Golden Gate University

This review is based strictly on my opinion as a visitor.
I work in the next building and my friend goes here which prompted me to visit. I thought it was an interesting experience since this was the first university I’ve been to in San Francisco. The building was well-​maintained and it wasn’t crowded at all. The elevators we’re pretty fast and this university has a pretty nice view.
From what my friend told me, he would rate this university a ⁵⁄₅ and I trust his feedback.

I suck at math and asked for help and no one seems to be able to help me not even the tutors which are other students. I took the humanities class which I thought I would love because everywhere else I have taken those classes I really enjoyed them but not this one. I don’t get that class at all I was told I need to keep taking it until I passed and I can’t get help because it’s not offered an the guy that teaches it is a complete asshole. Some of the teachers are great and will help even if you don’t ask and make sure their students do well but I think they have all quit since I haven’t seen any of their classes lately. The schools suppose coaches they are great and try to put a positive spin on things. Tuition keeps going up which is just plain crazy. I would say if you ever need help this is not the place you go. They will let you fail over and over again until you pass or get kicked out of school.

I have mixed feeling attending GGU. I started back in 2013 and have been attending classes on and off because of work and life schedule constantly changing. The school offers cheap tuition for an MBA degree compare to other universities out there. As for the quality of the education, you get what you pay for. Often time, students are from another country with little to no work experience and they have a very poor command in English. Their writing and speaking really show when it comes to doing group project or the level of involvement in group projects. Furthermore, students do not show that they are thinking at an MBA level, at best undergraduate level.
As for the professors, I only had two decent professors so far. By decent, I mean they know how teach the course material by either adding their relevant work experiences or making information easy to grasp. I had professor that repeats the same story 5 times through out the course of the semester or having multiple spelling errors on PowerPoint slides. Worse yet, I had a professor that reads off from his note and never look up to the class. Even though most of these professors have working experience, they don’t seem to know how to teach, which GGU must reflect when hiring adjunct professor. Teaching takes more than working in the real world. I have a few more classes to go and hopefully I could end up with some decent professors.

I am getting my Masters in Business here, and they are really a great, accomodating school. The teachers are great, and I have met so many cool people from all different countries. The school itself is clean and very modern. The technology is great, and most important the resources are great.
I am proud to be getting my MBA at such a great school !

Superb!

This review is for their facilities rental. I rented a classroom on the fifth floor to provide a two-​day training for work. The entire rental process was easy! I really appreciate our facilities liaison, Susie Dea. From the initial contact, Susie was quick and responsive in detail to many of my questions about the space. We were able to do everything over email, and then when I dropped in early to view the classroom space, she was very helpful! I would definitely reccommend renting space from GGU if you need to host any workshops or trainings for your organization. They even have a discounted non-​profit rate! Susie Dea was a great representative of the university.

Professors are professionals in their field. They are very motivating and the services provided at Golden Gate University have been excellent. I achieved my PMP and ITIL certifications through my studies here.
I feel like I can run a company as a CIO thanks to what I’ve learned here.

You get called in for interviews with big 4 when you apply through GGU carrers website. ranked #1 in the nation in the MST program.

I started a degree at GGU back in 1999 (after attending community college for 6 years on and off) and then dropped out after a year of attendance. I have always had to work full-​time, and at the time, not only did I not have any real sense of direction, I just did not have the motivation to do more work after work and on the weekends. I wanted to have fun. Also, as a young student, I was a little intimidated by the people who were older and mid level in their careers. I just did not have the life experience to contribute in a meaningful way to some of the classes here.
I went back to school in 2010 and obtained my paralegal certificate from an ABA-​approved program, and I was so inspired by my success in the program that I decided to return to GGU and finish my bachelor’s degree. Paralegals in the Bay Area really need a bachelor’s degree in addition to an ABA-​approved certificate in order to be marketable. You can find a job without a bachelor’s, but it is much harder.
I chose GGU because it is the only school that makes it easy to finish a degree while working full-​time. I did a couple of paralegal internships in government agencies and became interested in public administration. Thus, I also chose GGU because of their public administration program. In addition, I thought the management focus of the degree would compliment my paralegal certificate. While attending GGU this time around I was also working in a government agency, which I found to be extremely beneficial in understanding the public administration concepts presented at school.
It has taken two years, but I have now completed 10 classes. I have had 10 outstanding professors. One of the professors made statistics interesting and manageable, which I never thought would be possible. Most professors have Ph. D’s and have years of real world experience in their field. I have had some instructors who are more passionate about sharing their knowledge than others, and others who seem too busy with the rest of their lives to do so. Something I really appreciate is that most professors are understanding and flexible about students having to turn in some work late due to work schedules or other life events.
I had one bad experience with a professor in a class at the San Francisco campus, and the consensus among other students in the class was the same. He was angry, impatient and definitely not passionate about teaching. So, I dropped his class and enrolled in the online version with another professor. I did have another professor give me a «good» or an «excellent» consistently throughout the term, and once when I asked her to elaborate, I did not receive a response. Since I pay a fortune for these classes, I would have appreciated that small bit of help in my learning process.
There are two main reasons I only give GGU 3 stars. First of all, it is outrageous expensive. Second, I resent having to do group work and carry the weight for students who cannot write at the university level. I have come across students in upper division courses who have no concept of writing a research paper and citing references. How are they passing? And what kind of grades are being handed out to them? I have to wonder. And I am not even talking about foreign students who speak English as a second language. The worst writers I have experienced are the American students. It is sad. Sad, because I think it is a reflection of our public school system. I was lucky to attend private school through 8^th grade, and then I had the unfortunate experience of attending a public high school. What an academic shock it was! Nevermind the culture shock! I remember doing research, writing short papers, and citing references in the sixth grade.
People may be down on GGU, but personally, I have grown tremendously here. Like anything, you get what you put into it. If you expect to be spoon fed by professors, this is not the school for you. The harder you work, the more you will get out of it. Of course, I understand that there are different learning styles and some people naturally will not do well with online learning; they need lectures and interaction. I learn best by reading and writing on my own, so this school is ideal for me.
I think it is important to add that you will be required to work hard here. In my current class we have to produce weekly 2 – 4 page papers based on the readings (yes, that means research type papers with proper citing! It also means reading outside class materials so that you can provide examples to solidify your point of view), write peer reviews, participate in conference calls, and work on case studies. At times I find it overwhelming with full-​time work to complete the work on schedule.
If I did not have to work and could choose any school I wanted, would I choose GGU? No.

I am an MSA candidate at GGU in my second semester. So far I have had a great experience at GGU. There are a lot of great teachers here from lots of different professional backgrounds. They are mostly all very approachable and willing to talk. They are also very responsive by email for the most part (a noticeable difference from my undergrad teachers).
I have taken ACCTG 351C with Reardon, ACCTG 305 with Bennett, ACCTG 361 with Ferris, and ACCTG 351A with Phil Neyland.
351C was easy, 305 was difficult, 351A is very interesting and I’m learning a lot, and 361 is whatever (tax yuck).
GGU also offers a ton of student services. They offer resume review sessions, tons of speaker panels, and activities like networking events and bowling nights and holiday parties and etc etc.
I love GGU and I am trying to make the most of my year and a half here. I would recommend it for masters students interested in taxation and accounting.

Last winter I decided that I wanted to go back to school, for so many reasons including increased opportunity and making my family proud. Also having just entered my 30s, it really started to hit me that I should probably try to settle down and figure out what to do with my life. That is certainly a tall order but as I wrap up my first year at GGU, I can certainly say that I am on the right track — and that I’m close to figuring out what I want to do with my life. (It’s quite an interesting and novel feeling.)
So far, the instructors I have had are amazing. Not only are they knowledgeable but they are incredibly personable as well. I am also very happy with my advisor, who is very communicative, supportive, and hilarious. I’ve also consistently liked my classmates. In fact, the entire GGU community, down to the library and support staffs, make the little GGU campus on Mission a safe haven of learning.
When I was researching which school I should enroll in, I remember narrowing down my options to a short list that included GGU. My dad seemed to like it and I value his opinion very much. The other schools on my list included area campuses of CSU such as SF State and San Jose State. But I was leaning heavily toward GGU because not only did it fit my career ambitions but the overall atmosphere is a better fit with where I am in life. As an adult returning to school, I really wanted to experience this endeavor with others who share the same mindset, the same goals, the same drive to succeed in school. I’m not saying that kids younger than I am don’t possess those same traits. But a choice like going back to school is a choice that is deliberate and intimate, and you want to make sure all the conditions are right. At GGU, I don’t feel out of place. I don’t feel like a sore thumb. I don’t feel like I’m getting a late start. These were all the hangups that I had with me going into GGU. With the closing of my first year I can safely say that I am excited about going forward with the journey.
Interestingly, during my initial research, I consulted Unilocal.i figured that I seem to use it for a lot of other things in my life. Why not look up schools? I admit that I was concerned about many of the lukewarm reviews. They were disheartening and tempered my enthusiasm for GGU. When I confided to a friend how I felt and what I had read to cause how I felt, she said to me quite frankly, «If you’re trying to choose colleges, Unilocal is not really the place to do it.»
There’s a time and place for Unilocal — restaurants, beauty services and, heck, sometimes even for choosing your church. Quite frankly I am glad that I went with my gut and overlooked the reviews here for GGU. However, many of the issues that I’ve read about in those reviews are certainly valid to such a degree that I am not able to rate GGU 4 stars like I really would like to do. For the cost of tuition, which I admit is steep, such issues should not be extant. There is also the matter of faculty. Although I haven’t yet taken any upper division classes and therefore have yet to interact with professors, I strongly suspect that the instructors are not being fully valued by the organization. This observation is easy enough to make for the discerning student but, in an ironic twist of fate, I’ve become much more keenly attuned to working conditions thanks to my academic concentration in human resources. GGU, thanks for giving me the confidence, through knowledge, to point out that you need to step up your game with your instructors and employees overall throughout the organization.
That being said, I’m reviewing GGU on Unilocal not only because I’m enthusiastic about sharing my positive experience but also because I’m hoping to chime in with another perspective. The thing is, I’ve encountered many of the aforementioned issues before, outside of school and in the work environment. Like with any decent job, you get out of it what you put into it. When you are committed and motivated about school, you do what you can to make it work: that means taking extra time to reach out, having a little bit of patience, learning to negotiate, learning when to move on. If you are like me and GGU is on your radar, it’s definitely worthwhile to take these reviews into consideration but it’s just as wise to consult what’s right for your own circumstances. Up to now, GGU has worked for me, and I have not looked back.

Working in FiDi and the location of GGU is probably one of the most convenience. But bunch of international students speaking in foreign languages (esp. Chinese) at the building which also lacks of space for chairs and tables that making the environment very crowded. Not comfortable for any students who wants to take a rest or doing homework before the evening class begins.

They have not even a stable Internet connection for library! So you can estimate their service level!
I rate overal university over one from five.

My paycheck more than doubled right upon graduated from GGU.
I hold a BA from a University that is ranked 8^th worldwide this year, and I can confidently say that the value added to my resume from my GGU degree is as significant as my undergrad degree.
I am a Visa student, and it is very hard to land a job (any job) in the states with a student visa. However, with a pending GGU degree on my resume, I received interviews with world class corporations before graduation. Within 3 months of job hunting, I was able to land a dream job with a GGU MS Finance degree 1 week before departing from the school program.
GGU’s location is one of the best in the nation, and it is the same reason why I received so many opportunities before graduated. The economy of Bay Area has been exploding, and the city of San Francisco is showered by endless finance opportunities too.
Going to GGU is all about getting marketable skills and knowledge. As other reviewers, I did encounter good and bad professors, but it is up to you how you market yourself in the job market, not your school.

I just completed a Masters of Science in Human Resources Management with GGU. It is expensive and you have to choose your professors very carefully, but overall I’m happy with the education I received there. It definitely helped me to go to the next step in my career, which is why I did it in the first place. Most of my classes were in person, but I appreciated the one semester in which I could take two classes online. The in person classes were definitely the best. I highly recommend Dan Popkin-​Clurman for his coaching class, Rona Layton for her Employment Law class, and John Ford for Conflict Resolution. These were the best classes I had the pleasure of taking during my degree program. Overall, it’s a good school.

This is probably the most honest review you will ever read regarding GGU…
I earned an MS Finance last year and I am currently working toward my MS Taxation which I expect to finish by the end of the summer.
I have found all of the coursework relatively challenging and have the highest regard for the majority of professors that I encountered, especially in the Tax program…
One element that I find particularly appealing about GGU is the practical approach to higher education with a stronger emphasis on application as opposed to simply regurgitating theory.
All of the professors I have had at GGU are seasoned professionals with a wealth of experience and are always more than willing to share their own personal accomplishments and challenges in relation to the topic of class discussion, a far cry from the career academics you find at a lot of schools.
The professors in the Tax program have impressed me not only with their experience, but also with their command of what is undoubtedly complex subject matter and their ability to clearly articulate difficult concepts in a way that would allow even the most novice student the ability to grasp the more pertinent ideas.
Other than that I find that there are a considerable amount of foreign students, I find it inspiring that for many of these students English is not their first language yet they have the courage to take on rigorous course matter such as finance, taxation, accounting, etc. Pretty damn impressive. What’s attractive for students coming from foreign countries is that GGU does not require the GMAT for a number of graduate business programs other than the MBA program.
Most of the students in my classes are working professionals that need additional training/​education to climb the corporate ladder or simply want to improve on their existing skills. Mostly accounting and tax professionals including many CPA’s, Enrolled Agents, etc. I feel the school has done extremely well with it’s business model by gearing towards students that are working professionals, allowing them the ability to attend school and continue working full-​time with relatively little complication.
Not trying to «sell» the school year, just giving an honest opinion from my own experiences. I think one thing GGU needs to do is get rid of this «shine» campaign and replace it with marketing approach that gives the institution a fresh new «university» feel, if that makes any sense. It’s also a pretty expensive school by any measure, so if you can get your employer to pay, attending GGU may be the right move. Anyway good luck and I hope my review helped.

This rating is for the structure of the building, and how it looks both inside and out. I went here for about two months because this is where Kaplan Professional Schools taught their real estate course. The outside of the building looks very nice, with lots of glass windows from the bottom up. Inside is modern, and the everything looks new. The downside of this building are the elevators. There are two in the main lobby. They are often always overcrowded, with people getting on and off at every level.
On the very top floor, there are vending machines that serve cold drinks, hot drinks, candy, cookies, microwavable food, and ice cream. It is a large room that has a very relaxed atmosphere.
As for the classroom that I was in, there about eight tables that formed two rows. Since there was no space in between the tables, it felt cramped in the classroom.
Overall, this place seems cool. I wouldn’t mind going to school here.

GGU really puts emphasis on academics so the classes can be really hard. We have assignments and readings all the time and because the class size is fairly small, everyone has to participate in the class discussion.
The professors will certainly notice if you are not doing your work and not producing expected results. Students come from varied backgrounds and fields. It’s not surprising that most of them are working professionals who want quality education and a flexible schedule.
Degrees are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and faculty members are very knowledgeable and are also employed in their field.
I have been supremely impressed with their cyber campus and their service quality.
I wish they would increase their national presence and expose their cybercampus feature. The university needs to do some serious investment is marketing to be more visible.

I completed my doctorate at GGU and it was an incredibly rewarding experience. I was first drawn to the program because it was the only fully-​accredited doctorate in finance in the Bay Area that could be pursued part-​time by someone who also had a career. The experience proved to be so much more than that, however. The full-​time faculty who run the program are passionate about what they do, offering students the opportunity to engage in significant personal growth and deep learning. The faculty are also well suited to GGU’s mission, combining, as they do, first class degrees with significant real world experience.
There are two distinct phases to doctoral study, and GGU’s program delivers the best of both. The first phase is focused on core doctoral seminars that provide the tools and conceptual framework for understanding and conducting formal research. It was here that I came to fully appreciate the nature of the academic enterprise and begin to master the tools and techniques for its pursuit.
The second phase involves the development of a research question that will result (if you’re sufficiently diligent) in the production of a formal dissertation. This is the apprenticeship phase, where you work closely with your dissertation committee and, most especially, your chair. My own committee chair was at once both guide and mentor, sending me back again-​and-​again to reexamine my sources, rewrite my proposals, and revisit the evidence. Each time, my dissertation got better. In the end, I was able to produce work that I believe will have a real impact on my profession.
The doctoral program is probably the smallest part of what GGU does, but it represents the best of the University’s mission and values. Beyond that, I can heartily recommend GGU to anyone who seeks to improve their skills and advance their career through any any of the University’s many degree and certificate programs.

I went to grad school here and I loved it. Unlike my undergrad experience, my professors were all well-​seasoned industry professionals with 20+ years in their area of expertise. So they taught from their own experience, along with the text, which made the concepts «stick’ alot better because we talked about them in real-​world scenarios.
The students were all serious about learning, and they also brought their own experiences into the classroom, so that raised the bar even more. It was challenging, but I love a challenge. There’s nothing worse than spending thousands of dollars on a class, only to have the professor read from the text or ask you to memorize terms from a book. I could do that myself. But here, concepts are not full taught until they are excercised in some way, which sometimes included the use of role playing.
Most of my classes used some form of role-​playing. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, and I honestly thought it was a bit cheesy. But I have to admit, the role playing was immensely helpful in helping me to apply the concepts I had learned. For example, we conducted mock union negotations where we alternated roles between the employer, the employees and the union, which helped me see all sides of a labor negotiation. In my mediation class, we alternated roles between the mediator and the feuding parties, to understand how to effectively mediate and get resolution between parties. I don’t plan to be a mediator, but as a manager (one day), and I’m sure I’ll need to mediate among my employees at some point.
The facilities aren’t the newest or most modern, but they make up for it in technology. No outdated computers here. If it were any different, I’d wonder where all my tuition was going!
Cheesy as it sounds, going to GGU was a challenging, refreshing and rewarding experience. My only gripe (aside from the cost) is that the classes are 12 – 16 weeks long so it takes quite a bit to finish a degree here. Fortunately, graduate degrees only require around 10 classes so it’s not THAT bad. But it’s well worth it. I’m proud to be a GGU alum :)