South University reviews

2.9

34% would recommend to a friend

(441 total reviews)

Steven Yoho

47% approve of CEO

24% positive business outlook

South University has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 441 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The South University employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

441 reviews
2.0
Aug 7, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is good Decent benefits (but at least in my area it was tricky finding drs that accept my insurance) Good job if you like being in sales without worrying about relying on commissions

Cons

Like the title says, this is a sales job. If I would have know that before I started I wouldn’t have accepted/applied for the job. The leads are plentiful but a majority of the leads are not good, and a good portion of them think that the call is for a job (and not for school). Regardless of whether they want to go to school or not you are expected to push the idea of going to school to them. Also even if they are interested in going to school you are expected to push one of the school’s limited programs, even if you know it probably will not ultimately help them with their desired career (like if someone wants to get into engineering push IT program, if someone wants to be a doctor…push our general medical associates degree program, if you are not sure of the closest fit then push for business). Sure if they kept saying no you can drop the subject, but I doesn’t feel great to push it in the first place. Once you do get a student you are expected to call them every other day or every few days even if you don’t need anything else from them. And if they didn’t complete something yet you are expected to call them at least once (preferably twice) a day until they complete that task. Each month you are required to get so many students, and at times it could be very difficult. And when you don’t hit your goal or might not (depending on your manager) they will start to micromanage you. You also can get in trouble for making a mistake when reading info to the student that has to be read word for word. Like if you mistakenly miss a word (like “the”) you can get an infraction even if you go back and read it again with the word you missed.

1.0
Feb 8, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Learned about industry standards such as regulatory compliance in the admissions realm.

Cons

Almost everything. Company uses terrible recruiting tactics even after the whistle-blower lawsuit. Does not care about students at all. Will drag any student through the enrollment process whether it would benefit them or not. Tries to put them in programs that will get them nowhere and probably won't even have enough financial aid to cover the entire degree program. Students have no support after their first class- academic counselors have 400-500 students if not more to keep track of. Upper management will scream at your admissions manager right in front of you. Turnover of management and admissions is very high.

1.0
Jan 21, 2016

Online Division

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You actually get to talk to great people every day and be a part of their hopes and dreams. Some of the employees and former-employees have been really wonderful.

Cons

There is really no functional business model except bringing in more students however you can. Those admissions members who are better at this get away with anything they want. There are current employees who aren't in management positions but have had experience and have ideas on how to better student retention, build employee atmosphere, and actually lead and inspire but management could care less. They get some lip service paid, but nothing comes of it. It is a field that is both Academic and Admission-based, which is actually sales, but focus is mainly on sales. The academic team is severely overworked, short-staffed, and underpaid. Management has no idea what the academic team actually does, because they were promoted from admissions. And, they show no sign of actually want to learn. There is no leadership-team interaction, only mandates. In fact, the only time one really hears from a manager is when you do not perform, or when there is a compliance issue that needs to be fulfilled. There is a lot of talk about South University being a 'student-centered' institution, but their notion of student-centered is overpromising and creating expectations in order to admit a warm body to the university. The rest is an academic counselor or manager attempting to downplay expectations, telling them what's really going to happen, and handling escalated calls. There is really nothing academic about it. Just a lot of listening, patronizing, and putting out fires.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 441 Reviews

Glassdoor has 465 South University reviews submitted anonymously by South University employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if South University is right for you.