After reading many reviews of Baker College I thought I might by able to validate some of the claims made by other reviewers. Yes, the participation can be challenging, however, after reading why the participation rules are such, it is understandable and clearly expected. I have attended full time for a year and a half. I am a very serious student and hold a 3.8 GPA over the past 64 credits earned. I understand that many of the teaching staff seem far less than qualified and most will make at least one mistake on grading for each class taken at Baker. This requires one to scrutinize all work turned in and even the participation because they often mess up that grading as well. Each teacher will often apologize in response to email if you catch there mistakes but the odd thing is they all seem to respond with an incredible similarity amongst them. "I review 200+ posts each week, so mistakes are warranted". It's always the incredible workloads fault. The Baker offices are far less than helpful in almost any area, including financial aid. I noticed one review which stated they always respond within 24 hours. I can affirm this is not so. I have left just two messages during my time at Baker and never received a response pertaining to complaints of instructors. The lady handling the transcripts responded to my emails very promptly so I give that to them. There are no lectures, in fact, no material other than the course textbook and accompanying power-point slides mostly, and so those whom teach themselves well will accelerate well at Baker. The computer science program is far from challenging. In fact, I was required to take three courses that literally covered the exact same thing. Almost three grand to study conditional statements and loops. That consists of almost half of all the programming classes required for the degree. I was a fluent programmer before taking the courses and I so I cannot see how the degree would leave any student prepared for the work force. The Blackboard system is used for all Online activity and I receive five plus outage emails each week. The system lags so bad that it literally would take more than three times the amount of time to take a quiz than it would have if taken the quiz on paper because of the lag between posting answers and receiving the next question which was sometimes over two minutes in the last math class I took. Most quiz and test materials come straight from the textbooks chapter-ends and questions not from the text are often erroneous. This is an honest man's opinions based on my experiences with Baker College Online. I have heard that the brick-n-mortar campuses offer much better experiences, so please take that into consideration. Other Online colleges make use of much better technology and although I cannot speak to their college experiences, I would bet they beat Baker's out of the park based on the lack of professionalism I have noticed within the Baker College system. Baker does give me the impression they work hard to be successful, however, they with-out-at-doubt fail to consider the Online student as a whole and take no pride in being of service to students as far as I have noticed. My brother attended a separate Online school and his school's technology made me very jealous. For the record, Bakers teaching staff appears far less than qualified. I believe I was able to teach the instructor more than she taught me in a c++ class. I felt pity for the other students enough to post contributing materials each day and answer all of there questions because the instructor failed to do so herself. I am currently transferring to a local university to take advantage of course lectures and a more respectable curricula. Please be very cautious if considering Baker College Online. Class Selection Plenty of classes and electives, however, classes are not challenging and may leave students UN-knowledgeable even after receiving an A. I can attest to that. Teaching Quality Many seem to not understand what they are instructing students to learn. Most instructors after a year and a half, have made mistakes which they do recognize, correct, and apologize for. Financial Aid I think Baker is of average compared to what is expected. I guess. Accreditation However, I do not understand how they got the accreditation.

Simpert

USA

I received my CS degree from Baker online a few years ago. The great thing about Baker online was the extreme flexibility it allow me being both a gainfully employed professional software engineer and a full-time parent of young children. It was up to me how to manage my time, but given the standard (though accelerated) semester system at Baker, I had to be disciplined in my approach to getting the most out of my education. If you don't have enough discipline to complete assignments, projects, reading, etc. on an accelerated schedule, then you should probably try a more traditional on-ground college or university. Baker is accredited, and non-profit, so I don't understand the reviews about their thirst for dollars. I never had that experience, and always found the faculty and administrative staff to be professional, prompt, and reasonable.

CSC

USA

At Baker college Online all faculty hold a master's or doctoral degree, and work in the fields they teach, - Classes are offered one at a time, for 5-6 weeks - Earn your degree in two - three years, in most cases. - Complete 100% of your education via the Internet - Class times/places that fit your schedule . - All coursework is designed to be applied in your work environment I didn't feel a personal relationship develop. Although it is primarily online, the teachers could still get involved more. My disappointment should not deter anyone from checking out Baker College Online. This web-based program delivers unparalleled convenience and flexibility to over 200,000 students in their pursuit of bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees. I will not be enrolling for anymore classes with this institution, but hope others will like the programs.

tmrsmith

Kemp, TX

I graduated from Baker College Online, magna cum laude, with my BBA in September, 2008. I am currently enrolled in their MBA program, full time. I find this school to be a great way for a mother of three with an extremely busy life to get my education. I can do my work while I am sitting in the living room with my family, yet still be challenged to learn as much as possible. I find the assignments to be very informative and relevant to the information we are covering in class. I believe many students do not take advantage of tools (such as tutoring) available to them. Once they fail a class, they have to blame it on someone. They certainly won't take responsibility for their own failures. This is a great college. I have the Bachelors degree to prove it. Soon I will have a Master's degree to prove it too! 

dawnml210

Newport News, VA

Baker College online is a great way to complete your education. They provide substantial information and a great education. I have been attending Baker online and regular class settings for years now and wouldn't choose another college. The instructors really care about the success of their students. The experience the instructors offer students is something many schools can not say they can provide.

knitchic01

Warren, MI

**Baker online boasts a great education at your own pace, but the truth is, if you have adult obligations it is not convenient at all, nor will you receive an education that you can use so you better hope that your employer is only impressed with the degree, and not concerned at all with skill. ** **To sum it up, the same classes that campus students take over 12 to 14 weeks is crammed down your throat in 6 weeks. This means that when baker says you can work at your own pace, it means you can start at whatever time of the day is most convenient for you. What they do not tell you is that it will take at least the same amount of time per week as a full-time job, but you will retain very little of the information.** **You will be required to go through 2 to 4 chapters of work per week. You will be your own teacher and the student, since the "teachers" merely post all of the assignments that baker gives them. You will read lectures, read all the required chapters,. all other information that is posted in your class. ** **You can ask questions if you dont understand something, and depending on the "facilitator" you will get a reply usually within 24 hours via the online classroom, or email. That means that if you run into a problem, you may or may not get the help you need in time to get your assignment completed and turned in on time, and if the reply does not answer your question well enough, you will have to ask and wait again.** **If assignments are not turned in on time, your hard work which may have taken you hours or days, will be trashed because they will not accept any late work. Well, there are certain teachers that are more lenient about it, but many go straight by the rules. The rules are too rigid for this type of education. ** **At times I thought, wow, I don't remember most of what we just did. So I figured, OK, I will just have to practice when this class is over. Wrong. Now that its over you jump right into the next class and begin the same process, there is no time to practice things from the previous class.** **I have taken dozens of classes, yet would not even think about trying to present my degree to an employer. I would feel embarrassed, and would be able to apply very little of what baker teaches.** **If you have no job or family obligations, you may be able to do it, but be prepared to devote the majority of your time. I discourage taking more than one class at a time, which also means it will take much longer to receive your degree. ** **Some people will say its great because the classes are only 6 weeks long! I suppose if racing through to a degree is all you need that could work for you. Maybe you already have the skills for a job you are after and just want the degree to make it work for you.. great. But if you need the education and the degree, online classes are not the way to go. **

michigan48

Clio, MI

The teachers in this school, don't teach plain and simple. If they ask a question on the discussion board, you can easily go online and look up all your answers for homework quizzes exams projects, all of it. If you disagree with the instructor, good luck getting a high grade. Some teachers can decide to screw you over and fail you for no reason. I recieved a zero in participation which I have participated so many times with meaningful posts. I emailed my instructor and I recieved no response. The staff is a huge joke. The financial aid office is a joke. Just go to Baker online to find out for yourselves like I did if you don't believe me. In the beginning everything will seem ok. These people will find a way to screw you over before you get your degree.

dels29

Allston, MA

Talk about a joke! I have 38 credits at Baker Online (Accelerated BBA). I decided to attend on campus - only one class will transfer to the on campus accelerated BBA program. How sorry is an online program when the parent "college" won't take the credits?! The program was a joke anyway. I wrote the required "term paper" for each class in a couple hours and always got an A or a B. DIPLOMA MILL!

FlintTravelor

Swartz Creek, MI

I graduated from Baker Online with a Master's earlier this year, so I will give my honest assessment of the school as a whole. 1. In the beginning, it was very difficult to get in contact with the right people when a situation arised, but they have corrected the problem by adding a "contact us" link to their page. You can also use the e-mail contacts to get information or help. Getting to the links are ridiculously laboring and getting someone on the phone is sometimes a task. They do however respond within a 24 hour timeframe. 2. The instructors are a mixed-bag. You will find some that are very strict and others that are more lenient. I would suggest monitoring the board for instructor activity within the first three or four days. If you see that the instructor has an extremely slow response time (some of them have full-time jobs and other things going on) or appears to show some incompetence, make sure to send a drop request by midnight on the Wednesday following the first week of class. 3. Baker has basic guidelines for classes. Some instructors make modifications to suit their needs. Always read through the syllabus, the introductions, and any "requirement" posts as soon as possible. I have had professors who gave zero credit for late assignments while others deducted percentages for the first three days (i.e. 20% for 1 day late, 30% for 2 days late, 50% for 3 days late). Also, double-check participation because some instructors require two posts 5 out of 7 days while others only required one. I had a couple of classes that required one post a week. 4. Refunds are annoying. Baker has a deal with Higher One and therefore, refunds are always deposited to an issued prepaid Visa debit card. I guess if you are near a campus that has the atms, it works well. But if you are like me and don't have access to their atm system, prepare to pay roughly $5 per transaction to get the cash off the card. 5. The financial aid process was confusing at first, but it actually turned out to be a very simple process. The funds were distributed approximately a week before classes started. If you don't have financial aid and are paying cash, they allow for payment plans. As long as the balance is paid by the end of the semester, you are allowed to stay in classes. I think the processing fee for that is $25. 6. I like Baker's hours but they are not flexible for everyone. Classes run from Thursday to Wednesday, which means major assignments are usually due during the middle of the week by midnight. Sometimes you are able to cram work into a weekend, but I have taken many classes where the test link was not avaible until Tuesday. This may be troublesome for those who work a 9 to 5 and have limited time at night to get assignments done. Also, there are professors who use midnight ESTas their deadline despite some students living in various time zones.  7. You must be disciplined. If you are used to the "independent study" type of online education or study at your own pace kind of course, then this is not for you. You really do feel like you are enrolled at a traditional brick and mortar instituiton, except your brick and mortart is your home.

dixondl9

Griffin, GA

I am a Bachelor of Computer Science major finishing my final course at Baker. I have been satisfied with the quality of education, the delivery format, and the flexibility. One thing I would like to point out is that Baker is a tough school and taking online courses requires more effort than attending classes in person. I think that some people begin their online education believing that it is going to be like casual web-browsing because it is "online". This is untrue. Completing a degree takes time and dedication, dedication, dedication. If it were easy, everyone would do it... I don't have any serious complaints. The staff has been generally helpful and always courteous. My emails are always returned withing 24 hours. I have clashed with a few Profs over the years, but if they just rolled over, I wouldn't respect them. Generally, we were able to meet somewhere in the middle so long as my position was well-founded.  

BakerBCSmajor

Louisburg, NC