Argosy University Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Argosy University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – -Loved the staff
-Very clean campus
-Did I mention staff
-Good amount of training

Cons – -Sometimes unrealistic expectations
-Financial aid office members are often time very rude and do not help students at initial contact

Advice to Senior Management – Reconsider how the financial aid office connects with students early on. Do not leave financial questions to the admissions team. Specific financial questions should be referred to the financial advisors, this is to include initial contact. Admissions advisors should not be a part of any of the financial process such as telling students how to get started with their financial aid process. This should all be handled by the finance department as this is suppose to be what they are experts at and paid to do.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University full-time for more than a year

Pros – There really isnt anything thats a pro

Cons – poor management, what have you dont for me lately attitude, over the shoulder management

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University full-time for more than a year

Pros – The newest campus desired to offer opportunities to applicants who might not get into other graduate programs. The campus hired excellent faculty, interesting and diverse students, ability to develop one's own syllabus and teaching style, lots of ability to interact with students.

Cons – The campus was driving the car while building it. The campus president pushed large numbers of admissions to get his bonuses knowing many students were unprepared for such a diificult educational process. The higher up management disallowed the individual campus to decide when it was ready to apply for APA approval.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide guidelines and support for new campuses to acquire APA approval and offer bonuses for longevity of students & fculty not admission numbers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good pay, Incentives, Good team

Cons – Lack of stability
Lack of honest job description
3 strikes rule
No commission
not a marketable tool

Advice to Senior Management – Be honest.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University

Pros – Admissions Department is always full of fun, friendly, outgoing people
Free Education
Exposure to highly intellectual education staff

Cons – Executive Management (From Corporate Execs to Campus Presidents) has high turn over which causes inconsistent decision making and policies.
Admissions personnel are not highly regarded although they are the face of the university and held to sometimes unrealistic numbers (yes it is a sales position although they tread very carefully on not classifying it as so).
Chaotic environment most of the time, very loosely organized.
Long hours - little regard for work/life balance.
Not much room for advancement
With the exception of a couple of favored employees, don't expect any care to whether employees are retained. It is understood that turn over is high.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to the admissions, student services and finance staff being that they interact with your "consumer" the student each day. Place more of a value on employee retention on all levels (associate and execs) in reducing turn over.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Argosy University

Pros – Free education. Great faculty, great chairs, and great curriculum

Cons – Management, leadership, constant change, policy oriented. No growth for internal positions. No value placed on admissions.

Advice to Senior Management – Learn to lead and be open to executive coaching

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University part-time for more than a year

Pros – The working conditions were good - they made an effort to orient new P/T instructors. They also seemed to appreciate instructors. The compensation was quite competitive. They also had profit sharing options even for P/T instructors.

Cons – At the time they seemed to be catching up with instructional technology. Like many online or private for profit universities, their advising and admissions staff seemed underpaid and a bit overwhelmed.

Advice to Senior Management – Better integration of support services for staff and instructors is needed.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – At the very local level, the campus has really good people working there who are honest compassionate and caring. It is a good starter job with great training, especially in sales. Years later, I am still friends with people I worked with at Argosy... there is a bond.

Cons – Above the local level things get rough. Decisions are repeatedly top down with little to no consideration of students, employees or implementation and are ironically often reversed. Also, an acute fear of reprieval exists on the campus management level. In one instance a PhD senior faculty member who was diagnosed with terminal cancer felt the need to keep it a secret until a week before she died. She hid this because she was petrified that if she revealed her condition she would be fired. Sadly, I agree. Illinois is an at-will state and employees can and are fired for whatever reason. One day this included the campus President, Director of Operations, Director of Human Resources, One of the IT guys and a worker from the library. I mention this because job security and being fired is a consistantly and openly stated fear in the company, even among the best employees.

Additionally, there is little career growth on the campus level. A person doesn't move up from a local campus level... or it is very very difficult and yet to be demonstrated in my four years of working there. The hours and pressure to get admissions can be intense and at the local campus level it is a very high context environment. In other words, you are very aware of your place and rank when things get tense.

When looking for other jobs, I have been told that the for-profit education sector's former employees are judged unfairly in interviews and it can become a vortex that keeps you in for-profit education (though I have never experienced that myself, nor have I known of anyone NOT getting hired because of their for-profit experience per se).

Finally, there is a lot of pressure with lawmakers and the gainful employment laws. Massive lobbying has apparently taken the teeth out of the legislation, but there was a lot revealed when congress did those investigations. As a result, morale is rock bottom, management doesn't get it and this is why the stock is the lowest it has ever been. With the way things are, I would bet Argosy is being poised to be purchased. I do not expect this company to survive in the long run. All in all, it's a good starter career and I would advise not continuing one's employment there beyond 2 years.

Advice to Senior Management – I don't even know where to begin. There needs to be genuinely good, strong leadership that cares about students and employees on a national level. A culture of bringing out the best in employees is crucial and advancement in salary and rank is crucial as well. would also advise an acute awareness of managerial rules and the effects they have on employees and students. .

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Argosy University

Pros – Not many - the hours were easy with no pressure to work weekends, be in early or stay late. Easy going that way. Some nice people.

Cons – Highly unorganizied and inefficient. Horrible communication. Awful payroll practices at the campus level - borderline incompetent. EDMC regional and corporate in Pittsburg, which manages/controls critical details, clearly does not value employees in any way - noncompetive pay, poor and expensive beneifts, horrific benefits communication, little to no management training, nonexistant communication. Constant change of policy and procedure in an organization that is driven by policy and procedure.
I had an employment experience that was unethical and just not the right way to treat anyone. A series of incompetent leadership decisions. No communication or true leadership, possible outright deception and misleading discussions early in the employment relationship. I can't tell you that this was wide spread, but it did come from the highest position on campus and involved EDMC leadership.

Advice to Senior Management – You've got to come to a better balance of local campus control vs. corporate control. One size does not fit all in your ed systems. Employee friendly systems need to be put in place, especially in your new hire process. Be honest with your employees at all times - no games, as it is likely not a game to your employee. Your noncompetitive pay will eventualy catch up to you once the economy improves, because the other things you offer aren't that great to retain people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend