Concordia University Chicago

In a nutshell, this school is deceitful…
I decided to go into the school counseling field for graduate school, which was a complete 180 from the Business degree I earned as an undergrad. I did my research to see which schools offered the program in the Chicagoland area. Not many schools do, so I didn’t have to do a whole lot of narrowing down. At the end of 2012, I contacted recruiters from 3 schools and finally decided to go with Concordia, mostly for financial reasons.
The recruiter from Concordia was friendly and guided me through every step of the way. I completed at least 10 pages worth of essay question answers and did other paperwork. The GRE was not required, which was nice, but also kind of fishy to me since the other schools I reached out to required it. Shortly thereafter, I received an acceptance letter! I started 2013 off as a first year Concordia grad student.
I spent one year in total at Concordia (5 classes). My professors were very knowledgeable and despite being at a religious institution, courses didn’t seem biased.
It wasn’t long after entering the program that I learned of Concordia losing their accreditation. A serious matter that was NEVER mentioned to me by my recruiter or by faculty prior to taking classes. It wasn’t until I began the school year that STUDENTS began questioning the professors about the loss, which is how it came to my attention. In fact, professors tried to dumb down the problem, stating it wasn’t a big deal and that schools hiring weren’t requiring the CACREP accreditation — WRONG! More and more schools ARE looking for counselors who come from accredited programs. Obviously, this was being told to students out of interest (no students = no job for professors). The incident was so serious that the cohort that was about to graduate just as the accreditation was lost is now SUING the school for tuition and loss of time. Something I believe each and every one of them is entitled to since they entered the program accredited and believed they would graduate from an accredited program.
Somehow, I was the ONLY person in my cohort that was alarmed by this notion and decided almost right away that it was time to transfer elsewhere for the remainder of my Masters. I’m still bitter about the fact that no one was honest with me about this from the beginning.
After I completed that year, I took the GRE and was accepted into an accredited school. No more paying private school tuition for a non-​accredited program. Fuck that noise. Completing necessary paperwork and taking time to study for the GRE made me lose a semester that could have been spent in the classroom, learning.
Thankfully, the school I’m at now allowed me to transfer 3 of my 5 classes, so it wasn’t a total loss. And I do miss my cohort — they were all wonderful people and I hope they don’t run into an issues when it’s time to find a job (although, chances are they that will, but almost all of them had teaching degrees to fall back on).
Concordia recruiters need to be more HONEST when it comes to their programs. Stop leading people in blindingly. Beware!

Went there later in life. got 2 degrees. But if I were to have gone there when I was young. forget it. Its a church school and rather boring if you are looking for fun.

Don’t waste your money and your time. I found the experience and the institution to be very unorganized and dishonest. They do not care about good customer service and they are very impersonal. They only want your money. I cannot imagine I would receive a quality education from such an institution. The following is why I feel this way.
I applied to two programs for my graduate degree, Concordia and another university. I wanted more information from Concordia, so I tried to ask the admissions person I had been dealing with. She was not very knowledgable or helpful. She wouldn’t address all of the questions I asked in her email responses. I asked pretty clear and direct questions. Then I asked if I could make an appointment on campus to ask more questions in person, since I wasn’t satisfied with the email responses. I was hoping to meet with the director of the program or a faculty member. Her response was that she could meet with me. I was hoping maybe she would be better at answering my questions in person, so I agreed to meet with her. Instead, long story short, I had to sit through a useless presentation about a graduate program, different from the one I applied for, in order to even get a chance to speak with her. It was a waste of my time and my night. Then when I was able to speak with her it was very rushed and I didn’t learn more about the program. Having me sit through the presentation was obviously a ploy to get another person there because there were only 3 other people besides myself. I left feeling frustrated and annoyed. After that experience I wasn’t really too interested in talking to anyone else at Concordia. I had pretty much made up my mind to go with the other program.
However, the frustration did not end there. I received an acceptance letter in writing from the other university and I decided to accept to their program. In the meantime, I did not receive any notification from Concordia that I was accepted. I was waiting for the letter and then I was going to call to tell Concordia that I decided to go to a different graduate program. It never came, but what did come instead was a bill for my tuition for the spring semester from Concordia! Seriously?! I called them and said that I am not attending and they cannot enroll me in classes without notifying me of my acceptance to the program and without my consent! They were very rude on the phone and lied to me, insisting I was notified in writing of my acceptance. I said well if that is true, email/​fax me a copy of the letter you sent right now. They could not produce a letter. I never heard of this before, having dealt with several universities in the past when applying for my undergraduate degree. I have a right to choose whether or not I go to a program once I am accepted and also to choose my own classes. They claimed there was a box I checked on the application that allowed them to do this. I never saw any such box. Then they told me it was a good thing I called now because if I had waited until January to «de-​enroll» they would have sent bill collectors after me. What!!! Don’t waste your time and money on this place!

So, CONcordia, how do I begin? Overall, I would not suggest this school to any person that has a busy schedule, is working and going to school, and cannot figure the whole administrative process of this school on their own.
I went to school here to get my MA in Teaching and I will tell you that it has been a nightmare since the first day I set foot in the building for my cohort. When I started at the school I was part of a cohort that met about 5 miles away from my workplace when I was previously told that I would only have to travel three miles. Ok, I’m a pretty easy-​going, «go with the flow» kind of guy so whatever – I stuck with it.
Once, I got into the building for my cohort I noticed that the building was extremely unkempt and in bad need of repair. The principal of the school was also a custodial worker. I began to question why I was paying so much money for such a dilapidated and disheveled looking building. I figured I could look past that too – you know «can’t judge a book» and all that stuff. I really was turned off, however, when I came to class at my cohort building one day and noticed a distinct and very present smell of gas. Yep, that’s right, the building had to be closed because there was a gas main leak in the building.
So at this point I’m asking my instructor if they are going to move us to another building because this facility obviously was not going to cut it. He said that the university had not given him any indication that we were to move and we remained in that building until the school closed the next year.
Now, if someone were to tell me that I would be taking master’s classes but they had to be in these somewhat unkempt buildings I would be okay with it but the fun didn’t end there. The instruction at many times was extremely lackluster and completely simplistic. I would many times miss several classes and still get A’s in all my classes. I was bored and I really got tired of the lecture approach that is so common in higher education.
Many times I would find myself questioning the motives of the instructors that taught my classes – were they there for the extra paycheck or did they really care about the education of teachers passionate about teaching in an urban setting? One of my instructors spent most of the time using the class as her personal soap box whereby she would constantly rant about the happenings of her day at the elementary school that she worked at. I will tell you that I found that class rather entertaining but, once again, there was no challenge to her curriculum and her class was a complete j-​o-​k-​e.
Some instructors weren’t as bold in displaying their lack of instructional experience but when I would correct them regarding reading strategies appropriate for elementary students (that were in our textbook), I knew something was wrong.
What completely rounds off my experience with CONcordia University is the complete lack of administrative organization. Many times I was the one making several calls and follow-​up calls regarding financial aid, student records, and the like. Every time I called it was always the same thing – several different answers from different people regarding the same question, workers not following through, advisors not calling me back, and the list goes on.
Now I understand that I am ultimately responsible for keeping my house in order but at the same time shouldn’t the university be responsible for answering my questions in a consistent manner? Shouldn’t the university be responsible for clearly outlining the responsibilities of the student? Many times I would have to go into the university to actually get something done. Phone calls never worked for me, nor them.
So, if you have all the time in the world to run around playing catch up to the CONcordia Adminstrative Riddle Game, are looking for a pedistrian curriculum, and wouldn’t mind being treated as a means to an end for the pocket books of the faculty at large, feel free to attend this university.

Super nasty place, very non-​Christian acting people here.
Concordia University really is a fake institution that hires only Lutherans and discriminates against other Christian denominations — how Christian does that sound? Thank you for creating such a nasty culture and environment!
Oh and one more thing: very little learning goes on here, especially when the school is out by early April, seriously? Get real.

Well, I’m back at Concordia for another MA cohort (Reading and Literacy/​Type 10) after Lewis U didn’t have enough students to complete their promise of a cohort in the area.
Some of the original «downsides» from my previous review remain: some professors really aren’t great teachers, and as a result the learning isn’t what it should have been.
The professor for my first two classes is a reading specialist (elementary), she really struggled to explain what she expected as far as process and product of assignments and assessments. One of the biggest struggles half of my class had was that she could not differentiate her instruction well and offer examples that translated to the upper grades (middle and high school). I asked more than 4 times if she had a certain type of resource/​reference material, and she told me no such thing existed; later, a classmate provided me with the reference material I was searching for. THEN the professor provided the entire class with the reference materials I had originally been asking for. She also did not know her syllabus well, and when questioned about some things, indicated that it was not a syllabus she created herself.
In contrast, the professor from my third (last) class was phenomenal: she was very knowledgeable and always walked us through (unsolicited) what she expected as far as process and product. She was also a tough grader, which I appreciated; I want to be assessed accurately, not just given an «A» because I’m in a graduate program and/​or the professor is overwhelmed by the amount of assignments and therefore resorts to slapping an «A» on everything. I felt the assignments from the third professor were meaningful, and the final product she assigned is something that will be useful.
It seems turnover rate for personnel is higher than I expected; in my current cohort we were already given a new faculty advisor less than two classes in after our first one seemed to drop off the face of the earth (didn’t show up for an appointment she made with us before a cohort session). This happened in my first cohort, too.
The biggest perks are the location (convenience) and the tuition is affordable. There is no GRE requirement like some competing universities in the area. I do like the fact that you get to know your peers in the cohort setting; even when the professor isn’t great, there’s comfort in knowing others share your pain.
I start another class tonight; it remains to be seen if this review can maintain 4 stars.

Looking back at my grad school experience — not so bad as my last review. Classes were pretty easy, and I actually did learn a lot. They finally have some good professors in there, and I think they have the cohorts figured out (it was a scheduling mess when they started them in 07). The employees in the registrar’s office have definitely improved, and have been very easy to work with in getting my license and certification paperwork done.

…(counting down the months when this is over)…the financial department is insane… nobody explains anything or helps you. but they bring up and create multiple problems for you… frustrating

Age and becoming a dad has mellowed me. Concordia was a great place to learn, its in a beautiful neighborhood that is very safe. Also, you have great access to your professors. I’ve also made numerous life-​long friends there.

Good School, In River Forest, a Chicago suburb.