Eastern Kentucky University

Current grad student. Love my program and professors but the administration at EKU is horrendous. But don't be quick to blame the staff - they are overworked, underpaid, and the lowest paid employees are typically doing the bulk of the student centered services. There is so much bloat in the overpaid upper administration that offices such as Financial Aid or Registrar are the ones who have to cut positions when budget cuts occur (which is almost yearly) even though they remain some of the busiest... Read More offices on campus. EKU is also lacking in their communications - offices are rogue in how they choose to convey information and there is no formal form of communication or adherence to policies that make understanding the various functions of each office any easier. EKU also admits students that are beyond ill-prepared for college, many needing remedial courses just to enter 100 level courses. I wouldn't be surprised if some students are barely at a high school reading level, even some in graduate courses. Colleges are businesses and will take your money at any chance, even if all the data is indicating you will fail and end up in thousands, if not tens of thousands, dollars of debt. If I had an 18yr old hesitant to go to college, I would encourage them to go to a trade school instead; more useful and more likely to succeed.

I went with EKU's MAT program for my alternative path towards teacher certification. Other than my activity inside a handful of high schools, all of my course work was online. I wish I had decided to run after the first semester instead of sticking it out. Each time they messed something up it was moderately worse than the previous mess-up. I was given bad information constantly, which led to so many problems. The professors are also advisors and clinical observers, meaning they do not have time... Read More to do any of their jobs thoroughly. My clinical observer said unethical things to me after observing my lessons; he was a bully. My graduation was also delayed due to an advising error. It has just been one big mess. I did my undergraduate studies at the state university and had zero problems.

Online students seem to be lower priority than brick-and-mortar ones, and the online program costs more. They take on more students than they can actually progress through the program with the number of educators they have, so a certain [percentage MUST fail or they will be breaching the contract. They use a lot of automated stuff and grad student mentors to guide class discussions in the first 2 semesters, after which I'd guess that "certain percentage" of dropouts bring the class down to a manageable... Read More size for real teachers after that..If it's that way at all online schools, it's not as apparent in most of them. If you have technical issues caused by their system, or the work projects they assign you to complete at your workplace are incompatible, they're not very responsive. A few professors are very knowledgeable, helpful and professional, but others are completely self-absorbed and thoughtless, it seemed. One ( a "Southern belle type) giggler whose webinars were more chatty sharing about her thoughts regarding her own career and student days) would actually tell online students that she couldn't talk when they needed urgent advice because she was "with students today"! The program was good in other ways, but being treated like a cash cow to support "in person" students wasn't appealing, once I knew. I moved on and am glad I did.

Eastern Kentucky University has a beautiful campus and great people; who are really geared toward your success. I just wish that some of the faculty had more experience in the field in which the course they are teaching applies to and that professors could not switch courses in the middle of a semester (professors with no fire service experience should NOT teach courses in the fire service majors). I also think that if the academic and enrollment advisors did not change so much it would be easier... Read More keeping track of your degree progress (I had 3 academic advisors in a 4 year period and every time you had to tell them what courses you are taking and have taken when it is their job responsibility to make sure the student is on track). I choose this school because of the professors and courses it offered because it is the best in the state for my major and while I am happy with the education I received I believe that some things should be changed to make it a better experience for future students.