"American Military University" (AMU); anyone use it?

[Griff]

I will be finished with AMU's MPH in emergency management next year, and I have been satisfied with the school. I was wary at first of a completely online entity, but my med school adviser (who is also on the admissions board for a school I'm applying to) said that AMU/APU is fine because of their regional accreditation. It's not a gold standard post-bac program by any means (their MPH is not CEPH approved), but it still augments a professional school application. The tuition is a lot cheaper than many other programs I looked into, and it is very convenient. I wouldn't recommend it to everybody (definitely not as a terminal degree for someone who hasn't already found a position in their field), but it has been a good match for me.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by mycrofft

That gives me good info.
As I was saying, though, I'm not actually looking into taking their courses at this time, more trying to learn about their business model. When I emailed questons about their structure and external accreditation they stopped responding. However, it's clear that training for adults needs to meet their needs as regards scheduling, accessibility, and relevance.

Ah, I just read what your actual question was.

AFAIK, AMU and APU are part of American Public University System (APUS). This is a for-profit higher education entity, with both regional and national accreditation. I finished a BA with AMU and I am working on a MPH with them now, but I also attend a brick and mortar institution (University of South Alabama). AMU and APU are pretty much exactly the same, as far as tuition, courses offered, and degrees offered. Their national accreditation is not special, places like UoP, Walden, and others have DETC (but then again, so do places like UCLA, Harvard, etc). Basically, DETC is not that hard to get (but it is by no means a negative implication). Getting regional accreditation is a much more stringent process, which separates APUS from a lot of other for-profit online schools (AKA "legal diploma mills"). Instructors for APUS courses typically have a full time job in their field (and always a masters or higher in their field), and teach APUS courses on the side. I have had a fairly positive experience with my instructors/professors, but I have several friends who hated their experience there. The courses themselves are as hard as the instructors want to make them. Some courses are "canned" and completely lack academic rigor, but in my experience this was offset by the over-the-top difficulty of other courses (I wrote easily 300 pages for one undergrad psych course). Canned courses are a hallmark feature of diploma mills, and this was a red flag to me. To be fair, I have seen plenty of ridiculously easy and completely irrelevant classes at the various brick and mortar schools I have attended as well.

Basically, the school is legit and bears regional and national accreditation. The school is not very well known outside of some fields (emergency management being an exception). I know for a fact that undergrad/grad/professional schools in the southern Alabama, northern Florida, and eastern Mississippi areas have no problem accepting transfer credit from APUS. Additionally, degrees from APUS are looked on favorably here, although there is no academic comparison with top-tier or CEPH approved schools. You can look up their accreditation via CHEA, or go to this link:

http://www.ncahlc.org/index.php?opti...ic&instid=2853

to view their regional accreditation profile. I hope this helps!

[mycrofft]

A former coworker and I are working out our business plan and I am lookling at various ones for inspiratin and caveats.

The one point I keep getting stuck on is the genealogy, AMU begat APU begat APUS in that order (don't know about AFAIK yet, thanks).

Might be a manifestation of "distance learning" being a relatively new field.

I gather University of Idaho has some distance learning in the disaster and emergency fields as well, and they have been experimenting with Second Life (Obelix Island) as a virtual exercise ground, as has York University.

Online distance learning looks like a good way for little guys to get a toehold if they can get a good internet presence on the cheap, and dependable.

I'm noticing the AMU students here use good grammar and have fewer typos than the rest of us, in general.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by mycrofft

A former coworker and I are working out our business plan and I am lookling at various ones for inspiratin and caveats.

The one point I keep getting stuck on is the genealogy, AMU begat APU begat APUS in that order (don't know about AFAIK yet, thanks).

Might be a manifestation of "distance learning" being a relatively new field.

I gather University of Idaho has some distance learning in the disaster and emergency fields as well, and they have been experimenting with Second Life (Obelix Island) as a virtual exercise ground, as has York University.

Online distance learning looks like a good way for little guys to get a toehold if they can get a good internet presence on the cheap, and dependable.

I'm noticing the AMU students here use good grammar and have fewer typos than the rest of us, in general.

AFAIK is "as far as I know", but I can't tell if that was humor or not

APUS is the actual university system, AMU and APU are schools within that system. APUS is the one with the accreditation, and the two schools are bound by that accreditation. This is similar to UMUC's model (UMUC falling under the University of Maryland system), except that UofM is a public, non-profit system (pretty sure they have different rules regarding tuition rates, programs, etc). As far as the business model goes, APUS could feasibly open a new school and call it whatever it wanted and those schools would fall under that accreditation (as long as they did not deviate from allowed programs, etc). From what I've heard, AMU is geared more towards active duty and reserve military, while APU is geared more towards the public sector. The course requirements for degrees, student policies, etc are exactly the same for both schools, but the student body (which trickles down to individual class demographics) will differ between them. My courses are almost completely comprised of active duty military, reserve personnel, and DoD dependents.

[mycrofft]

HAHA on me!

[mycrofft]

Allegedly. Fredericksberg Community College does.

[Seaglass]

I've heard good and bad about AMU, but they are legit. As for the cost, I get the impression that most of their students are using military benefits, so it's not as bad as it looks for their target audience.

Online schools do tend to change names pretty often. It's not because they're trying to hide anything... it's really just because it's a new field. If you're worried, check the CHEA site to see if they're accredited. There's supposedly no difference between regional and national accreditation in terms of how rigorous the process is and whether government employers accept the degree, but you want regional if you're planning to transfer credits.

Google will usually turn up a decent amount on how a place actually works. Business plans actually vary quite a lot from school to school, and they also vary broadly in how willing they are to discuss them.