Walden University
Reviews and Complaints

Walden University is a rip off called for information of program next thing I'm enrolled logged in one time and hated the environment online. I called to cancel within time frame no answer, I email three times no response . Sent a registered letter return receipt and finally was disenrolled. This was not before being charge 580.00 . I disputed the charges and was told I withdrew after the first week. I sent letter with all specific dates and times I attempted Calls and copies of emails from the first week. No one responded . Fast forward went to purchase a house and upon credit check there was a 98 point credit score drop related to Walden University citing I was not in the one week time frame. I will wear that as a badge of honor . 4 credit dispute all cited on behalf of the school. Ironically they called me trying to settle asking for only half the money. I nearly laughed out loud and said you won't get a dime. I followed the process but am not getting extorted out of half of the money. No thanks Walden university . Bad business practices !

To whom it may concern,

I began attending Walden University in September of 2014 as a doctoral candidate in the Ed. D program. Since that time, I have been completing the required coursework for the program. Although I have earned a 4.0 grade point average, I found that the coursework was a reiteration of topics that I had covered in my undergraduate and post graduate work. I have expressed my concerns about the curriculum on each course evaluation but have yet to receive any feedback. I did have an opportunity to speak to Dr. Miller (Education Department) and he told me that the curriculum is currently being rewritten but I would not benefit from this as I have already completed the coursework.

I had always been skeptical of Walden's online doctoral program but since it is "regionally accredited" and my school district assists with tuition I decided to continue. I began the dissertation process with a course called "Completing the Prospectus". This is a five page application to conduct research on a particular topic. I have been submitting drafts of this document since April of 2017 and still do not have an approved prospectus.

Although the Walden literature on the program states that I will have an opportunity to choose my first chairperson from professors I have worked with or someone's work I admire, I was randomly assigned a first chairperson. The first chair did not introduce herself or give her credentials. I called the first chair for an introduction. I asked him how many other doctoral students she had chaired and was told that it is none of my business. Although the first chair said that my first draft was very good, I continue to get minor revisions and the prospectus has not been approved. I asked my chairperson what the difference is between a project study and a dissertation and she told me that I should have learned that in my research coursework. It was not covered. She told me at one point that I need to change my entire topic because it dealt with special education practices that may be out of compliance. I then ask her if I could do a single-case study or a study that used my students as participants. She told me that the information is located on the Walden Research Center webpage and that she does not know. I Googled the first chairperson's name and could find no information on her credentials or other work she had published. Recently, I was informed that she requested to have her assignment changed. She is no longer my first chair and is being replaced by the person who was my second chair. The second chair assignment is above the first chair in the committee hierarchy. I do not understand how these positions are being assigned.

I had qualified for the Post 9/11 GI Bill and 70% of my tuition has been paid for by the Veteran's Administration. My school district also pays for 6 credits per year. I have paid about $10, 000 out of pocket. Walden University presented the program as taking between 3 - 5 years. It has become obvious to me that this time-frame is not accurate. With the delay in submissions and minor changes suggested on each draft, there is no way that I can afford this program. I am currently considering disenrollment due to the "bait and switch" tactics employed by the university. I have done further research on Walden University and have found that there are many other students who have had the same experience.

Even though I have asked about these issues, the university has not been able to answer my questions or explain how I could possibly finish in the time-frame given.

When you call the financial aid office/billing office: you have to speak to a series of ghetto call center representatives. The only tools they seem to have are scripts with rebuttals to frequently asked questions. The same thing happens when you send an email. They are on the front line and act as gatekeepers to the actual financial aid officers. Asking them a question they don't understand will leave you in doubt about your academic future. They are rude, unaware and disrespectful. These agents have no problem hanging up on students they have put thousands of dollars into their University. These unprofessional call center agents will make you lose confidence in Walden University. Why would a hard working/tired/educated person want to exposed to this kind of treatment? They would not! This is why I am transferring my credits to a more professional institution.

On May 26, 2017 at approximately 5:47 PM, I received an academic warning from Walden University concerning my doctoral program, the University is claiming that I did not meet the minimum standards for the program after we had completed the requirements for the APA publications manual. Because of this I have been placed on academic warning because my GPA is below 3.0 this would be a bit hard to believe, considering I came into the school with a GPA of 4.00 and I was a straight A, student coming from a Master’s degree program. In this report. My fellow students will get to personally review my writing style, as this is the report that will be sent to Walden upon my voluntarily withdrawing from the school. But before I go, I want my classmates to know that I did do work and I will be explaining a lot of reasons why I have decided to leave Walden. I will try to be simple and brief and concentrate only on the key points that I think are relevant to my withdrawal, unknowing to your surrounding classmates. There may be other classmates that are in a condition of distress, because of Walden academic procedures. Let’s look at some evidence. No student deserves a failing grade, if they have done some work, the only student that deserves a failing grade is a student that has done no work at all. Because there would be no basis to give a grade because no work was done.
A for-profit college or university is owned and run by a private organization or corporation. A for-profit school charges you tuition, but doesn’t necessarily spend it on your education. Instead, they spend a good deal of it on marketing and recruiting. A for-profit college’s primary objective is to make money, and they usually have to answer to their stockholders — not their students. They usually don’t pay their professors and instructors as much as the not-for-profit schools do, which may well result in less qualified, less motivated teachers. They rarely provide curricular opportunities. They usually don’t conduct research, and they often rent the space they use as opposed to investing in a property.
According to one study conducted by the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment, alumni of for-profit colleges tend to earn lower salaries than their nonprofit alumni peers.
And many of these students aren’t even graduating. According to The New York Times, your odds of earning a bachelor’s degree from one of the leading for-profit schools is about 1 in 5, within six years. Your chances of defaulting on the loans you took out to pay for this bachelor’s degree? About 1 in 4, within three years. Even if you did want to gamble with your education, those are not very good odds.
According to a recent report issued by Senator Tom Harkin, most students entering a for-profit degree program dropped out. The median time from starting to quit? Four months. His study blamed this dropout rate on a lack of support for students.
This dropout rate may also have to do with the preparedness of the students who enter these programs. Many of these for-profit schools just don’t turn people away, whether they are ready for class or not. If I don’t have the skills to begin a degree program, and I apply to a not-for-profit school, my application is probably going to get rejected. If I don’t have the skills to begin a degree program, and I apply to a for-profit school, there’s a very good chance I’ll be accepted, whether I’m ready or not. Why? Because my check cleared.
in conclusion, I’ve presented to you information concerning academic warnings, a publication concerning the comparisons of profit and not-for-profit universities, key reasons why you should look deeper into your Walden academics more specifically, why is one specific course book being repeated six times over in the course, why are students not being allowed an opportunity to make up work, but instead are being pushed towards redoing the entire program at a greater expense, concerns about academic credits that should have been awarded and were not or will not be awarded, also concerns considering the fact that we have over a dozen students in different states filing complaint publications, these being the proven facts, with an unresponsive type of atmosphere, and a lack of concern for disability students. There are laws under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I will be withdrawing my academic pursuits, it Walden University. As I do not feel that I am getting any value for my money, and I do not feel that the University is really concerned with me getting the education I am paying for I believe they’re more concerned with getting paid than they are with my education. Dishonesty in the school.

Dear McAfee,
I bought a computer years ago and your reminder to purchase McAfee pops up numerous times while I am working. This experience has created an intense negative association with your name and I have vowed to not purchase your products due to this recurring irritant. Perhaps this harassing (since apparently I am unable to delete it entirely from my computer without IT help) strategy brings business, but it certainly lost mine.
Michele Geeting

I was enrolled in Walden's Tempo Learning, and finished the entire program within 9 months. This was my second master's degree program with the school, and up until now, I have never experienced a problem.

When applying for student loans, you are required to take out a loan for an entire year. Since I finished the program under that time, I was given a refund check for the balance of my loan back in June. I called the business office, and was told to cash the check, even though I told them the money should go back to the student loan company. I cashed the check in July (and sent the money to higher interest bills).

In September, I received a statement from Walden saying that I owed back this money because they also refunded the money back to my student loan company, after they specifically told me they wouldn't do that. Since then, I have sent several emails and left numerous messages in regards to this. This is their error, and I feel as though they should get the money back from the loan company. I should not be responsible to pay back this money to the school because of their error (especially when I was told to cash the check!).

It is now the end of October, and I have received another statement noting my past due balance, and have received 0 return calls on the matter. I will not be recommending this school to anyone, or furthering my education here ever again.

I was assigned an incompetent advisor who wasted a year. Then I was assigned another advisor who was good but chose to avenge by lowering already allocated full marks if I raised any legitimate concerns regarding Walden.
Bursar kept my refund even though I am done with a 4.0 GPA. Now nobody responds. I have no degree after 2.5 years and I do not know what to do.

I am completed all course requirements for masters in mental health counseling. Once I completed all the course work I was in need of an internship. None could be found and the school refused to help me telling me that was my responsibility. I was never ever told I had to find this as I needed help. I am now without a job and disability because of health and depression.. Sevier Depression. I am now in the process of having all my loans dissolved by the department of education. No career and no dream job.

I enrolled in the EdD program with Walden. Six years later and $100, 000 in debt, I am still not finished. The doctoral project study is an inefficient process. Each time I complete a section, the feedback requires changes and then more feedback with additional changes on other areas that didn't require an edit when initially submitted. I truly believe it is an attempt to keep students in the program for as long as possible for the tuition.

The problem is once you are at a certain point, you are trapped. I can't walk away with nothing after spending all this time and money. I am appalled that Walden is allowed to get away with this!

I was given an opportunity to utilize a free-trial with Walden University to consider for my online schooling. I was unhappy with the format and found it very confusing. I then notified them that I would not continue with them after the free-trial. Since then I have been contacted multiple times about a "technology fee" which basically means that because I "attended" online (using technology), that I owed them $150. I told them that such a fee was not discussed with me nor that it would be due regardless of continuing with them or not.
I just received a call stating that I was being sent to collections for $150 and they would only settle for payment of 85%. Walden says that it was turned over the collection agency and that they no longer manage that amount.

On March 24, 2016, I received an email from Walden. Luckily I forwarded this email to my personal account because amazingly, it is no longer in my school email account. This immediately caused alarm, as I assured myself, "This must be a mistake; I must contact Walden immediately".

The email states that due to new U.S. Federal regulations Walden would no longer be provided the programs or books that are necessary for coursework completion. It is an estimated $20, 000 or more increase. As others have stated within my first two classes Walden increased tuition, taking 1/2 of my additional funding. During my second set of classes they send the previously mention email. Ironically enough, I made some phone calls Dept. Of Education plus 7 other dept. No one knew of any new regulation.

In return for the $20, 000 to $25, 000 increase Walden was willing to offer a 1% remaining tuition deduction a GRAND savings of roughly $240. Now as a student with a 4.0 GPA I am currently not enrolled (I withdrew), trying to enroll with a new facility, although I am very skeptical of trying again, and unable to start classes anywhere due to the fact that Walden has my funding tied up in their fraudulent excuses that enable them to extort the very students that they are to education.

VERY DISGRACEFUL! Please people, BE WARNED! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Keep fighting them people. Make the complaints. I am hoping to see a class action settlement in the future. Not for personal profit or gain, but for justice.

I have attended the course of Design and Technology in Walden University. We didn’t use such programs as Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and others, which are essential if you want to work in this field. I was shocked, when the employers found out that I didn’t know these programs and haven’t used them. I was disappointed that I have studied in this University and paid such large tuition fee.

I must also be a fool believing in Walden University and the Education Program. It is a joke and if possible I would like to join the legal suit of filing against them. I have been in this program where I could have obtained 2 doctoral degrees. I'm still waiting on approval, with the chairperson not knowing what he is doing. I also complained about a 2 week turnaround for the instructors every time you submit anything. I'm just trying to complete this scam because I wasted valuable time and money, but I will never recommend or have anything to do with promoting this school after completion. I wish I would checked sooner, even after the signs were there. My mistake !

Within the next few weeks, I will not be a student at Walden University. As an institution of advance learning their administrative business practices are inefficient and unprofessional. I have always thought that once an educational institution's main focus is on increasing profit margins and less so on the welfare of its students, and the quality of its pedagogy then there is bound to be a conflict of interest. The university's "unethical" practice to recruit as many students with a failure to explain the financial aid process in details prior to and even during enrollment is deceptive. This is particularly so for international students whose country of origin financial aid's practices and rules differ from that of the United States. Upon self-discovery of the latter, rather than the university trying to help me in a professional manner, I was made to feel ignorant and the blame was cast solely on me for not having the initial detailed information from the university. This is despite my many attempts to obtain the same. Each time I attempted, I am transferred to another department of which people are either unaware of what I am relating or I am told my information lacks credibility. Then there are the insensitive, rude undertone emails and telephone conversations that reflect the "after the fact" limited information. If I was that ignorant, would I have become a student of higher learning in the first replace as suggested by the reactions of the university's staff? At one point I was not given an academic advisor because the university was not aware that it had not given me one following the departure of the previous academic advisor. Who incidentally had lacked advising and professionalism skills, small wonder she departed from the university. As if to punish me for some unknown crime, fate caused me to self-appoint a new an equally ineffective academic advisor. What behooves me is that these people have masters and doctoral degrees, many from Walden university. Yet they lack basic common sense as well as advanced thinking skills that ought to be reflective of their educational attainment and maturity. Did I also mentioned that when a person telephones the university, you are advised and reminded that calls are monitored for "quality [guarantee] purposes, " a script that is embedded in the psychic of the university's staff and that is all there is to that action. Also, the university request that you complete these survey so that "we can improve the delivery of our services, " really, ? That is so ironic! An educational institution cannot be teaching its students how to act professionally responsible while its administrative and academic support staff are being inefficient, incompetent, and unprofessional. This spells, hypocrisy and deception, therefore I do not want to be connected with an institution that engages in not only such practices but also bias and discrimination. I believe that good reputation is still important so PLEASE, PLEASE reconsider carefully before choosing Walden University, I had to learn the hard way after receiving initial warnings. Please do not make the same mistake as I did.

I am a former employee for Walden and was recently let go by the company after seven years. I am pursuing legal action against Walden for various reasons. If you are a former or current student in the college of education, especially if you were a TEACH grant recipient or you feel you were misled about an education program, you should contact me.
If you are a prospective student, I would just strongly encourage you to do your research. Walden's programs are often not accepted for renewals, upgrades and salary increases, and Walden advisors likely will not inform you of these restrictions. Most programs are not aligned to state or national standards, which is why many states don't accept them. For example, they offer an MS in Teaching English Language Learners that was "developed to reflect professional guidelines set forth by TESOL" and yet the program will not lead to TESOL certification or an endorsement in ESL. And Walden develops programs like the EdD in College Teaching and Learning, which serves absolutely no purpose. You cannot teach at a college level unless you have a degree in a specific content area (like psychology, math, physics, etc). They have since terminated that program but an institution of higher education should understand this before developing such a program. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who run Walden do not have a background in education. They come from the corporate world.
I will simply conclude with an email statement from a current associate dean in the college of education. "And the point that people do not understand that some of these program are just BS [###] and need not exist." (July 15, 2014)

Walden University needs to be investigated for the irresponsible practices that exist within its DBA program. As some have already mentioned, their current practices keep students from graduating, not only in a timely manner but in or around the timeframe that they "sell" you when considering their program. They give no consideration to the thousands and thousands of both personal and federal funding that will never be recovered, as many students will just default on those loans when they finally realize that they have received nothing in return for the work and money. I had taken a sabbatical after making a career change which resulted in a study change. In order to jump back in, I took a 4 day intensive in Atlanta, which had been very productive, reviewed multiple times by the leadership present. I was strongly encouraged to choose a specific methodology based on the purpose of my study, and since the advice was given by respected leadership, I went down that road. I had to change chairs after 3 months ($12, 000 dollars paid) with no feedback. After the new chair change ~ who spent 7 months ($27000 dollars spent) doing nothing but reviewing my APA ~ it finally went to the methodologist, who then told me I needed to change my methodological design ~ which resulted in an entire re-write. In addition, the review process had started with one rubric which changed AFTER I was in the review process but I was not grandfathered in ~ this also add to the re-write process. It goes on and on, as do the bills. The leadership of Walden goes on and on about social change and the reality is that it needs to start with them. They need to feel a level of responsibility and be held accountable for the financial and emotional issues they are creating by 1. Keeping students in far longer than necessary due to the constant fluctuations and lack of cohesive leadership 2. Allowing students to join the program who ~quite frankly ~ may not be cut out for a doctoral program of this nature because their only concern is the bottom line, and 3. live out the "social change" they keep preaching.

I am in the DNP program. In the program, you cannot start the doctoral project until your final year. During this year, all of us in my group have been told that instructors have two weeks to respond to submissions. My professor has literally been on vacation the entire month of December. All 15 of us hoped to finish but there is a huge bottleneck of who gets the projects submitted. ONe or two of 15 may be able to graduate, and the rest of us in this class (with no instructor for one entire month, and no break in tuition because of it) are trying to progress. I do realize that the doctoral projects are long and extensive, but when one small change is requested and the two weeks are dead time for minor changes, there is no way that even half of us could graduate. This has me concerned that it is a predatory financial practice, and a way for the University to add money to the program.

A group of past and present Walden University graduate students who feel they have been victims of educational fraud or scams are in the process of preparing litigation against Walden University. This may or may not be a class action suit or each case may be tried on its individual merits. The attorneys have yet to determine which approach they will take. All cases will be taken on contingency, so there will be no attorney’s fees unless the case is won. Once the law firm begins examining each individual case, they will advise you if your case qualifies for litigation. The more cases we can present, the stronger the pattern of institutional malfeasance we can establish. If you are interested in joining this movement please email your full name, non-Walden email address, school, and degree program to [protected]@gmail.com There will not be a reply at this time. All contact information will be forwarded to the law firm and they will contact you directly to procure the precise information about your case.