I did work for UoP and yes, we had a driven marketing and enrollment team. We were taught how to manipulate people, how to make people “feel the pain” of not having their degree, how to pose questions in such a way that the student’s mind automatically came to the conclusion we wanted. All of this is true. You’d be surprised how easy it is to manipulate people; however, there is a flip side to this story. Although UoP’s tuition was higher, students would be foolish to make a decision on returning to school or which school to attend based on their current salary or tuition rates. Earning a degree is an investment so one has to weigh the future payoffs against today’s cost. In addition, the longer one is in school the more money he or she will pay because tuition usually increases every year so for many, UoP’s concentrated program was cheaper over the course of time than community or state schools.
UoP also had a fantastic program for working adults. Remember working adults have jobs, children, and other responsibilities so going back to school full-time was a pipe-dream for most. UoP offered a program that worked well with their schedule. It had a strong support team of Enrollment Advisors, Academic Advisors, and Finance Advisors who help the student through the maze of enrollment and financing their education. You’d be even more surprised to know how many intelligent working adults don’t return to school because they simply don’t know how. They don’t understand the enrollment process, financing, grants, scholarships, or what’s expected. Some don’t know the difference between an associate, bachelor, or master degree so UoP’s enrollment and academic advisors were a godsend by guiding the student, coaching them, and helping them get off to a good start. Many of those who earned their degree went on to bigger and better opportunities so the idea behind UoP was and is exceptional. It could have been one of the greatest university in the world but enter the Mormons and Apollo Group with their ties to the Carlyle Group. Greed along with corruption spread through the organization like a virus. Before we knew it, UoP was under investigation by the feds, students were dropping out like dead flies, a mass exodus of employees swept through the organization, the executives became overnight millionaires while the employees had to work two jobs or receive public assistance and bam, UoP is today’s Enron. Yes, UoP is finished. We all know it’s only a matter of time before it closes its doors for good. Its legacy is tarnish and it will be forgotten over the course of time, remembered only by those of us who were within the organization and the students we helped and hurt along the way.