gcu.edu

Not Student Friendly - Definitely All Profit

The communication is terrible at this school.My daughter was just told that her financial aid situation changed, but it's already 3 weeks into the semester so now we are stuck paying $4K extra if she stays in school, she can't go online to save $$ because they notified her after the cutoff dates for that and getting a refund if you drop all classes.I think they purposely notified her late so we couldn't get either option. This school is a total scam system and I do not recommend it. Communication has been pretty poor from day one, but my daughter really wanted to go, so we gave it a shot. I can't recommend them based on any of her experience so far. She's only in her second semester and already hates being there because of the various issues.We tried talking to the school and even a manager in charge, but they are not budging on "school policy" despite the fact that the notification of a change in her financial status did not come until the 3rd week of school. Many of the questions we asked were ignored and not addressed when the counselors/advisors replied. We instead got many canned answers straight from some script they must have on their desk. This seemed hugely impersonal and dismissive, which made my impression of the school even worse than the original offense. There were lots of emails and discussions the past week, which resulted in the school basically hanging us out to dry because of their poor communication of my daughter's status. Everyone is very unprofessional and have a double standard for "timeliness" for students vs GCU staff.If the school had notified us during the past 6 weeks of BREAK that my daughter had been on for winter, then we would have made arrangements prior to the new semester starting. Notifying us 3 weeks in is completely unacceptable.In addition, they also changed her class schedule without notifying her based on her new status. So THEY were able to make changes without her consent, but she can't request changes. The entire thing is complete mis-management and puts students at a disadvantage for learning because of poor administration. I highly recommend seeking a different school if you have any sort of financial aid or work study that is needed for your college. If you are paying completely out of pocket because you have the funding for college through your own saved up college fund or something, you should be fine because you are rich. Anyone else, go to a more student friendly school that actually cares about the success and well-being of students. My daughter has an ESA on campus because of a documented mental health condition - this whole situation has made her exponentially worse and she's called me bawling and unable to even speak multiple times over just the past week. As a parent who is NOT local and it would take me 6-7 hours to drive to my daughter, this is also very distressing to ME. To have my daughter on the phone sobbing and having to text what's going on because she's so distressed she can't talk between the sobs - the school is doing something wrong. Every college I went to the staff and faculty were helpful, cared, and explained what they COULD do for me when anything went awry. This school's sentiment seems to be "not our problem" - even when it very much IS their problem they caused.Other side points on the campus life: - Looks nice on outside, shabby interior. Living spaces are very dirty and not maintained. On multiple days while visiting my daughter the public toilet on her floor was clogged to overflow with urine and feces. The floors are completely filthy all the time.- There are only 2 washers and dryers per floor, so you have 100+ students trying to get laundry done with minimal machines to do so.- Windows only open 2-4 inches which does not allow for proper ventilation of rooms, so they smell most of the time.- No one is monitoring who comes and goes from any building, so there are lots of people bringing significant others into their rooms for "private time". - Driving on campus is dangerous because of the number of students on scooters who do not watch for cars, they simply cut everyone off and come flying out of nowhere. - The gate hours are subject to change without notice, so you are half guessing which gate you can get on/off campus through at any given time.- Your student will have to meet you at a gate to get you on campus if you are visiting because there are no passes or ID's for family members. That can be a pretty long walk depending on where they are housed.- Surrounding area is very run down and I do not recommend leaving campus on foot or alone. There are a lot of homeless and people wandering around on drugs. Stay in the walls unless you can drive.

Date of experience: Jan 29, 2026