CUNY School of Professional Studies

Reading through some of these reviews about CUNY School of Professional Studies leaves me with mixed emotions. I graduated from CUNY SPS in August of 2012 and I had a great experience in my courses.
At CUNY SPS all instructors, at least online, actively participate within the discussion boards and makes sure that the students are getting the most out of the subject content. There is a perception that online courses are easy and that’s not the case. You have to work exceptionally hard online to accomplish your degree objectives. There are few opportunities to miss a course. In brick and mortar institutions when weather conditions force school closures CUNY SPS is open and you will still log on to and attend your course as scheduled.
In online courses you complete more assignments, write more papers, participate in more group discussions, and in some courses you will be required to engage in social media and second life activities. What you learn in an online Bachelors Program at CUNY SPS will prepare you for graduate school. In fact after I completed my education in CUNY I immediately enrolled in Graduate School at Stony Brook University and completed my Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies degree requirements in only 3 semesters.
Let’s be human for a moment here…
I had a few issues at CUNY SPS but I worked them out with the appropriate department. But overall my experience at CUNY SPS was great! If you rate a school one star it’s probably fair to rate your performance at one star. This is a situation where you can’t fault the institution for the performance of self or the interaction with a professor. I remember at our graduation a candidate spoke and said that he believed his writing assessment was the best but ended up requiring him to enroll in remedial courses. Sometimes you have to have corrective feedback in order to improve. Instead of quitting, as many do, you have to accept it and move on. You have a goal to accomplish – Graduation.
You have to put in the effort, complete the assignments, participate in projects and discussions, and succeed. At the end of the day administration does not matter neither do the professors, no matter how horrible (yes, I had two), YOU have to manage your success in the course. Sometimes you may have absolutely no idea what direction the professor is taking the course but in those situations I succeeded by following the course syllabus closely and monitoring change. There will be times the professor will confuse you but you have to communicate that confusion clearly in the forums and you will receive help.
CUNY SPS is not set up to fail you and the proof is in the growing number of annual graduation candidates. I would like to challenge you, if you are thinking about enrolling, leaving CUNY SPS or have left, to re-​enroll (or register) and prosper. Keep going and finish. After you complete your degree then you can look back over all of the obstacles that you have overcome and in that moment you will both understand and appreciate the struggle. If the will to overcome obstacles is in within you then you will have difficulty succeeding at any University.

I was conditionally accepted to the MS Data Analytics program. I was impressed and gladdened by the straight-​forward yet kindly feedback. They are serious and believe in what they do. Am looking forward to learning, and earning my stripes here.

When it comes to going to school 100% online and balancing work/​life– CUNY SPS is your best bet– The professors are (for lack of a better word) awesome and extremely helpful– your fellow students are adults that are there to learn and are very supportive.
5 stars as far as I’m concerned.

The bachelor’s program deserves 5 stars, loved my counselor and professors. I finished my Bachelor’s in Business with honors. The problem began when I tried to apply to their master’s program. First, the counselor I was referred to forgot about me for almost a month I waited for a response to my email. Then after contacting her again I finally received a reply, within a few hours, telling me I had to retake classes I had taken less than 1.5 years ago for my bachelor’s to become eligible. Why the hell would I pay and waste my time to retake classes I did well on the first time around. It seems she was way too busy to look at my transcript like she promised to do. So sad, will be looking into another school to pursue my master’s degree.

After taking a break from my first college experience, I decided to go back and finish my degree. Just graduated Magna Cum Laude with my BS in Business from CUNY SPS, and I had a great experience.
First of all, I want to address something that some of the negative reviews mentioned. CUNY SPS is VERY flexible. Yes it’s online, and it’s not meant to be easy — it’s meant to be flexible. I was able to graduate with honors taking 12 credits per semester and holding down a 9 – 5 job. The work in some cases is more than classroom work, because you’re doing more yourself without a professor holding your hand. I have had experiences with professors who were incredibly responsive and helpful, and some who were more hands off and told me to find answers in the resources myself. This is true for any educational institution, and online is no different.
I have had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented and smart classmates and professors. I also hope that I have contributed the same to the experiences of others. Yes, there were a handful of slackers too, but that’s academia everywhere.
The bottom line is that the coursework was challenging, but the real benefit of SPS was my ability to do it on my time. I am glad it was challenging, because I hope that the people who come out of SPS are all successful, and that the school builds a reputation of churning out some top-​notch students.

I’ve just completed my B.S. in Business at SPS, after 15 years in college and 3 other CUNY schools on my transcript. It is most definitely hit or miss.
I’ve had some terrible professors and some wonderful ones. What I find overall is that the majority of the professors are working full-​time elsewhere and doing SPS on the side, and so SPS students get some leftover scraps of time and energy from them instead of fully attentive professors. I’ve had too many professors here who are unresponsive and don’t respond to emails. In an Online program that is simply UNACCEPTABLE. That is our only method of communication much of the time and so it is extremely frustrating. The administration tries to resolve these issues when they arise but it takes time and energy, and by the time one issue is resolved a few weeks have passed and you are likely now behind.
I also have strong issues with the fact that some of the courses were 100% run on WileyPlus. WileyPlus is a separate website that you have to pay and register with to get access to the online textbook and the quizzes. As a tool I think WP is great and helpful, but every single time I had a course with WP the professors were 100% unresponsive and absent. That means that not only are we paying CUNY SPS for the course and the professors, but we’re paying WP and we’re not getting ANY instruction. No lecture notes, no Discussion Boards, no responses to emails at all. The only thing the professor does is take the grades WP generates and plugs them into Blackboard and send them to SPS.
Administration needs to research professors a bit better. I found some horrible reviews on some of these bad professors that had the hiring folks seen they might have known to avoid them.
But it wasn’t all bad. As a online program it is extremely convenient and it is a reputable school being a part of CUNY. I’m not sure I’d ever do Phoenix because it has negative stigma but CUNY is a system that is known and trusted. I had some fantastic professors that were involved and attentive. I’ve had some classes that blew my mind like Green Business. In the end, I decided to stay for my MS here despite the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ odds of having a terrible professor, because in the end it is extremely convenient.

Hate CUNY with as passion but the counselors at the CUNY greet center are pretty dope. Very informative.

The online degree program is chock full of incompetent instructors and the administration as I had stated in an earlier review do very little to address major problems. I’ve completed course work in a classroom setting and online and the CUNY online professors assign between 30 to 40% MORE work! This is absurd because the CUNY School of Professional Studies is presumably geared toward students who work while taking online classes. My advice: try the SUNY online degree programs that are rated highly by previous graduates.

I’ve visited CUNY several times for various conferences and business meetings. It has a grand securitized lobby — but the rest of the building is really just a regular building. This building is centrally located and I’m so very jealous of grad students who get to study in manhattan.

I have nothing but great things to say about this school. I took a variety of classes to complete my Bachelor’s in Business and was lucky enough to meet some wonderful teachers with real world experience in their respective fields.
One word of warning — please don’t think that because a class is online, it will be easier. Generally, the workload is equal if not greater than what you would encounter in traditional classrooms.
But if you are dedicated and committed, this might be a great solution for taking your degree.

Well, after 25 years I started back to school to finish a degree I never found was needed in the past but now IS. Yikes Unilocal!
I loved the ease of enrolling — save for the blasted transcript BS (I lost some credits due to shelf-​life!)
I adored my instructor Prof. Suzanne LaFont in my Urban Anthropology course. She has her act together and the class was utterly fascinating with great participation from all the really interesting students. I highly recommend her and her classes. I will look for more from her in future.
HOWEVER…
I would warn potential students to avoid taking a course from Dr. Joe Pascarella –aka Dr. Joe. i was dubious when I saw he gave himself a moniker such as that. I would have given him Dr. No-​Show, Dr. No Know, Dr. Bo-​ring, Dr. All Who Enter this Class Give Up All Hopes of Learning.
After MANY letters to the administration from me and fellow classmates regarding the poor performance from this instructor i decided to take matters into my own hands and make a comment here.
There are plenty of other instructors whom I would suppose are better so look for them. I am sure this one is well educated and maybe even thinks himself dedicated but I wasn’t impressed and frankly so irritated by him from week one through week 14. This is one man’s opinion.
OK…the subject matter may be a bit dry — Research Methods — and I DID learn something despite him and his ‘methods’. But I would say AVOID. You will save money by not buying an expensive text that was hardly used. You will save more money by not buying the book his syllabus stated was to be used only to find he changed the syllabus AFTER you bought the book! (60 bucks!!).
My experience at CUNY SPS I am sure will be better in future but why waste your time and money on this instructor… right?

I ended up here after some stints at some other CUNY schools, and ultimately I stuck around long enough to earn my B.A. and take some graduate classes. Overall, the school is great and the programs are pretty diverse. You can’t beat the tuition either! I had nothing but positive experiences with my professors and the school’s administration. I would totally recommend the school to anyone who wants/​needs to finish up their degree — the online classes can’t be beat!

I took a break in between High School and College that ended up lasting 5 years. When I joined SPS, I felt right back at home. I was always a decent student, but one thing that SPS helped me realize is that the teachers are there to help me, and that they want me to succeed. Within two semesters I was on the Deans List with a 3.8 GPA.
The teachers at SPS are all warm and understand the specific issues that students learning online deal with. They know students at SPS have lives outside of it that include kids, a job etc. and they work with you.
I recommend SPS to anyone looking to finish their degree!