UMass Global Reviews of Master's in Psychology

"I am almost toward the end of my degree and Brandman is pulling all types of non sense. The one stop office at the Fairfield campus is great. However, other members are below mediocre and it should not be this difficult to finish up a degree. I am not fond of how one particular staff members handles things. I would not recommend that anyone go to this school because of how students are treated. On the up side, the Travis AFB office has great staff members!"

"I would not recommend attending this school. The Fairfield campus business center has a director that is bias and rude. She spends way too much time attempting to prove her point rather than listening. She is very argumentative. A lot of the other students feel the same way and we are ready to put Brandman behind us. The teachers are amazing but the Psychology director has an inflated grandiose personality and it is difficult to deal with. I am glad that it's over. Don't waste your time here... they are only concerned with the money."

"I attended this school because I have a state certified math disability and it would be nearly impossible for me to gain entry into my choice university. At times, I would literally plead for the school to act as if they support me (I am in the Marriage and Family Therapy graduate psychology program). As a student, (one of many examples) I would receive a syllabus with the wrong book listed then not have the correct book on time and have to return and order the correct one (only to have them refuse to change the syllabus for the next student) to save them this hassle---and many other errors--over and over again, I would attempt to get the problem corrected--only to have them remind me I was "free to leave the school" whenever I please. Even through I worked very hard and am a student with a 4.0 GPA, I have been treated very poorly at this school. During one 8 week session, we were at Week 6 and none of our work had been graded at all. We literally had no idea where we stood with this class.This was the only time my complaint actually registered--but why did I have to report this? Why wasn't the staff on top of this? By the time I was ready to enter my practicum as a trainee, I was given a list of places I could go to start therapy--and 90% of these were closed and the numbers disconnected. One practicum site was in Hawaii. When I tried to get this list rectified (which I am still fighting for) I was transferred to someone at the Lacey, Washington site (I go to the Santa Maria site) to a person who insisted "sometimes people might want to fly back and forth several times a week from Ca to Hawaii". Seriously? No--no student ever did that. But they would go through that amount of trouble---rather than change the list! It is so appalling---the whole experience---I just cannot wait to get out of this school. I am exhausted from the poor morale there, and feel that I was really "taken"."

"This is the worst college I have ever attended. They are the most disorganized organization I have seen that is supposed to provide people with an education. My first quarter was a joke. My first class was just 3 students and we spent the whole time watching movies, listening to the professor play music, or creating games. Throughout the whole program we never used our books to supplement information we were supposed to be learning in class, and we could actually go the whole quarter without needing them except for busy work assigned using them, i.e. writing down what we think are important sentences in a chapter. Nearly all of the classes were watching movies, playing games, listening to music, or people chit chatting about non-related topics; a huge waste of time. Anytime students tried to ask questions pertaining to course material they were told to read the book, look it up, or given a round about answer that did not answer the question. The professors were unwilling to perform their jobs and actually teach the students the material, let alone make sure they understood everything. When the director of the program was made aware of the issues she ignored it. Changes in program requirements were made on a regular basis and students were not updated. Regularly students would do something and be told that things had changed and/or there was a new form. Again. The director did not insure students were kept well informed and did nothing when complained to. Students are allowed to fall through the cracks at this university if they do not keep track of everything they need to do in order to complete their degree. They need to seriously interact with their advisor and the director on a daily basis to make sure all paperwork gets done and done correctly, that they used the current form, and there are no new policies, forms, laws, etc pertaining to them otherwise they will not find out until too much time has passed and nothing can be done. When students start giving up from frustration with the whole school, the school washes their hands of them and does not try to correct the situation and is more than willing to let them go with their degree unfinished, mostly because they've already gotten their money. They are supposed to be a non-profit university but that is a big lie based off of how much they're willing to take every penny, but not give what they say they will in return. You ask the professors, advisors, and director the same questions and get different answers. No one seems to be on the same page, nor know how things are supposed to be done. They also state they are geared towards working adults, but I had a professor tell me to quit my job because the school is more important. Again the director did nothing about that comment. The quality of their education is poor. I repeatedly told the professors I did not understand something and they reassured me I knew more than I thought as evidence by my near perfect grades. After advancement tests they came back to me and said they guess I was right. Well yes, I got good grades because I know how to find information in a book and repeat it, does not mean I understand it as I told them. This is a constant theme of the school. They messed up on paperwork giving me military pricing and I needed to call various people to get it resolved after they placed a hold on my account. Their final exam was also flawed in that people who answered a question the same way got different scores, one failed, one passed. They also stated one person did not attempt one field when they did. These are all reasons I'm choosing to have Chapman on my diploma versus Brandman, since I enrolled in a catalog year that gives me that choice."

"An absolutely horrible college experience. This is the community college of graduate school. Teachers are past retirement age and show very little interest in actually educating students."

"Allow me to begin by saying, how wonderful this small campus, on Fisherman's Wharf., in the City of Monterey. The students have an opportunity to interact with all academic personnel due to its size. Brandman University is the only academic institution in Monterey County that offers a graduate program in Psychology with two emphasis; Marriage and Family Therapist and Clinical Counseling. This is so beneficial careerwise since, it facilitates the pursuit of two different venues that are in demand based on Labor Market Research. Two of the cons are untimely financial aid disbursements and inferior network access to BalckBoard."

"This program and the people in it are very hands on."

"This school has very poor communication and financial aid services. You wait weeks to get a response and there is always an excuse. If it wasn't for the speedy degree program I would have left. They are horrible but you do learn some interesting things and the teachers for the most part are great."