National Louis University

So they reached out asking me to complete the complaint form. DON’T DO IT if you are ever asked. All it did was cause more issues!!! It’s not worth it on their side. The umbudsman, program coordinators are all really tight, so anything you do to make waves won’t be good. Just file complaints with the board of higher ed and let them find what they should. Be sure to read all the comments below… do it! Save yourself.

The classes that are needed to complete a degree are never offered. This school is always canceling classes because of not enough students. This makes it hard for a student to graduate. Not having enough students to teach a class is definitely a red flag. I regret ever coming to this school. Too expensive for what you get.

I’ve enjoyed my experience and education here at NLU. I enrolled in the Master’s of Written Communication program. Classes are all evening which is ideal for the working person looking to complete a higher degree, or parents with bust schedules. There are a number of online courses and courses held at different campuses. I attend the Chicago campus which is ideal for commuters and people working in the loop. The instructors I’ve had make themselves extremely available outside of class and are always willing to help you improve.
The Office of Student Experience offers many programs and events to help students become and stay engaged on campus, students just have to be willing to participate and keep their eyes open for flyers and notification emails. Discounted tickets to Bulls games, Broadway plays, and pancake breakfasts at the Art Institute are just some of the perks offered by Student Experience.
I’ve encountered rude customer service at financial aid offices in other downtown campuses, but at NLU all staff members are very helpful and personable.
There are a number of computer labs and a library on campus. If you can’t find the resource needed in the campus library, it is only a few blocks away from the Harold Washington library.
Overall I’ve been pleased with all aspects of NLU and would recommend to anyone looking to complete that next degree!

NLU is the worst college I ever attended. Teachers do not give lectures. They do not want to teach. They come to class unprepared. They swear in class. All students get easy As. Oakton Community College is superior to NLU. If you like NLU, it means you are not smart and that you fit in with the trash that teaches at it. I never wasted so much money on higher education than at NLU. NLU should not even be called a university. It should just be called a public high school that you pay for privately.

This school is the worse. It is so bad where they have to beg people to go to school. This school is money hungry. The classes are so expensive and the quality is just not there. They have a program for students at a reduced rate, but it is only for high school students. The students that are in the program are barely passing but they get reduced tuition. I would recommend going to a real university like DePaul. The Adminisration is unhelpful including advising and the enrollment department. This is a fourth tier school.

I was very happy when I got accepted at NLU. I thought I would have an amazing and memorable experience. Unfortunately, it was not. 98% of the classes are online. You cannot learn anything. The online system is confusing. Professor do not even reply to your messages or commets. Nowhere is says that the school is an online program. If there is a class face to face it gets canceled or it is always during the night. I had an issues with one of the professor, I was told I had to write an appeal. I did, I was in this process for 7 months until I withdrew it it was going to take me even more. People at this school care about only the money they do not help you they do not even inform you about the students rights. Which we do not even have. Every time when I tried to speak with somebody the staff were telling I cannot talk and the only think I can do is to talk to my advisor. Which she/​he can do only limited things.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT TO ANYBODY IF YOU WANT TO WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY GO AHEAD.

I would not wish my worst enemy to have to attend this «school.» As previous reviewer called it a company not a school. I realize universities have started to become more and more this way, and its sad. School is impossibly expensive and not to mention time consuming. As a student who pays IN FULL with no finical aid, the only time I can get real help is when I badger my adviser and tell her I am going to leave this school because of how bad it is.
I currently attend here for their BA Business Administration program. I have been here now for over a year and am hoping to finish within this year. However, at this place I will be lucky if I can finish in 3 years. I had a lot of credits mostly gen eds that transferred in, and after my first quarter this is where I started to have issues. I was told I would have to retake an Algebra and Biology class I had already taken at a major 4 year university. For whatever reason, someone couldn’t figure out that the class I took in another state was literally the same thing. I imagine it would’ve been 2 more classes I’d be shelling out money to them for. I could not believe when I met with my advisor and told her this was beyond unreasonable to have to retake these classes and there was never an explanation as to why they didn’t account for the EXACT SAME CLASSES. Until… I said I can’t take classes I’ve already taken I’m not trying to spend forever in this school. She told me to go online, look up the class descriptions of these classes and email them to her!!! And she is supposed to be my advisor! After insisting they should transfer I did this and sent her the descriptions so they could be «approved» and accept as credit. And they were, because they should have been in the first place. Now this would be one thing if it didn’t happen often but the issue is this happens to SOO many of their students. If i hadn’t persisted that I get the credit I would be retaking course I already had credit for.
But the worst part about this school is by FAR the scheduling of classes. If you do end up here DO NOT ENROLL IN THE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM!!! you will never finish because they require you to take so many classes at their institution yet only offer every single class MAYBE once a year. I have met with my advisor SO SO SO many times I could honestly already be better at her job then she is. I say this matter of fact because I am the one who has been having to figure out my schedule and tell her the classes I need during certain quarters because other students have told me to be wary that certain classes are only offered once a year. It’s impossible to fill your schedule because they schedule classes Mon Tu Wed Th from 9:30am-1:30pm. And thats it. So if you have 2 classes you want to take that are likely offered on the same day you will have to forgo one for the other, and LITERALLY wait another YEAR until that class is offered again. Then they require a class that is 3 quarters long, offered in a sequence, that you MUST take, if you miss out on this you will again have to wait an entire year before you can finish/​start the class. This class they decided was best to break up into 2 days Tu and Th from 9:30 — 11:30 buttttttt because no one has common sense when setting up the schedules, other classes have not changed their times. So again I now miss out on classes because they overlap with the classes which are only offered from 9:30 — 1:30. Again this sequence of classes lasts 3 quarters, so almost an entire year.
I don’t know how they have no realized how screwed up their system is because EVERYONE in my program has these problems, not being able to take ANY classes they need in a timely matter, or having to pay double for classes they school is too lazy to check and see if it can transfer. What bothers me is that this school advertises itself as a place for «working» adults and that they want you to finish quickly and that you will. When i mentioned this to my advisor she told me «well, thats really only for the one program» then don’t advertise yourself as such!!! EVERY SCHOOL NOW HAS A PROGRAM AIMED FOR NIGHT STUDENTS FYI. This does not set them apart from anyone.
Sadly, its all administrative issues, that people high up don’t seem to understand and connect with. FIX THE PROBLEMS. And this place would be AMAZING. I have enjoyed all my teachers!!! The classes themselves have been wonderful. The teachers are smart and really great at teaching. They care about their students and they know who you are. You don’t feel lost in your classes and they will help you no problem when you need it. You get to know the teachers and the students in your class and I really do learn a lot. It’s sad that everything else is so screwed up because this place really has the potential to be a really great university.

I loved my experience at NLU.
I came here for my second master’s, an MAT degree. I had gone through an undergraduate and an MA program at very rigorous universities, and quite honestly, was NLU as rigorous? No. Was it still challenging? Definitely.
I learned a great deal about teaching through my MAT program here. Although some people have said the professors aren’t good, I can say that maybe with one exception, the professors I had were excellent. From Bokor to Studnitzer to Denny to Wade, I was lucky enough to have professors who electrified every class experience; even a five-​hour once-​a-​week class was not just tolerable but actually fun and interesting.
The MAT program really makes sure that you learn everything you can about the universe of teaching. As a secondary ed teacher, I took a class on special ed (required for all MAT students, even if you, like me, don’t teach special ed) and learned a ton. You will also learn about teaching for your content area and broader (but important) fields like the history of education in America.
The online courses are fast-​paced, and the advising can be impersonal, but I always received helpful responses via e-​mail regarding course sequences and similar matters. I know NLU isn’t perfect, but my experience was pretty awesome. Some people say that teacher prep programs are useless, since there’s so much you can only learn «on the job.» That might be partially true, but even if there is a finite amount you can be prepared before your career, NLU takes care of preparing you as much as one can be.

I completed the Reading Specialist program in 2008. I recommend it highly. The coursework was demanding and extremely relevant to real-​world teaching situations. The professors all had years of teaching in elementary classrooms, followed by years in academia. Many professors were nationally recognized in their areas of specialty. The practicum was rigorous. I attended the Loop campus as part of a cohort made up of in-​service teachers. We functioned as a learning community, sharing and teaching each other under the guidance of the professor. Do it!

Have only been here for one term, but so far it seems pretty standard. I’ll probably be updating my review after a few more classes.

Worst Institution Ever.
Sold a bad bill of goods. The whole 2 year program had 2 instructors with recent (within 10 years) business experience and could show up on time, have looked a the syllabus beforehand and communicate an idea without sounding like they could compete with Homer Simpson at Jeopardy and lose.
Little to no real world experience, no good examples/​case studies/​relation to non-​institutional work, lots of busy work, group projects galore, BS blackboard postings. Try to do all that while sitting in a hot, windowless room with the most uncomfortable chairs ever. Then, for dessert, horrible administration where you can’t even get a straight answer about how much the program costs or how many credits you need… total total waste of time. After being told on numerous occasions that my degree requirements were met, I applied for graduation and called to check status when my certificate wasn’t received, and they pulled another class out of their hat that I «needed». Infuriating isn’t nearly adequate to describe my feelings about this incompetent army of idiots.
If you look at their programs and think «oh this sounds like I would get a lot out of this» or «could meet a lot of interesting intelligent people here» or «this sounds really hassle free» I beg you, look elsewhere! Its a façade!
Attending this school is the biggest regret of my life = Translation: The biggest turd in an overflowing port-​o-​potty on a hot August day. Resist at all costs!

I did the MAT program here, earning my Type 09 certification as well as completing the master’s degree component. The program was a joke, and I learned absolutely nothing. Teachers were lazy, ineffectual, and unknowledgeable. I felt that I learned absolutely nothing in all the classes I took here.
Sure, I earned my certificate and MA degree, but I was sorely prepared when I landed in the actual classroom, with absolutely none of the knowledge that I wished I could have had access to through more competent, caring teachers.

Every time I pass National-​Louis downtown I smile, because I never have to set foot in that building again. The MAT program there was hours of my life I can never have back.
If you’re already in the classroom and you’re looking for an MA you can do after school just for the pay raise, I suppose you could do worse; the location is very convenient, and NLU’s academic demands are minimal. If you’re actually looking to learn something, though, you’re in the wrong place.

I started on my EdD last Summer as part of a cohort group. In my program, they admit 12 — 14 people per year. While NLU has different locations around the area, I attend classes every other Saturday at the Michigan Avenue location.
The program I’m in is nontraditional and accelerated. In a typical doctoral program, one generally takes their classes over a 3 — 5 year period and then start working on their dissertation. In this program, you start almost immediately on your dissertation and can be done in 3 years with everything.
So far, I’m a fan.
It’s a lot of work, but I’d rather push this full-​time (while working full-​time) and finish in three years instead of taking 9 years like my boss. Most of the professors I’ve had in the program are really on top of their game and have held or currently hold positions that I hope to have one day.
While it’s no Northwestern or UofC, it works for me and my work/​family schedule. In the end, it will help me get where I want to go.