Grand Canyon University [GCU]

Everyone got fined $50 because one of our roommates left trash out in the courtyard. The trash is full of my roommates' receipts and orders, but they fined everyone because they weren't sure who did it. All of my roommates have emailed the appeals, and all are denied because the one person who left the trash out is not appealing, and everyone is being charged $50. There is nowhere in text or terms that I have agreed to state that I am responsible for what my roommates do outside of the dorm. The emails I have receives are clearly Jacksons. They state they can't be sure who placed the trash outside, so they sent everyone a fine for it. They are sending us

GCU has a policy that any concerns, including those with financial aid, be resolved through a student advisor. Working with my student advisor has always been very smooth up until about 7 months ago when my graduation date got postponed, 6 months, an extra internship was added onto my curriculum, and then an extra communities course. The communities course was added onto my schedule one week before starting my internships was to begin. While I was waiting to get this issue resolved (which took close to 4.5 weeks), the placement found another intern and I had to find a different placement that was not as compatible to what was I looking for. In the meantime, I tried to get numbers to the Dean's office, student affairs offices, and the supervisor of my department. I was never redirected. I was told that I would be compensated for inconvenience (I never was). After all of this, GCU discovered that because of the state I live, I wouldn't need the third internship and so it was dropped from my schedule. I also don't need the communities class apparently, because it was dropped from my schedule and replaced with another class. I am mow into my 2nd internship, and my concern is with financial aid. I should have received this 6 weeks ago. If I was still young and single, these concerns would not matter to me, but that is not who I am. I am single mother of two children who depend on me. Four years ago, me and my two kids were abandoned. This left us homeless and we have been living in old RV that someone gave us. This RV was the greatest blessing and the only thing that gives us hope each day is that knowing one day soon I will have a better job and I will be able to more fully provide for me and my kids. So when my classes get pushed back and adds more time, it hurts my family and our ability to survive, but what hurts more, is when the financial aid that I count on, doesn't come. This is my primary income right now. I. have been reaching out to my student. advisor everyday for the past month. Her response is nothing more than "please be patient, they are working on it." I have asked for numbers to other departments that might be able to help, and I she never even acknowledges that I asked the question. I am tired of wondering and waking up each morning not knowing how much longer before I can buy my kids school clothes, budget. the money I need for gas, etc. I decided to go back to grad school because I thought that the 3-4 years to get though would be worth the sacrifice of living this way. I share this story so that others will understand that everyone has a story that is unique. It just seems so unethical of a School to be this unresponsive and non-empathetic of a student, their time, and their money.

Jason cheek and I have been texting for a while and after while he would take me to campus and show me around and we would have sexual intercourse all over the school whenever we could and he even showed me a classroom he teaches in and he made me give him oral sex and he said if I said anything he would get me in trouble this has happen for a while and he recently blocked me so I could no longer contact him and get anything taken care of I am very upset and want him fired or I’m gonna sue him and the school

I am currently in MAT-252 and I am struggling in that class to understand what it is that I am learning about. My professor has cancelled class 3 times in the last 3 weeks. My professor also a majority of the time does not come to class on time and or starts class late. When class is cancelled, the notes that we would go over are never covered, so I am not being taught the material at all. I did not pay for a class for me not to be taught a subject.

From my enrollment at Grand Canyon University (GCU) in 2021, it has been a constant nonsense of the staff and some instructors of GCU. Advisor department is useless, the instructors are protected, no monitored, and no Dean from my experience. Covering between departments. If you receive loans, forget leave this University. The student online does not have priority, is ignored or reprimanded. I have this experience in GCU.

After fully completing my 2nd Masters at GCU in Ed. Admin in 4/22 I filed for my Admin license and attached all required documents of my passed praxis & my states online ELI course certificate. It's sent to GCU to validate I completed my degree with them & passed my praxis. GCU denied the application and when I addressed this with my counselor & field specialist, they only responded with me needing to resubmitted again. I did and was emailed on 4/12/22 it was taken care of and approved. I contacted my HR representative in my board of ed office that GCU said they corrected this & approved. My report said we just wait till I get an admin job & I'm assigned an admin mentor. I have applied for 13 admin jobs, only was called twice to be told at my last interview my Admin license shows denied by my university GCU. It was NOT approved on 4/12/22 but denied on 4/13/22. The job I was applying for told me I can't get the admin job without it approved/completed. I proceeded with called all my counselors & GCU compliance rep, 3 Full days of GCU not answering much of their calls or emails, I'm told it was pushed to their top priority to get done within a day, & by next morning, in order to be done for my interview. Now I'm past my interview, and my license application still isn't approved. There is no reason fir denial initially, it's costing me an admin job. My degree is useless without the app approved & I wasn't called for the admin job I applied for because my license wasn't showing approved. This isn't acceptable. None at GCU are doing their job, I want a full tuition refund.

BEFORE YOU APPLY, PLEASE REVIEW.. we all have a moment when we want to take our education seriously, and really begin to invest in ourselves. We sign up through different sites trying to match up with the right University & I made the mistake of choosing Grand Canyon University.

I first enrolled in the online program in 2019 because I was under the impression that GCU also provided IT certifications along with the courses. When I began my IT courses they started to charge me additional fees which I assumed were charges to obtain those certifications but when I spoke to my advisor Alex he stated that it was a misunderstanding & they do not provide certifications. Despite that, I continued taking classes because my projected graduation would be in only two years.

In November 2020 I was put into Professional in Science & Technology-Communications, Conduct and Ethics course STG-390 & my professor was J Thomas. Within the first week of taking the course I realized this class wasn’t for me after we had to do a paper on our opinion of current events and I received a D. I was told it was because I did not include a statement on how GCU could attract new students. I felt that I was not in the position to advise GCU on how to attract new students when I am still a fairly new student. I thought the assignment was just about my opinion of today's current events & my opinion of the school & the courses I’ve taken so far. When I spoke to my Advisor Alvin about withdrawing, he stated that I could not.

I was shocked because other universities I’ve attended allow you to withdraw beyond the first week of class. Alvin suggested that it would be better for me to just fail my course than withdraw. Huh? Prior to this my GPA was a 4.0. Alvin later suggested I speak with my instructor Mr. Thomas. I had several conversations with Mr. Thomas & he let me know that a lot of students tend to fail that course or must retake it. I reached out to my Advisor Alex & told him about the situation, he proceeded to act concerned. He stated that he would speak with Alvin on why I was not removed from the course. I still ended up with an F & a fee for not completing the course which I had to pay out of pocket. The fees also included “material fees” which I am assuming is to use the GCU portal to Lopescloud.

Alvin said that he was able to provide me with a scholarship that would cover the course & I would have to pay the difference. I went on with the next course which was ITT-270 Routing and Switching. I had issues getting access to complete my coursework & I made my Advisor, SCC, Instructor, and GCU tech support aware. However, I still did my discussion boards to still participate. When I finally was able to finally get it working I had missed nearly 2 weeks of the course. The Instructor Gasko allowed me to catch up, which I was grateful for. I submitted my work and sent her messages on the Private Forum & I noticed that two assignments still did not have a grade. I messaged the instructor but when she responded it was close to the end of the course. I showed her the confirmation emails that LopesCloud sends to confirm submitted assignments. A copy is also sent to your GCU email. She went on to tell me that she did not see the work so I forwarded the emails to her & my SCC Alvin because the course was ending. Alvin stated that we would do an appeal and to continue to forward any responses or anything I could that would show. I went to take a screenshot and the course was no longer on my portal. I advised my SCC and forward the emails to him as well. SCC stated that he would start the appeal verbally on the recorded line. I waited almost a month because I saw that my grade did not change, well my SCC Alvin never sent the email, he stated he misunderstood what I wanted to do & the emails that I sent. I was blown away, another course that I will have to retake or possibly pay for. So, I prayed about it, cried about it and retook the course passing it with the grade of an B+.

At this point, I have lost all hope in Grand Canyon University, and the morale of this Dean List student is diminishing by the minute. I continued with a few other courses & then requested a withdrawal because I needed a break at this time. I was automatically enrolled in another course. Alvin advised me again that it wasn’t possible and the affects of my financial aid. I instructed him that I would want to think about it & prior to the course beginning I advised Alvin I wasn’t interested. Once that course started, I noticed that I was still enrolled. I called GCU and spoke with another SCC, he stated that I would have to withdraw with my SCC Alvin & he could not remove me but he could send a message. He also stated that because I was not active for this week I would still need to post something during this process. I posted my Intro the next day because I had yet to hear from SCC Alvin. I called Alvin again and told him I wanted to withdraw, he stated that I would be responsible for 25% since I posted in the course. I asked why because I had withdrawn the weekend before the course started & that would cover 100% but because I posted that intro GCU will only replace 75%.

Those courses that I had to retake which were supposed to be covered by a scholarship are now non-existent since I have attempted to withdrawal however as of 5/31/22 if I return back to GCU they will provide me with a scholarship to go towards this balance I owe. How ironic!

When I agreed to go to the school the first thing I did before signing anything was figure out a budget plan and they promised up and down that it would only be Pell grants and then I would be $60,000. 60,000 and nothing but Pell grants I wouldn't have to pay anything and I would not have to take out loans, I made explicitly sure of this. And then when I finally get free of the school after being bullied over and over again to continue to stay with a lie about a drop out fee that is more expensive than the next class, I find out that not only did they get $30,000 in Pell Grant and $20,000 out of my own pocket, but also $40, 000 from Navient student loans. I knew nothing about these loans and now I have to pay them. They knew that I would not except going to the school if they took out loans in my name, which I'm pretty sure is illegal, and now I am going to be [censored]ed over for the rest of my life.
This is on top of them having me take irrelevant courses, and taking the same courses over and over again because they kept changing the rules on how to actually go through the class.

I was on the phone with Grand Canyon University enrollment counselor. I was speaking to her about enrolling. I mentioned that I was Jewish and asked if that was ok given this is more of a Christian school. [Protected] must have thought she disconnected the phone but she did not and I heard her say to someone next to her horrific things about Jews and her hatred for them. The things she said were so bad. She referred to me as a 'Jew [censored] c-nt'. That was just one thing she said. I am appalled that she could be working in such a position and be so anti-Semitic. Absolutely disgusting.

I had reached out to inform GCU of our family's disappointing experience this past fall. The entire process of withdrawing has been such a nightmare.

Move in day for my daughter was September 25 - it was shortly thereafter that changes to their schedules couldn't be made, yet not enough time on campus was spent in order to know if a student was comfortable to be on campus. By the time my daughter realized she would prefer to remain online, the "deadline" to make changes to her schedule had passed. More time should have been given and allowances should have been made during the pandemic, to allow a student to make the type of decisions they were comfortable with, while keeping them safe and healthy.

My daughter's counselor never seemed capable of providing the answers she needed. Adding a dance class became a mess, and when she told her counselor that she was withdrawing, she quoted her three different financial amounts in three emails regarding our financial responsibility. It wasn't until I got involved that she suddenly seemed to have more answers, yet everything was still very confusing. Her communication was often delayed. I had to phrase my questions in a way that were expressly written, in order to get any type of answer that would help me to understand what was needed. Each answer was only more frustrating, and it seemed like things were being made up as we went along.

Student housing charged my daughter a fee for not returning her keys properly. However, their response time was incredibly slow. While in California, my daughter emailed housing that she was withdrawing and asked what she would need to do. While waiting for a response, she returned to Arizona (by car) to move out, and was in Arizona for two days before heading back to California. She never heard anything until she was on the road back to California. She informed them that she left her keys in the room and they could be retrieved from her roommates. When I tried to contact them, they refused to speak with me until my daughter gave them permission to do so. Even after my daughter provided the necessary permissions to speak with me, they never responded to me or my questions about the fee.

We only received a portion of the dining dollars back based on a percentage of when my daughter attended school. Of course the biggest percentages were early on, and the longer a student stayed on ground, the less of their dining dollars would be refunded if they chose to withdraw. That makes no sense at all. Unused dining dollars should not be downgraded for a refund at any time.

While I understand that my daughter did not finish out the year, her dorm costs were not prorated and refunded to us. While this makes no sense, I understand it's the school's policy. However, to be charged a $400 cancellation fee for her Spring contract is ridiculous. GCU would be able to fill that spot that was left vacant. My daughter was only in the dorm for approximately 23 days (technically less, but I am giving GCU the benefit by going off of the date that the fine was posted on 10/15). The semester is a total of 88 days. The difference of 65 days is being kept by GCU, which works out to $1421.875. And nothing needs to be done by GCU to retain this money. While yes, there's an empty bed, they also have one less student on campus to concern themselves with. This amount more than covers the fee that GCU charged my daughter for the termination of her spring contract, and should have been waived.

As parents on campus during move-in week, we were horrified to see how many students would assemble on the lawn for hours, not social distancing or wearing masks, well into the late-night hours. As well, dorm rooms were packed with students sitting far too close and engaging in social activities that should not have been taking place. Alcohol and vaping were also being abused. GCU has a responsibility to its students and their families to keep the students safe and healthy, and the families properly informed. In my opinion, all of this needs to be taken into consideration when a student makes a decision to leave the campus, now more than ever. This was not the type of environment my daughter wanted to be in, and while she would have preferred to finish out the semester at home and online, GCU made that impossible, forcing her to make the decision to withdraw.

We never experienced any compassion, empathy, concern, or understanding throughout the entire process. You operate as a university when it suits you, and a business when it comes to the policies and fees that benefit you. This hardly serves the customers GCU calls "students". It has been both shocking and disappointing to witness. We weren't trying to profit from GCU, but it clearly feels they were trying to profit from us.

GCU employees and faculty stonewall and gaslight graduate and doctoral students. While in the MBA program, my student services counselor, Chris Farr, encouraged me to take courses to receive a double emphasis in Finance and Accounting to ensure job placement at graduation. The diploma I received stated only the Accounting emphasis and was told I would need to order my tassel online because they were all out. This was over three years ago and regardless of my complaints, I have still not received the correct diploma nor a 2017 tassel.

In January of 2018, I enrolled in the doctoral psychology program because I could not get a job after graduation with a GCU MBA. I was enrolled in IGC800 and RES811 and was charged full tuition for both, yet, neither appear on my transcripts. Much of the doctoral faculty are also not qualified to be teaching doctoral students at GCU. For instance, Dr. Miller was assigned as my class professor for both RES825 Theories of Inquiry and PSY802 Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Theory, however, frequently mentioned that he never worked as a clinical psychologist and had no research experience. At my first residency, both of my residency professors admitted having only a qualitative background in graduate studies and provided almost zero feedback on my quantitative study topic. The same outcome occurred when I was assigned my first Chair, Dr. Maxson, and my second Chair, Dr. Kimball. The tuition amounts for each of my classes changed frequently and I was yanked from the ground cohort to the online program, in September of 2019, without being given a choice and was never told why.

I had a 3.8 GPA in the GCU Doctoral Psychology program until November of 2020. I received my first chair, Dr. Maxson, for PSY855 Developing the Research Proposal, in early July. Dr. Maxson missed our first Zoom meeting because he was on vacation in Palm Springs, California, regardless that we had agreed to the meeting date/time only three days prior. He also stated on several occasions that he was not qualified to advise me on my dissertation topic and stonewalled many of my attempts to get substantive feedback. After making a complaint, he finally approved my prospectus but was replaced with Dr. Kimball and a new methodologist in week 4 of the next course, PSY955 Dissertation I.

Dr. Kimball stated in several Zoom meetings that he and Dr. Stimpson, the new methodologist, had dozens and dozens of other students and that taking me as a doctoral student was an inconvenience. Dr. Stimpson stated that my topic was aligned while Dr. Stimpson said that it was not. Dr. Kimball told me to convert my entire 10k worded prospectus into a 1 slide/per topic PowerPoint to defend to Dr. Stimpson on 10/28/2020. Dr. Stimpson stated prior that my topic was not feasible but did not explain why. I was told by a dissertation counselor, Lisa Lobik, to use the new Quantitative Dissertation Template 2020, downloaded from the DC Network, as a guide to follow the feedback provided by my dissertation committee. Appendix G explicitly states the criteria and questions that must be answered regarding a dissertation topic feasibility. At the Zoom meeting with Dr. Kimball and Dr. Stimpson on 10/28/2020, I was allowed to finish the Powerpoint presentation for my prospectus by Dr. Kimball or Dr. Stimpson. Dr. Stimpson interrupted and gaslighted me repeatedly during my presentation, preventing me from being able to finish the presentation. Dr. Kimball said almost nothing during the entire meeting, not once did he show any support for my topic and gave me no warning that I would be ostracized and humiliated by Dr. Stimpson, for no reason other than he apparently knew nothing about non-linear regression and refused to explain why he did not think that my topic was feasible. In fact, Dr. Stimpson accused me of having "an obsession" with non-linear regression with a few minutes of beginning my presentation. Towards the end of the meeting, Dr. Stimpson stated that GCU is not known for having competitive doctoral learners and even Dr. Kimball mentioned that he had an Ed. D. from GCU and asked if the majority of doctoral students at my last residency were Ph. D. students or Ed. D. students.

A few days later, Dr. Kimball assigned me an "F" for the entire course after giving me 0/400 points for the assignment, regardless that there was still over two weeks remaining to complete the next revision and other assignments. He assured me that this was only temporary because I was not finished applying his feedback for the next revision. At this time, my mother told me that she was dying of stage 4 breast cancer and suddenly died a few weeks later, on 11/13/2020.

At our very last Zoom meeting on 11/2/2020, Dr. Kimball stated that my topic was aligned and that I would get my prospectus approved, albeit, was already approved by Dr. Maxson. During the Zoom call, I informed Dr. Kimball that my mother had just been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, however, he showed no concern nor even sincere condolence. Dr. Kimball then told me that he was not obligated to speak to me once the course ended on 11/4/2020. After submitting what I was led to assume would be my last attempt to submit a revision on 11/4/2020, Dr. Kimball messaged me on the Learner Dissertation Page on 11/6/2020, that I had until the next morning (18 hours) to submit a revision based on his and Dr. Stimpson's latest feedback. I received no notification from the LDP and Dr. Kimball made no attempt to contact me via phone or email regarding this deadline until Sunday evening on 11/8/2020. At around 2:30 pm, that same day, I had contacted my Student Services Counselor, Paige Verdusco, via email informing her that I feared that Dr. Kimball was not being sincere in regard to changing the "F" he had assigned three weeks prior. On Monday evening at 4:27 pm, 11/9/2020, Dr. Kimball emailed me a message stating, "I do not appreciate your tone in the emails, zoom communication or in the LDP. This is not best moving forward and will only hinder you in the process. I filed an early alert as well.". Dr. Maxson had emailed me almost the exact same message a month prior on 10/1/2020 at 9:35 am.

On Sunday evening, 11/8/2020, at 4:07 pm, Dr. Kimball finally informed me via email of the latest feedback that Dr. Stimpson and Dr. Kimball had provided in the LDP on Friday night 11/6/2020. I did my best and as quickly as possible to apply the requested revisions and submitted it in the LDP in response to Dr. Kimball in the LDP on Tuesday night 11/10/2020, because Loud Cloud would not allow me to submit anything after 11/2/2020. Nevertheless, Dr. Kimball graded it as a 0/400, the very next day, posting it several times in Loud Cloud in a row stating only, "This was posted 5 days late...", which it was not. Three days later my mother died on Friday night, 11/13/2020.

That week, I emailed my SSC that I did not want to be charged twice for taking the same class again, yet, that is exactly what was attempted (please see attached). After several insistent emails and phone calls, it was finally reversed.

On 11/10/2020, I was contacted via cell phone by Dr. Johnson, the research faculty manager, who informed me that she would assign me yet another chair, Dr. D' Urso, and that conflict between students and dissertation committees happen all the time. She also informed me that Dr. Stimpson was a "great methodologist" and that I would not likely win a grade appeal, hence, I should take the course again and instead file a financial appeal. However, I quickly learned after the phone call that there is no such thing as a "financial appeal", other than those made for discounts on tuition for employees or military.

GCU was attempting to squeeze more tuition dollars out of me by forcing me to repeat a dissertation course that I had no chance of passing because I was already invested financially in the program (over 75k) and had a 3.8 gpa before receiving a failing grade. I read many prior complaints from other doctoral students claiming the same tactics but did not anticipate that it was real. GCU is a predatory university that lures in students with lies and uses bait and switch and gaslighting schemes to ensure students keep paying tuition for as long as they can afford it. Shame on GCU.

I have grown to exceeding amounts of frustration due to the lack of teacher influence within discussion posts and assignments. It seems as if she is letting her students just to talk to each other without any input from her whatsoever. I am in week 4 of MKT-315. Up to this point, she inputs once or twice a week to make a superficial announcement. Not only am I frustrated, but have tried to reach out numerous times but ignored in private messaging. I don't understand what the problem is but this is not professional and misuse of my money to this university as well as her position as a professor. I can be reached @ [protected] and my name is Benjamin Rogers.

The financial department seems to care nothing about getting the student the money they need and are qualified for. They keep the money to get as many classes paid for as they can. They do this with no regard, students have living expenses book expenses, and many others that maintain their success. Any other school would not do this.

My classes should be paid for through March 2021, and yet my student loan has not been applied. I argued this preciously and I was told GUC does not receive the entire award, they reive the award as requested, I don't believe this is true. I ask that all my approved student aid funds be credited to my account and disbursed as it should be in good and Godly faith.

I received a non-passing grade in a course, BIT 415 IT Project, I took from 9/23-11/17/2019. This course includes access to the learning platform, electronic textbook and applications which are required to complete the coursework but were inoperable throughout the course. I had technical issues that were out of my control. I made the issues known to the GCU instructor (Michael Grimsley), GCU Student Services (Julia Babler & Kristyn Miller), Cengage Technical Support, GCU Technical Support and GCU Resolution Team. The instructor stated I would not be penalized for lateness as a result of technical issues but penalties were still applied. It is unfair that GCU's expectation is that I retake the course which would set me back on time, grade, effort, finances and graduation date.
[1/7/2019 - 1/1/2020: Cengage issue ([protected]) affecting access to textbook, assignments, quizzes and exams.
11/3/2019 - 11/22/2019: GCU Technical issue (#2376969) with accessing MS Project in Citrix workspace.
I completed all course assignments despite technical issues which deserve a passing grade. Grade appeal should result in my favor and late penalties removed as technical issues were out of my control.