Does anyone know about Grand Canton University? A friend of mine wants to get her BS (and probably Masters) online there.
Depends. What does she want to do with the degree?
The accreditation page scares me. From the Licensure and Approvals section, state of South Carolina:
Also notice that if she wants to teach, the degrees offered will not automatically accredit her to teach in the states listed.
Nursing.
I assume she has looked into instate public schools which are going to be much cheaper?
I was surprised to find out UNC has an online BSN program, you do the clinical part in your home area
http://nursing.unc.edu/current/rn-bsn/program/overview.html
This is not cheap if you live outside NC.
Not really sure what the in-state opportunities are. (She lives in Oregon.)
I’ve never heard of it.
The actual physical campus is not in a good area of Phoenix. However, I"m guessing she’s going to do their online program. I’ll try to ask around tomorrow to see if anyone at work knows about it.
That’s correct. She wants to live in Oregon, and do the program online.
One issue that the online schools often have is that their credits may not be transferable to any other colleges or universities. If there’s any chance that she might decide to finish her degree at community college in Oregon, or get some additional degree in nursing or a related field, she should make very certain as to which other colleges will (not “may”) accept GCU’s credits.
My ex-wife was a senior financial aid officer there 8 or so years ago. When she hired in, she loved it. After about a year there the facility got bought out by some incredibly unscrupulous former online university senior staff that had been booted for ethics violations and fraud accusations.
They set about revamping the admissions and FA accounting and processes, and persisted even after my wife and others in the department explained to them that what they were doing was in violation of federal guidelines and regulations. Once there was talk of the school losing its accreditation, she quit.
I don’t know anything about the school since she left. They may well have been reformed or taken over by someone else and gotten their act together, but if this is the same group that owned them a decade ago, I’d avoid it like the plague.
They listed their accreditation for the Nursing program, which I posted above. They also say this:
Have your friend talk to the nurses’ licensing body in her state to find out if those are acceptable accreditations or not. If so, no worries. If not, she’ll know before shelling anything out.
I’ll suggest that next time I talk to her.
FWIW, she’s really interested in missionary/global work. (WHO, Doctors Without Borders, that sort of thing.) Or she’d like to be a Travel Nurse.