Grand Canyon University [GCU]
Reviews and Complaints

My daughter has had a stressful experience here at GCU who we thought was the caring Christian University they advertise who would help her to succeed!
Without going into great details, I'm looking for an attorney or class action case group to connect our family with. It looks like there are many Christian students who have been denied care during their GCU experience . Would appreciated any assistance - Thank you Mom of GCU Student

In June, my financial aid stipend was sent to my address WITHOUT an apartment number and got sent back to the school. It was sent out again in July, and some how got lost in the mail. Now GCU is telling me that I have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for my stipend to be sent out again and that I will have to pay for the original course which I failed due to lack of resources. This has been extremely inconvenient for me and I would not recommend this school to anyone. This problem would have been avoided it GCU had a direct deposit option available like every other school in the modern world.

I was a student online for a year and a half studying communications. After that Iswitched to religious studies. I was lied too and was told that I owed the school money when in fact they mismanaged my financial aid. I was then KICKED OUT RIPPED OFF AND THEN THEY WOULD NOT LET ME GET MY TRANSCRIPTS OR EVEN MY GRADE REPORT SO That I COULD ATTEND a different SCHOOL AGAIN. Gcu needs to be burnt to the ground.

I was told I received pell grant money after I got accepted into the program. I told my counselor that I did not want to pay 100% loans back. She said I wouldn't have to and told me that I would get pell grant money and scholarships. She said I got $12, 500 in loans but could get the $5000 in grant money, therefore I wouldn't have to take the full $12, 500 out in loans. The year of school would cost $11, 000. They also said I would get around $2000 in scholarship money from GCU. If you calculate it I would only need to pay roughly around $4000-$5000 back in loan money which I was ok with. I never fully accepted the $12, 500 loan they offered but it went through anyway. When I got a disbursement it was a check for $794. If I had the scholarship money and the pell grant money I would have gotten back anywhere from $5000-$7000 disbursement check. I immediately had a gut feeling. I called FAFSA and asked them about the finances. FAFSA said I my the school would know how much money I get back. Now I'm trying to withdraw from school which does state after two weeks you won't get your money back. This makes me wonder why they would do that. It sounds like they would or get to pocket money that no one seems to know or have access to even GCU. Every time I would call the counselor the story about my finances changed. Every time I called they said I was on a recorded line which is good if it's recorded because they did tell me I got grant money. They based my tuition off of 2015 when I wasn't married and had my nephew I was fostering and my daughter and was making $25, 000 that year. To not receive pell grant money makes no sense. This school makes the final decisions and it sounds like there're hustling their students!

I took a break from school in 2016 for many reasons including financially not being able to pay for the program, leaving one class to be repeated and four months of student teaching for me to receive my bachelors in special ed in elementary education. June 2018, I tried to resume my education and retake that one class and start the four months of student teaching now that I am in Florida where I plan to teach. I was told the program has changed therefore I need to take 47 more credits. $70, 000 in debt for student loans, and now GCU wants another $20, 000? I believe that this is an ethical, immoral, and frankly ridiculous. The program I signed up for should still exist and I should be able to resume and retire from GCU. I am a single parent of four who struggles to pay rent every month, $80, 000 in debt in which 70 is because of GCU. And now I'm expected to tack on another 20, 000 and take another 10 classes when I only needed one. Somebody needs to fix this ASAP !

Unable to speak with financial aid office about MY financial aid. Gcu "counselor" was supposed to submit a form and failed to do so so my financial aid was never submitted. This is not the first time that this has occurred. Student "counselor" fails to perform tasks that I could easily do in a timely manner because I'm not allowed to call financial aid myself. Terrible system in place!

Horrible experience here. I had an A in my grad course all the way up to the last week. I had exteneuating circumstances my counselor was informed about. I heard nothing back about a problem with grade until 2 weeks later. Prof stated they will let me turn in missed work but will deduct 50%. One of the verification form for the classes was not available on GCU website so I submitted a diff field experience verification form instead from GCU that was available, professor still failed me by .80 points because she did not want to include that verification I submitted as the original one was no longer available. School offers no support and are not helpful in situations such as this. DO NOT GO HERE. Mind you I am very capable of passing a class, how ONE week can cause a failing grade is insane to me. I understand a letter grade but to go from an A to an F is absurd.

Before I started GCU I asked them if they were regional credit university with the state of KY for professional Cousneling, they said yes. I called KY professional Cousneling, in Frankfort and they also said yes. So I enrolled in the master degree program. 47 credits later I get a phone call from the school stating that they did not comply with the state of Kentucky and are no longer regional credit and my credits are no longer good. They told me I had to options. I could transfer to another university, or sign a wavier. Well I have contacted other universities, and the most any of them will accept is 12 credits after looking at my transcripts. Therefore I am stuck paying for classes and student loans that I can do nothing with. If I want to finish my masters degree in counseling I have to start all over. Therefore I have wasted thousands of student loans and two years of time. The school is in no way saying they are sorry or trying to fix the problem. Pretty much I am just out of luck.

I am writing because I need help desperately. I had taken a leave of absence for six months because GCU said that was the only way I could change my major. I changed from special education to elementary education. Because of this change I am now being penalized to the tune of $8000.00. I am still in school and currently in my last class of student teaching. I was not told that this would turn into a direct loan. Arizona is in need of good teachers and I am a good teacher. My data is higher than that of my team. I have been teaching as a long term sub here in Coolidge for 3 years with employment at my school for a total of 6 years. I really need some help here. It is as simple as GCU changing what they have for my status of withdrawn to a LOA leave of absence. I do not have this kind of funding. GCU is expensive and the interest rate is already killing me financially. I am not happy as of now with GCU and how they refuse to work with me. It is an expensive college already. I am asking please help me or tell me who can. I need this status change or I will be forced to drop of completely ending my years with GCU. Any help would be appreciated. Lorrie Berns [protected]
Lorrie.[protected]@imagineschools.org

On November 2017 I was taking a class and had to withdraw because of my deployment orders when the hurricanes we just had hit. ( Hurricane Irma, Harvey and Jose)
I submitted notification of my deployments and how long I would be gone after speaking to Ron who is supposed the supervisor of one of the student advisers he told me that I would not be penalized for the class and would not have to pay the money back. Later on in my intercommunication class I discovered that the instructors were not really instructors and I would get response coming from a student instead of the instructors. The class no clear instructions and so I spoke to Ron again and told him my concern about the teacher retaliation, I was not the only student complaining about the instructor. I also discovered that the school had been sued in the past before and other students had bad reviews. When I spoke to m counselor she gave me her supervisor who insulted and started to attack me verbally and told me that I would have to pay back money for a class that I was told I wold not have to pay back due to having to be deployed. She started to yell at me and also told me that the BBB was not real but fake. This was very unprofessional. As for my finical aid I stop getting it they would not send it to me and kept it. I am asking for my transcript and half of my money back for having to take classes that I did not need.

While I did obtain my masters degree from gcu, I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get my doctorate degree. What a huge mistake! I successfully completed all classes and even got approved for my proposal. I thought I was well on my way until my review team was little to no help at all. They would provide me very little feedback on my research and moved so slowly, so much so that I was enrolled in extension courses. They moved so slowly with my feedback and providing me with ineffective feedback until they sucked my financial aid dry. I literally ran out of financial aid. And guess what, they would not give me what I earned... My doctorate with abd. I am a teacher and I am surrounded by other professionals who obtained abd. I spent all that time and money and cant even get credit for what I earned and they were rude about my concern.

GCU issued the stipend check on 9/20/2017 of $3254, and the incorrect answer was in the system. Which I have totally taken ownership on that issue. I had asked for a stop payment at that time because didn't want someone trying to cash that check. But was told there was a 21 day wait period. Now, during that time was concerned that someone would try to cash that check and I would still be responsible for paying that loan money back. Now, I am told that the stop payment was requested but I can not find out status or when a new check will be issued. I really don't understand why there are so many vague answers.

I have freshman and I have this university class and it is online. I just do not understand why GRand canyons policy is mandatory to take this class, where they basically force you to take this class. Where I don't see what you learn from this, even though you will already learnt he material in there all by yourself. Instead of forcing the student s to take this class to learn to be organized and be successful in college, you are just putting more stress upon them. I have A's and B's in my other classes which are actual on ground classes, which actually teach you something. Also go towards my major. This university has more assignments that don't make sense to what Iam studying and in my opinion I think it is ridiculous that I might loose my full ride scholarship because of this class. I work hard, but the requirements for this class is much higher than my other classes. Like I said This class is irrelevant and I don't understand why we should take this. One of the reasons students drop out is because of this. People say they fail this class and ruins there Gpa and scholarships.

When I started at Grand Canyon University in May I was so excited about becoming a student and I was more excited because it was a Christian school but I feel I was deceived. I told my counselor that I wanted to become a social worker and they told me that I needed to take psychology classes. Then something told me to do more research and found out to become a social worker in Oregon the school needs to be CSWE program. I emailed my counselor back and told him I needed to withdraw from school and the class. He told me that I needed to finish the semester off or I will owe more money. I certainly owe 3, 600 in loans for three classes. I do not feel I need to pay for this considering I wasn't told the truth. The school know I was living in Oregon and I feel that they should have told me that the school is not CSWE certified. So I need to know what to do to resolve this issue. I need my loan to be forgiven and unenrolled me from Grand Canyon University.

I attended 4 classes and decided the school wasn't for me but since the pay periods are set up for every 3 classes I am now being told I have to pay for the other two classes I never attended or posted in. Supposedly this is because my funds were returned to the board of education except I still have to pay for those funds that I took out through the federal loan department. I should not have to pay twice for classes I never took. The school also never gives you a document where you sign and agree to this.

I have been a cash paying student at GCU. If you look at my account you will see that I have a positive balance with GCU. I am requesting that the money be returned to myself and or my employer who disbursed a check to GCU in the amount of approx. $2300.
I will not be held captive by your university. I have had educational expenses that I have paid and applied for the scholarship to help me with those expenses. I do not have an outstanding balance so I don't know why the money has not been disbursed to me for expenses I have already incurred. If we can not reconcile I will pursue legal representation and I will be notifying my employer regarding GCU's practices and request that they o longer send scholarship funds directly to GCU.
For this reason I have not registered for another class with GCU. I will complete my education but it doesn't have to be with GCU.

Veronica Golden

We entered chick-fil-a at 10:30 pm knowing that they closed at 11:00pm. I said to my friends Questioning why they would be closing at 10:45 (that is how long we waited to be served) when they obviously are supposed to close at 11:00. The manager of Chick-fil-A said very rudely “We aren’t closing 15 minutes early, we have 15 minutes of guests to serve.” They were not serving many more guests because I could see food already made. The fact that this woman was so rude, inserted herself into my conversation with my friend group, and proceeded to make a scene within the chick-fil-a/subway area is very inappropriate considering that any other business would serve customers before closing time. The fact that this happened on the Grand Canyon University campus is not okay. The manager also went up to the subway line to cut off my friend who had already been waiting in line and forced her out of the line which was not her place. Also earlier that day three out of four orders were incorrect and not fixed properly. I would hope that with the cooperation of a good company like Chick-fil-A and a great university like Grand Canyon that the customer service we receive would be much better. Apparently I was mistaken considering we are “just college students.”

My SSC never returns my calls, took loans out in my name without explaining them properly, telling me they had interest, telling me my interest rate, and taking out more than was needed. My SSC has left me in financial risk and my degree is in jeopardy.
Disabilities never efficiently gives me accommodations that I require to have an equal learning experience. I will go months without my accommodations making me struggle for months. Just recently, they gave me my accommodations at the end of the course without telling me which extended the course without my knowledge, so I missed assignments. No one told me, not my professor, not disabilities, and not my SSC, how am I going to be required to check for assignments that are passed my course if I'm under the impression my course is only 8 weeks long, not the 10 they extended it to.
I failed my course that I previously had an A in because my professor didn't help me, disabilities didn't give me my requirements, and my SSC ignored me.
Because of this, I lose my investment. I don't want to also lose my degree. These issues are not fair, and the actions taken by GCU seem to be discriminatory to disabled students.

All the want is the money, they don't care about the student success. I was taking online classes for biblical studies and had repeated (2) illness disrupting my classes to the point I had to drop and retake. I was a straight A student. They were happy to let me retake the classes at an additional cost that was to come out of my loan stipends. Ultimately it was the online math course for Biblical Studies that was the final nail in the coffin. I had a math tutor that was unable to understand why a Arts degree required such an insanely difficult math course. I expressed to my councilors that I was falling behind and that I was not able to complete the course. I was not provided alternatives and it was never advised that there was a math assessment that should be required prior to enrollment. Instead I was advised to get a math tutor, I told the councilor and the math professor I had a tutor and they had difficulty with the course. The same GCU councilors told me they failed the same math course I was enrolled in and that they also had to retake them with the help of tutors. The finance councilor was less than friendly about the entire ordeal but was happy to tell me that I could retake the math class again at my expense. I advised I don't have time or money to throw away any longer that I would take the math classes else where and that I would look into other schools to complete the course. All they want is the money, they don't care about the students.

I am currently working in my master's in counseling and was dropped from my practicum because the site said I did something unethical and that they had spoken to me about it, neither was true. I then went out of town for a few days and was told by GCU that my practicum site filled a complaint saying I was harassing them and clients but again untrue as I was out of town and didn't even have client contact information. I am now being told I will have to do a four week coaching coarse in order to graduate. I feel as if I did nothing wrong and GCU isn't listening to me.