the degree, apply to the school (and HOPE you get accepted), apply for scholarships, and deal with FAFSA and student loans. Then you get to spend the next 2 to 10 years working your ass off studying (while maintaining financial stability somehow).

Naturally, with a process as complicated as going to college you want one that's going to have excellent staff, understanding professors, attentive advisors who know what they are doing, and all around be surrounded by college faculty that are setting you up for success for the rest of your life and chosen career path.

I'll get to the point - you will NOT find that at Southern New Hampshire University.

I mean. You MIGHT -if you're lucky. I'm sure there are LOADS of people out there who didn't get screwed over, lied to, put up for failure, accused of plagiarism by a professor that was too lazy to read the assignments handed into them... and a WHOLE plethora of other problems. And if that's the case: Good for you, lucky SOB.

Understand that this warning comes from a place of personal experience. I am not just deciding that some colleges are terrible and others aren't. Frankly speaking, all educational institutes have a fatal flaw in some way, especially here in America. But watching my sister's experience at SNHU from outside her perspective, I can understand how this particular college impacted her mental and emotional health negatively.

Understand that everything I am going to tell you, I have heard and seen and witnessed being done to someone in my home. I had to watch her cry in frustration and helplessness.

And it was me who suggested she transfer schools. Despite all of the problems she had with professors and advising, my sister managed to maintain being on the honor roll. So none of these things were on her. I watched her do her research, she would ask me to proofread her essays, and she would figure out she made a mistake and go back and re-do the assignment until it was completed and perfect.

So for everyone else: I am here to WARN you about what you WILL most likely find at this college - especially the off-campus online programs:

1. Student Advisors that lie to you... or maybe they're just ALL very badly trained.

So... my sister went through 4 advisors in the 4 years she attended this horrid school. And every single one of them told her a lie. One of them told her she was not allowed to be a full-time student until she was a junior. This was the one she had the longest - so for over two years she was only taking one class at a time because that's all her first advisor would allow her to take. Come to find out from advisor number two - that was complete horseshit - she could have been going full-time the entire enrollment.

Advisor number 3 went AWOL and suddenly just stopped responding to sis, and she had to request an advisor.

There was also a lack of explanation of how certain classes could only taken after you had so many credits. But these are mandatory classes like math and science that you must take before you graduate. She had wanted to take all of her essential classes that weren't associated with her degree in any way first so that she could focus on learning when it came time to learn about the pertinent topic of her degree- photography. Her advisor had somehow lined up her classes so that if she had stayed with SNHU, even switching to full-time (thanks to the information from the 4th and final advisor she was assigned) she would have had to stay in school for another 4 years.

She's aiming for her bachelor's degree and has already been enrolled in SNHU for almost 4 years. The year she should have been GRADUATING, she was informed because of how the classes had been taken and lined up, she would still have to attend...ANOTHER 4years. For her BACHELORS.

So then she started the withdraw process- after finding another school for her degree. She was told by faculty she could NOT start her withdraw process until the end of the term. Come to find out - at the end of the term and she's already had to take a term off to wait to transfer schools she could have started her process and continued to take classes until the end of the term.

Can you see how this would be devastating and heartbreaking? No matter what the issue was... she just was yanked around and lied to, and made a fool of.

2. Financial Advisors that lie to you... or maybe THEY are just all very badly trained... We never like to make assumptions.

There were CONSTANT problems with her financial aid. I would listen to her call them, she'd put them on speaker and I would listen to these conversations. I'm not going to go into details, but I have heard several SNHU financial advisors confirm that yes... the last agent she spoke to told her something incorrectly. Not that the new one would say anything truer according to the next time she would call. Delays in her student funding (which would cause lapses in the software programs she was required to have for the classes she was taking), mistruths, and misinformation.

I can't tell you how many times she's gotten off the phone in TEARS of frustration after speaking to this department of the college.

3. Commission-paid enrollment officers... which means they also lie to you.

I'll be honest. I don't know if they are commission-paid. I just know they will say WHATEVER it takes to get you to enroll. And by the time you find out, it'll be too late. You're already enrolled, and they already got credit for your enrollment. It's their job to make the college sound amazing so you want to attend! But they should be honest about any questions you have, even if the answer isn't favorable. Don't expect integrity from these particular faculty staff in any college, but most especially here.

4. Unsupportive lazy professors who seem to pretty much HATE their job...and students - and they will set you up for failure.

There are no set lectures for the online programs, and there is hardly any material except the books that you can purchase. You can, of course, reference the school online library and yadda yadda, and Google is your friend.

However, the teachers in the online courses do not teach. Their only job is to answer questions in email and grade the assignments. So IF you learn ANYTHING from going to college here at this school, you will have taught yourself... and quite frankly wasted the $400,000 meant to be paying for your education. You're going to have to pay that back one day - and you're going to feel ripped off because... well no one taught you shit. You had to teach yourself.

There was one professor, my favorite of course, who accused her of plagiarizing because she had directly pasted certain passages into the document - LIKE IT SAID TO ON THE RUBRIC FOR THE ASSIGNMENT.

His little detection software said there was copied text and he threatened to have her expelled until it was all cleared up when she contacted advising. There was another teacher that one of her ENTIRE classes all lodged a petition and formal complaint against because she was essentially told them that she wasn't going to 'babysit and hold their hands' when they asked her information about her vague instructions.

There is a policy in this school that the professors MUST email you back within 48 hours. But the REALITY is, you are more likely to win the jackpot in a scratch off ticket than get a response that's helpful from these 'educators.' If they even respond to your email about your assignment at all that is. Most likely, the response will be: "Read your rubric, and remember to cite your research." To see why this isn't helpful... continue to read.

5. Outdated rubrics missing vital pieces of information on the assignments that will cost you grade points. Now you know why number 4 is such an issue.

So when you email a teacher with a clarifying question - and their only response is to 'read the rubric,' you read the rubric do the assignment.. and then you get a C on the paper for missing information that you didn't know you needed... because the rubric was outdated because the professor is too lazy to double check their OWN work.

So if you are looking for a good college to go to... my suggestion is: ANYWHERE but SNHU - Because Southern New Hampshire University will set you up for failure and make continuing your education a living hell- and will make you want to quit.

Good luck with your college search - and I hope this helped you toward a wise decision toward a successful college education!

Time is precious, thank you so much for taking some to read my article. I hope you enjoyed it and it proved useful in some way!

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