American Public University System Reviews

Cons

Executive changes influence front-line individuals, and the general atmosphere of professional development has diminished in the past 2 or 3 years. This again, does largely depend on the department. If you interview, I would suggest asking questions like "Does this department experience high turnover" and etc.

Cons

The previous CIO shared her political views with everyone in the company. If you disagreed with her, you were on her exit list. Those who agreed with her were protected. This, on top of not solving the IT or business issues, created a very unpleasant work environment.

Cons

Every organization has challenges and at times, not everyone will be comfortable with the outcomes. Too often I've read of employees leaving (for a variety of reasons) and apparently feeling the need to go out with a bang and post a few undesirable thoughts. I've had the privilege of working with APUS for almost 15 and a half years. At times I questioned 'things' but always kept the thought in mind "how am I accountable for any of this"? I've always asked myself "what am I doing to make a difference"? When you do this you may not always like the answer you find within. With this said, the negatives of this university are minimal. I think you would be hard pressed to find employment, anywhere, where everyone is always 100% happy.

Cons

Pay, management, trust, overall leadership

Cons

Hours and understaffed at high volume call times. Advancement opportunities slowed down between 2016-2017

Cons

Upper management does not care about the employees. Employees are leaving left and right.
Horrible work hours if you're on nights or weekends.

Cons

Beware of the snake charmers. APUS has been a sinking ship for years and continues to be moving full steam ahead regardless of the mess they are leaving behind. APUS has allowed mismanagement to occur at every level. Upper management does not know how to run departments or people, evident by the staffing choices and new time shifts. It has allowed idiotic employees to climb the ladder due to nepotism and influence. Bob Gay is hands down the worst thing that has ever happened to admissions and student support, he does not care about you and will gladly throw you under the bus to make himself look better. He does not take the time to get to know the people working under him and cannot even manage to fake a smile at them when he stomps down the aisle. Things will never go back to the way they were, APUS is on a collision course to lose accreditation and thousands will lose their jobs in the aftermath. Departments do not know how to collaborate to accomplish anything, this has led to many instances of things falling through the cracks and incorrect information being given to a student. As a 100% online university, APUS works with lousy, outdated systems and programs that crash and cause errors. Good employees get looked over if they do not cause problems, while terrible employees are not reprimanded or disciplined because no one wants to deal with it.

Cons

Industry isn't doing very well.

Cons

In 10 years, this place has gone from a thriving place to be, to a sinking ship. Of course growth has to stagnate at some point, why do we all have to suffer for it? Why weren't we prepared for it? Insulting 'annual increases' issued meanwhile some of us are getting promoted to higher roles with almost NO pay increase but 4x the responsibility. And we get to see others post photos on social media from their "conference" trip to sunny Orlando. Do these people need to spend company money to attend a conference every single year to promote a student fraternity? Probably not. Stop spending money in non-critical places if money is such an issue. It is insulting to hear that I can't have raise due to budget restrictions, then see a handful of colleagues on the beach in their down time at an APUS funded conference trip for some presentation. If you are tightening the belt, then tighten it in the right places.

Change is not even consistent - it is unstable. We pick new, big projects and then abandon them when we take too long to launch or all the talking heads cant agree on a direction. We hold ridiculous events that cost money, then have to face layoffs or budget cuts. Executives are all baby boomers and above who have no idea what the culture of the online world is, and want to run this place as a traditional brick and mortar (or the exact opposite, giving students whatever the heck they want just to avoid 'escalation').

Consistently underpaid for roles with serious pushback when even asking for a raise, despite adequate justification. They expect you to take on more and get paid less, and information is not shared consistently across the board. New SVP's or executives rotate in and out, not getting along and all with different visions.

Between Admin and Academics, our philosophies and practices are old as dirt and antiquated. Faculty are unhappy, LMS is like a dinosaur compared to other leaders in online education. Feels like more of a business now than a rigorous institute of higher learning. Technology is ridiculous; need 8 systems a day to do my work and half dont communicate with the others, which seems ludicrous for an ONLINE school.

Upper execs always asking for input and pretending to want to improve culture, but it is all corporate pillow talk. They never act.

Cons

The company is consumed by nepotism. It’s who you know and are social with the most that gets you a promotion. Keeping to yourself and doing a good job gets taken advantage of but not rewarded except with maybe being let go or fired. The bonuses were eliminated, the quarterly all staff meetings became a yearly staff meeting with nothing new to share. Health insurance premiums were increasing and they told us to not add our spouses, we don’t want them on our benefits because “you know additional cost”. You were made to feel like you know nothing skill wise that could maybe transfer to another company or school.