Pros
Few excellent faculty who gave great online instruction and can deliver an exceptional performance (20% in my department were legit) - Flexibility regarding time and mobility in online education – and that's about it
Cons
Very incompetent directors steal the show (aka 'riding the legacy train') and then abruptly leave JHU right in the middle of semesters - Faculty used to be open and more transparent to the student but now it feels very distant, even in their teaching practices, and this is already a remote program - Extremely flimsy MS degrees granted from a large named university (its definitely not a positive in industry and it can cause irreversible damage to your resume), the coursework is much lighter than it should be - No pressure applied by faculty but there is definitely dysfunction on JHU's end applied to an online graduate student - Some of the courses are downright subpar, even below community college level, and should be replaced - These same courses are taught by either very weak or very strong researchers who don't seem to like teaching but only enjoy taking the glory of adding JHU Faculty to their CV Most AAP programs have little entrance standards so your classmates are a very wide, unpredictable mixture from the super incompetent and clueless student to the exceptionally talented student, which hurts the talented folks because the mess is dragged into the program - The programs demonstrate a let anyone in the door attitude and it reflects in the student body, the poor performance and laziness of several students, it tampers with the seriousness of better quality, motivated students, and this large overlap will eventually tarnish AAP's reputation if left in place - Students range from the MDs at a private medical practice, to the gasoline attendant at your local block, to active Assistant & Associate Professors, to the international students living in other countries who find AAP programs too easy and leave, to highly experienced Project Managers in major US corporations, and to the guy who cuts the lawns of those same US corporations each week (it really doesn't matter folks, AAP will take them all) - To me, the admission standards at AAP seems like: 'if you have money to burn, come join us because we will easily ignite it for you, with very miniscule benefit to you in return' - horrible, damaging, and completely unacceptable to students/professionals at all levels Incredibly high turnover in faculty members that are not announced (anymore) – this leads to a "cheap educational" feeling from students who are spending hard earned money on education that is driven by most faculty whom do not take AAP serious enough and then run off with a JHU Faculty Member line item on their resume - I noticed several students transferring from one AAP program to the next AAP program, just in search for a better education - Thanks to JHU AAP, the final transcript has almost half-dozen different names under 'Advisor' because the previous people left the university over a short period of time - Now the graduates are viewed as indecisive, unstable, and unpredictable in regards to working under approved faculty, which is entirely not the case but it sure looks like it to outside companies, trust me Do not interact with the IT department here – very poor quality people and even higher turnover, they pretend to help you and then report back bloated responses - Managers are immature, unprofessional and dirty - Engineers will just point out obvious problems, bicker and complain but they won't actually solve them - You are better off going to a close friend who works in the IT industry for legitimate, honest technical assistance because AAP's IT is a disgrace to the system The coursework is entirely variable – its almost as if the faculty never talk to each other when building up courses in the programs - There is no cohesion between courses and no pattern to follow, as you are left with taking random courses per term - Its a large drawback for this method of education so be smart, stay away, and do not waste your money in online education here
