I'm an MBA graduate of AIU Online, I completed my degree in May of 2009. Overall I've had nothing but great experiences with AIU Online. People if you are interested in attending an online school please do not listen to internet reviews. The reason I say this is that the internet is full of people bashing online schools, including AIU Online, University of Pheonix, Devry, Kaplan, etc. AIU Online is a fully accredited school. AIU Online was accredited by SACS but they are now accredited by NCA which accredits almost every major (legitimate) University in the midwest. I live in Illinois so NCA accredits every state school including Northwestern. I see reviews all over saying AIU Online was about to lose to their accreditation a couple years ago. They would have lost their accreditation if they didn't take action but let me tell you, this is the exact reason why University's are accredited! Accrediting bodies will review the University every several years. When they see a University is lacking in something or needs to develop something they will put them on a probationary or warning status for a certain period of time. This is good! Many schools have been placed on probation. AIU made some great changes to their University during the probationary period as SACS gave them great recommendations. In the end they came off probation for a reason and they exited as a better University than when they entered, this is the purpose of probation! Overall don't listen to the negative hype no matter what online school you choose. The problem with online education is that there are a few students who should not be in the program as they should not have even finished high school. These students struggle greatly in these programs and usually end up dropping out of failing out. Then they get upset and write negative information online. Let me tell you that online education is not for everyone, it isn't. Some have to try it out first in order to realize that. However if it wasn't for AIU Online I would not have my MBA. I'm an adult who works 40-50 hours per week. My schedule is not very flexible so it's diffucult to attend a local campus. I learned a great deal of information with my MBA in HR Management. I have yet to find an employer who did not recgonize my degree. Online education is becoming increasingly more popular amongst employers but it is still very new. As of matter of fact many employers like graduates from online schools because it shows that you are probably more "computer" savy. In this day in age if you don't acceptable computer skills, forget it! AIU Online's staff is friendly and their instructors have experience in the fields they teach. Sure you'll have your bad instructor here and there, but that's with any school. I attended a state school for my undergrad and I had my fair share of bad instructors. For some reason people think online Universities will be different. Overall I would recommend this school to anyone. However like I said in the beginning of my post, don't listen to me since this is an internet review. Make the decision yourself! Compare different online Universities. Take a look at their virtual campuses, these vary greatly from one school to the next (this is the reason I chose AIU Online over any other school), are books and software included in tuition costs?, do they have around the clock support?, how long will it take you to finish your degree?, are they accredited?, these are just some of the questions you should be asking yourself when you take look at online colleges. Honestly tuition should be the last thing you look at. Please do not chose a University based on tuition alone! Don't cut yourself short. Many online colleges I research where not very upfront about tuition, they'd give you on number then once you enrolled you found out their were many hidden costs. I hope this review was helpful!
