Neumont College of Computer Science
Insufficient Accreditation[ ? ]
Neumont College of Computer Science is a Non-Sectarian, For-Profit, Technical, Institute established in 2013. The campus is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and hosts students with an endowment of .
Website: www.neumont.edu
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Email: (no public email address)
Institution Type: Non-Sectarian, For-Profit, Technical, Institute
Established: 2013
Campus Enrollment: N/A
Acceptance Rate: N/A
Graduation Rate (6Y): N/A
Campus Endowment: N/A
Tuition (Local): N/A
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Tuition (Foreign): N/A
Mandatory Fees: N/A
Housing (Room): N/A
Latitude: 40.7660163
Longitude: -111.8908071
Tax ID: N/A
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44 Student Reviews of Neumont College of Computer Science
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Neumont unfairly took away my scholarship and never gave me any warnings and didn’t help me out. I was offered a full ride in 2007, to which I was never told about a GPA requirement. It was in the fine print. After my first quarter there, I got a 3.2. Not a big deal, it was my first time programming ever, I thought nothing of it and continued to the next level of CS classes. I did a bit better the next quarter, but not enough to raise my average to a 3.5.
During winter break, I received a letter saying my scholarship was gone. All the students I knew who were also on a scholarship, told me they received emails after the first quarter to let them know they need to raise their grades in order to keep scholarships. You could retake any class to make up for the lower grade. One of my classes (the main CS class) was over half the credits, so I could have easily retaken that and got a 4.0 instead of a 3.2. But I was never told about this requirement, so I kept moving forward! I tried getting help from the president of the school and they said it was my fault for not reading the requirements and they were at no liability to reach out to me.
Funny thing is, if I had chosen to go to Virginia campus at the time instead of Utah, they moved all the ~30 students from Virginia to Utah the next quarter (Virginia was a failure so it closed), and they offered those students full scholarships at a 2.0 minimum GPA if they moved to Utah.
I found this all very shady and am still upset that they did not give me a warning and a chance to retake a class in order to save me >$60k.
Ok so my review below this one was before i attended FreX in April, honestly the school isn’t that bad, it’s in the middle of Salt Lake City with a train system that connects from the housing directly to the college. There are a number of restaurants there but not all the food is good, only place i can recommend is a Middle Eastern place near the residential area. Also there is nothing towards the south of Salt Lake City except casinos and very small towns in the desert.
The staff are decently nice and the students seem happy with their situation. They do stress the workload is a bit much but the assignments are mostly team-based projects. Housing seems to be a concern if anything because when you go to FreX, you have the option of viewing housing and it seems like a studio apartment is the max size for 4 students and an apartment with 1 bedroom, living room, and bathroom is for 2 students. It would cost more for you to live by yourself in one of these apartments but you do have that choice if living with 1-4 other people is too much. Also they let you stay in the apartment buildings year round (for all 3 years) including breaks.
The major issue, the accreditation issue was something i was not really informed about because Neumont had nothing to do with the association that accredited them losing the backing of D.o.E.
I would recommend you check out this school if you were unable to be accepted into something like UC Berkley or something and have the money to survive 38k a year.
Don’t join the discord for accepted students! worst mistake of my life!
also the school is generally really bad on every site that I visit for reviews. I even managed to get some meetings with the staff and sometimes they would just dodge a question about their whole switch to Helios and “accrediation situation”. Most of the interviews with the college just had them talking about their greatest points and never showing other reasons other than “this is a school for CS and it WILL get you a job”.
I have serious doubts for this school but i guess FreX will show their true colors
They are still trying, despite all they are not. $, $, $ is the name of the game.
This college had heart and is really what is needed in the world of CS. As a student at large universities, it’s easy to get into the crowd. Being in small classes really helped with my educate.
These guys suck. Had potential despite many bad reviews and corporate decisions. You thought prior CEO’s were dumb? They ew owners promoted one of the worst “leaders” to lead a team of scared and ill-equipped employees to grow the company. Opps. I only hear terrible things about the school now. So sad but but not surprised, given the capita investment ownership Caltius is a money- grubbing s**t-bag company. Don’t waste your money.
I attended Neumont from Summer of 2006 to Winter of 2006, and can by far say it was the worst schooling experience I have ever had. I would HIGHLY advise against partaking in any program they are offering for various reasons.
1) Cost/Value – The cost to value here is abysmal. For the roughly 6 months I attended I managed to accrue $25k in debt, of which I gained nothing from. None of the classes I completed were transferrable (despite being promised before enrollment they were accredited), none of the “relationships” ever provided anything once leaving NU, and sadly no gain from stating I attended NU when applying for jobs. The housing at that time was vastly overpriced hence me moving into my own apartment going into my 2nd quarter. The laptop/books provided were subpar at best and/or not utilized at all. Lastly, their tactics for getting you enrolled despite your financial situation are ludicrous. I was flat out lied to that I would be able to refinance any loan I had taken out, even when I asked “what if I do not complete the program?”. This is not true, if you do not have your degree, you are not given refinancing options.
2) Enrollment – During the enrollment process I was told many things, the vast majority of which proved to be false. The primary item being when I explained to them I only had a GED and had not passed Algebra II, they told me “that won’t be a problem”. After seeing the course catalog and seeing that Calculus and such were required, I again expressed concern to be told “we’ll have tutors that can prepare you for that”. One the first courses I was required to take I was told, by the instructor, that I should drop as without having passed Algebra II I would not be able to understand the concepts. The “interview” I had to be accepted was a phone interview that lasted all of but 10 minutes and asked me questions about HTML design, nothing regarding the real “meat” of what it is they are attempting to teach.
3) Staff – The NU staff only care about one thing, profits. During the process of getting you to enroll they seem like the greatest people in the world. They will answer all questions (the majority, falsely), make any effort they can to be of assistance, and seem to go out of their way to help you. Once you’ve signed your paperwork and arrive, they no longer are willing to assist with matters of importance. If it has to do with furthering their financial gain, sure. Otherwise, may as well go talk to a wall.
4) Social Life – There was one?
While this may be a bit dated, based on various other articles/reviews I have found around the web it does not appear they have changed much but their location and program offering. Stay away from NU unless you’d like to spend a ton of money to hopefully get a degree that will eventually not be recognized by 98% of the industry.
I graduated from NU in 2014, but now when my new employer verifies my degree it says that my Neumont degree isn’t valid and that Neumont is no longer an accredited institution? Are they going to fix this?
I’m a former adjunct professor at Neumont College and I currently teach part-time at some other local colleges. Based on my experience, I do not recommend Neumont College.
The current president of Neumont College is Aaron Reed, who used to be the Chief Operating and Academic Officer. Reed is an absolute joke of a leader, and basically a carbon copy of his mentor, Ned Levine. “Dr. Reed” is known by the faculty for unprofessional conduct and gender-based harassment. In my opinion, his leadership style and personality encourages an unsafe learning environment for both faculty and students. I am stunned by Neumont’s decision to promote Aaron Reed to a position of such responsibility.
Having taught at Neumont, as well as six other colleges/universities, I strongly recommend students seek an education elsewhere. There are many options out there that are a fraction of the cost and have solid accreditation. Steer clear of any school (like Neumont College) that has accreditation problems.
I’m a student at Neumont and I just found out that Neumont is losing its accreditation as a college. I heard awhile back that ACICS was a sketchy accreditation group, but now they are being shut down by the dept. of ed.
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-establishes-enhanced-federal-aid-participation-requirements-acics-accredited-colleges
I’m trying to decide whether or not to leave Neumont? I don’t want to graduate with a degree no one recognizes.
These are my gripes about Neumont:
Academic freedom: When you go to Neumont, there is next to no variety of classes you can take. Your first year, you don’t get to choose any classes. From then on 3/4 of your classes are already pre-registered based on what program you decided to enter. The electives that you get, range from Artificial Languages (You learn Klingon) to Math-Based Codes, Cyphers & Secrets. You have next to no opportunities to study something mildly interesting besides classes that relate to your degree.
Instructor competency: During my time at Neumont, I wasn’t impressed (teaching wise, not personality wise) with most of my instructors. There was one instructor that had said so many ridiculous and outrageous things so often, [I started to write them down](pastebin.com/k9vWuCa7). Turns out he was the head of the Computer Science program. Two other instructors had their lessons for the entire quarter directly copied from a tutorial online.
Instructor credentials: Most instructors I had there were temporary or imported from somewhere else. I had two instructors that were employees from the University of Utah. As for the permanent instructors, you can find all of their credentials on the Neumont website. The instructors are just that, they instruct you. They are not professors and are not academics. They are people who have worked and decided to teach on the side. I later find out that some of the teachers’ education does not match what they are teaching. My business and information systems instructor has a bachelors in microbiology and an MBA from Western Governors University, an online college program that has a center in Salt Lake. One instructor has a bachelors and masters in business yet teaches about servers. Three other instructors have never studied anywhere except for Neumont or an online program like Southern New Hampshire University.
Student Body, Diversity, and Atmosphere: 95% of the student body can be put into three categories, “Likes video games too much (Like one guy skipped class to play Fallout 4, and there was a school-wide presentation on how to prioritize games and school)”, “Likes anime too much”, and “Likes Pokemon too much (This was before Pokemon Go was announced)”. Also, a lot of the people there seemed to be straight out of /r/iamverysmart. There are ~500 students at Neumont University. 94% are male. I don’t know what you’re into but that was a downside for me as a straight male.
Campus and resources: Neumont has doesn’t have dorms, it rents out apartments for students or they make you stay in the schools’ building (which is more expensive than just renting an apartment). Neumont doesn’t have a library, It has a tiny room that you didn’t know was there unless you asked about it. All student affairs are cared for by no more than ten people, and all classes take place in one building. In terms of the college experience, the only similarities are that it is a school and you get a degree.
Neumonts’ attitude toward education: Neumonts’ only plan is to get you a job as fast as possible, nothing more. Everything else is secondary. Every time there was an assembly they would end most sentences with “and you’re here to get a job”. They treated higher education as an inconvenience. What Neumont communicated to me was that unless it is your job, all other education is a waste. That you shouldn’t have to learn about the world you are in unless it benefits you when you get a job. The way I see it, Neumont gets you a job and nothing else, a regular university allows you to have a career and a perspective on the world.
For-profit status: Neumont University is a for-profit career college. Their main goal is to make money. That is something that I didn’t believe in. I felt that the school you’re going to should be contributing to the surrounding community or giving back, not to make a profit. Depending on how well you do in your classes, it can end up being more expensive than other high-end universities.
I have narrowed down to two types of people who would like Neumont:
Those that are past the age of 30 and don’t want to spend a long time getting a degree.
High school students who hate learning and school so much that they are willing to give up most of the college experience to get done a little faster.
I go to Neumont and I’m about 50% through my degree. I went over to see my Career Services advisor and found out Neumont eliminated the department and laid off the entire department! What?! How can a career-focused school not have a Career Services team? One of my instructors said that the new owners are trying to cut costs any way possible. Combining this with Neumont scrambling to find valid accreditation, I’m pretty stressed out. Starting to question my choice to attend. :(
I can confirm that Ned Levine is a total prick. I used to be a student worker for the marketing group and stuffed envelopes right outside his office. Overheard some crazy shizz. Treated his staff like crap. One marketing lady told me straigh up that Ned enjoyed firing people. He said its how you earn respect and keep people in line, and that he always had a list of who he would fire next. Told her he was always in the process of firing someone. Whadda douche. Funny thing is no one respected the prick, pretty much everyone hates him.
I bet the ACICS thing is why Neumont is moving everything to that Helios training program. Friends still at Neumont say that all the good teachers are now focusing on Helios. What a mess.
Neumont is accredited by ACICS. The US Dept. of Education no longer recognizes ACICS as an approved accrediting agency as of yesterday. The new students which started this week should seriously reconsider their academic choice. Neumont has eighteen months to find new accreditation. Looking forward to seeing an official statement from the University regarding their loss of accreditation.
This site definitely has some of facts messed up. I graduated in 2012, and I know it had been around for a long time before I got there. And it is definitely not a mormon (or any kind of religion) school. Just a normal college.
My step-brother is going to Neumont rn and it sounds like it’s not the same Neumont I went to a while ago. When I went there the teachers were awesome, they pushed us hard, and there was tons of student unity. Now he says that the teachers don’t really care about the students and the classes don’t have as much project-focus learning anymore.
I’m totally against Neumont moving to corporate training with the whole Helio thing. Talk about stupid. Sounds like they are trying to be another New Horizons. Didn’t those kind of schools fail in the 90’s? Hilarious. Just more proof that Neumont is going downhill.
I’m a current student at Neumont and tbh I’m a little concerned. Last week one of my instructors said that for the foreseeable future Neumont’s focus is shifting to their new Helio training program (can anyone say trademark infringement? lol). He said that the new owners love the low-overhead model (no accrediting, student affairs, financial aid, counseling, etc) of coding boot camps targeted to older career changers. His boss said the new owners are thinking that the number of students at Neumont hasn’t grown in forever so they are totally changing Neumont’s direction, whatever that means.
He said most of the full time instructors are focusing on Helio bootcamp work to get it off the ground, and that they will probably keep putting even MORE part-time instructors at Neumont. Grrr. I just hope I graduate before they close down Neumont. I just don’t get why they are going for the code camp company training direction. Wish I knew that before I started last year. :(
Btw, I love the comment below about Neumont’s marketing department. So true, so true!
To start off, this review may be the most honest thing you read about Neumont on the internet. There are a lot of bad reviews for various reasons, but I think those reasons could apply to any university. I graduated not too long ago, so I think I can provide some insight into what to expect at Neumont.
Neumont University is a good school. No doubt about it. However, it is not a perfect school. There are good and bad instructors, just like everywhere else and your education will be largely dependent on who your professors are. I’ve had a lot of bad adjunct, or part time instructors, at Neumont. I don’t believe the instructor hiring process is bad, just difficult to find good professors who know their stuff.
Neumont is expensive. One could say outrageously expensive. $7,600 per quarter * 12 quarters = $91,200 in tuition costs alone. That’s around $500 per credit hour. If you’re considering attending this school, apply to as many scholarships as you can. I’m serious. The school does have their own scholarships, and there is in house financing for students who need it, but you can receive a decent level of education in the same field at any public university.
Neumont is unique. Project, team based learning, is a very good instruction model for getting students to interact as a part of a working team towards an end goal. Being the in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City is incredibly nice as well. There are movies, sport events, restaurants, ski resorts, and other activities all within reach of the public transportation system. Near the end of your program, you will be required to complete a capstone project, and then participate in 2-3 internships at real businesses within the valley. These internships were incredibly valuable for me to meet friends, meet colleagues, and learn new technologies. I had the opportunity to participate in many clubs, organizations, and student employment opportunities at the school, all of which made my experience and education more enjoyable and valuable.
The marketing department is REALLY bad at representing what Neumont is about. Yes, there are graduates who work at Google and Microsoft. Yes, there are students who pursue the Game Development degree and end up working at Blizzard. However, do not expect an amazing job right out of the gate. Students who get those jobs earned them, and it’s because they took their education very seriously. The marketing at Neumont paints a pretty picture, and it’s not exactly accurate. There is not a lot of diversity at Neumont in regards to gender, sexual orientation, or color. Why is that? It’s the industry, not the school. You will see several young, white, nerdy, smart, men who like to play video games and may have difficulty socializing with others. I would say that’s about 60% of the student body at the school.
If you like video games, prepare to stop playing them. At Neumont, you will not much time to play video games and do the things you want. Not only are you going to class for about 8 hours a day, but you are also probably doing homework 2-4 hours a day. You will have to learn time management, budgeting, and other skills in order to be successful at Neumont. If you can’t handle not playing League, WoW, Smash, or Magic for at least 5 days a week, this is not the school for you.
Student housing is okay. It’s not stellar, but it’s better than most. The student housing program pretty good. I may be biased, having worked as an RA. The facilities are nice, well maintained, and staffed by student RA’s who handle student requests, create student activities, and take students to the grocery store every weekend.
Finally, Neumont is not easy. There are many students who achieve high GPA’s at the school. However, the program is accelerated and designed for the modern industry. Neumont is nothing compared to high schools or public education, and should be taken seriously as a Bachelor degree granting institution. If you have the opportunity, take a tour of campus. Attend the FREX event, and get to know the people who run this school. There are a lot of wonderful people at this school that contribute to making it great. And honestly, it’s what you do with your education and your motivation in school that will make you successful.
I don’t understand why Neumont gets such a bad rep at this particular site. Many of the things I have seen in other reviews and in the actual article are erroneous or dead wrong. I am a Sophomore currently, I have had more than enough time at Neumont for me to get an idea of how it works.
First of all, almost all of the teachers I have had so far have been excellent teachers, who really care about us students and our success. Initially, with all students being in the same degree program, class sizes range from 30-40 people per class; but now that I have started specializing, my class size average has dropped down to about 15. This allows you to have one-on-one relationships with your teachers.
The faculty has been very helpful in other ways as well. At any time, you can drop by your student advocate or financial aid advisor to talk about your schedule, stressors or problems and try to get them resolved. Every time I have used these services, they have been more than helpful and I come out again feeling like they actually care about me personally.
The school is very fast-paced – it felt slow to me at first, because I have had a lot of experience programming already – but now that we’re getting into more advanced topics, the rate at which we learn new things and go over advanced topics is exhilarating. The teachers are not adverse to using personal projects for school work, and anything you do for school is your own intellectual property. It is much better than I had hoped when I first submitted my application.
There are only two really bad downsides to going to Neumont – first, the price. The tuition and other expenses are egregious compared to other universities and colleges, and it’s hard to understand how most people can afford to come here. The relatively small size of the university, the fact that it is in the middle of downtown SLC, and the excellent student to teacher ratio goes a short way toward explaining this, but it still seems excessive.
The other major problem is that there’s no place to park a car, if you have one. To be fair, most of the students live on campus and have two or three blocks to walk at most before arriving at their classes, but it’s hard to be self-reliant when you have to rely on public transportation to get around. This limits part-time job opportunities that students might have in order to try to pay for part of their tuition instead of building up debt.
Overall, the school has been an excellent school. I have learned a lot, I have met with a lot of employers and learned industry-used technology in just my first year here. I still have two years to go, but I don’t expect them to be much different.
Before I close my review, I wanted to clear up a few of the untruths on this page:
– Neumont IS accredited (by ACICS, just not by ABET)
– It is NOT a “Mormon” school (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Most of the students are non-LDS
– It was founded in 2003, not 2013 – it has been around quite a lot longer than 3 years. The statistic for the number of students currently attending even came from 2010, as indicated in the school’s description above.
I don’t agree with some of the things that other students have posted, but I’ll leave them be.
Listen people, This school reaches out to you, they throw a bunch of candy at you thats laced with coke waiting for you to dig into your pockets throwing every bit of change you have at them. It all begin when I started receiving pamphlets on this school. It seemed incredibly promising and functional. I applied, got accepted, and next thing I knew I was attending FREX (sort of like a orientation to the college) at they paid for our hotel stay for a few nights and provided 5 star meals at no cost?? yeah seems crazy but they absolutely did. Next Sep I found myself on a 24 hour roadtrip hauling everything I owned to my high class apartment that I was technically paying out the ass for. I started my first week and everything just seemed way to good to be true. It felt great but I had it in the back of my mind that something was never right. This school focuses on your money and they do it in a way that blindsides you. That give you so much that seems great but in return your burying yourself in debt and never even really give thought to it. When I first came here the school stressed that all the negative reviews were bogus and we should never worry about them, they make it seem like people were out to get them when they have done nothing wrong at all. Well to be honest in the end every one of those negative reviews were true, they were dead on accurate, and you have to be utterly stupid to put yourself in a situation to come to this place. I was here for around 5 months and me and a good friend that I had met here had a incredibly long conversation about how the school operated and scammed people and we decided to pack out stuff (in one night) withdraw that friday, and head back home to where we belong. Now I loved SLC, it was amazing and a experience that I most certainly will never forget but the school turned me off the first week I was there and It took 5 months to have the balls to finally say I made a mistake. Do yourself a favor and don’t get involved, and if you are already then get to comparing the facts and start packing your stuff so you don’t get buried in another 15k for this upcoming quarter. I was apart of cohort 31 (class of 2018) I came here during the 2015 year so you realize that this review is current and up to speed. Don’t do it people… just don’t.
I went to Neumont for about a year but I dropped out last December. The classes weren’t all that hard. I was in the Information Systems track and honestly, the Cisco classes at my high school were much more difficult (and rewarding). As time went on I liked my classes less and less. Part of this was probably due to the fact that my friend back home in Florida went to a Community College to learn programming and got a job earning more than most Neumont grads. That totally depressed me. The final straw was that one of my instructors (he was super chill and had the downlow on NU) told me that Neumont had just been bought by some investor group called Caltius and that their main goal was to pump up profit margins at Neumont and sell it to the highest bidder in a couple years. He pretty much indicated that they were planning on chopping costs and staff all over the place. Welp, that was my cue to bail out, not interested in that action. I just wish I had figured that out before racking up $40,000 in debt.
Neumont has some good and bad, I guess it depends on what you’re looking for. Here are the pros and cons, the way I see it.
What I liked: Staff members were super chill, especially the ladies at the front desk. I made good friends that I’ll keep in touch with. The school location is cool and Salt Lake City is pretty great. Some of the teachers were amazing. I hear the new school president is super cool though.
What I didn’t like: Clueless part time instructors, credits don’t transfer to other schools (I wish they told me that before I started). Super expensive for what you get. A lot of the classes were high school level difficulty. The president when I was there was Dr. Levine, and he was a major prick. Didn’t give a crap about students until they said something about him in social media then he would stalk and harass them. Talk about crazy. I wish the new president had gotten there sooner.
My advice: save your money and go to a community college to learn programming. You’ll earn just as much when you get a job and you’ll have a lot less debt.
OMG them trying to sue you is NOT an attack against free speech. You simply are trying to defame and disparage Neumont, SO THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO SUE YOU FOR DAMAGES. Neumont is great! They basically told me that they cut out all the BS and will have me my BS in computer science in 3 years which is so much better than having to waste my time taking English and history courses. I honestly think everyone who talks about how their public or non-profit 4 year school is way better and actually real is just jealous that they could have had a valuable degree in less time. They are just elitist snobs, and they are jealous, salty, and butthurt, so they should never be taken seriously.
Neumont is a great university – IF YOU FIT THEIR PROFILE
If you either already know everything, or is going just to solidify your knowledge and get a degree, then you will be happy at Neumont. They welcome IQ 140+ students with full ride scholarships.
But if you are not the way they want, do not expect to succeed. If you are new to programming, or is an average person/student, then they will walk all over you. They will have meetings about you (not in a good way) and will do whatever possible to kick you out and still force you to owe them big $$$
And this is coming from someone who, after 7 years out of Neumont, still works with development and does fine regardless of their judgements, assumptions and poor treatment.
I attended this school in 2008.
The school seemed like a really great idea. I despised high school because I knew what I wanted to major in and couldn’t get any assistance getting deeper into my subject. When I was invited to attend Neumont University, I thought it was a dream come true. A 2 year school that taught nothing but Computer Science? Hell yes!
Then I actually started attending.
The student body at the school was very diverse but never for the better. Of course, it’s a tech school so you can naturally assume there are more males than females. Of the females at the school, they seemed to operate on the “Everyone is out to rape me but my boyfriend” mentality. Working in any group with them was a nightmare and they never seemed to have anything to contribute. Gender bias aside, the school has a serious drug problem. Like I said, I attended in 2008 so a good number of the students I attended with have already dropped out or graduated by now. Of them, I can count on more than one hand how many have actively sold drugs. Aside from them, I don’t have enough hands to count how many have either assisted or done drugs themselves. The school has a serious drug problem. In fact, I’ve been personally involved in instances where school officials showed up to parties where the drug use was so profound that it was noticeable from outside and all they said was “don’t do it on school premises.” Very professional.
The teaching staff at the school has two very wide degrees. Ranging from “I graduated from here and couldn’t hold a job” to “I’m a profound individual in my field and wanted to teach.” Of the former, there classes were a nightmare. I know of a few individuals who I attended with who are currently teachers and I can attest to at least half of them being absolutely horrid in the areas they teach. Of those who graduated before me, their classes were horrible as well. Ranging from wildly changing requirements and curriculum weeks before due date to not giving any details of project assessment at all. For latter, however, were absolutely heavenly to be in the same room with. Not only did you get a full 30+ population class worth of information to work with, you could actually talk with them 1-on-1 for extra assistance. Their classes were the absolute best at the school.
Speaking on the faculty, it was nothing but a nightmare. Being absolutely bombarded with ridiculous notifications to being spied on at every moments notice. The officials at this school seemed so paranoid, they’d even make bizzare connections between internet identities to try and find you, just looking for the reply that seemed to match you just so they could make their point. When you’re at the campus, it’s to be expected that they have their eye on you. However, at home, their eye never ceases to capture everything you do.
As for the president, Ned Levine, I’ve had more than a few encounters with him and my experiences range from down-right rude to border-line rude. He never seems to want to take responsibility for anything. He doesn’t display any computer science knowledge but he’s the first to blame you for everything happening to you, regardless of whether it’s your fault or not.
To put this into perspective, I had a family emergency arise halfway through a quarter. I met with him towards the beginning of the next quarter and all he did was badger me about how much “lower than average my grades were.” God forbid someone in my family actually died, I’m sure he would’ve charged me for their funeral as well. Just to add to this, a number of school staff and all of my teachers knew about my situation.
Overall, I regret every second I spent at this school. The amount of what I learned does not out-weigh all of the ridiculous nonsense I had to go through just to be done with it. To add on top of this, a Neumont Degree is worthless to anyone outside of the immediate surrounding area. Neumont has strong ties to a FEW (less than a handful) big names in the computer science industry and a lot of the local companies, however, if you try to pedal off the degree to anyone outside of the Utah area, you’re s**t out of luck. It’s as profitiable as an ITT Tech degree except that almost everyone knows who ITT Tech is. Neumont still remains an obscurity.
I graduated Neumont University five years ago. Attending that school was the WORST experience of my life. I regret every single day that I enrolled and not demand Neumont refund my money back after the first year. I have Federal Loans at $50,000+ dollars and have been deferring it every year due to the fact I could never get a decent paying job with this degree. In fact, every interview I have had, my degree was never considered. This school is great for experienced professionals who want to get a B.S degree quickly, or very smart people who have a talent for programming. But let me explain the fraud that happened to me. First off the facts: the school has no screening process (when I enrolled). If you want to become an Aerospace Engineer at say UCLA you better have a very high SAT score. Fullsail (a school like Neumont) requires you take an algebra 2 test before ANYTHING happens. That test was mailed to me and I could not do it. So I was not going to Fullsail simple and clean. All I had was a GED, no high school or even Jr. High School. But Neumont let me in anyway, assuring me I was in good hands and making me and my father believe I was qualified to enter this program. No assessment was taken, my math skills, my analytic reasoning or logic. Computer Science is no joke, it is engineering. So when Neumont accepted me, I reflected realizing the magnitude of this life decision. I told Karick Heaton that I wanted to go back to Jr. College and get my math and analytic reasoning skills up. He told me a blatant lie (like many others) that if I did not accept right now, I could never attend Neumont. Think about that for a second and how stupid that is. So you don’t want my money in a year, even though administration accepted me? Thing is. If I would have taken C++ and math courses over that year I probably would have realized I simply do not have the aptitude to do computer programming, saving everyone a lot of grief and time AND MONEY!!! Well, once I started attending the school, students threw parties naturally, what is not natural is Karick Heaton (Neumont faculty) attended those parties smoking pot with students; hmmm…what a slimy sales person. So the school dupes me and I am now in debt land. I failed miserably in the first semester, insanely difficult database classes and waste of time Object Role Modeling (ORM) classes; which were required only because Terry Halpman was there shoving his crap ORM down students throats, plus he was a god awful teacher; like 90% of the teachers there. I attended for C#.NET not this useless crap. I was struggling, so I decided to take the first semester over, which the school endorsed (more money) resulting in my GPA plummeting. What good is a worthless degree in the first place if your GPA is less than 3.0? I made it VERY clear to the entire school that I was struggling very badly, I could not program, the school did not care they just kept taking my money. Lets move on to the teachers, TERRIBLE. Matt Curland is a programming genius, but a fool when it came to teaching. All he did was spout off a bunch technical difficult to understand gibberish, makes sense to him right? Sure but if you didn’t get it he just failed you. See, at the time Matt and Terry and Tony Morgan were working on their absolutely useless software and used the star students to code it for them and could give a flying F*** about anything else. So teaching the students especially the struggling ones was a mute point to them. The evil people at Neumont treat your $90,0000+ loan money as if it was not real. Let me put it this way, you get what you pay for, not in Neumonts case; you get ripped off. And it is true, the teaching is so bad, you could literally learn the same stuff through the internet and books and practice; receiving a better education. Because YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER, THE STRUGGLING STUDENTS ARE THE IMPORTANT ONES NOT THE WIZ KIDS OR ALREADY SEASONED PROFESSIONALS!!! And if you were a struggling student like me, you were alienated treated like sh*t, especially by all the white arrogant pimply faced WOW playing nerds that made up 90% of the school. The projects classes consisted of you forming into teams with other students is a nightmare. You all grade each other, not the instructor, so guess what, if you have a hard time coding your part in the project; the smart nerds code it for you and then fail you. Here is an example of how low the Neumont facility goes. So, I am a disgruntled student paying ungodly amounts of money and getting nothing in return; realizing I made a mistake. So another disgruntled student probably going through the same experience as me, goes to Sam Puiches house and puts a sign on his door: “F*** Neumont and F*** you and your family”. Who do they try to accuse? ME; when I would never do something so stupid. I have no idea where Sam lives to this day. But since I cannot program and having a really bad experience at the school, of coarse it had to be me. Another example of how unprofessional the Mormon tool Ed Levine (The president) is, consists of him calling my father threatening to sue me after trying to get legal advice on justanswer.com regarding what happened to me at Neumont. That idiot was drunk (slurred speech) when he called my father and threatened to sue me. Larry Crandel (a massive fool) failed me in his communications class (he has no communications degree certificate or otherwise) I did everything I was supposed to do in that class and a F was not merited; he just failed me because I looked bad for the school because I could not program. So being a computer programmer in the real world, or any IT job in that case requires professionalism; I know because I am a self taught Cisco Network Engineer. So what is the dress code at Neumont? A bunch of smelly nasty nerds wearing thongs and kicking them off in class. Rubbing their smelly feet all over the chairs and desks. If you are gay, you might like this place as it is all very unclean dudes and nerds. You know how computer people are stereotyped as geeky weirdos? Neumont proves that claim is true, just look at the pictures of students on their website. So how did I possibly graduate from this place when I clearly cannot do this computer science stuff. Well, my last class for graduation was an Algorithms class that I had to take twice. The first teacher failed me on the spot because I cannot program hard algorithms; I cannot code the towers of Hanoi and the 8 Queens; sorry. So the next teacher just did all my assignments for me and passed me; why? Because Neumont knew what a mistake they made and just wanted me out of there. And I know what you Neumont thumpers are saying, your just stupid and can’t program not Neumonts fault. Why yes it is, you don’t take someone’s money and three years of their life knowing that it was a mistake and don’t take some action to fix the problem. All Neumont wants is your money and could care less about your quality of life and experience you have there (remember this school is small). And that is the damn truth. What’s even more evil is the teachers “seemed” to enjoy failing struggling students; making them feel elite. they got off on it. That is the perception I got and perception is reality. Neumont took three years of my life, I am in a massive amount of debt I cannot pay and have a degree that is worthless. The job assistance was a joke; the idiot in the job assistance department gave me two links; Tek Systems and Robert Half, WTF! Bottom line, I was unqualified for the school, just the same as I am unqualified to attend UCLA as an Aerospace Engineer; But the difference? Neumont knew this after the first year and took my money anyway with no means of trying to help me. Plus, computer programming is not for everyone, so what happens when your in college and know you should do something else? Choose a different major, ERROR can’t do that at Neumont. After the first year your thousands of dollars in debt and have no options but to either quit or hope things get better. I strongly feel mathematics is an important part of Computer Science (problem solving skills). Well the calculus classes at Neumont was; here is you answer sheet now do the test and you can use a calculator. So, you’re not learning anything but equations and not how to solve technical difficult problems. Neumont will accept anyone, smart or stupid as long as they get that loan money. So that is fraud. I went to Neumont to get an education to better my life and all it did was ruin it. I never got a decent paying job so I could pay my loans; my degree is worthless as it is not recognized at all in Southern California. I owe Neumont $25,000 dollars and could not pay it, so it defaulted. But guess what, it is not on my credit report like it never happened. Think about that for a second, means they knew they F*** UP. But I still owe the Federal Government $50,000+ dollars for NOTHING! AND I HAVE TO PAY IT BACK NO MATTER WHAT. Neumont hurt me very badly and I was treated like sh*t there. But what do they care; they still got that Federal money that I have to pay. I could go on and on about the nightmare I experienced at Neumont. But if you’re some talented programmer or an experienced professional great go there. Otherwise, go to a college that actually cares about your education versus profits and your life in general. My real name is Jason Wayne Aquino; I started Neumont in 2005 and graduated in 2008. Make no mistake Neumont I am a real person and Arron Reed, or Matt Curland, or Sam Puich, or Ed Levine (you F***) if you read this you know exactly who I am. And all of you are evil miserable failures that do not deserve a single thing in life. You deserve to be in hell.
F*** Neumont, got a problem with that, you don’t want to test me. You F*** someones life up, watch out.
Neumont is obviously not a traditional college, and trying to judge it as one will obviously give you a bad, false impression.
If you want to succeed here, you need to be able to teach yourself. When you need to figure something out, if you don’t automatically jump on google and look for a solution yourself, you don’t belong here. If you expect teachers to baby you and spoon feed you a degree, you don’t belong here. If you think teachers are bad because few times you actually show up to class you sleep or play games, you don’t belong here. If you aren’t mature enough to take your education into your own hands, you don’t belong here.
If you want to learn to solve problems with hands-on experience and projects, you should consider going here. If you want to get an accurate view of what the real, working world is like, you should consider going here. If you want to actually know your stuff– not just theory, you should consider going here. If you want to be out in the work force as fast as you can, you should consider going here.
The only reason students have problems isn’t because the teachers are bad, or the school has a shady side, or because they are stupid. It’s because they simply aren’t ready for the amount of work required to pass, let alone excel. Or they have a false sense of entitlement and don’t respect the teachers/other students and expect dicking around and general jack-assery to be tolerated. (Complaining that you can’t have your laptop up to play a game or check facebook while a teacher is lecturing is juvenile– and don’t try and tell yourself anything else. It’s distracting to the other students and you can’t miss a minute here if you want to do well).
As far as the negative reviews, and personal experience with other students, the the only thing I can say is that a good portion of the students who start at Neumont do not understand that:
1) Neumont is a business. They want to make money. I haven’t had much experience with their advertising or recruiting teams, but the stories I’ve read have not been encouraging to the school’s reputation. If not condone-able, this is at least understandable. What advertising or marketing isn’t at the very least falsely positive, ignoring the negatives? It’s better to think of Neumont as a for-profit business that takes your money to turn you into a professional computer scientist (with lots of work and effort). If you can’t accept this, don’t even bother applying.
2) As soon as you are 18 you are an adult. You shouldn’t need to be bay-sat or hand-held anymore. Maybe the shock from grade-school to the real world is too much for some students, and they weren’t expecting to have to take responsibility for themselves, and that’s their own issue. If you can’t adapt quickly and take care of yourself, like I said above, this is definitely not the school for you.
3) The teachers at Neumont will not reward you just for trying. Just like a boss won’t when you start working. If you can’t finish your work in the real world your boss won’t pay you and give your a gold start for effort– she will fire you. If you complain that the teachers aren’t helpful because they tell you to google something, just understand that in the real world if you have to ask your boss how to do everything they tell you to, you will be out of a job very quickly. And don’t misunderstand this– every teacher I’ve had here has been extremely helpful. It’s simply that they will not just tell you the answer. They will make you wrestle with it, and try and figure it out yourself, after giving you everything you *should* need to do so. If after all that, and an explanation from them, it still doesn’t make sense, then you are probably in the wrong degree.
4) You actually need to put in a real effort. This means hours of coding outside of school. This means NOT PLAYING GAMES IN CLASS. This means that even though they promise a higher-than-average out of school salary in only 2.5 years, you actually need to earn it.
This school will obviously not be a good fit for MOST people. This is a NICHE SCHOOL. Half the people in it right now, in all honesty, shouldn’t be here. Most likely the reason Neumont gets a bad rap is because the school (as a business) wants to make as much money as they possibly can, so they try and get as many kids as they possibly can in here– when most people simply won’t be compatible with the program they have. If they do poorly at explaining what Neumont is really like, then that is unacceptable, but a reality of any business advertising. It’s up to you to sift out the truth and do some research on your own.
If you know without a doubt you want to be a computer scientist, and you are able to take your own life and education into your own hands, and you don’t mind sacrificing a traditional college experience and social life, and you don’t mind graduating with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and you are more intelligent than the average brick, you should be fine. Just don’t expect a free ride. It will be an uphill battle the whole time, but in the end you will agree it will have been worth it.
A number of these complaints appear to be based on misconception on what the school is actually about. I would attribute that to misleading marketing/poor research prior attending/mis-aligned expectations. This isn’t a “get a 4 year degree in 2 years quick” school. There are no shortcuts to getting this degree. You are expected to work all year round to fulfill your requirements for this degree.
No, there aren’t many girls in the school, because they are generally not interested in this field of study/work in the first place. No, social life cannot be a major factor if you want to decide to get your degree here, because you actually have to study and do the homework to pass. No, do not expect a homogenous student body, as many attendants come from around the country. No, do not expect to sleep through class and be able to ace an exam, since a lot of the material will be gone through in such a small amount of time. This is not the school for you if you are not serious about going into the software development market.
I graduated 9/08, and there has been a management change since I’ve left the school, so perhaps a few of the complaints may be legitimate. For one, the price was expensive when I attended, and it’s only gone up ever since. Similarly with the housing situation, which caused me to go out and rent my own apartment. I’ve heard they’re cramming even more people into a 3 bedroom apartment and charging them more than they used to. The teachers were fantastic when I attended, though I’ve heard many have left since then shortly after the management change. Rock Oakenson is a great teacher though, so the person who has issues with him is probably a poor example of a human being to begin with.
You should be able to -really- know if you’re cut out for the school within the first two quarters. I will admit that it is an expensive mistake if it does not work out for you. I guess, in short, I’m in agreement with many of the other supporters. This is not a school that you can slack off and expect to breeze through.
I am an Alumnus of the fall 2006 graduating class.
This school is NOT the devil and should not be characterized as such.
Seven years ago, while I was attending, I shared many of the opinions expressed on this site. However, having been in the workforce for six years, I have learned quite a bit more than I knew then.
Upon reflection, this is my perspective.
1. Attrition
I started with a class of over 100 and graduated as one of only about ten. The VAST majority of washouts were due to an unhealthy addiction to video games, World of Warcraft in particular(I also watched many of my peers suffer divorce and other detrimental life events due to their gaming habits). The secondary cause was simple ignorance, naivety, and laziness.
2. Cost
FOR PROFIT
I left with > $90K in debt. However, I have found my personal performance in the market to more than make up for this. I have consistently out performed my peers and currently work in a very elevated position for a very large and respected software firm.
3. Housing
So go live somewhere else! I did and it was much cheaper and there wasn’t as much noise and BS to deal with.
4. Religion Thing (Mormon School)
The hell are you talking about? This is probably someone who just hates Mormons and is ranting about anything they can grasp on to. I am not a practicing Mormon and I NEVER felt judged or mistreated.
5. Class Size
You think anything over 50 is a big class size? Give me a break. I have been in lecture halls with over 400. Anything less than 150 is small.
6. Accreditation
Same as Devry, University of Phoenix, I-Tech… etc. Do some research on the topic before assuming it’s the same as a State school.
7. Gender Ratio
Duh! The entire IT market has the same ratio. Deal with it. Neumont is not a place to find hookups. It’s a place to learn how to write code. I would, however, encourage women of any age to join the IT Crowd! Most of the women I have worked with have been excellent and a major credit to the industry. Let’s change that ratio!
8. Employer Rant
So you found an idiot. It happens. You can’t characterize an entire Alumni based on your experience with a single student. Don’t worry though. I wouldn’t want to work for a person with your attitude/mindset anyway.
9. Rock Oakeson
Was one of my favorite teachers. If he doesn’t like you, he likely has a good reason.
10. Drug Problem
Welcome to the 21st century. Abusing Marijuana? Give me a break.
OVERALL:
It is a very specific school with a very narrow focus for a reason. Do your homework before hand and make sure this school or you will be part of the high washout percentage and owe tons of money with nothing to show for it.
DO NOT PLAY VIDEO GAMES IN CLASS or you will fail. Period. Also, they may let you idiots use your laptops in class if you quit screwing around in class.
DO YOUR HOME WORK (At least 4 hours per day, MINIMUM) or you will fail.
Finally, for the love of God. Learn some social skills. Neumont may churn out good graduates, but traditionally speaking… Yeah… Learn some acceptable social mores and adopt them. Hygiene is good too. Soap is not the enemy.
I came from a lower-middle-class family and my degree from Neumont gave me the ability to break out of there into a substantial level of financial security. I now appreciate more than ever the opportunities I am afforded because I worked hard and did not wash out of school.
This is the way I see it.
Objectively, NU is a great school that offers a lot of opportunity to make a better-than-average future. Sadly, too many people become entrenched in “high school” views and do not understand the big picture, and this can lead to failure.
Some typical views that lead to NU getting a bad rap:
1. Teachers should teach you everything you need to know about a certain subject.
2. When a school guarantees you a high paying job, you shouldn’t have to do any work to get it.
3. When a recruiter tells you nothing but good news about their school, you don’t have to do any research on your own.
Grow up, people.
This university IS different than most traditional colleges because it teaches/shows you what the real world is going to be like. When you land a job as a developer, you won’t have a tutor standing by your side who can teach you all the ins and outs of SQL. It just doesn’t happen. Sure, many teachers at Neumont will tell you to “Google” things, but that should only make you realize that success in life can only be achieved if you have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn. The most successful people in this world are those who can adapt to change and educate themselves (to a certain extent).
Neumont does not baby you into your career, and for good reason. Those who coast through college and land the first job they can find will usually not have the success that they wanted. At Neumont, the faculty let YOU take the wheel and learn to build a social network on your own (with help, of course) so that you will have the tools to succeed after you graduate. That being said, the school DOES have a pretty high dropout rate because many students are simply not ready to take hold of their own education. Most of the students who drop out from NU or bash the school’s integrity are those who were used to getting good grades with little effort in high school.
IT’S NOT HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE.
The classes can be very difficult, the teachers may tell you to “do it yourself”, and you may not make it if your education is not your top priority. However, the bottom line is this school is by far the best available choice for those select few who are “tech-oriented, dedicated, success-driven lifelong learners”.
If that doesn’t describe you, then a state college would probably be a better choice.
I agree with many things that have been stated in the previous review(s). First off, I have attended Neumont University for approximately a year and have been on the ‘Deans List’ the entire time. I am somewhat of an older student and became very frustrated to find out that the school caters entirely to an 18-21 year old mentality. I am not over exaggerating when I say Neumont University is an extension of High School, but with a degree.
I found the instruction at this school VERY POOR and give them a D+ as a letter grade in that area. There are a few exceptions, as always, with a very small portion of the teaching staff that I would consider exceptional. Coincidentally, some of the exceptional teachers that I have just mentioned have left Neumont do to conflicts with the way that the students are being taught. I have personally spoken to one of the instructors and was explained this. I became very upset when I noticed that every quarter at Neumont there was an amount of turnaround with the staff at the school that I felt was unacceptable. Several of my classes were instructed by prior students that had never taught anything in their lives before. What upsets me about this is the instructors knew the subject that they were teaching, but they were never vetted to find out if they knew how to teach that subject or any for that matter. I have also found that the instructors at Neumont are bullies to the students. I have seen many instructors talk down to the students, and given lower grades then they deserved, just for speaking up and asking legitimate questions. I have seen many students turned away from instructors on multiple occasions and told to ‘Google’ the question that they were asking them even though the subject matter had never been taught in class, even for a minute. Many teachers have a ‘Lap-top’ down policy which I am 50-50 with. On one hand, there are students like me who are trying to learn and keep up with the instructor and it frustrates me when I am told not to use the $3000 computer in front of me. On the other hand I have watched many students play games or watch movies, which distracts other students during lectures.
There have been numerous situations that I would consider against both school and FERPA policies. One of these moments that caught my attention was when the class was told that the assignment was due at a certain time and three of the people in the class turned in their assignments (in class) 35 minutes prior to the deadline. Since this was a pass/fail assignment, the database had to run to be given credit for the assignment. The database designed by the instructor had made it so large that it took 15 minutes to compile each database before running. Fifteen minutes before the deadline, the instructor closed his laptop and stated that he wasn’t going to check anymore assignments and those same three people ultimately failed the class and had to retake it. (Each person failing would have passed the class if the assignment was checked off) Each person tried to appeal the decision and was denied and not given a reason for it. When asked why, the appeal board responded “because we don’t have too.” At no time were any of the three databases ever ran to see if they worked. There have been many other cases worse than that one that I will refrain from writing at this time do to legal issues.
Class sizes for first and second year students are very large when the school promotes a one on one learning experience. The financial aid department, in my opinion, is border-line at best with the way they do business.
The drug situation at Neumont is out of control with many students abusing Adderall and Marijuana. I know of Counselors that have turned a blind eye to students after being caught by the RA’s at student housing for using.
As far as being regionally accredited. I have heard from many instructors, as well as the staff, that Neumont University IS regionally accredited. I have read information recently at the following link that it is not. http://news.yahoo.com/neumont-university-salt-lake-tribune-accused-spreading-collegetimes-113102748.html
I will give a piece of advice to parents or any people who are thinking of attending Neumont University. First, If you love computers, are anti-social, between 18-21, independently wealthy (or your parents), like to learn on your own, don’t have a job, don’t have a relationship, live rent free at your parent’s house, and have no bills. Neumont is for you. If you don’t match these criteria 100%, then it’s not.
Finally, I would like anyone reading this review to know that I am on the ‘Deans List’. The reason why I am telling you this is so you can look at this review objectively and not think that I am a bad student who just wants to bash Neumont University. You might have thought that what I stated in the previous paragraph was a joke, but it wasn’t. Think hard before attending this or any school like it. There are positives to this school. Neumont does have higher than average starting wages for students than traditional universities; However, make sure you ask the recruiter the retention rate of the same students that they are talking about with those companies. They won’t give you an answer. I know of a company that recently hired many Neumont graduates, and out of all of them only one will still have a job with that company in the next couple of months.
Neumont is a good school if you know you want a degree in Computer Science.
Are you not sure? Don’t go to Neumont.
Do you not like the idea of writing a lot of code? Don’t go to Neumont.
The people who are posting angry reviews here are by and large people who shouldn’t have gone to Neumont. They learned that they don’t like coding and that they now have huge student loan bills and credits that probably won’t transfer. Even those that graduated were most likely subpar developers who then struggled to get a job – while still having huge student loan bills.
That’s not to disparage those students – it’s a really terrible situation to be in. Maybe Neumont doesn’t do a good enough job of qualifying students before admitting them. I’d love to see them offer some sort of 1st quarter debt forgiveness – you decide in the first quarter that this isn’t for you, you can walk away debt free.
Neumont is a bit of an all or nothing education. They do what they do pretty well and they don’t really do anything else. You have to be fully committed to making it work if you go to Neumont.
The school has changed a lot since I graduated but the education I received was definitely worthwhile. Myself and the friends I graduated with have all done well. We all had jobs lined up a quarter before we graduated. Career services is top notch (or at least was).
If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me directly at
Sub-par education. Unstable quarterly scheduling and many former-students as teachers. They have an ad for teachers on craigslist.
One positive is finishing faster than a normal college, but you need to remember you will be attending all year and that most days will be 8am – 5pm.
Oh and you’ll be paying more than you would pay in 5 years elsewhere to graduate early. Don’t expect to get out with less than $80k in debt, and that doesn’t include housing.
You will also be forfeiting your social life. Nothing at school. Male/female ratio is a joke (30:1 or worse). Nothing to do in the surrounding area.
Pick Neumont if getting the best education isn’t a big deal to you, you already have no social life AND don’t want one, and you have $100k lying around to burn.
And god forbid you don’t finish. I know over a dozen classmates who took a year or two longer to finish (or dropped out) after more than 15 quarters. I can’t imagine their debt. Debt not even bankruptcy can purge (including your co-signing family). And no degree. It’s the stuff of nightmares. Once you enroll, Neumont wins. And it’s in their best interest to keep you from graduating. Remember, if you don’t finish you aren’t part of that statistic they’re so proud of (the high percentage of graduates starting in high-paying jobs). I made it into that group but I was definitely not the majority. And that’s scary.
I know it looks good on paper. But take a step back and look at what’s really important to you before you sign anything. There’s nothing here you can’t learn online if you have some dedication, and you don’t need a degree to get a CS job. Just experience.
The Last graduating class had all 100% graduate you’re right, but how many of those were there? 6 I believe? Most of the teachers have no idea what they’re even teaching. I would say yes they have decent programming classes, but the rest of the classes have students in them that know more than the “teachers.” I myself had to correct one teacher almost once a day. They switch the teachers to teach topics they have no clue about instead of topics that they know something in. They call that cross-training. You may argue that it works for programming languages, but it doesn’t work if the teacher doesn’t know the quirks of that language or the IDE at all. Student affairs makes snap judgements about people and tries to be a counselor even though they admit to not being one. They don’t let students test out of classes, so your first 1.5 yrs is spent taking classes you should have had done in 3rd grade. When I enrolled they also told me that classes would be from 9-5 every day just like a normal work day. Most of the time I have class in the morning and the afternoon with no classes at all offered after 12 and before 5. If you want to have a social life outside of school it’s quite impossible to do with this type of schedule. Like others have said, anytime you speak up you single yourself out and suddenly are scrutinized by every faculty member. When you correct a teacher it’s considered “interrupting the class.” Even when the entire class is asleep. And no matter what you do they tell you that you need to change, that you are the problem and that you should fit in with everyone else better. Schedule wise, there’s never any options of classes to take. Yes you get all your classes the first few quarters, but after that there start becoming gaps, more and more the longer you’re there. In order to graduate on time you need to pass 18 credits every single quarter, and they must be the right 18 credits. This is hard to do when the only classes offered that you haven’t taken total up to be 6 credits. Most of the teachers don’t know how to use the LMS (grading and homework system). They don’t offer training on this to any of the adjunct faculty, but expect them to use it. Those that can use it somewhat disorganize it so badly that it’s hard to find anything on there. One teacher, no matter which class he’s teaching forces you to do everything in power point. One class he teaches 40% of your grade is on following him along making your power point look exactly like his. What I’ve learned from this school, I could have learned on my own in a couple weeks googling. Sadly I’m too far in to stop now or else I probably would. The longer I am there the more messed up I realize the entire school is. If you’re not a drone, don’t go here.
I went to this school as well ended up dropping and going somewhere else where i can afford! I have paid over 60,000 to go here…I REGRET going to this school! They take your money! treat you bad! and not even pay any attention to you!
Listen to what everyone saying if you want to go to this school dont! you will be in debt and not able to transfer your credits…its like a waste of money and time! mostly money because you paid for those credits and try to go to another school they tell you they cant take it…that you have to start over from the bottom! omg i was stupid for thinking and believing that i would finish in lesser time, get a good job! and make like they say 60,000 a year its all BS!
The teachers do laugh about you if you fail, hey its not our problem that they cant teach right! they just read words out of a book and throw the work at you! come to find out they cant even do the work themselves! some pos college that is!
YOUR ALL Better off going to a four year college! where its cheaper and you have more time to learn everything the right way! not thrown random garbage coding! Crappy ass Teachers! that are going to that school as well WTF!!!!
Be SMart Dont go there! all they want is your money! and as soon as they get their money they dont give a s*** about you!
I work with a person who has his “CS degree” from this “University”, his resume even says he graduated Cum Laude. Here are my observations: After working for 2.5 solid days he was unable to install a copy of XP, he downloaded 39 drivers and still couldn’t get it up and running (coincidentally – or not – none of the drivers were proprietary, he downloaded all third party drivers). He doesn’t know basic language syntax or structure, he was BAFFLED by VMWare, didn’t understand the difference between source control and eclipse, and has demonstrated time and time again that he cannot grasp basic concepts such as Client/Server applications (the list goes on, but it just makes me angry).
Put simply, if another NU “graduate” applied here, I would STRONGLY recommend they not even be interviewed.
Sucks. Period.
This school can be sumed up in 3 words ‘PIECE OF S**T” f**k this school don’t go to it its fucken, your better of going somewhere else
I too am an inquiring Dad. My son loves working on computers. However, this school appears questionable. If your son is really as good a student as you say, encourage him to get a degree in Engineering (check out Olin College near Boston, or Harvey Mudd in LA). If he wants to be a veterinarian, that’s admirable as well, but a long haul. Being a vet is actually harder than being a doctor and the pay is lot less.
So I went to this hell hole of a school. They say they are accredited but they really aren’t. I was planning on going for my master’s in another field and half way through the program I found out that 80% of other schools in the US won’t take their degree. The people there are all misfits that have no lives. There is no outside clubs or activities. The staff is mostly Mormon and if your not a Mormon you get judged and look down upon. And it is true about the teacher laughing about the students they fail. The administration don’t give a s**t about any of the student they just want the most money they can get.
Neumont is NOT a Mormon school. That I know of, and I have been following them way back when they were NorthFace, they have never claimed to be a Mormon school (it is possible that I could be wrong). However, it was started up by people that happen to be Mormon. As for the social life…from my experience, this part they were very up front about. I think it was the ONLY thing that Neumont was up front about. Unfortunately, I gotta say, I agree with just about everything else Concerned Parent wrote. It is true there are some teachers that don’t like certain students and refuse to help them. Speaking up for yourself…forget it. The student will end up getting burned somewhere along the way.
As Joey said, Small class environment….what small class environment? If it is a required class the classes are packed!
Not being allowed to use laptops….oh so very true. Nothing like being told, “Close your laptops.” Then a student says, “But I want to be able to do what you do.” “No, close them.” What???!!!
Tyrel hit it right on! The environment is very unstable and constantly changing. Neumont has been around long enough that they should have a clue as to what they are doing by now. And yet, they don’t.
Justin had me laughing in a not good way. And yet, he too, is right: At Neumont you learn how to Google. Well, ya know, when the teachers don’t want to help, this is where a student must go. Maybe we should send Google the tuition fees that Neumont charges.
As of right now, I do not have one good thing to say about Neumont University. And I seriously doubt that things will get any better. If anything, they will only get worse. The majority of teachers don’t care about their students, the higher up’s don’t seem to care either. There is not one person that gets paid at Neumont that a student can go to and feel comfortable talking to concerning school matters. And the same goes for the parents. As long as they got your money, Neumont DOES NOT CARE!!!
Oh, and let’s not forget that when a teacher does not like you, they accuse you of certain things that are untrue. You better have a very strong back to be able to put up with this kind of treatment.
The students are always in the wrong, according to Neumont. Heaven forbid a teacher, who is supposed to be an adult, actually admit to when they make a mistake.
I was oh so wrong in picking this school. A decision I will regret for the rest of my life.
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Oh yeah, and let’s not forget about all the break in’s at student housing. The complex did NOTHING to help with any safety (although, they did raise the monthly rate on the apartments). Then the students are told to not receive packages to their apartment address. Excuse me, I’m paying for this place. Exactly why can’t I have my packages delivered to my address that I pay for every month?! And let’s not forget about the bogus threat the complex gave with the fire marshall fining you for having a grill. Nope, I called the fire marshall. The apartment managers totally made all of that up; tried to make somebody else look like the bad guy. When in reality, they made themselves look like even bigger fools. Hey, just like NU!
Why am I adding this you might be asking yourself. I have added this because it is NU student housing. They have a hand in this. And just like NU, student housing is terrible. And also just like NU, the student housing complex has nobody around that cares about the students.
I have never seen so many irresponsible and lazy people in such a small area before….until now. Seriously, save some money (and your sanity) and go somewhere else. You will have nothing but a headache while attending this so called college.
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I will say this for those acquiring about “is this the best school”. The actual hands on projects are really nice. Just remember, when you call, or even visit the school, it is the NU job to make it all look perfect and pretty. They are very very good at that. When prospect kids come in with their parents I just wanna say,”RUN AWAY!” To Alex. No, the students were told at the housing apts to have ALL packages (including those from home), delivered to NU. They said there were too many packages and they didn’t want to deal with them anymore. It had nothing to do with their laptops being delivered. Those are sent straight to NU. Or at least should be. However, NU sent the email out telling the students to stop having packages delivered to their home address. So yes, NU is involved in this. And as to the laptops down, once again, in MY instance, you are incorrect, Alex (your instances differ from mine). When I am trying to do exactly what the teacher is doing and I’m told close laptop, then I have to buy a type of camera so I can record lectures so I can have all the stuff I am not allowed to put on my computer….give me a break! Not all students are doing facebook and what not. Some of us truly want to learn and get the best education we can. As for this school not being accredited….if you try to go for a Master’s degree down the road, the college you attend for that degree (unless NU) could say, “Sorry. None of your stuff from NU will transfer over.” It is up to the next college to make the decision. I found this out AFTER the fact.
Oh yeah, and being a geek school and all…it’s pretty entertaining when the school has a problem making their own online programs work…ex. registering for classes. Long story there too. And it’s happened more then once. Go figure.
I graduated from Neumont in summer of 08.
Let me just say that you should not have to spend 100K for whatever Neumont can possibly provide.
All I remember learning from Neumont’s Computer Science program was learning how to Google. You can learn as much by participating in an open source project for two years without the burden of 100K in student loan debt.
Neumont is nothing but a money-laundering scheme for a private captial firm. What kind of accredited school doesn’t have a single professor with a doctorate in Computer Science? So called Computer Science instructors are nothing but a bunch of grad-school washouts who couldn’t hold a job as a serious professional.
Neumont is a school that has no planning at all. do not come here thinking you will graduate early. because the chances are that you will actually graduate in more than ten quarters. the learning environment is very unstable ans always changing. this means that you cannot plan ahead for anything because the school will throw a surprise at you in the last minute then it will blame it on you.
When you bring any issues up to the school they dont seem to care about you. The classes are usually very large 60+ students. the lunches that are offered on campus is not very good and are v ery expensive.
if i was looking at going to neumont. i would go to another school
Unprofessional of Neumont teacher Rock Oakeson who is writing bad thinks about the students in his class on his Face Book Page.What a shame!!!
I am currently attending this school and was told as I started that it was “small class environment”. I am now finding that I have over 50+ students in all my classes. I have now been told that this will be like this, till all generals are done. I am not liking this school so far, I am thinking of going back to the traditional schools. I am just letting you know, so you can your own opinion. Don’t make a fast decision about this school, do your research for yourself.
This school “Neumont Univ” is a SHAM. the students are treated like babies, parent pay over $10k a quarter & $3k for laptops their children can’t even use, there is no social life, the faculty don’t care, the students don’t have a voice. as SAM said “Students don’t need to know” teachers that laugh about students they fail. lack of tutoring or assistance. Being threatened if you decide to properly speak up for your rights. Is this a MORMON school or did HITLER come back and moved to UTAH.
Save your money…. send your child to a traditional 4 yr college, where there is a student counsel that listens to the students when implementing policies and procedures. Send your child to a school where they can grow emotionally as well as intellect. this school has moved away from its original focus and to a state where they just want money.