DeVry University
1
Having gone to this school for several years, I feel I am qualified to write a fair review of this school. Bottom line is: go to a real college. Devry isnt a scam, but its the closest thing to being one.
It started off with a recruiter coming to my highschool, he told me about the school, and knowing I didnt have the best GPA, I decided to apply there. It isnt even a question of grades there, it's money. The interview is bogus; they promised me co-op, which was a big deal for me, it meant I could work, gain experience, and get a degree at the same time. They said after my first year or so they would place me in a co-op program, and that about 90% of the school did such a thing. As I went on, I realized that no one was in co-op, and they didnt even have a person to talk to it about! They promised degree programs they didn't offer, such as gaming, "we'll get it next semester, take these classes now and you can transfer into the gaming program when we offer it", thats what they told numerous students, and 5 semesters later there was still no gaming program. After I was enrolled is when I found out the man who sold me on the school was just a recruiter, with no connection to any of the departments, and I never had contact with him again.
Here's where most people get frustrated: financial aid. It is completely normal to be dealing with financial aid problems as late as the end of the semester! The offices are unorganized and it sometimes takes months for them to process your financial aid forms; for me, the semester was over, and all they had to do was authorize one thing, which they couldn't find time to do in the 15 weeks I was taking the classes! This isnt isolated, every student you ask has probably had problems with financial aid there, for me it was every semester.
The classes, while some are decent, are for the most part bad. Since each campus only has so many people, you can end up stuck without classes. If there are not enough people to fill a certain class, it will be cancelled. This happened to a friend of mine; he was 23, and still hadnt finished his bachelors, since they wouldn't offer his classes. Most classes are outdated, the only ones I could call decent are the math classes, and humanities. The networking program is a joke; the instructor guides you step by step thru the lab, so do the lab assistants, so you learn nothing. Every professor taught this way; its almost encouraged that you cheat or slack off, it's hard to explain, but the professors could care less if you hand in an assignment or show up for class, or disrupt their class. They're not teachers as much as they are industry workers. All my electronics classes were taught by people who worked in the electronics field, which you would think would be a great thing, but it isnt; they don't understand how to teach, and have trouble explaining concepts and such. The books they use arent anything special either, and are hard to learn from. Almost every class was OPEN BOOK! You could go into a test not knowing anything, and still pass, by copying the examples from the book into the test!
The ECET program (which I was in) is OK at best. The labs don't teach you much at all, don't get fooled into thinking its a special school because they do labs; every school has labs. And a common mistake, ECET, BMET, ect. are technicians degrees; they are not engineering degrees. They are held at a much lower level than an engineering degree. They make you buy a toolbox your first semester, which looking back on it now, is filled with cheap and outdated parts; a basic multimeter, a box of 1/2 watt resistors, a bunch of IC's that arent standard, cheap BNC to alligator wires that break after a couple of weeks and a basic (I mean it, the cheapest one they offer, barely had enough pins to build a circuit) breadboard, along with other stuff. I now look back on the box and see nothing I could use. The labs are overcrowded, the equipment is dated.
Here's why I would not recommend this school:
The biggest thing, I heard this and I decided to leave, was that employers do not respect devry graduates. The work is easy (compared to other schools), and they are known for their lack of quality graduates. Apparently some employers even write "devry grads need not apply" or something similar on their want ads, but the bottom line is, it is not a respected degree. The only situation I could see going to this school would be to transfer to a real school to complete a masters after you graduate, but make sure the real school accepts their degree, some do, some dont.
It is expencive, more expencive per credit than any public school. If you are afraid you will not get into a real college, apply anyway; if your GPA is too low from highschool, or even from devry, ask if you can start on non-matriculated classes, that is, you are not a student, but you will be admitted based on your performance on these trial classes.
It is a FOR-PROFIT school, meaning they are more concerned about money than education. They run the school like a business, and will make decisions based on cash.
The lack of clubs, events, ect. It is a small campus, which you're paying more for than a public school. Public colleges offer sporting events, gyms, dorms, dining halls, and usually a lot more, like game rooms, formals, fraternities, and more, for less money. Devry has a parking lot, a decent food vendor (no complaints there), and maybe one event every few months.
I transferred out of there into a real university, words couldnt express how much of an improvement it is. The man who signed me onto this school teaches one of my classes, all the professors are very experienced teachers. I always thought devry was a good and hard school, until I went to a real college; the classes here are much harder, and im learning a lot, and I mean a LOT more. Im almost embarassed to say I learned more in one semester here than at my 4 semesters at devry. If you don't believe me, ask a devry student something simple, like what a diode is used for, I bet they couldn't answer it! They make you build circuits, but just give you the diagram and tell you where to measure, not what the circuit does or how it works! Devry is basically 13th grade; it has the same feel as highschool, all the kids who couldnt get into real colleges go there, so their additude is the same as highschool, the only difference is the teachers dont care if you get up to leave in the middle of class.
Let me try and sum it all up:
Pros:
-You can work while attending devry, since the classes are built around people who have jobs (but I recommend not working while going to school, if possible, work interfers with school)
-Three semesters a year
-Easy admittance
-Building is up to date; bathrooms are clean, air conditioning works great, internet connection is fast
Cons:
-Degree considered lesser than degrees from a public college
-Expensive
-Lack of activities/clubs
-Quality of education is lesser than a public college (even a community college, if they offer what you want, I recommend going there first!)
-You will be embarassed to tell people where you go to school
-Outdated teachings (sites where they have game programming teach dated programming languages, they use non standard IC's and other components, ect.)
-Number of classes offered is less than a big school, so you will not like your schedual (you may have to take a class from 8:30-10:30 AM, then have a class on the same day at 5:00 PM, this is a problem if you live far away)
-The new schedual they implemented at all devrys, 8 week classes. Instead of having 4 classes over 15 weeks, for say 2 hours twice a week, you now have 2 classes, 4 hours twice a week, for 8 weeks. Then the same thing for another 8 weeks with your other two classes. This was the final straw for me, considering all the work you do is outside of class, they effectively cut your lab time in half, and 4 hour classes become unbearable.
I would not recommend devry to anybody, I believe there are better alternatives, please find them, go to a school dedicated to education, not profits!
They also promise a degree in less than 3 years, thats if you complete 6 classes a trimester, and you tested high enough that you werent put into pre req classes. I havent met a single person who graduated in less than 3 years.
If you dont belive anything i've said, then search around google, you'll find im not alone in my review of this school. Hell, I think the fact that you never hear of any famous devry alumni says something about the school, there arent any! While you might be able to do ok with a degree from this place, you can do better elsewhere, for less money and effort, and with less risk!