Grand Canyon University [GCU]
Reviews and Complaints

I have been attempting to complete my Masters of Healthcare Informatics degree online from Grand Canyon University, and the last 2 courses have been real eye openers for me...
The exact same work that has been perfectly fine for all of my other instructors, is all of a sudden not up to standards any more, and I cannot get any clarification of what is wrong because these last couple of instructors like to make vague, useless comments about what is wrong with your work, and then refuse to respond when you attempt to get further information from them.
Be Careful too, because if you are not sugar and spice and everything nice when you send them a message, they WILL submit a complaint to the Code of Conduct Academic Standards Review, and try to get you in trouble for not being nice enough about being screwed over by them.
Another complaint that I have is the lack of accessibility to my Student Adviser, who it seems is almost always out of the office for a few days, when I need him. For instance, I tried to Email him tonight, but got an automated response message that he will be out of the office until Tuesday, July 24. That is a problem because I am in the middle of a class right now, and Tuesday is too late.
As to what type of resolution I am seeking, it is simple, I just want to be able to complete my degree without being singled out for abuse by instructors who feel they are God's gift to Academia...
Either that, or I would like a refund of all of my tuition money that I have wasted on this so called 'Institution of Learning', immediately!

I was contacted by Josh Walker regarding enrollment, I explained to him I was going to be going on vacation out of state. Josh Walker informed me that that would be no problem, and they could be my class on hold because I told him I would not be doing any class work while on vacation, While on vacation I received a call from Jennifer student adviser that they could not put my class on hold, I explained that I did not take my laptop, and that I only brought my tablet she suggested that I get in touch with Alan Guntrie my instructor and explain my situation I did get in contact with him his response was I guess you will just have to roll the dice and hope you pass. Needless to say I flunked the course which was UMV-103 GCU sent an invoice for 1, 000 dollar payment through the Army since I used Tuition Assistance, I have been paying the Army back through my Army reserve drill pay and had. payed back 550.00. I was then contacted by Mr True blood and asked how can GCU get me back, said do the right thing and reverse the debt owed, since I would not have enrolled in college had I had known that they could not put my class on hold, I believed Josh Walker since he worked for the College, Mr true blood was able to get his manager to get the bill erased but then Mr true blood said they could offer me a scholarship to cover the 1, 000 dollars, that still says I was at fault. Mr True blood said he understood my frustration, as he would be frustrated to. I told him that I had already paid 550.00 dollars back to Education so that would mean that the class would now cost me 1, 550.00. On 6-24-17 I received a letter from GCU saying I have fourteen days to pay the 1, 000 dollars or they will turn me into collections. I did not realize that GCU did business that way to students, or I would have never enrolled in the College. I took Josh Walker at his word, since he worked for GCU only to find out he lied to me.

I'm not completely complaining about the school itself, but the quality of the education that I pay alot of money for and after this semester I will more than likely not be back. When it comes to education and teaching at this school. It seems as if either the schools cariculum is terrible or the teachers don't care to teach. I have been here going on 3 semesters and I have never in my life have teachers give out so many essays and worksheets in my life. All the professors do is literally do a PowerPoint and that's it. It is paper after paper after paper. Like they want us to do their job and teach our selves. That is exactly how I feel, I am teaching myself​. I have to look up the information on a paper that has had virtually no instructions, just a few points we have to hit on. When your doing 4 classes and each class has multiple essays and worksheets with a certain word count on it. It is near impossible to keep up. In my intro to sports management class I had 7 different papers and 2 PowerPoint presentations due. I dont know if you all are trying to weed out people, but what ever your doing it is not a good. Professors NEVER give you feed back on time, they don't show you your quizzes and what you did wrong, and all but one professor never gave feed back on worksheets so if you have done the worksheet and you don't have the right information​ you will miss those questions on the test which they don't show you. I have actually had a Christian worldview teacher tell me on a feed back from the student forum after I asked a simple question about a Bible verse, that I need to go to this web site and do research on the web to figure it out. I am done teaching myself for the money I spend here. I really like the atmosphere and the people but the education part is past horrific. I have had better instructors at a community college. Heck I had way better instructors at UTI than there is here. Something has to be done about the quality of the education, you all are giving yourselves a bad name and I will not recommend this school to anyone in the future. I had high hopes for this school but it looks like it's back to a community college to get my education.

Will not send me a summary of how much financial aid I have left I was informed that I was running out and then I was $6, 000 for the program will not send me any information otherwise or connect me to the actual financial aid office to find out what's going on with my financial aid. Advisor refuses to to help me find outside sources that can pay for my schooling.

I was gonna do online classes this past semester but due to issues with my daughter, I was unable to do it. In the first week, I tried 3 times to get in touch with someone to drop out. The person i kept talking to refused to let me talk to someone to drop the classes. Once I was finally able to talk to the person that would be able to do it for me, it was 2 weeks into the program. ( if you drop out in the 1 week you dont have to pay full price.) They are now trying to charge me almost $2, 000 because they refused to allow me to talk to anyone to drop the class in the time I was allowed. DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL!

My Daughter attended GCU this past year. She told them in March she would not be returning. She really didn't like the Nursing program, rude staff, lack of supplies etc. Once she told her advisor she was not returning we received a bill for 900 dollars.
The school stated that it was for both semesters 450 each for an over payment from Fasfa. They stated that we didn't qualify for the amount given.
We went back and checked our 2015 taxes, the school stated that we listed out the wrong amount of dependents and kids in school. We had it listed at 7/2 we had 2 attending college.
We got that taken care of and corrected, then the school said our investment contributions were to much. Again we corrected those amounts on the worksheet.
Now they are trying to add non voluntary contributions from my wife who has a state retirement, its a 401A, she has an amount set by the state of Arizona to contribute each month. The school she works for listed that amount on box 14 of her W-2 and printed retirement after it. This was done by the school as a courtesy to show how much she paid into the system over the course of the year. They don't need to print it but they do.
So they school is saying that because it shows up we owe the money. We have found where a 401K does not get reported on FASFA, so why would a 401A which is the same. We have sent them numerous documents showing we don't owe it and they keep telling us to pay it while they look into it.
They wont let us talk to anyone in the financial aid office, we have chosen not to talk to them on the phone so we have an email paper trail.
Has anyone else had this issue? If so how did you resolve it.

A Class Action Lawsuit has been filed in the Superior Court of Atlanta Georgia for those who would like to attach there name and give there information to attorney Adam Webb at Webb, Klase and Lemond, LLC in Atlanta Georgia. There website address is : www.webbllc.com

This is my outline of the ripoff of this University.

Time Line:
• First day of school started on Monday February 6, 2017 in which a self biography was to be completed and turned in.
• Attendance was completed by logging in using your Grand Canyon University student id and logging into the student portal.
• Each class started on Mondays and ended at midnight on Sundays. This counted as a week of class.
• Each week you were to comment on a post by the instructor and comment on a student’s posts with a relative matter to the subject. Generally 4 posts were produced by the instructor and you could work ahead as far as you possibly could.
• I generally worked 2 week increments, this so the work was completed in a timely fashion.
• Each class was 7 week long.
• Lectures, there were none, simply post comments and one to two 1200 word essays per week. This was the basis of the course.
• Instructor sits in an office and reads and comments on your posts and awards up to 5-10 points (unsure of the points).
• Completed the biography, one essay and four to five posts.
• Arrived home after work around 11:00pm and this is when I tried to turn in the essay, in which I had worked on from the previous class from last year. The essay was the same subject as last year’s class, nothing ever changed.
• Subjects and objective were mirror images of the past class a year before. Saved all my work from before to recycle as for nothing changed.
• On Sunday evening February 12, 2017, out of frustration, an message was sent to
Orazie Slayton (Instructor), indicating the poor quality of the class and excessive essay writings.
• Tried to terminate the class after an email was sent to the instructor on Sunday February the 12th. I was tired and sleepy tried to withdraw through there portal at Grand Canyon University. In which it indicated an email would be sent and to clink on the link provided.
• Waited till around 3:00 am, checking my personal email for the link.
• Following day, Monday February 13, 2017, checked again and no link or phone call from Grand Canyon University.
• Monday February 13, 2017 logged into my Grand Canyon University account through the portal to check to see if any comments or email had come through, to no avail any emails or contact were made by Grand Canyon University.
• Once again, I had filed another withdraw request on Monday February 13, 2017.
• The basis for withdraw were simple. The lack of learning, the overpriced tuition to write essays and the quality as a whole.
• Josh Durfee withheld the cost of the tuition when he re enrolled me. The $75, 000.00 or so price tag was too much for me to financially absorb. I assumed the costs would be $35, 000.00 as before.
• As stated before I did not receive a call from Josh Durfee until March when I was at home with my family in Peru.

I am concerned that my financial aid advisor at the time knew that my financial aid did not go through, yet she continued to advised me.I was still taking classes. I now have a collection company calling me every month. I am told that i owe $2250.00. I feel as though this is so unfair. The university rushes you into taking classes, before your financial aid is approved. I thought that I was on my way to fulfilling my dream of completing college. I can not get anyone at the school( Christian based ) to look into this for me. I feel like this is done to many students, especially if you sign up for on-line courses. I feel as though I should not have to pay this amount to the university. The university should contact me and make better arrangements for repayment, cancel the balance all together or at least release my transcripts so that I can move forward.

To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing this letter in regards to the discrimination experienced at Grand Canyon University. This is a Christian College located at 3300 west Camelback Rd in Phoenix Arizona. I am currently in attendance at this university as an online student. However, I suffer from Bio-Polar disorder and other undiagnosed disabilities. I am currently under the care of a psychiatrist and I have three prescribed medications these medications are Clonazepam, Quentiapine, Airipiprazole. Currently while in attendance at this university, I am having to deal with a lot of discrepancies from the staff once I make them known of my disability. During the last occurrence, I made the instructor known that I was Bio-Polar and I needed to leave. I needed to leave the classroom because it has no structure and there are high levels of intensity such as debates, and other things which raises my anxiety levels. This anxiety is not anything that is suggested for a person which suffers from Bio-Polar along with other unknown disorders. Therefore, I left the classroom experience for a couple of hours daily to take medications. This experience forced myself to have to change my suggested times for taken my prescribe medication. I also had to take a higher dosages of Clonazepam due to the levels of anxiety I had been experiencing. The classroom experience was only 5 days. I signed the attendance log at the end of the week. At the end of the course I was given a 0 for participation. I understand the course requirements. However, due to my impairments I could never see myself being able to endure such a hostile experience such as a debate. I feel that this program has been and continues to discriminate against my impairments. Especially, with this incident. I filed numerous complaints with the Department of Education. I’m always being told to just call the school back, and speak with someone different and just don’t discuss the matter. This final situation cannot be rectified that easy. I feel that this discrimination is inappropriate and unacceptable.

Warm regards,
Kimyuna Jackson

Hello my daughter Hadley Henderson applied for you school with the intent to tryout for the GCU Cheer team. She received Karina as her advisor. Hadley was told that she had to pay the housing fee by February even though tryouts aren't until April. Karina sent her and me several emails about this. She was well aware of Hadley wanting to go to Gcu based on how tryouts went. At tryouts we learned that several girls haven't paid their housing fee because they weren't sure they were going there until after tryouts. We were told there was a housing fee deadline and were not aware of the fact that we could of waited until after tryouts. So now we are out $250 that she could have used at the school she will be attending in the fall! I feel that my daughter was lied to and scammed into making payments she didn't need to make! I feel that your school needs to be more worried about the kids and not the money! We are a single income military family that didn't have the money to waste!

The wifi has been very spotty lately, especially in the grove and it is very irritating as a student to complete my assignments when I have to constantly re connect to the wifi in order for my assignments to load. The WGCUSECURE no longer works and lopes wifi is not consistent whether I am other places on campus or in my room. From many students, we would appreciate if the wifi would be stronger in order to be better students. Thank you.

A university in az I didn't 2 years of my schooling online for my masters in special education and was originallytold by the recruiter and admission advisor I could work and do my student teaching especially if I get a para job, he recruited me at my full time job during lunch so he knew what and where I worked and I said I needed the insurance so couldn't quit for any length of time swore up and down I could work. A year into classes I had to sign a student texting applicationsaw that it said " I acknowledge that I have to take 16 weeks of work to do my student teaching " I argued for a year finally got a person to tell me I could appeal get principal to sign a letter that my para job won't interfere with student teaching etc was contacted by observation person mid July of 2016 just introduced herself I wrote back trying to confirm how my situation was different and make sure my mentor and I were doing it right, no message back so 3 weeks into my student teaching by this time it is into end of September/ October was contacted by my observation supervisor had to see my schedule etc talked with my mentor teacher and went to board of directors told me nope I wasn't fulfilling the qualifications for student teaching I had to either quit my job or quit student teaching. And since I already started the class and dropped out they had to send the money back to dept of ed for my loan and now they are asking me to pay for the class $3154 My point is that the student teaching requirements should have been addresses before the start of school and that way we could have fixed it or I wouldn't have started the class. I recently found the recruiter he no longer works for GCU but at first was very excited I contacted and said he remembered me, when I brought up about what I was promised before I enrolled he got very defensive and told me not to contact him anymore, so no I am now $30000 in student loans, $3154 in collections and no degree to show for it, I can't even enroll in another school to finish since technically I am still enrolled with GCU, and I refused to pay them 1 more cent

I attend GCU and am currently working on Business Admin. Degree. I started my second year w/GCU and was doing well, until December 2016 at the beginning of my Economics course. When the class first began, unfortunately my laptop stopped working and I was absent from class for a few days. This places me a little behind, but I kept the instructor aware of the situation. I suffer from the debilitating disease Crohn's and am unable to control or plan for when I might become ill. I began to catch up in the course when I became very ill and struggles daily to function and remain attentive in the course and again I was in communication with the instructor. A week later my disease was so bad I was hospitalized for over a week facing the possibility of instentional surgery. In the last week of the course I did my very best to catch up almost 3-weeks of work and asked the instructor to please work with me and expressed the need to pass the course. The instructor advised me through a post noted to the entire class that "No exceptions will be made, family emergencies and illness should be planned for and around", it was a private conversation and sharing it amongst the entire class was very humiliating. The teacher refused to make any exceptions to assist me in passing the course. I have now tried my hardest to catch up, however sadly failed shockingly bad. I am devastated. Is this school really upholding the teachers thoughts on illness of which is not only unpredictable but debilitating leaving an individual unable to complete class work.
I now must not only suffer health wise, but now emotionally as I am left feeling like a failure for something beyond my control. I live on disability and do have $1, 972.00 to retake the course. Why must I pay out of pocket when GCU still holds over $5k in approved financial aid I was approved for during the fiscal year if [protected]. Is this right, No and it is beyond unethical. I found it rather interesting that when the teacher became ill in week 8 and week 9 that she excused herself and shut the virtual classroom down and gave herself additional week to grade assignments since of course she was ill. I as student must suffer with no help from th college. I do believe this
Is poor leadership, unethical and shameful of this school. My educational career is being placed on hold until I can gather finances I don't have while living on a small budget already.
This is wrong.
Manda

Was enrolled in a class that I was assured I could complete with supports from staff members. I have been met with problem after problem! Professor does not respond in a timely manner and is condescending. I have been told repeatedly that they will arrange tutoring and still yet to provide. The class that I am enrolled in is not even in the tutoring system...they supposedly have no tutors for the class! They are all about the money and getting as many students signed up for classes as possible! They do not care about the students being successful!Empty promises one after another!

I have a professor by the name of Dr. Homburg and she is proclaiming I plagiarised a paper and DQS. I sited all and my paper came back 8% and she says it is 100% . She also said she emailed me and I checked all emails and nothing. After reading other post on here seems to be an ongoing issue with this school. I have screen shot everything and emailed my adverb and I am switching back to UOP ASAP. Went there 4 years and not a damn issue I have the paper and uploading it on here .Do not go to this school period .

I have emails kept from them, They kept telling me I could not unenroll due to financial aid dropping me. They use scare tactics and bully people into staying so they can get their money, as they kept charging me over 3 grand a class that nobody was enrolled in 2016.I finally unenrolled and they took all my financial aid for a semester I wasnt even enrolled in and then they froze my transcripts so I couldnt go anywhere else! I would definitely like my financial aid to be reimbursed and for the school to be closed down so they dont bully any other hard working single mothers out of money trying to better themselves! Good thing their calls are recorded like they said because my student adviser has a bunch trying to bully me

I enrolled in a course for Secondary Education at GCU to be certified as a teacher on April 6, 2016, and, was dis-enrolled by the school without my knowledge on November 18, 2016. I was in the second week of my fifth class and was only contacted once by a field instructor since my enrollment. I started to suspect some under-handed activity when I started my first class. First, there were several grammatical errors in the lesson, that insisted on and pertained to grade, and the instructor was under-grading students, I presume this on how the enthusiasm started to regress within the atmosphere of the class. And not letting me post my assignments. To clarify this statement, I informed the instructor of family issues and of technical problems I was having with the site in the sixth week of this first class. I needed more time to complete my assignment. The school policy states that the instructor has 24 hours to respond, I contacted her before the assignment was due but she tried to give me an F for that assignment. There was only one instructor that seem to be fair with the students and that was my 4th Class instructor. I got all A’s in his class, I saw my final grade it was an A which was switched to a B+. When I started my fifth class in November, I wasn’t notified that I will be dropped from the school. GCU waited until after my financial Aid had come through and I had signed into the class and the class was already paid for. When I went to post on Saturday the 19th of November 2016, upon logging in, I got a message stating “You currently do not have any active class.” I contacted technical support who informed me that I wasn’t on the roster of the class that I was posting to, and advised me to contact my counselor. I called my counselor on Monday the 21st of November 2016, who then informed me that I was dropped due to my GPA. I understand the school’s policy on GPA, however; I should have been notified of this before I started a new class. I do know that all my grades were documented before I started a new class two classes prior because I took a two-week break due to relocating, and upon my return into the fourth class. I received a letter that was postmarked for the 22nd of November of 2016 stated the reason for my dismissal from the school. The letter stated that after three classes a student will be dismissed due to insufficient GPA I was two weeks into my fifth class when they dismissed me. I passed all my prior classes. I would like to file a class action lawsuit against the GCU for unfair treatment toward students, misappropriation of funding, as well as mental anguish. The time students set aside to study is priceless, and the money that students borrow has cause debts. For a school to mislead or dismiss a student who has chosen to make a better life for themselves is unconstitutional and the institution should be held accountable for the humiliation and manipulation they have caused and employed. Opportunists who use educational platforms to steal the livelihood from people needs to be brought to the forefront and made responsible for their actions. And we, the students should be compensated for the conditions that we had to endure.

I have experienced substantial problems at gcul... There is currently a new york times reporter doing a story on gcu's unethical behavior towards its students. I would love to get a class action lawsuit against them for damages (Both financially and emotionally) incurred as a result of the so called education they provide. If you are interested email me at [protected]@msn.com

GCU's doctoral program abused me once they handed me over to their hired out AQR...hazing is illegal in my state and AZ and pushing students around down dead end roads by changing committee members and saying "start over your past member gave you wrong advice" is unethical. Christian? GCU is not, don't believe their advertisement! With 50k in federal loan debt, a 3.79 transcript, yet no diploma, constant run around while charging tuition, and haunting feelings of abuse is despicable. What continues to disrupt my sleep is my disbelief that a university could care so little about their students and farm out absolute power to a select group of AQR who believe in this philosophy of only a select few are worthy and this is how it is to "make it out" is bullying...GCU should be held accountable for student abuse and this scam of using Christian values as bait and switch for gross profit. I'm going to the AG but wanted to start posting to warn others. Resolution would be to have someone from the doctoral program care enough to review my file and consider my experience as an opportunity to improve so that other students are not harmed as I was from this experience.

I looked into this program and tried to sign up to start the school. They called me at least five times a day. I continued on and then accepted the 500 scholarship. I could not answer my phone at work so I would get emails with statement like, "respond to this email so that I know that you got it" Then a manager sent me a very rude email saying are you going to attend if not, we can give the 500 to another student. I told them that I did not like that harassment and did not appreciate it. They could give the money to someone else. The class began and you could not log into the portal. I finally got in and that warranted more emails and calls from now the enrollment counselor and Joe. It was to late for me to just say forget it so I stayed in the course and just logged in. The enrollment counselor told me that it would be one class at a time and that was a lie. I asked to withdraw and Joe asked, "why did you enroll in the first place." That is totally unacceptable to me. If they had not harassed me and not put me in a class about Arizona Law I would have been interested in the course. I did not get the initial course that I was promised and to be insulted by the staff is completely inappropriate.