Lamar University

I attended the online public health undergraduate degree program. The instruction was good, but communication is awful! When the semester was over I had to register for classes but could not register due to a hold. I had to have an advising appointment. No one knew who my advisor was! I went through 7 people and not one of them was my advisor, I just kept getting sent to different people in different departments. I looked at my university profile to see if they were listed and no advisor was mentioned... Read More anywhere. How do you expect students to succeed when this is the service you provide them?! Avoid this school, this was a waste of my time! I went through 7 different people and 3 different departments and no one could assist me. What a joke!

I earned my B.Sc. in Criminal Justice from Lamar (Brick and Mortar) and am currently enrolled in their online MBA-Criminal Justice Management degree. Pros: The dorms are fantastic--very private and spacious. Facilities are overall in good condition and clean. Student life and sporting events are available if you want them, but they are not as in-your-face as A&M or UT. Prices are extremely competitive, especially for their online programs. The class sizes are small, so most professors really care... Read More about you and take time to answer your questions and get to know you. Their application/enrollment process is streamlined, easy, and fast. Lamar advisors call at least twice a semester to check up on you and make sure your degree progression is running smoothly. Their MBA program is AASCB accredited which is a very prestigious accreditation. The LU PD are present and respond quickly to disorder and crime on campus. Cons: While some online classes are thought provoking and engaging, others have an extremely heavy workload and have absent professors who do the bare minimum (30-40% of classes are like this). Crime in the surrounding area is relatively high, so be cautious if you are off campus at night. Their engineering program (which I dropped out of in 2015) was chock full of disengaged, tenured professors who simply read a powerpoint and did not care about student success. Their criminal justice and business programs, on the other hand, are staffed by experienced professionals who personally helped me find internships. Overall Lamar is a high-quality public university. I had a job waiting for me after college and almost all of my classmates had jobs waiting for them upon graduation or were hired within a few months. This institution has enhanced my life by gaining me many close friends and wonderful memories, raising my salary, and making me highly employable. I highly recommend that you consider this school. Peck 'em.

If you choose to enroll in the prinicpal program-BEWARE! The 5 week courses include a TON of work. It's like working another full time job. I'm sure it's a great program HOWEVER it's tiresome with the loads of weekly work. Also, financial aid does not release all of your aid at once, they release it a little at a time making it harder to use your aid for books and in some cases, making it seem as if you actual owe the college when indeed you don't . Check out other programs before you commit to this... Read More program.

Beware: I graduated from Lamar with my Masters in Educational Administration on Aug 17, 2019 and I started the program in June of 2018. I was told that we needed to hurry and take the 068 Principal exam because T.E.A would be changing the requirements. We were told to take the exam by 12/31/2018. Several professors that I had within the program (Dr. Thomas Harvey, Dr. Donna Fong, Dr. Cindy Cummings, Dr. Daryl Ann Borel, Dr. Christina Puente, etc were great professors but they were often confused... Read More about the deadlines for this change. They waived the score requirements and all we had to do was take a practice 068 exam through Lamar, and apply to be recommended to take the test through the TK20 system. I did that around October or November of 2018 and was finally approved to take the test. I took the test and passed it on 12/20/2018. I was told by those same professors that I would have to wait until my coursework was finished on 8/16/2019 to apply to ADD this certification to my teaching certificate. Our last day of coursework was 8/16/2019 and we were allowed to "graduate" on 8/17/2019. I turned in all of my work, maintained a 4.0 GPA and I graduated. We were also told that we had to wait until we had our final course grade before we could apply to add it to our certificate and that did not happen for me until around 8/30/2019. I applied through TK20 to add my new Principal certification to my degree (I don't remember the date on this) and I applied through the TEAL system on 10/29/19. I paid the fee to add the Principal Certification to my teaching certificate in TEAL and I was told that I had to wait on Lamar University to process it. I heard that it took several weeks and days for them to process so I did not worry about it. I am also a full time teacher, mother and wife so it did not cross my mind to continue checking on it because I was told that I had met all of the requirements and deadlines by my professors and the Graduate Studies department at Lamar University when I called them. I checked on 11/20 and it still has not been accepted from Lamar University. TEAL told me to contact my University directly. I called the Graduate Studies office and was given a number and email to Dimple Jones. I emailed Dimple Jones and an automatic reply told me that she is out until Jan 6, 2020, and a woman named Debra Hayes is filling in for Dimples Jones. I forwarded my email to the Graduate Studies office and Mrs. Hayes. Mrs. Hayes responded and told me that I applied too late (even though the deadline was 10/30/19 and I applied on 10/29/19 and that I have to take the 268 and PASL 368 in order to be recommended and have this Principal certificate added to my teaching certificate. If the deadline to apply was 10/30/2019 and TEAL says that I applied on 10/29/19 which still meets the deadline why am I having to do everything over? If I had been made aware of this deadline by my professors, the Graduate Studies and/or Department of Education I would have applied way before the deadline!!! I was NOT told this from numerous professors as I have graduated almost 6 months ago and received a diploma saying that I completed the coursework and requirements. I have a transcript, a diploma and proof that I passed the 068 a year ago. Mrs. Hayes says that she did not find a record of me applying through TK20 for certification and apparently her word is gold. Then, Mrs. Hayes said that I needed to apply to TEAL which I did and I sent screenshots showing that I did so. I am now having to pay 200 extra dollars to take the 268 exam and the 368 PASL is only offered in Oct and March so I have to wait on those as well. I was punished for the unorganization and miscommunication between the professors, the Graduate Studies, Texes Office at Lamar and the Online Educational Administration department. This is my life and the University DOES NOT CARE!! Who was supposed to tell me that 10/30/19 was the deadline to apply to add it to my certificate? No one told me that while I was in the program. Also, I met the deadline and TEAL says it- Lamar just did not approve it on time because they say that there is not any record of me filling out a form that they changed several times. At first it was TK20, then they changed to FormStack and I never heard about any of these changes as they told us TK20 was where we needed to apply. Once you graduate they are DONE with you and will not help you with anything needed after this. I graduated on Aug 17, 2019, and I already have my diploma from LU. All of this should have been addressed while I was still in school. ** The TEA website said that programs should advise their students to study for and take the 268 exam if they enrolled in a program after 1/1/2018. I ENROLLED AND STARTED CLASSES AT LAMAR ON 6/4/2018 AND I WAS NEVER TOLD THIS. ALL OF OUR PROFESSORS RUSHED US AND TOLD US TO HURRY AND TAKE THE 068 EXAM ASAP SO THAT WE COULD BEAT THE DEADLINE. I WAS NEVER MADE AWARE OF THE STATEMENT THAT WAS ON THE TEA WEBSITE...

Lamar University's online counseling program is a joke. The professors and IAs (graders) are unprofessional and unresponsive. You feel like you are being ghosted by your own faculty. Advisers never answer emails, professors never answer emails, IAs never answer emails. Grading is completely random and based solely on your IA's discretion and style of grading. Do not expect any feedback on why you received the grade that you did. Papers and assignments are rarely marked, just given a grade. You also... Read More get the sneaking suspicion that most of the time , your assignments are not even read. The IAs seem to pretty much be on the lookout for citation errors and seem to care very little about content. The professors' lectures are lackluster and uninformative. I have straight A's in the program and have attended exactly 1 webinar.

After looking at the cost to obtain a Principal Certification, I made the decision to attend Lamar University. I was familiar with the online format so I felt comfortable with my decision. The use of TK20 however was not something I cared for as it was extremely confusing. My experience has caused me heartbreak, stress, and money I am still trying to recover from. The classes were going well and I was passing all of them with As and Bs. For being a single mother, full time teacher, Speech and Debate... Read More coach, and waitress, I was happy with the grades. At the point of one course, I had to find a mentor. At my title 1 school with very weak Admin, this was not an easy task. To my shegrin, I chose the best AP we had and was distraught with the awful process he was trying to teach me. I knew it was wrong and wanted to get out of that school ASAP and shared this experience with the professor at that time. He encouraged me to stick with the program and keep my chin up. I received a B in that class but because of the component of having to meet with a field supervisor 3 times, I ended up receiving an F. The meetings were via Skype where they just chatted with me and a few students for about an hour. It was not very useful and I only completed 2 of the 3 since I was disheartened by my own situation. When I contacted the school, I was told I could take the class again which I did. Perturbed that I received an F for a miniscule part of the curriculum previously, I received the same B in the same class and completed the 3 field visits(online Skype chats that were not helpful). I passed the principal certification exam and was denied my verification because even though I took the same class, they still counted that F. I was denied because I had a 2.8 GPA and the requirement is a 3.0. In tears I called them to try to see what I could do. In the meanwhile, I got out of the school I was at and was awarded a position opening a brand new school. Lamars Dr. Cummings said I could take another class but had to reapply and submit video evidence of me teaching. I let them know I could not do it in the fall because I did not even have any students yet and was helping open a brand new school. I was informed that was alright. When I went to register in the Spring for that one class, Dr.Cummings informed me it was too late, the board decided I would not be allowed back in the program. Needless to say, I am disappointed in myself and them. I have made some national achievements at this school I helped open and am working with another University(a top 50 University in country)to obtain this Certification along with pursuing a Docotorate. I should have done better research on Lamar and not simply look at cost. You get what you pay for and I paid for it dearly. I waited so long to write this because I had contemplated and saved for a lawyer and was gathering as much evidence I could to request a meeting with the Dean and the board. However, while that was happening, I was taking hold of leadership opportunities that made so many in the education world in Texas realize what a Leader I am. This was a blessing in disguise because Inwould have had a sub par University name on my CV and now I am so close to having a Doctarate from one of the most reputable Universities in Texas. Thank you Lamar for seeing me as a dollar sign and not the hard working teacher, mother, and educational leader that I am.

The program was fine for getting my Masters however one VERY important thing to note is that I missed one 5 week course in the winter of 2016 due to illness and it set back my graduation date by an ENTIRE YEAR. For some reason, even though the classes are online and all the materials are available upfront- they only offer the courses in a certain rotation. I didnt realize this when I applied and certainly would have powered thru if I knew. So now I have to wait until Spring of 2019 to take my last... Read More two classes. Very frustrating (and costing me a full year of the pay raise that comes with the degree).