• American Public University

American Public University

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Overview

American Public University has a rating of 1.8 stars from 61 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about American Public University most frequently mention financial aid problems. American Public University ranks 4396th among Education sites.

  • Service
    11
  • Value
    11
  • Returns
    6
  • Quality
    11
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
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How would you rate American Public University?
Top Positive Review

“School is okay”

Natasha L.
4/17/23

I have had no issues at this school. I do not always like my teachers, as many of them dock points for grammatical errors while their lessons are FULL of misspellings, missing words, etc. Many instructors are inactive, but I do not care about that. I am taking online classes to quickly earn a degree that will help me get more job opportunities. I'm not looking to become a doctor or something. Where I live, a Bachelors is necessary for almost any job paying above minimum wage. This school will help me achieve that. I absolutely hate having to write 10 page papers for every class, every eight weeks. Especially since I take multiple classes at once and have a full life outside of school. I can't wait to be out of school so I never have to write another paper again.

Top Critical Review

“Stay away from APU. Don't waste your time or money.”

Anonymous Student S.
4/19/24

While the education here is good, it isn't worth the headache with their financial aid. They deliberately take longer than necessary to refund money owed to you. They take an excessive amount of time doing so. Also they ruin students financial aid package. You would be better served elsewhere.

Reviews (61)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

school (28) students (19) aid department (4) american military university (3) financial aid (16)
Thumbnail of user gailw18
New York
1 review
14 helpful votes
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November 16th, 2014

Not a single person knows what they talking about. They will pay for all the run a rounds they give. They certainly will. Who hired these bunch of idiots?

Thumbnail of user melindat36
California
1 review
19 helpful votes
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March 21st, 2019

American Public University System has become a sham of a school. I worked there for 8 years as an adjunct and never got a single raise, even though they continually increased the amount of work. The students were also ripped off by this university. Many of this school's students are military or former military. When they started coming back after serving, many had PTSD (I taught psychology and recognized it) and weren't able to do passing class work. Because I had principles, I had to fail those students, which broke my heart.

Adding insult to injury for these students was the fact that the school permits students to withdraw from classes countless times, which insures they will get their financial aid. And they are permitted to withdraw until the DAY the class ends! So, those who should and would be failed are getting government money on the scam of a withdrawal when the truth was students would be retaking (and paying again for) the same class, term after term.

This university should lose its licensing. They aren't fit to call themselves an institution of education. They are a sham and a diploma mill. Students, don't be fooled by their lower prices--remember, you get what you pay for.

Thumbnail of user alexanderlah
Georgia
1 review
6 helpful votes
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August 4th, 2021

I started a Masters in Criminal Justice program in November 2019 I finished the required 36 hours of credit hours in December 2020. Which I felt was enough for graduation. I took the senior capstone class which was 16 weeks long and I feel that the class was unnecessary as all the instructor did was deny my 50 page paper all the way to the end of class as he was not available until the last week of class, In which he stated that i should file for an extension. I filed it and turned in the same exact 50 page paper and 4 days after the extension got the grade of B on April 4th In which all my classes were complete, I finished all classes with all A's And 3 B's and a final GPA of 3.5. This School has a piss poor staff that does not communicate properly with students they expect unreal expectations online when it comes to the staff not doing their jobs. I never received and email from financial aid about completing a graduation exit through FASFA in which has nothing to do with the school as I had a ZERO balance and I didn't owe the school anything. I still do not have my degree in hand due to the departments not giving a damn about students once they have stated that they will not attend the worst for profit school in North America. School does not send out proper paperwork needed to succeed. I have had 6 months of dead time waiting on my degree in which the school still will not issue me a degree until October 1st.

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Thumbnail of user jakem466
Maine
1 review
6 helpful votes
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February 23rd, 2021

APUS is a flat out joke school and it took advantage of me. Never attend a for profit university, your degree will not be respected and you won't learn much as these schools just care about making money. Almost all of my classes used outdated material and I think I learned more from Google as there was hardly any care put into these classes. The HLC is reviewing this school soon and I hope they fail because people should not be scammed like this and waste so much money. The APUS business model is simple, get desperate people to go into debt and military to waste their GI bill and think they accomplished something when in reality they are being scammed by giving almost nothing of value in return.

Also another thing, I believe this school is paying people to review it positively such as on this site. You see the same patterns of speech and grammar in these reviews. Do not trust those reviews. Go to a community college or your state university and don't make the same mistake as me and try to find an easy way out. There are no shortcuts when it comes to education and don't think for a second that "a degree is a degree". If you learn nothing from the degree which I guarantee will happen with an APUS enrollment, then its worthless and employers will know that. I don't know how APUS faculty can sleep at night to be honest, they know they are screwing people.

The ONLY reason you should attend is if you are already 100% knowledgeable in your area, currently have a job in your field, and you have gotten to the point where your employer will promote you no matter where your degree is from. That is the only situation I can think of, and even then you are still shelling out too much for the piece of paper. The government really needs to step in and shut down these joke schools because its gotten so out of control.

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Thumbnail of user momnaa1
Pakistan
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 21st, 2022
Verified purchase

You are froad and your can not pay may payment I worked for you but you does not pay me my payment you take your work from me but never pay me

Thumbnail of user dominiquee12
Georgia
1 review
8 helpful votes
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April 22nd, 2019

Someone took out two student loans in my name and they took my tax refund because of it. I need to know what I need to do to get my $3,921 back.

Thumbnail of user devriep
Florida
1 review
11 helpful votes
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February 26th, 2020

I received my MPA from APUS and have gone on for professional learning via undergraduate certificates with them. For the MPA, all of the courses were solid courses with a good level of instructor interaction except for the final capstone! I feel like they have since offered more research support and strengthened that course, so I will give them some redemption for that. Since then, I've undertaken some undergraduate learning and the school has implemented some student service upgrades, such as sending out texts and phone calls to connect students to their learning tracks. The school offers some extracurricular engagement opportunities and online career fairs.

The college offers great tuition for its courses, and undergraduate students do not need to purchase books as the university uses e-books and digital academic libraries for course reading materials. It's always a game with which instructor one will get for a course. Some instructors really know how to engage students in an online platform and offer a well-rounded learning environment while other through reading and written assignments at the students with nothing more than canned responses and a few comments on the written assignments. Even in the latter situation, an independent student interested in learning will gain something useful from the programs, and for that reason, APUS is a very decent, worthy educational institution.

Remember, most post-secondary institutions are reputable on very arbitrary standards--graduation rates (great if they are only accepting high-level high school grads); accreditation (APUS/AMU is regionally accredited); sports and other activities (this college is for veterans and adults, so it's not comparable to a higher learning institution geared to recent high school grads); and entrance requirements. APUS/AMU is a decent school. Students who want to learn will.

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APUS provides accredited online college programs for adult learners through American Military University & American Public University. 877-755-2787

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