“In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education provided a preliminary report to the university that cited untimely return of unearned Title IV funds for more than 10 percent of sampled students. The report also expressed a concern that some students enroll and begin attending classes before completely understanding the implications of enrollment, including their eligibility for student financial aid. As a result, in January 2010, its parent company, Apollo Group Inc., was required to post a letter of credit for $125 million by January 30 of the same year” –BusinessWeek

Subject: University of Phoenix Business Practices

I enrolled in the University of Phoenix in November of 2009 in its Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership program. At the time, the intake counselor (let’s call him salesman) advised me that the program entailed residencies that were held at various points around the United States. Additionally, he stated that if I could not make one then I could schedule an alternate residency. I explained to him that this was important as I travel internationally quite often and, of course, this would be a logistical problem. Again, this was BEFORE I agreed to register in the program. I completed several courses in the program and my residency was coming up for March of 2010 and informed the salesman that I would need to reschedule my residency as I would be overseas at that time.

Suddenly, rescheduling the residency was a problem. Several parties told me that I could not do it. Finally, when I threatened to quit the program they said I could do it. This was after being brow-beaten by my academic and financial aid counselors on a conference call wanting to know why I could not cancel my travel plans and attend the original residency. At any rate, they finally said I could reschedule but that I would need to WITHDRAW from school and start up again with my regular schedule after the residency.

Let me re-emphasize that rather than simply letting me take another course on the curriculum which, I might add, not every course is a pre-requisite for the next, contrary to what these sales people say, they told me that I would need to withdraw. Any other graduate school worth the appellation would have just let me take another graduate level course however the University of Phoenix forced me to withdraw. The school was stating that I would need to withdraw (fall out of compliance with financial requirements regarding full-time attendance) because the school would not allow me to take another doctoral course instead.

Rather than go through this ordeal every time I might need to reschedule a residency I chose to withdraw. Thus, since the University of Phoenix was forced to return some of the financial aid monies that it received from the government it is now stating that I owe tuition for a course which was supposed to have been paid for and for which this entire ordeal started because the salesman told me that I could reschedule residencies “no problem.” Of course, he disputes this now as one would expect but I can tell you that this institution is driven purely by the amount of churn it can generate through billing the federal government for federal financial aid funds. The actual treatment and outcome of the students is purely secondary which is why the graduation rates are so pathetic.

While I am certain the University of Phoenix might be able to rationalize its billing me for $2,301 in tuition in spite of it being the reason I withdrew, I am just as certain that there are inconsistencies in its accounting of my financial aid application, dispensation, and adjudication through this process. Please look into this particular case and add my official complaint of this University’s practices to the long list I am sure that you have already compiled.

My chief complaints are the following:

The school required me to withdraw to change my residency date

The school “auto-withdrew” me from a course-whatever that is but I question the methodology because the school uses something it calls the “Course Exit Tracking Checklists” to determine attendance or withdrawal apparently which I neither signed, approved, or was made aware of in advance

The salesman than enrolled me in the program ensured me that I could change my residency dates yet never mentioned that I would need to withdraw in order to do so

These and other issues are why the University of Phoenix Sucks.

A term (or research) paper is primarily a record of intelligent reading in several sources on a particular subject. The task of writing such is not as formidable as it seems if it is thought out in advance as a definite procedure with systematic perpetration.

The procedure for writing such a report consists of the following steps:

1. Choosing a subject
2. Finding sources of materials
3. Gathering the notes
4. Outlining the paper
5. Writing the first draft
6. Editing the paper

Now let’s look at each of them.

CHOOSING A SUBJECT

Most good papers are built around questions. You can find subjects in any textbook. Simply take some part of the text that interest you and examine it carefully. Ask yourself the following things about it to see if you can locate a question to answer in your paper. Does it tell you all you might wish to learn about the subject? Are you sure it is accurate? Does the author make any assumptions that need examining? Can two of the more interesting sections in the text be shown to be interrelated in some useful way? Your paper is an attempt to write a well-organized answer to whatever question you decide upon, using facts for the purpose of proving (or at least supporting) your contention.

The most common error made by students in choosing a subject for a term paper is to choose one that is too general. (The most specific subject will always have enough aspects to furnish a long paper, if you think about it for a while.)

FINDING SOURCES OF MATERIALS

A. Limitations. Tradition suggests that you limit your sources to those available on the campus and to those materials which are not more than 20 years old, unless the nature of the paper is such that you are examining older writings from a historical point of view.

B. Guides to sources.

1) Begin by making a list of subject-headings under which you might expect the subject to be listed.

2) Start a card file using the following forms.

a) Book and magazine article:

i. Subject

ii. Author

iii. Title

iv. Facts of publication

v. Library call number

b) News story:

i. Subject

ii. Facts of publication

iii. Headline

c) Periodicals:

i. Author

ii. Title

iii. Name of periodical

iv. Volume and page number

v. Month and year.

Sort these cards into (a) books and (b) each volume of periodicals. Then look up call numbers other periodicals and sort out those for each branch library. This sorting save library time.

C. Consult the card catalog in the library to locate books – record author, title, publisher, date of publication and call number.

D. Consult guides to periodicals, such as:

• • Education Index
  • Readers Guide
  • International Index to Periodicals
  • Psychological Abstracts

These are aids to finding articles on any subject. They list subject heading, with various titles of articles under them, together with the location of each article.

GATHERING THE NOTES

A. Examine the books and articles – several volumes at a time will save steps.

Skim through your sources, locating the useful material, then make good notes of it, including quotes and information for footnotes. You do not want to have to go back to these sources again. Make these notes on separate cards for each author – identifying them by author.

B. Take care in note-taking; be accurate and honest. Be sure that you do not distort the author’s meanings. Remember that you do not want to collect only those things that will support your thesis, ignoring other facts or opinions. The reader wants to know other sides of the question.

C. Get the right kind of material:

1. Get facts, not just opinions. Compare the facts with author’s conclusion.
2. In research studies, notice the methods and procedures, and do not be afraid to criticize them. If the information is not quantitative, in a study, point out the need for objective, quantified, well-controlled research.

OUTLINING THE PAPER

A. Do not hurry into writing. Think over again what your subject and purpose are, and what kind of material you have found.

B. Review notes to find main sub-divisions of your subject. Sort the cards into natural groups then try to name each group. Use these names for main divisions in your outline. For example, you may be writing a paper about the Voice of America and you have the following subject headings on your cards.

1. Propaganda – American (History)
2. Voice of America – funds appropriated
3. Voice of America – expenditures
4. Voice of America – cost compared with Soviet propaganda

The above cards could be sorted into six piles easily, furnishing the following headings:

1. History (Card 1)
2. Purpose (Card 5)
3. Organization (Cards 6, 7)
4. Cost (Cards 2, 3, 4, 9)
5. Effects (Card 8 )
6. Future (Card 10)

You will have more cards than in the example above, and at this point you can possibly narrow down you subject further by taking out one of the piles of cards.

C. Sort the cards again under each main division to find sub-sections for your outline.

D. By this time it should begin to look more coherent and to take on a definite structure. If it does not, try going back and sorting again for main divisions, to see if another general pattern is possible.

E. You may want to indicate the parts of your outline in traditional form as follows:

1. Example

a) Example

i. Example

ii.) Example

2. Example

3. Example

a) Example

Use these designations only in the outline and not in the paper itself, or it will look more like an extended outline that a paper.

WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT

You are now ready to write.

A. Write the paper around the outline, being sure that you indicate in the first part of the paper what its purpose is. Follow the old formula:

1. Tell the reader what you are going to say (statement of purpose)

2. Say it (main body of the paper)

3. Tell the reader what you’ve said (statement of summary and conclusion)

B. A word about composition:

1. Traditionally, any headings or sub-headings included are nouns, not verbs or phrases.

2. Keep things together that belong together. Your outline will help you do this if it is well organized. Be sure you don’t change the subject in the middle of a paragraph, and be sure that everything under one heading in your outline is about the same general topic.

3. Avoid short, bumpy sentences and long straggling sentences with more than one maid ideas.

EDITING THE PAPER

You are now ready to polish up the first draft.

A. Try to read it as if it were cold and unfamiliar to you. It is a good idea to do this a day or two after having written the first draft.

B. Reading the paper aloud is a good way to be sure that the language is not awkward, and that it “flows” properly.

C. Check for proper spelling, phrasing and sentence construction. Be sure that pronouns clearly refer to nouns.

D. Check for proper form on footnotes, quotes, and punctuation.

E. Check to see that quotations serve one of the following purposes:

1. Show evidence of what an author has said.
2. Avoid misrepresentation through restatement.
3. Save unnecessary writing when ideas have been well expressed by the original author.

F. Check for proper form on tables and graphs. Be certain that any table or graph is self-explanatory.