| rev:text
| - UAT in two words: "Geek Daycare"
The unfortunate truth about this school is that it could have been great; however, the officers and upper managers have allowed their hubris and nepotism to drive out excellent staff/faculty members and alienate their alumni.
Curriculum design is based on the marketing department's research on what's 'cool' in today's geek culture. Very little industry input, if any, is used to direct the curriculum. The software engineering degree can be obtained without having to take a database course, and only 2-3 programming classes are required.
Policies are more like guidelines. They are upheld when it suites the school's agenda and overlooked when they are an inconvenience.
The school currently has elected to require students to complete a "Student Innovation Project" over developing a portfolio. So, instead of being able to show potential employers that they have the needed base skills to do a job, they have a project to show that they can 'innovate' which few companies are interested in.
Overpriced education. As of the Fall semester of 2009, UAT's tuition is over $9,000 a semester when the education received does not reflect the needs of the industry since the school seems to disregard valuable industry input. Therefore, the value of the degree when students graduate and try to get a job in their respective industry falls well below what the student pays for.
The Provost of UAT would argue that students aren't just paying for an education but also paying for an experience. This confirms my opinion that UAT is a Geek Daycare where they substitute educational quality for student experiences.
Expanding on the quality of education, and revisiting my comments about marketing's curriculum design and being able to get a degree in software engineering, the school shows no ability to provide any quality assurance on their curricula to ensure students are receiving the needed education for their respective industry. The only QA the school offers is their faculty instructors.
There are few instructors I'd actually give an outstanding review of their ability to teach; however, I believe even those few become bogged down with overloaded course schedules and having to oversee upwards of seven courses in a semester.
Going back to my point about quality assurance, these instructors are the first and last line of defense of what is taught. Entire degree programs get advertised before all the courses are developed leaving paying students to be beta testers in their experimental degree programs.
The $9,000/semester + housing and other expenses for a poor education and "student experience" is not worth the years of debt students at UAT are accruing and the debt that I have accrued first-hand as an alumnus, the previous student body president and active student at UAT.
Edit 6/2/2010
Some Reviewers have only begun their time at the school and seem to be regurgitating UAT marketing materials where as others have actually completed a degree, been involved with student activities, know the kinds of people the management are, and have even worked in the Student Life department. I would recommend current students reading this to go to a Student Government meeting and ask to read what some of the Alumni have to say about the school in the Alumni forums. There's a reason the school keeps the current student population and Alumni population segregated.
Edit 12/13/2013
According to Indeed.com, a .Net senior developer makes about $126k/yr in NY, and according to CNN Money's cost of living calculator, $125k/yr in Manhattan NY is about $53k/yr in Phoenix AZ (for comparison). Then again, a 'six figure' salary is a rather vague amount of money. People who apply themselves will be successful regardless of what school they choose, so why not choose a school whose primary focus is student education and success rather than profitability?
Edit 10/21/2014
"the one star reviews you read about are the ones who couldn't hack it. They're the ones flipping your burgers or answering your customer services calls at T-Mobile."
I'm a successful developer working in the Phoenix valley and seem to be "hacking it" just fine. I attribute my success to a certain programming professor who has now moved on from UAT to ASU where he gets the appreciation he deserves. So I recommend prospective students go apply themselves at ASU.
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