Grand Canyon University [GCU]

I’m so exhausted with GCU. I put in years of online learning. Initially, I felt it was a great choice. As years passed, it got worse. I was ripped off financially and left with nothing. I wouldn’t recommend this university to anyone. They claim to be Christian! But their fruit say different. Their goal is money. Whether you pass, fail, or drop out doesn’t seem to matter to them. I’m done with them. They can keep my transcripts. I’ll just start over. Thanks for taking my GI Bill money and leaving me with nothing.

As someone who values a Christian education, I was initially drawn to Grand Canyon University for its mission and programs. However, my experience has been mixed. While the faculty and counselors are supportive, there have been issues with communication and transparency. Some hidden fees and challenges with obtaining transcripts have been frustrating. It's clear that there is room for improvement in areas like customer service and financial clarity. Despite these challenges, the school does offer fair tuition prices and a positive learning environment for those pursuing higher education.

I started class on July 11th and much like every semester and academic year here, there is always an issue with the financial aid. Not every student hails from a wealthy family. I already work 40 hours a week, more would be prohibitive to my academic performance. Thankfully, I am closing in on graduation this academic year, but the unnecessary stress has really soured my Doctoral experience. I don't know if it's because GCU doesn't have a separate office for that, but every semester I have had to wait weeks after class to receive my loan. This is unnecessary angst and stress that is being placed on myself and other Doctoral students. I reminded student services that I was facing eviction weeks ago. They did not care. There was no urgency, no rush to help or anything like that. Now, a month later, my aid has still not been delivered. If I am evicted from my apartment, I'm going to take legal action. This is unprecedented for a Doctoral candidate to have to deal with this.

My name Is Melodie Reece I have been going to Grand Canyon University since 2016 right out of high school. I started August of 2016 on campus for my bachelor's in nursing, after about 3 months I went in person to speak to an advisor about switching my major. Unsure of who I spoke to in person, I let them know that the nursing program was very rigorous, and I had professors telling me I needed to study and do homework for their class alone for 8 plus hours on top of me working full time. After much thought, I let the advisor know I wanted to become a therapist, get licensed and start my own practice. I was advised by this advisor to switch major to bachelor's in behavioral health science. I completed that program on 1/10/2021, from that I worked closely with multiple advisors whom I have attached emails from me and them letting them know my goal had not changed. I was advised to move onto a master's program to pick any psychology program, I went with forensic psychology. I completed my masters of science in psychology with an emphasis on forensic psychology 2.1.23. About 5 months before I completed my masters, I reached out to an advisor to see about my internship and the steps I needed to take to get licensure. They had informed me that the program I was in would not get me licensed and I could either stop the master's program and get into another or just continue this program and do my doctorate in psychology at GCU and get licensed that way. I decided to stay in the program since I had already planned to go for my doctorate. Once I had completed my master's program I reached out to my advisor, was told I needed to talk to a doctorate advisor, reached out to them and it took them three weeks to get back to me. On that call I was informed that none of GCU doctorate programs are accredited which means I can't get licensed with them, nor is there a doctorate in clinical psychology program. He sent me a list of schools that are accredited and have a clinical psychology program. There are two in Arizona, which are midwestern and ASU. I applied to both and got put onto a waiting list for both for an undetermined amount of time due to their programs being extremely popular. For midwestern I would have to do another master's program then move onto the PSYD program. So now it is April I was told by both schools I should look into doing a program somewhere else till I am pulled, reached back out to GCU 3.28.23 and expressed my concerns and how I was led the wrong way. I talked to Courtney, my advisor, and she encouraged me to apply for the masters in clinical mental health counseling so I could get licensed. She sent me the board of Arizona's website so I could ensure this program would get me licensed. She apologized if she gave me any false information. In this situation, apologies only get us so far. I am $80,000 in debt from student loans and about to have another $40,000 on top of that due to these advisors leading me the wrong way and lying about programs. Now, I am having to crawl back to GCU because of them being the only school that can accept me right now due to me being an alumni. I am owed something from this whole mess, I am about to be $120,000 in debt and i want to find and navigate a solution that I feel is acceptable and benefits both parties involved. As I know image and reputation are of upmost importance to the school and education, respect and integrity are important to me. I ask for this due to me being lied to from multiple advisor's, the emotional distress that has been placed on me since dealing with this situation and now it will take me even longer before I am able to get a doctorate and finish my end goal which is being a licensed therapist with my own practice. It is only right that I am paid adequately for this mess. This is a situation that can be detrimental to any students continued education and could very possibly cause many students to drop out or grow a distaste for the education system as a whole, with the added falling short of expectation regarding your schools boasting being the premier Christian university. Which my experience does not reflect that self-evaluation. Recently as of 2.20.24 i am unable to get my advisor Becky Coady to respond to me about a balance that I supposably owe the school. I am trying to ensure I will be able to start my next class which is March 6th but do not know if this balance will keep me from it. I feel like i am being ignored and have made multiple email attempts which are attached to this letter along with calling and leaving voicemails for her to reach back to me. I would like to be reached out to about the situation with my previous master's program with GCU and I would like to be reached out to about this current balance i am being told I have.

In a world where healthcare professionals are farther and farther between and in continued increasing need we need to ensure that we implement processes and procedures that allow for these professionals to complete their goals and provide care to the community and society in which we all operate.

Best Regards,

Melodie Reece

My son and I were led to beleieve he would only be in school 2 more years for theatre degree. He lives on campus and loves it but financially we were planning on 2 years and now we find out he has to attend an extra year which is an additional $10,000 to $20,000 more depending on if he stays on campus, which we live out of state. We were very upset about this. It would have been different if we were told ahead of time and had prepared for this financial journey.

This so called school is billing me for classes I did not authorize to be in. I attempted to register for a program but after several weeks of trying to find out more inform on when classes would begin and how or if I would be able to take any courses, I stared getting harassing calls and texts from a person who worked there who then put me in a class and told me I had to do all of these things. When I informed her I wouldn't be able to do that she still harassed me daily and even allowed financial aid to be applied on my behalf. Initially when I wanted to find out about taking classes, she notified me not to contact anyone but her until otherwise informed to do so. I contacted the department of education and had all funds taken back but now they are sending me bills, threatening to take me to collections if I don't pay all that back.

First of all, I would like to say my apologies because I am legally blind, so my spelling or grammar may not be 100% because I am using what is called Grammarly and voice-to-text speech, so there may be words added in that are different or doesn't make sense there may not be capitalization or punctuation because I am handicapped I cannot see I'm blind.

The first complaint of handicapped discrimination

When I started my class on October 2nd, 2023, every time we did the introduction, I always posted my handicaps, the fact that I am blind with partial vision. I suffer from binocular vision and dyslexia, so reading is almost impossible. My computer reads everything to me, and I use voice-to-text speech to respond, which is what I'm doing now. I have Grammarly correcting my stuff so it looks professional. Upon the starting of this class from my very first assignment my professor was punishing me talking points from my grade dropping my grade almost to a C because of the fact of capitalization and punctuation of citations and in text citations. I explained to him I am handicap I cannot help that I cannot see the screens or read good enough to adjust that. During the 4th week I contacted my student counselor miss Priscilla she overviewed everything and seen that what he was doing because I took screenshots was discrimination against me because he was punishing me because of my handicap which was situations out of my control. did I submit all of my handicaps to the disability office yes I did. My student counselor said she would talk to him. It is still going on.

Magically appearing new classes on my schedule making my course and financial burdens much longer so that they can magically get more money from me

Now after I filed the discrimination issue which I have sought legal counsel from an attorney who also said this is a perfect example of handicapped discrimination and is wanting to sue the school. Mr. Nate Lawrence by military supposed to be lazon magically lost all of my stuff. So now the school has tacked on an extra academic year because apparently all of my stuff magically disappeared my credits from my College that I attended to beforehand and my military credits everything magically disappeared so now I have to pay for a whole new full academic year instead of graduating at the beginning of 2025 now I have to graduate in 2026 thanks to Mr. Nate Lawrence

I'm a GCU 2nd time Master's graduate. This year has been my most challenging year with the leadership team that I have to communicate / collaborate with such as school counselor & my school counselor overseer. I really would like to speak with someone other than Luke Hiatt and Adam Blair. I don't like the treatment that I have been receiving from those two individual. I requested some changes and nothing was done. I was told that GCU didn't offer those changes. I asked for a payment agreement for my last class, I was told that it wasn't an option.

I would like someone to review our emails, my questions and concerns. As I mentioned earlier, I graduated with a Master's Degree in Special Education in 2015. I decided to pursue my Master's Degree in Educational Administration and this last year has been horrible for me. Please contact me at [protected]

I have been misled and lied to from Grand Canyon University. I am an online student and I received a strange letter from the school talking about them being in legal trouble, so i started doing my research. I already suspected the school was bogus after starting and my classes online consist of watching YouTube videos and chatting with classmates about nothing. They said I could not drop out before I finished another class or I would owe back all of my financial aid They're lying about my funding and I truly feel as though they're stealing money from students. I was informed this was not that religious of a school because after finding out it was religious I said i didn't want to go and I was convinced that religion would not be a part of my education but then find out they're forcing me to take religious classes and partake in prayers in every class. I am Buddhist and I was lied to and deceived, bullied into staying enrolled and feeling like I have no options. I am in my 30's and work for minimum wage. Returning to college was a HUGE decision and I have completely wasted time, energy, resources, efforts, etc. This has had a horrible impact on my mental and emotional well-being and I have seen HUNDREDS of students online reporting similar issues and being unsure what to do about it. Can't we gather a significant amount of individuals whom have been lied to and violated by this school and get our money back as well as receive compensation for the other ways of which this experience has cost us so much? I am seeking a lawyer that is willing to fight this case and bring justice to the people whom have been wronged by this fake puppy mill of a school. They're degrees aren't even accepted as legitimate, people cannot get jobs upon graduating and are left with thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. This school is ruining lives. It NEEDS to stop. Can you help?

I am asking GCU to refund for doctorate program classes after being led to believe I passed one class starting another then being told I didn't pass the 1st & telling me to reapply in 2yrs. Which I did not understanding the business of GCU. The last issue being the charging & non support of financial aid understanding or advice.

Charging nearly 500.00 to my account saying it wasn't covered by financial aid which could affect my credit report. I owe a substantial amount of student loans. I have earned my M.S. in Psychology w/ emphasis in Forensic Science from GCU, trying twice to achieve doctorate, with sudden drop from class I believed I passed. The professor ask me to redo paper & I would pass which I did reaching out to professor who never provided a phone # they answered, was late in scoring & after givingme instructionswhich I applied failed me. I had sone great professos from gcu I didn'tseethis coming & moved on to next class just to complete assignments, then be told I didn't pass the last. Financial Aid calls me & informed me I owe nearly 500.00. I'd like to resolve this issue asap, please grant me the relief I seek.

My student ID #.[protected]

Respectfully Submitted,

Mae Dean, former student

I was told I was able to receive an unsubsidized loan of 9000 but when I received the stipend check it was for 1601 may I ask if you can break it down for me this isn't a complaint, I'm just curious on how the payments work for unsubsidized loans. this isn't a complaint i just would like to know how the payments break down and my name is Chelsie Embry I'm in my first year on my bachelor's in science. I have living expenses that need to be paid for I used the first check for school supplies and a computer. will I receive another check when the next semester comes in.

I started GCU in February of 2022. I agreed to pay 700 every two months for school fees because I had grants and veterans discount (which is something like $100 GCU took off, so they obviously do not appreciate veterans and I had to keep asking for the discount). This payment plan has never happened. I have been being charged 2k per class (every 7 weeks) and I am only contacted when they want money. I was told that if I filled out a student loan application that I can start school sooner, I was hesitant because I told the lady many times I do not want a loan. She promised me that she would not put a loan but they needed my information, so I did it. She took out a loan I did not approve of and nobody that works there took me seriously. Awful school. Awful experience. Most important, GCU does not care about the people fighting for their country (from my personal experiences).

The program I had hoped to attend was grossly misrepresented, as was the financials involved. With a FASFA and VA educational benefit, I started the first class, which was a huge waste of time and money. It was 2 weeks of "how to be organized." I decided GCU was not for me and withdrew at the end of the 2 weeks. GCU then sent me a bill for $2,400! They threatened to garnish my wages and send the amount to collections. This is my 3rd time attending college. I have never in my life dealt with a more difficult school. $2,400 for 2 weeks of an "organizational" class?! That is utterly absurd! And robbery! Most legit schools will forgive a withdraw of 2 weeks. They dragged their feet so I was beyond the 2 weeks and now is trying to rob me. I work full time and support my autistic son. I am appalled. Stay away from GCU.