UC San Diego Extended Studies - La Jolla

I took Microbiology with Lab 169818 at UC San Diego and it was the most disorganized experience.

Lessons are everywhere. Not organized at all. Mixed up and repeated information the learning sections. The videos provided for learning are not the teacher speaking and are random people/"professors" but some of them can't even pronounce the words and sound like they have NO CLUE what they are talking about. It's quite confusing what you really need to know for the class because the modules say one thing but the PowerPoints, reading, and videos talk about that plus way more. It's very much so an overload. It's like no one took the time to perfect or even proofread this class setup and modules.

Science lab kit is way overpriced for what you get. Like really for $450 you couldn't add 2 paper clips, alcohol, extra masks, more candles, extra Petri dishes with agar, and extra microbes (for any errors). We are not experts here and being left alone to do the labs especially at the beginning is trial and error. For me I accidentally punctured the agar with the loop and ruined my whole sample and it was just shit out of luck unless I wanted to buy more myself (only about $10 but I just paid $450 for this kit so why should I have to do that?). Not everything in the kit was used. It was a huge waste of money.

The class is kind of "at your own pace" so you could totally finish early and wing it! I guess if you have the money and don't really want to learn but just need the class- go for it. I would never recommend this class or school to anyone. It was a terrible experience and this is coming from someone who already has a degree and has taken MANY online classes.

I took human anatomy through UCSD Extension this summer. It was the biggest waste of time and money that I've ever willingly participated in.

The assignments were cookie cutter, repetitive, and the style of learning so independent it was of no value. The regents in my lab kit didn't work? I couldn't get any immediate feedback on the project. I would have to stop, send an email and wait for a full day for a response. It interrupted work flow.

In live classes I've taken at my local university, for subjects such as organic chemistry, there was always a TA or professor around to advise you. When we'd have long waits for chemicals to boil during lab, they'd basically give supplemental instruction lectures. It made an extremely difficult class much easier to digest. At UCSD extension, there was an incredible lack of hands on learning. They did have us buy a lab kit but it was a joke. Most of the experiments in the lab kit were 5th grade level. Building a model of a lung and diaphram out of a soda bottle with a balloon, that sort of thing.

Here's a link to the exact kind of experiment I'm referring to, for your visualization. It's recommended for grades 5 to 7!

https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/build-own-lungs/

Even more than being overly simplified and dumbed down, the science kit cost an extra $317.65. The textbook for the class was $82.14. The class itself cost $945.00. Total costs for this class were $1,344.79.

At UNLV they charge $256.00 per undergraduate credit. I don't remember what their lab fees cost, but I know it didn't give me sticker shock. Even the difference in price is astounding - the class at UNLV is 27% of what the UCSD Extension program charges.

In conclusion: Human Anatomy with Lab at this school is over-priced, low quality, and a waste of anyone's time.

Go online and work off Khan Academy, Udemy, or Coursera. They're much higher quality than this. I'm in my final week of the anatomy class, and I wish I could demand a refund and report them to the Better Business Bureau for misrepresenting the quality of their program. Normally, I'm not this dramatic. But $1,344.79 is a lot of money to waste and I don't want someone else to have an experience like mine.

DON'T take anything from UCSD Extension!!!

Reviewing the online asynchronous course offering esp. in regards to Electrical Engineering.
The price of a typical course is much less than what you get get from a live interactive lecture style course and that is precisely what you will get.
Most lectures are outdated slide shows with the lecturer just blabbing about the concept, no blackboard type sessions at all.

I personally believe teaching engineering, esp. electrical engineering without explaining the concepts properly is a joke.
They will give just one week to ask for a full refund and honestly if you have taken any Engineering class you know the ball ain't starting to roll on day 1. So you are locked in the deal before you can judge it.

I have two suggestions; increase the price of courses because you won't implement the second one without it and secondly get some better material and some decent learning experience. Reading of a power point or some script is not explaining. And 2 months is not enough to learn any Engineering subject properly, go for a full semester....

In conclusion if you getting into any online synchronous class, specially for programming language, go for it (I took LabVIEW and it was great!) but online asynchronous ones are a gamble and it can be a really bad bet...

I have taken two classes in the Machine Learning Methods program. I think it's been a terrific learning experience. We cover a lot of material fast. I am an experienced software engineer adding new skills to my skill set and these classes are great. Mine have been truly packed with material and I've had to work very hard to keep up but I have been really getting a lot out of it. If you don't have a strong technical background these classes may not be for you. The classes I have taken have been quite mathematical (statistics, probability, linear algebra). Great stuff.

I have taken 2 classes (math related) and have to say I was extremely disappointed. The professors were nice and the activities were instructive but the lectures themselves were absolutely useless. Just someone reading definitions and jargon directly from the slides. Zero effort spent on trying to convey any understanding. The only thing the slides were good for was to know what to Google for...

I definitely expected much more from UCSD. Especially considering that higher quality content can be found online for free.

I have to take 1 more class and hopefully that one will be different. At this point will definitely NOT recommend.

So weird, this review spontaneously disappeared - twice! Not liking it much, Yelp? How many of these are being removed?

Sadly, I too fell for the UCSD-Extension pitch for a data science and visualization bootcamp and now feel scammed out of $12K for a mediocre program NOT ran by USCD that in the end, will not teach me much if anything.

The first time I saw the advertisement was on LinkedIn and, since it claimed to be affiliated with UCSD, I requested more information. I was called by a sales person, who was friendly and not unreasonable. He informed me no experience was necessary and once you pass a test of a couple of pretty silly questions with answers that anybody can very easily get from the internet (advised to do so), I was informed I was "selected" as a student. Now, fork over $12+K and get ready for the hell-ride of your life. By the way: you can sign up for 1 or 2 year payment programs, but be forewarned that once you signed your life away here, you will not get your non-graded certificate of completion until you have paid in full so yes: this is 18 months AFTER you completed the "program".

The program is NOT run by UCSD professors, but facilitated by some outfit called Trilogy. It's in the small print, easy to miss which surely is intentional. For me the exorbitant cost somehow added to the credibility. Classes consist of virtually reading through code at super-high speeds and unless you DO have programming and mathematical background, it is near impossible to follow any of it. It is beyond me how, to be admitted to any university you have to meet certain standards, but for this, anybody is game - as long as you pay. The instructors are nice enough, but I for one signed up to learn something and what I'm learning is that I was a naïve fool to fall for the sales-pitch and thinking that UCSD was reputable and ethical.

UCSD and many more supposedly reputable universities are lending their good name to this scam and I'm sure it's legal and a good moneymaker for them - but ethical? Not in my opinion. Please don't make the same mistake I made. PLEASE do your research and know what you're getting into. Especially in this COVID-time, where our judgment could be a bit blurred with our careers and options limited or on hold, making us that much more vulnerable.

Something is not right with the Extension program. It is clearly not UCSD and I am not sure why it has UCSD in its name. Its obviously some sort of pet project run by someone else. It is not taught by UCSD professors from what I can tell, and they literally let anyone in, degree, no degree, etc. I know that they give out visas so it might be a simple visa mill.

The 1st thing they do when you call give you a sales pitch... that alone should be reason to run away. I asked how much tuition was (more than once) and I literally had to wait 20 minutes to get reply as the counselor on the phone recited all "the value I would receive" by attending. I almost felt embarrassed for UCSD graduates to be tied to this trash. If this was a reputable program, there would be no reason to do any of that. It did not sound like they wanted to teach me or help me, they just wanted $10k for a 6 month program that offers nothing in return but a "chance" to meet an employer.

Shut this program down or call it something else. It is dragging down the UCSD reputation and name.

Took three semesters of Spanish here, Spanish 2,3, and half of 4. I had to quit in Spanish 4 because of issues with the software, McGraw Hill Connect. UCSD doesn't teach foreign languages effectively. In my view, their foreign language curriculum, and the policies for attending classes at Extension, SUCK. Look elsewhere. There's a reason Extension doesn't come up on the first, second or third page when you look up Spanish language instruction, French language instruction, etc.

The teachers themselves aren't bad. Carmen is top notch. She overcompensates, and this made up for the terrible software problems. The other teachers seem less than happy to be there. The other teachers showed up late (for Spanish 2 and 4, they were late to almost every class, while all the students would be there waiting.)

My Spanish 4 teacher didn't reply to my emails or issues in a manner timely enough to be aware of my conflicts or issues. I couldn't get my homework done because of the tech problems and lack of help in resolving basic things, like password and registration issues! So while entertaining, both Spanish 2 and 4 teachers were below University grade of quality, which is why I paid so much to attend this program in the first place.

Speaking of payments, don't expect to be able to drop a class and retake it later if you get sick or someone dies while you're in a class there. You have to take the next one available, and if you can't, tough titty said the kitty. You're out $300 when you count the software cost. And, if they don't have enough students to take that next class? Why, they have no problem saying, 'sorry, I know you paid, but we won't make a profit, tough titty said the kitty, you can take it next semester'.

UC Extension: It's all about the money, honey.

Take your wallet and your mind and your bright desire to learn somewhere where all three won't get trashed.

I just finished my first course (Elements of Marketing) with Michael Baehr as a part of my Business Management Certificate Program.

I have been directing business and marketing programs for about six years now, and I have to admit, I truly learned a lot from this class. Michael was very knowledgeable, humble, proactive, and friendly. He would always encourage students to contact him by email throughout the week with their questions. That's on top of the fact that he would always welcome questions and offer feedback before and after class.

All class slides were prepared and detailed and would become available as soon as the class was ended Study Guides definitely helped. The book selected was definitely brilliant. Michael also gave us personalized recommendations on our real-world marketing efforts, books, etc. The classroom was always clean and equipment worked just fine.

The fact that you couldn't buy a parking permit from the extension student services is definitely annoying and strange. The lights outside the classrooms were off a couple of times, which made it kinda creepy.

Overall, I'm very excited for my next class, Business Accounting, and I will try to update this review at least once every semester.

I took the Gre prep course and it was great. They teach you stuff you don't really think about. It was honestly worth the 500 bucks. Would recommend over Kaplan and SDSU Course.