Complaint Review: Golden Gate University

The finance program, at least the online version, is extremely compromised by impersonal one-sided interaction, subjective grading, and department politics that protect incompetent/unqualified professors.  I voiced all of these concerns early on, administrators did not address the concerns, then I suffered backlash as a complainant/whistleblower, and finally I left the program.  To give you a taste, on one occasion I was accused of cheating on a non-graded homework assignment--four times in quick succession (inappropriate whether harassment or a website glitch).  Making matters worse, the accusation occurred in the discussion log of the course in view of all participants.  Relevance?  1) it shows the school does not screen professors adequately or keep faculty that adhere to common standards of academic conduct and ethics, 2) it shows the school is all too willing to overlook valid, substantiated complaints regarding inappropriate behaviour (extensive text logs of harassment/subjective grading).  The professor had substandard English/communication skills for someone teaching at the graduate-level to native English speakers.

On a legal contract level, the school was not willing to hold up to its duties and fix the matter so I could either continue as a student or receive a refund for the defective online course.  Think for a moment, if you cannot fall back on administration to right a wrong then how can you trust that same administration to construct a degree program worth any value at all.  I lost thousands of dollars, essentially teaching myself (with quite a few blind spots and points of confusion caused by the professors negligence/malfeasance) and gave up my aspirations to pursue accounting as a career.  This is the worst kind of discrimination because academics should be objective, particularly among those of the same entering class, course-type, and professor.  They simply do not care.  Beware of brick-and-mortar schools, like this one, that view their online programs as an secondary, under-supervised, under-managed, essentially moneymaking scheme. 

I filed a complaint that did not go anywhere and was further frustrated by faculty that knew the professors.  The school stalled the complaint process, did not inform me of my options, and did not offer a refund for the course or discipline the instructor.  I lost approximately $2,500 in addition to being mistreated and the lost time in pursuit of a degree.