University of Advancing Technology

I attended UAT for a year. During that time, I struggled a bit as I had been out of school for quite a while. The instructors I had were great! Unfortunately, like others have said, they have a lower retention rate of faculty than of students, which says alot. You may have a great instructor, but the chances of that instructor being there throughout your attendance there is very slim. They simply don't pay them enough. Confirmed with multiple faculty. They also get very little assistance from the school for course implementation, and some have had to create their course as the course went along!

They do little to nothing for any conflict resolution. Prior to my attendance, a student was bullied heavily by another student for their sexual orientation. Finally, after repeated attempts by asking the school to intervene and reporting the issues to staff who did nothing, the student, while being bullied, pulled out a knife and told the other student to back off and leave him alone. The bullied student was immediately expelled, while the other student was allowed to remain and was even hired into their IT department. He was working there while I was attending.

The dorms. They are run half-assed. You're better off getting an apartment nearby and living off campus, especially for the price they charge for a shared room. You can pay twice as much to have the room to yourself, but you could pay less for a nearby apartment. They pretend to care about certain things, but they do little to resolve conflicts and typically leave it up to the RA for your floor/wing, who is a student as well, to step in. I doubt the dorm manager is still the same, but they tend to be rather two-faced. They also only really care when they have a potential liability.

Do not expect assistance from your "councilor". Their job is to make sure you stay eligible for financial aid. They aren't concerned with your success or failure rate otherwise.

Overall, I suggest avoiding this school. Your experience will vary greatly from semester to semester, due to the high turnover of faculty and the lack of standardization for the courses. Some instructors make themselves available more than others. The non-faculty staff's primary role is to run it as a business and collect your money. They care about very little else and will do very little to help once you're paying, as long as you're current. The faculty was great while I was there, but none of them still work there. Save your money, attend another school, unless you want to pay premium prices for an unreliable experience and complete lack of support from anyone but the instructors, at their discretion.

This school should be closed.Has anyone been able to.sue to get any student loans dismissed because of this rip off school?

This is by far the worst school you could ever think of sending your child to. The staff is horrible they don't know how to handle financial aid and when you're all done they will not find you a job. For all the money they charge find yourself a better school you will get nowhere after leaving the school

Unfortunate as it may be for current students, UAT should not be permitted to exist. That they are a private institution is a very fortunate fact for them, as it means they do not have to submit documentation for public record.

Corruption and ignorance run rampant in UAT's administrative office. We can begin with [redacted], a man who does absolutely nothing for the university other than line his own pockets. The friends he makes who may become potential investors (board members, the [redacted], et. al.) do not appear to directly support the University, and if they in fact do it is not apparent in any way. [redacted] is riding out an entity that he inherited and cares not about the issues of the University, only that it maintains a financial line that stays in the black.

Second to [redacted] is [redacted], a man who may or may not have good intentions but fails to execute on them in nearly every conceivable fashion. [redacted], like the man he is an accomplice to, cares about the bottom line more than solving the myriad of problems corrupting UAT. He has lied to students, he has lied to faculty, and both he and [redacted] will do everything in their power to hide both of those facts...and because they are a private university, nobody can do a single thing to legitimately prove otherwise, including the faculty who are afraid to speak out in the event they are fired for doing so.

The primary issue that [redacted] and [redacted] exhibit is that they rely on themselves to solve business decisions, rather than listening to students and faculty who experience the issues of UAT on a daily basis. Their ignorance to the problems of UAT either stems from sheer stupidity or a lack of caring what others feel about their product.

What are the problems that UAT has exactly?

1. Marketing Fabrication

UAT has a knack for listing alumni that work at certain companies...despite that not always being the case. My experience was limited to the games program, although I heard murmurs that this was true for every industry save IT. They claim to have alumni at [redacted], ** -- the list goes on. Not only are there NO alumni from game programs at most, if not all, of the studios they advertise, but those that currently work or have worked at these studios in the past are nowhere to be found.

I mean, look at the current alumni list: [redacted] If that was the entirety of "Featured Alumni" for your university -- and you knew about it -- would you go there? That's not to knock the alumni, that's to knock the program for lacking a support structure for students both during and after their "education," and I say that with very neutral connotation.

If UAT actually had connections at studios from people who used to attend the school, they would use them when trying to get jobs for graduating students. Surprise -- they have fewer connections in the industry than the students do.

2. Cost

UAT costs more than an in-state tuition at a four-year university. Again, MORE than an in-state university. This cost is INSANE, especially given the lack of support for teachers, students, and infrastructure. I'd be willing to bet that most of that money is going directly to the administrative office and the Board of Directors. A wonder that they keep their paperwork behind closed doors...

3. Lack of Quality Education

This is the largest issue with UAT, by far. IT is noticeably the only degree area where students from UAT actually succeed in quantity. Although the students are a symptom of that (which is a completely separate issue), there is talent outside of that program that has a much more difficult time finding success after school. Whether this is due to the rotating staff, absolutely AWFUL online infrastructure (eCollege), reliance on outside resources, incompetent faculty and course designers, or even low quality of the large population of students...who knows. But it's likely a combination of all of those things, along with the lack of care given by the administration, that brings UAT into territory qualifying them for all sorts of lawsuits.

4. No Ability to Compete in the Job Market

Tying into #1 and #3, there are students in ENTIRE DEGREE PROGRAMS that have issues finding jobs after completing a degree at UAT. Why? Because the education is useless. Besides the fact that the coursework does not aptly prepare (or provide portfolio material) for a career, the placement services are of no value.

This is what their "Job Resources" area ACTUALLY looks like: [redacted] I could create a better page in ten minutes, even though I haven't studied more than 20 hours of web design in my entire life. That image should be an indication of the quality of people they have actually "helping" students find careers after graduation. Besides consolidating, re-consolidating, firing, and hiring in the "Career Resources" department, they are still an utterly incompetent bunch. One of the few humans there who actually cares, [redacted], does the best with what he has but, ultimately, is unable to perform his job because he works for UAT. If [redacted] worked at a real university, it's likely that he would find some level of success. The department is beyond repair.

5. Inability to Execute on Student Solutions

For years, students have been working to address the problems of the university, even directly with faculty, [redacted], and [redacted]. But I'm sure you can guess that they have taken little to no action suggested by students -- the people experiencing the living education nightmare created by UAT themselves. UAT has no connection with their student body, losing out on tons of feedback that would otherwise constructively discuss, if not improve, many of the university's failings.

6. Revolving Faculty

As stated in some of the other points, staff are rotated at least once a semester. That may not seem like much, but at a small school where intimate student-professor relationships are not just common but NECESSARY, it puts a huge hindrance on degree programs. It sets fluidity of programs back, creates new inconsistencies, and overall does nothing to improve the student experience. But UAT doesn't care, because they can bring in someone who is "qualified" for less or as much money as the paltry amount the previous employee was making.

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I'm sure there's plenty more that I haven't discussed about this con-artist-in-building-form, but it's inevitable that you'll discover most (and hopefully all) of these issues upon looking closer at UAT.

Make sure to have a drink or two after visiting, because you'll realize how sobering of a fact it is that UAT is an accredited university.

I contacted HR asking where my 2014 W2 was Feb 16. The HR department responded by telling me my W2 was sent to an old address, I told them where to send my W2. On March 4th the HR department informed me that my W2 "is now being mailed to the correct address". I then realized that on December 29th a student representative emailed me informing me that the University had a bad address on file for me.

My problem with the University is that 1) they knew they were sending my W2 to a bad address and the HR department never tried to contact me, and 2) after I had told them where to send my W2 they waited 2 weeks to put it in the mail.

I have been associated with the University of Advancing Technology for about 5 years. I have had the opportunity to see the University for almost every angle possible as a new comer, as an employee, as a student, as an outsider, and as a leader at a few moments. Like many organizations it can have its frustrating moments, however, that is how people learn, grow, and develop together. The University of Advancing Technology is a special place that I had the privilege of experiencing some of the best years of my life with some very incredible people. There is a strong connection between the University culture of the staff and the students and I have yet to see a similar connection between customer and staff anywhere else. This small and intimate atmosphere is ideal for the kind of fun and collaboration that happens at UAT. Don't take it for granted or get caught up in the small stuff.