Hi all im new to this board im 18 and have a GED and live in the northeast US,

Well I'm trying to become a medical transcriptionist to start and i stumbled across the online university Kaplan University. I called and talked to them and everything seems legit, but then i go look them up online and find complaints....

can anyone please tell me about these guys??? and if they aren't good, what online university should i goto for medical transcription??? please any help is very appreciated,

thanks ahead of time.

If you have a chance to look around this site, (check out 'comment on your institute') and others, you will notice that the names that seem to be most recommended for medical transcription are Career Step, Andrews, and M-tec. It would be worth it for you to look into these, as their graduates seem more likely to be hired by companies after grad...

I am a recent graduate of Kaplan University and I would not recommend them to anyone. Let me explain.

I had an AAS in accounting. I have a small tax business and I thought earning my BS would help me attract clients and grow my business. I shopped around and Kaplan appeared to be the best of the bunch. So I enrolled.

While I feel that many of my classes and instructors were excellent, there were significant issues. For one, most exams were set up so you could take them over and over again until you got the answers all correct. All exams were open book too. So unless you simply did not apply yourself at all you could easily ace all exams, even the finals.

There were quite a few students in my classes who could not read, write or spell. I'm not trying to put anyone down here, but when you are in college you should be able to write a coherent sentence. Many could not.

On two occasions I was approached by other students asking me to help them cheat. I reported both of them, but I don't think much came of it. I have read newspaper articles written by professors at Kaplan stating that despite what the school said in its policies, cheating was tolerated.

On two separate occasions I was left without an advisor. The second advisor I got was useless. He knew nothing about accounting, the degree requirements, or what was required to sit for the CPA exam. As a result I did not take a class that is required in order to take that exam, and I do not quality for the majority of Federal and state accounting positions.

Finally there is the financial aid issue. This was, and still is, an absolute nightmare. Loans and grants were cancelled without my knowledge. Living expense subsidies were always late. No one would return calls or emails. I never got the same story twice.

The result is that I have a degree that cost me $45,000 and I cannot get an interview, let alone a job. Actually, I have had three interviews. These were all for entry level jobs that someone with an AAS qualified for. I did not get any offers. I have applied for at least 30 jobs.

Today I did get an offer. It was a long-term temp data entry position that doesn't require more than a high school education. I declined.

I've spent two years and all that money, and this is the only type of job I can get? BTW, I graduated magna cum laude. If I had it to do over, I would not have gone to Kaplan. As it stands I have a degree that is being laughed at by local employers and I am swimming in debt.

I think you will get more valuable training by attending a local, on-campus school. It will probably be cheaper too.

Kaplan is a RA accredited institution ( http://www.getinfo.kaplan.edu/ ) assuming you mean this one. There are many options for you to choose from so please continue to search and read various on line dicsuccion groups. One response to your message showed some concerns about the College however you will find other posters who feel the University has many plus sides. Every large organization draws complaints. If you consider that Wal-Mart has several million customers then a few thousand complaints is a small percentage. Kaplan has detractors and supporters judge it only after you have compared it to many other colleges/universities.

You mention that you are 18 and are looking for a good University. This is just a personal thing with me so take it that way, however, it would be best if you begin to avoid the sloppy habits of web communications. Please take the time to use upper case when appropriate.

__________________
Bachelor of General Studies: Athabasca University
MA (Leadership): University of Guelph
MBA: Columbia Southern University

I am in my late 40's and needed a new life direction, therefore, I made a decision to pursue a new career by getting my degree on line. I enrolled at Kaplan because I had a high pressured admissions spe******t, but in the beginning I was proud of attending this school. After 3 terms there I had an unpleasant experience in class that involved discrimination and a Professor's inappropriate comments, which I along with other classmates filed formal complaint using the live class and discussion thread post as evidence of these claims. When this was pushed under the rug and ignored I took it a step further and filed a claim with the accreditation commission and even pursued mediation in this situation. Kaplan has some remarkable Instructors and then a few who do not follow the rules. This aside, the curriculum I found was sadly lacking and was the complaint of most students that I attended classes with. There are ways you can check up on an on line university, one way is to contact the Better Business Bureau to see if there are complaints filed both for the physical address of the school as well as other addresses like Kaplan holds for example the Iowa, Chicago and Florida addresses so you must check each area. Contact the accreditation commissions that they fall under, and use search engines to see if there are lawsuits filed and what they regard concerning an on line school. I have learned the hard way that there are good and bad in everything and some program choices I would still recommend Kaplan for even now, however, if you want your money to mean something take the time to investigate many schools and ask questions, this is your future and this choice can make the difference between being easily employed or str***ling to find a position. Good Luck in making your decision.

great advice and since it is drawn from personal experience really worth listening to.

__________________
Bachelor of General Studies: Athabasca University
MA (Leadership): University of Guelph
MBA: Columbia Southern University

Well, two very different versions about the same place, one recommend it, and one doesnt. Both were enrolled at Kaplan, very interesting.

What can we make out of this?
There is no doubt Kaplan is RA accredited, but that does not make it a good school, athough you are assured of the quality of it programmes. but that does not guarantee you job. Milldune is very right by recommeding that you research other schools, and their prices. As you know Kaplan is very expensive as well, so you have to make sure every dollar is well spend because there is no refund.

I would recommend that you look for the place that would best suit your needs, and remember that the most expensive school is not always the best.

Good Luck with you choice

Do not go to Kaplan. If you need distance learning or just simply don't have transportation to an actual school, look for a known and established brick-n-morter school that offers online classes.

Kaplan does have a bonus incentive system set up for their "Admissions" reps. They're sales reps.

My experience is a carbon copy of thousands of others. There is a questioning period to find out how they can work and manipulate you, then there's the pressure. Then there are the phone calls. I counted 7 phone calls in one single day. I have a 3 year old and I can't stay on the phone long, but when they got me on the phone they kept me there for two hours until I relented and just paid them $95 for their enrollment fee. I kept telling them I wanted to think about it, I wanted to weigh my options. But, according to them they are the APEX, the one and only, the pinnacle of all universities, so there was no reason for me to think about anything.

I was and am still serious about furthering my education. I felt Kaplan was the most reasonable, and well rounded online school so I seriously wanted to go for it. If you don't accept their offer in a matter of weeks they send you a file closure notice. They tell you that other 'serious' candidates must be considered. Basically, you're wasting our time and the time of our sales people.

The admins are trained so consistantly to sell they have "secrets" that they tell you about the company. They act like they've gotten to know you and have befriended you to such a degree they can offer insider information. It's the final act and it worked on me. I didn't realize that this was part of their script until I had a problem with my internet account. (I went to an online school review site and found two other people spouting almost verbatim what my admin rep said to me regarding inside info and inside secrets) I was moving and the DSL set up wasn't going to happen in time for the classes they INSISTED I enroll for RIGHTfreakinNOW. I emailed them to let them know and they had another woman call me to ask me if I can just borrow someone's laptop and go to a cafe or use the local highschool's library computers to take my classes.

Well that sounds like a good idea but what you don't know is if you miss a class you pay for it in more work. There are weekend seminars you have to attend and if you miss those it's like walking through hellfire and back just to catch up. It's NOT as simple as they make it sound. You can't just make up classes at a later date. You can't just do it on your own time. There isn't the grandiose flexibility they claim.

And as far as the previous post regarding Financial aid... Even those that feel that the curriculum is outstanding tell horror stories of how they're thousands of dollars in debt. why? Almost the exact same reason every time. Their pell grant and other grants that were verified to Kaplan were mysteriously cancelled or rejected. Loans fell along the same problem just not as frequently. I have a friend that went through U. of Phoenix that had that EXACT problem happen to her and her husband. They are thousands in debt with the U.o.P and they were locked out of online classes because their grant was cancelled and classes weren't paid for. They were unable to come up with the cash and were never able to finish classes. They still owe the money but have no diploma, degree or certificate to show for it.

The irony to this is, if they handn't pressured me into enrolling immediately and let me enroll when I wanted to (which would be 3 weeks from now) I would be perfectly set up to take classes. We've moved and our internet account is set up in our new place and actually, the connection is faster than where I had lived previously. It would have worked out perfectly for Kaplan had they just let me be. Now, I've felt the pressure and seen the red flags go up. I've done my research on Kaplan and seen how they don't really care about the person enrolling, only the money they're spending. All I can say is....


DON'T DO IT!

Schools had better react positively to discrimination complaints, quickly and thoroughly. A complaint to federal authorities could lose them maybe $100 million (a guess) per year in student loans and assistance funding. They had better have procedures in place that work and follow them. Pushing a complaint under the rug is a very big mistake.

Hi ..
I just recently withdrew from Kaplan .. It was a nightmare . The online class flexibility is a farce , there is no flexibility Your academic advisor enrolls you in classes. The time to be in class is fixed , no if ands or buts.. The biggest nightmare was trying to talk to my academic or financial advisors . I shudder remembering the hours on the phone , being placed on hold , hung up on , transferred to voice mail boxes only to hear "the person you are attempting to contact does not subscribe to this mailbox" . I got that message several times . Student support proved as useless . Finally out of desperation and at the risk of losing a significant amount of money I called the corporate office (found on-line) to get an address to send my "written" letter about my loan disbursment so I could cancel it . Absolutely no one else would give me the right address to send the request to. Would I recommend Kaplan NOOOOOOOOO. One of my co-workers attended Kaplan at the same time as I was enrolled . Her experience was worse than mine .. She has decided to go back to UOP where she can at least talk with her advisors and get direction when needed . If anyone out there is currently enrolled at Kaplan and wanting to withdraw from the next term beware beware beware ... don't log in to classes if your advisor tells you to, then you owe for the class .. stay strong keep calling and emailing that you want to withdraw from classes .. you may get emails and calls telling you log in to class but if you do then you become financially liable. So hang in there eventually they will get the message you are not continuing your education at Kaplan and are not stupid enough to log in .