Marylhurst University Reviews

"I found that, for what my goal was--to become a social studies teacher--Marylhurst and its eclectic and qualified instructors equipped me with an excellent liberal arts education. Some naysayers may argue differently, but as for my own educational process it allowed me to explore, analyze, synthesize, and create unique and insightful products and have experiences, which prepared me for both the critical/analytical and academic side of teaching. I am grateful for the time I spent there and will always cherish the associations I made and the experiences/learning that have made me a more capable, compassionate and resilient educator."

"I am a first-year music therapy student at Marylhurst University, finishing my second term. In the last week of classes this term, I was officially informed that next term I will not be allowed to take the third part of my 100-level music theory and aural skills courses at Marylhurst due to low enrollment. This leaves me with less than two weeks to transfer into another college's 3rd installment of the equivalent class, or I will be pushed back potentially a full year to wait to take the 3rd installment in 2019. This is entirely unreasonable. There has been virtually no communication to me from the administration or my academic advisors, and while individual music and music therapy faculty members have been supportive, they have no power to change the situation. Do not put your faith in this school. I don't claim to know their full financial situation, but it is clear to me that they are happy to sacrifice their students' educations if it means saving money. I will add that I love all the music therapy and music faculty at the school. My professors, music therapy professors especially, are all very knowledgeable and excellent educators, as well as being music therapy professionals themselves with years of experience working in that field. This 1-star review is directed wholly at the administration and board of the school, and in no way reflects the abilities of individual professors and faculty. It is extremely disappointing that I have to leave this school, as I will not be returning in the fall. I do not have the time, patience, or finances to continue to be mislead and unsupported by my college or university, and I plan to finish a bachelor's degree in music and finish a MT equivalency degree somewhere else later."

"I'm quite surprised with so many highly-rated reviews. Marylhurst is a college that you select when you care more about saying that you have a degree than actually learning. Many instructors are not well organized, the syllabus assignments may not match the actual assignments, the feedback is poor and frankly, I felt like I knew more about some of the topics than the educators who were teaching the subjects. In many of the classes, instructors post YouTube videos of lectures done at other schools. I easily could have watched YouTube videos on my own and be in the same place I am now. I was pretty excited when I started my degree, and now I feel completely demotivated and am just looking forward to it being over with. This is not an education, it's an arrangement to get a diploma."

"Good business program that caters to working adults. However, it's very expensive."

"The MBA with a concentration in real estate is a great option for combining business fundamentals with an emphasis on an area of real estate (finance, development, or sustainability). It is a unique program that makes the school worth looking at if your career field is real estate focused. Like most people who are honest about returning to school as an adult (and online if you choose), I will reinforce you will get out of this program in direct proportion to the effort you put into it. If you are 20 years old and unsure about direction, this is probably not the best place for you. However, if you are established in your career or looking to make a career change, Marylhurst is a good option. The flexibility to study online, on campus, or a hybrid combination is a nice option. Quantitative courses can be more difficult to take online for some, so if this is an issue try to schedule these classes on campus. Professors are generally knowledgeable in their field, with most being working professionals practicing the discipline they are teaching. This is especially true for the real estate portion of the MBA. As with all teacher/student relationships, there will be those you learn more from and those you will struggle with. No mystery there. Overall I am happy with the experience, and I would not hesitate to recommend the school to students that fit the correct profile for success at the institution."

"The caliber of instruction is hit or miss. The full-time instructors were great! The adjuncts we're 50/50. I'm pretty sure some of the students in the MBA program were more qualified to teach the subject matter than the adjuncts. Nonetheless, I learned a lot and left with with a better understanding of the business world. If you're looking for a top tiered program--go elsewhere. If your looking for a well rounded education to better understand the business world, Marylhurst is a good fit for that."

"The M.Div. program at Marylhurst is amazing! It is interfaith and offers a wide variety of viewpoints among its students. It allows a student to study within the traditions in which they were raised and currently worship, while at the same time exploring the similarities and differences between traditions. I highly recommend Marylhurst!"

"Will complete MBA in Spring 2015; but have been able to find applications in current role in medical admin management. Program is heavily dependent on student participation and initiative; as many non-STEM graduate programs are. You will only get out of it what you put in. Instructors are highly experienced in the specialty fields that align with the course content. Some professors, many adjuncts who are active, professionals with MBAs and other advanced degrees. Gorgeous campus with late library and facility hours makes studying after hours easy. Online options are even more convenient but certainly require more student discipline and initiative."

"This school is kind of a waste of time. The teachers care more about things such as how many days a person logs in to post than they do about the content/quality of postings. The books are never available at the time they are needed in the bookstore. The program coordinators are just as bad, they don't give a rats a** about the quality of education that is received or that things are not done for the benefit of the student. I thought that this school would be better than what I had previously but honestly I think that this school is not worth the time or the money that people put into it. I just want to finish my last few classes, get my piece of paper and be done with it. I got nothing out of these courses except two wasted years"

"I have found that I am able to immediately apply new concepts I learn in my MBA program to my work. All of the professors work in their fields, and are always very communicative and helpful with extra real-life information and scenarios.I never feel that any of my learning is superfluous. I will be graduating in 2 semesters and I feel very optimistic about new job prospects after completing this program"

"At Marylhurst, the MAT program is a cohort style, so I will start and finish my program with the same twelve students, allowing us to create deep and lasting bonds with each other and foster our ideas in an incredibly supportive environment. Community involvement is a key element to the program, so I will have a lot of opportunity to get to know my new city and its people. The only drawback of the college is the expense. Since it's a private school, the MAT program is much more expensive than the program I applied for at my home state college. Portland is an expensive city to reside in as well, so my living expenses are nearly doubled from my apartment in Wisconsin. However, the quality of programming is infinitely better, so I have made the decision to take out additional loans and search for scholarships to pay for it. I know it will be worth it!"

"One of the good thing about this school is; if I have any questions about my classes, instructors are always there to answer my questions."

"I had a really good experience with Marylhurst University. My main complaint is that even though I graduated with a 3.92 average,I did not qualify for honors. WTF!!"

"I just finished the Marylhurst MBA in sustainable business program and am very impressed with the curriculum and the Instructors. Overall, there were numerous challenges and the capstone project was all consuming for the last six months of the program. The amount of information gained in this program was beyond my expectations. Of the twelve courses required for the MBA, I thought 10 of them were essential and two were somewhat arbitrary, but, still useful. Of the eleven instructors in my curriculum, nine were excellent, one was lacking and the remaining instructor was about average. In addition, the curriculum allowed me to work and maintain some semblance of a home life.As with any school program, there were some students that decided to get cross-wise with a few of the instructors and took thorough grading as a personal affront. Frankly - I found these students to be a bit humorous and never understood why they took constructive criticism as a personal thing. After all - the program is about learning and you need to accept criticism if you are going to be open enough to learn new information. I must say though, the capstone project was a real challenge and the fear of having a fatal flaw review is a serious threat to the student. If I have one recommendation for the Marylhurst sustainable MBA program, it is to lighten up on the fatal flaw criteria for the capstone project."

"As a graduate of the MBA of the Marylhurst online Sustainable Business program, I can attest to positive and negative experiences with the school. The first four classes -- Principles, Leadership, Natural Resource Economics and Marketing -- were generally well done.Accounting lacked any focus on sustainability or the Triple Bottom Line. This was the key course where one would expect to learn the fundamental concept of business sustainability.Finance did have a focus on sustainability but was essentially a financial accounting class.The concentration courses were generally poorly done. Watch out for the attorneys who are overall the hardest graders in the program. Statistics was very poorly done, and taught by an instructor who did not understand the math behind the principles. She was very nice and tried to be helpful, but her Master’s degree was in psychology. The answers to several of the quizzes were programmed incorrectly in the learning platform, so even though the answers were correct, they were marked wrong. Statistics had little to none exposure to sustainability. Modeling and Decision-Making was a joke and in no way matched the course description. There was absolutely no modeling or decision-making through out the entire five weeks of the class. The course turned out to be all about feelings, with New Age concepts that seemed to be very inappropriate for a MBA program.The capstone course followed the course description, except there were no "panel of experts" reviewing the project. One instructor kept threatening students with “fatal flaws” and stated to several students that they would not pass the course. Yes, this was done publically for all students to read. Ironically, she was the same “love and light” teacher from Modeling and Decision-Making. The program is set up so that instructors are essentially graders. These graders rarely offered any personal experience related to the course that would have helped with the learning process. This is because very few had any practical experience. It seemed most instructors were recipients of nepotism and close relationships with Marylhurst management. For instance, one attorney who taught a class didn’t have the required work experience set by Marylhurst hiring policies. He was hired anyway because he was the brother-in-law of the program director. His friend in the same office where he worked was also hired. The student will be punished either by humiliation visible to the entire class or having grades lowered if one disagrees with an instructor viewpoint or if the grader just does not like the student. You have been warned. There is no academic freedom at Marylhurst. I do not recommend Marylhurst to anyone who is a critical thinking person, who values hearing and learning all sides of an issue, wants a rigorous and challenging curriculum and an overall quality education. My best advice is to STAY FAR AWAY!!"

"The overall experience was good at Marylhurst. Two of my professors were not the best, though one was just a bit unclear in expectations, whereas the other was completely absent from the discussions. The rest of the professors were amazing, and the other students had varied backgrounds and experiences to lend to the conversation. We used Moodle toward the end, but started on Angel. Moodle is a definite upgrade and fairly easy to use.The best part of the program in general is the flexibility and ability to work it into your life. We had our second child about half way through the program, and I didn't miss a beat (though some of my posts may have been a bit lacking at 2am doing bottle time). I just say this to expand on the fact that this program is doable and flexible enough to allow for most any life change."

"Having originally attended a different online university and had a bad experience, I was not sure what to expect from Marylhurst. I soon learned that all online universities are not created equal. Marylhurst has mastered the art of online learning their online coursework promotes collaboration, interaction, and discussion with faculty and students. Their classes also provides textbooks and a detailed weekly syllabus. The classes revolve around virtual tools such as real-time chats, linked glossaries, email, online quizzes and the online bulletin boards."