Penn Foster Career School Reviews

"Received my certificate. They did not even to try to help me find a job. Certificate is only a piece of paper to me. Did not tell me that I had to take state exams to get a job. Very much disappointed. This happened about 20 years ago. All that money I paid for certificate was a waste of my money."

"I chose Penn Foster because it seemed affordable and listed everything I needed to know on site, so I wasn't bombarded by phone calls and emails from recruiters. I knew how much it would cost upfront and that I could pay in monthly installments was another deciding factor. I chose medical billing and coding and at first it seemed that I was going to learn specifically about this career path, until I passed the intro and went on to the next course. It's just fluff, basic math(fractions, addition, multiplication, division, subtraction, etc) and then there's grammar. I just wanted to learn medical billing and coding, not do everything I did in elementary and high school. I just want a course that's to the point and teaches me what I need to know for the career path I'm choosing, not fluff. I'm highly considering stopping this and cutting my losses. This course is set for two years but I just read that you can get your certification within 9 months, so maybe if Penn Foster cut the fluff, I wouldn't be wasting my time. This doesn't pay my present bills, so the sooner I have a certification, the better, and two years for a certification is just excessive. The courses and reviews are unorganized as well. In the intro section, the key take away notes and definitions were easy to find, record, and follow in each section. Now, they're all listed at the end of the lesson in one jumbled mess instead of the section they're supposed to be in. The flashcards they have are copy and pasted with the word of what you're trying to memorize stated plainly in the definition, so what's the point in trying to memorize it if it's already there?Read Less"

"I Just graduated Penn Foster and loved it. It is 100% online and self- taught. It isn't just handed to you, you have to work for it. Overall I enjoyed my experience and learned a lot. I would recommend it to anyone that thinks they would like self teaching and online. Enjoy it and stay determined you got this."

"If I could give less stars, I would but unfortunately there was no option to do so. Do not give this school any of your time or money. The old saying goes, you get what you pay for and boy does this apply to this place. All they want is your money but they offer little to no help. I emailed my "instructor" numerous times during this "school" process and not once did I ever get a reply. They say they're all about communication and having someone there to help you along the way if you have any questions but every single one of my questions went unanswered. This is a self taught, self paced school, which I had zero issues with. If you struggle with that this is not for you but if you like to have your time wasted going over "How to form a great sentence" or "Ways to communicate in the office" or "How to open a word document" then this is for you! About half way through you start to learn about the most vital part, Medical coding and billing but even then its choppy, confusing, and half of the information is inaccurate and when the teachers grade your assignments and mark your right answers wrong, it takes them forever to get back to you and correct their mistake. I could go on and on and on about how much of a waste this school is. I will never recommend this school to anyone I know. Absolute waste of time. Absolute waste of money. If you can afford it, go to an actual school with teachers who want to see students succeed.Read Less"

"Current 2019 student, I find the student portal extremely well put together. This is a 100% self taught course - self paced course. You have 12 months to complete the coursework and then the option to extend your studies twice for additional time for an extra fee if you need to. This is common in most online certificate courses regardless where you go. Is it easy to cheat, well yes but why would you? You are just cheating yourself and i guess this is where your morals would come in. There is help via the student portal via facts and questions, instructor outreach and social community groups. I have found the social groups to be the most viable of all. The contract was clear in black and white, read what you are signing and understand, ask questions. I have found no promise after completion of career assistance or placement, may have been removed prior to my enrollment. The course is difficult and challenging especially if you have no medical background. Take initiative, use study supplements and outer resources along with the course. Upon course completion you get a free voucher to sit for the NHA CBCS exam and / or can sit for the CPC (You Pay) via the AAPC. If you do not have at least 2 yrs prior coding experience to the exam you will receive a CPC-A until your 2 yrs on hands experience is completed. I highly advise doing the AAPC Plexicode classes in addition to your course. This not only gives you real world on hands experience but it eliminates 1 of the required CPC- A years. Know before you sign what type of learner you are, and if you learn better by instructor, traditional classroom settings then this is not for you.Read Less"

"I took the Medical Billing and Coding program and honestly, I don't recommend it. I took a course previous to this at another school and that's the only thing that helped me. This course is very very hard, someone who has never had exposure to medical codes and the books would be totally lost. I was able to finish in 3 months only because I had exposure to the content previously. I wanted to get a diploma thinking it would get my foot in the door at medical offices but it's done anything but. If you want to get a job even as a medical receptionist you'll need to be nationally certified as a coder to really stand out. This diploma isn't what you're looking for. My biggest issue was I'd get high grades on my tests but the teachers grading them would mark answers wrong that were right. I'd call and justify my answers and they'd correct it but, over all it just wasn't the kind of experience I'd want anyone else to go through. I really wouldn't recommend this school I'd say go to an actual school or college and get the hands on experience because this course as far as the coding part goes, a first timer would fail miserably. The coding is way too advanced for an online school especially when you can't have in person help. Lastly, at the time I went they claimed to offer career placement but that never happened.Read Less"

"I like many others do not recommend the medical billing & coding online course as it is waste of time, effort and money. I also, do not understand how they are still in business because they are crooks as far as I can tell. The whole at your own pace they try to sell people on is anything but self paced and yes you will have to pay an extension fee, excuse me what? Yes pay an extension fee to continue to take the courses that are supposed to prepare you for a career. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! Go to an online school that accepts financial aid if you qualify that is. Good luck to you all!Read Less"

"Their Medical Billing and Coding program is a seft taught program. Penn Foster just gives you a book and study materials. There is no teacher interaction at all. The only time you can reach a teacher is when you have to contact one. It takes the teacher a week to get back in touch with you. After realizing this is was a self taught program, if you stop paying for something that you were not getting, they demand the rest of the payment. Of course they have the one-sided agreement, but contracts are really only valid when it benefits both parties. This is the worst scam to be experienced. Especially when they place negative information on a credit report and refuse to delete it after making more money by selling the account to a collection agency. Money they definitely did not earn. No justice, no peace! Please attend a local community college for your career quests. At least you will have a recognizable degree and a teacher. I did not graduate due to the fact that I had no teacher.Read Less"

"First of all, this school is really affordable. Yes, if you are looking to get certified or training it seems like a good choice. With that said, its not very challenging. In my experience, you don't really get help unless you constantly are asking for it. It's so easy to cheat and not push yourself to grow. All they want is your money, and they don't care if you are actually learning and or are on track with your assignments. I understand we are all adults but as teachers and instructors they should at least reach out to students every once in a while. Their offices and staff are a joke. Sorry, I wouldn't go to them, or recommend anybody to go here. I went to them because I didn't have the money to go anywhere else and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do billing and coding or transcription work. So, in a way it did help me, because I didn't spend thousands of dollars to figure this out. Well, it turns out. I am going to do transcription work but I'd rather go to a school that will actually challenge me and where I'll be getting the training, I actually need to further my career.Read Less"

"This program was a great starting point to get all of the information I needed to pass a certification exam. It is self-paced, and not like traditional class courses. Each course always unlocked before I actually got to it, and I never had to wait on books (they were always sent before I needed them). As for tuition; extremely reasonable. Read the agreement, know you're paying what you agreed to whether you finish or not. I was surprised the first time I called Student Care because an actual human answered. Each time I called they answered promptly, were professional, and always helpful. I never had the need to speak to an instructor-- I understood the material, and if I didn't I had Google, AHIMA, CMS, and AAPC for reference.Read Less"

"This past October 1 2015, the medical billing and coding world changed from ICD-9 to ICD-10 diagnosis codes. As I was working through the first 4 worthless classes, I began to notice references to ICD-9 codes only. When I read a phrase that was similar to...the future ICD-10 coding system...I picked up the phone. The entire curriculum was still geared for the old system. Had I continued, I would have wasted $800 plus dollars because my knowledge would have been obsolete. When I was speaking to the representative about dropping the course she told me, "we're almost done building the new website." I advised her they should have taken the course down until the new site had been built. She had no response. I am now in a battle to get them to stop performing auto deductions from my bank account for their so called tuition.Read Less"

"Absolute rip off. Student services is a joke and rude. Don't waste money on this non accredited school. Your better off going to library. Not worth it at all. I can't even get in contact with corporate. I'm trying to report to better business bureau. I paid in full up front. They might care more if your doing monthly payments. Learned not to go to school online. I'm surprised they are still open."

"I enjoyed my time with Penn Foster, and graduated less than a year.Once I graduated I took the state exam and now I am a Certified Coder. I plan on going back for my associates degree for the medical assisting program. I love that I can work at my own pace, this was very convenient with my busy schedule. I recommend this school to all my friends, and family."

"I am doing billing for OBGYN doctor for more then a year, but I need the certificate, that's why I enrolled in billing and coding classes online.The total program has 51 lessons, almost half of it is not about billing and coding! Its a lot of unnecessary material, which is good for managers, or somebody else only not for billing and coding. I didn' even get to coding classes yet, and i passed already 25 classes. It was about laws and ethics, maths, basic pharmacology, words and excell, stupid projects, english writing, punctuation and a lot more bull. I'm not saying that its not good to know, but you sign up to get classes for medical billing and coding!!! The only usefull lessons were body systems and terminology , which actually you'll have to know when you get to do billing. In general the program could be much shorter and not give you all this unnecessary study material. You'll waste a lot of time before getting to what you need to know, so if you find another school with a program which doesn't have all this extra material which you dont need, go with that one, dont go with penn fosterRead Less"

"I am currently enrolled in Medical Billing and Coding and I have to say it was easy till I got to the coding part. It isnt easy which is nice cause things shouldnt just be handed to you. I also went to penn foster for my high school diploma and never had a problem with them. The only thing I hate is how I cant transfer my credits over till my current course is paid for. I am trying to transfer my credits over to their MA program but cant. Minus that the school is great. I love that its all at my own pace. I am a mother of two and I cant always make it to a class but I can sit down at bedtime and do some work and the payments I can work with.Read Less"

"I enrolled at Penn Foster in November 2013, and love it. Signing up was easy and very helpful. The website is very easy to get around.We are currently enrolling our daughter in a community college in our town and the sign up on there website is not clear and the staff at the school are not very helpful. It makes me appreciate how nice of a school Penn Foster is. I have been in the medical field and work for a well known company in my town for 14 years, and with my program have learned so much. The program is helping me do things more accurately and also has shown me in areas I could improve with my professionalism. After I finish my program I had plans to in enroll in our community college here, but after the problems I have had with my daughter's sign and my good experience I have had with Penn Foster. I will enroll in the degree program with Penn Foster with no question.Read Less"