My son applied to APU 3 1/2 years ago and was accepted with the highest scholarship they had. He could have gone to several other colleges because of his qualifications and scholarship opportunities. He decided to go because of the ranking done on the U.S. News & World Reports that they were one of the best for multiple years. Before he went, he asked about the morning chapel the students are required to go to--he was told that commuters were given a break after filling out some documentation. (REALITY--there was no break. Yes, there was paperwork, for all the good it did. If they tell you they will give commuters a break and you believe it...hahahahahah!) His 1st semester, he got none of the classes he needed or asked for. (The whole family had gone to the orientation day that was the day he received this news. He had to go through a half hour of waiting and talking with a student "adviser" who "helped" him patch together the worst possible schedule for a commuter, where he was going to classes from 8AM to 10:30PM, with huge gaps and that 80% were not even the standard courses for a starting college student. (They actually hopped over prerequisite courses he should have been given.) About two weeks into the semester, my son told me that he discovered that it was a "Nursing" school; the word was that on-campus nursing students were given EVERY priority in choosing classes, leaving the "leftovers" for the other students. (If you're a nursing student, I'm happy for you.) All other disciplines and majors were given short shrift. (The seniors had priority, then the juniors, and so on and so forth.) Giving them the classes (because they make up the bulk of the school--check the female statistics if you doubt me) may have been done either to assuage them and their families because they had found our that APU had overbooked the dorms and were putting three students into rooms made for two, then "discounting" the board fees a bit. Or it may have been the easiest thing to do since they are the largest class on campus. The one "normal" class that my son did get that initially made me happy turned out to be a nightmare--English. The instructor turned out to be a "maladjusted" teacher, who delighted in giving everyone in the class D's and F's. As God is my witness, I swear it's true that every person in that class dropped it except for five people. Because of his grades and potential loss of his scholarship, I told my son that he had no option except to do the same thing, which we realized would put him behind already, but we felt we had no choice. [My son told me that one of the people that stayed in the class was a young man who had accepted an ROTC scholarship. Because of the D he got as a final grade, he lost his ROTC scholarship and was shipped to Afghanistan.] When my son dropped the class, APU's registrars asked him why he was doing it. Because he was afraid of the school retaliating against him for being honest, he told them that he was just dropping it. I asked him how it is the school could justify an instructor who could have five students left in his class at the end of the semester, he said that what he had heard was that the school president or someone in administration had decided that they could not fire him because he was a Christian even though he obviously hated teaching, hated the students, and was a misery of a teacher. (And because they are "the best Christian school in the US." As I myself am a Christian and have been from many, many years ago, I was stunned at this. As I told my son, by keeping this obviously unhappy, bitter man as a teacher simply because of his faith, they are hurting their students AND HIM because they do not believe that God would help guide him to his optimal place in the world. People can stay in a position that they don't belong in forever because of their fear of the unknown.)
Anyway, now it is 3 1/2 years later, my son has since had many more scheduling snafus (i.e., two Biology's in the same semester--one was actually needed to be taken before the other, but he was not told until just before he dropped the higher level Bio class, and NO there was nothing in the class description about it being a prerequisite). Then, there was the teacher who had the students do reports on his "subject" lessons and used those to teach the students. He would say that this was not his area of expertise and kept asking the students to quit his class because he didn't want to have to teach the LOSERS. (And, Yes, he said it, I heard it. My son had an expensive recording pen just to make certain that he didn't miss any important information--but my son asked me not to "make trouble for him." ) My son picked up a few classes at the local JC during the summers in between, JUST IN CASE, because of the high potential for these "mishaps" to happen. My son finally ended up changing his major because there was no way he was going to be able to get through the school in the four years he had with the odd-ball classes they were giving him. I can just hear the cat-calls, "Why didn't you have him transfer to another school?" My son had received California and federal aid for multiple years; they do not add on more years to your aid. And most of the classes they had him take were the non-transferable religion courses. (With two more courses, I was told my son could minor in religion, THAT's how many he was scheduled to take.) Now, the straw that broke the camel's back (mom's patience) was my son calling me on the way home today to tell me the news--that they had told everyone that they were going to "fix" the mistreatment of the freshmen students (getting the wrong classes, etc.) by giving the freshmen and sophomores, respectively, first choice of the classes that they need, then juniors, then seniors, THEN commuters. Believe me when I say, BEWARE of Azusa Pacific University! Be Aware and BEWARE! Know what you or your child are getting into before you spend your hard earned money, just to end up with a miserable kid, in a major he didn't really want to be in, with credits that can't be transferred to any other school. Let me say that his kid brother did NOT apply to APU. He went to Whittier University, also with the highest scholarship they have, and delights in bouncing in to torment his brother about how he gets the classes he wants, the teachers are knowledgeable, and his days are evenly spaced so that he doesn't get home close to midnight. Yes, it could be sibling rivalry, but I don't think that's all there is to it. Baby boy has already been GIVEN three more scholarships/awards, of which two he didn't even apply for...my heart sings for the one and weeps for the other. Somehow, in the orientation, APU talked about how the students are so happy with the education experience that they give and give and give after they get out. I can't honestly say that I am in that happy place right now. I hope and pray that if anyone sees this that they realize that I am not trying to slam my eldest son's school. I'm trying to spare you the same grief. Good luck! (Please forgive my writing. I'm probably babbling because I don't want to lose my nerve before I submit this because I can't help my son more at this point.)