Medical Assisting Program
I entered the Medical Assisting program and maintained a grade of no less than a 103%. This is because there is daily check points. Only 4 are required, but if you do them everyday you get extra credit. This makes the possible points for every class 106%. In my opinion, the checkpoints make it impossible to fail the classes as the short 2 question quizzes can raise your grade up a letter (assuming you do them everyday and get them right). The university sends out a HP laptop and windows 10 tablet to help with your studies. However, I found the equipment slow and outdated. I purchased an iPad Pro and MacBook Pro and found these two to make completing/submitting work a lot easier and enjoyable. The classes are set up into modules. With each being 4 weeks long and there is only one at a time. The modules are further divided into weeks and each week will have the same set of work. For example, every week will have 2 discussion posts (sometimes only 1), assignment (usually a paper or PowerPoint), an assessment (usually a quiz), and a 4 question live lecture quiz (the answers will be given to you in the lecture). This is every week but week four. Week four is the same except the 3 question career integration quiz which is essay style used to reflect on what you have learned. My entire time at IU I had never missed points in discussions, checkpoints, or career integration. Discussion posts are due by 11:59 on Wednesday and replies are due Sunday 11:59. You are required 2 but you can do more. All other assignments/ assessments are due on Sunday at 11:59. Lectures will typically happen Monday - Wednesday at anytime of day and sometimes night. There is only one per week and it is recorded so you don’t have to attend live. I have had instructors do their live at 8am Monday morning and others do 9pm Wednesday night. It all depends on their schedule. It is important to note that all times are in mountain time so if the lecture is at 9 am that means 10am central time. There is a ton of support at this school. You get a student service advisor, career service advisor, faulty program advisor, and have school resources like the writing center and library. The advisors will contact you by email and phone. I met with my SSA once a month but I could meet with her as much as I needed to. My CSA would contact me every 3-6 months, and my FPA would check on me regularly via email. With the medical assisting program you have the opportunity to fly to Utah for the weekend and do a residency where you learn all the hard skills needed like drawing blood and taking vitals. This was an amazing experience and the university pays for everything. The hotel room was nice and the food was delicious. They catered every meal and had plenty of snacks and bottled water. I arrived on Thursday and flew back on Sunday. Make sure to prepare yourself because you will be on your feet from 7am to 9pm at night. They pack everything into those short 2 full days. Even on the night that everyone flys in/morning we fly out there is stuff to do. Also make sure to have room in your luggage because they give you a backpack filled with medical supplies like a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. If you’re like me and find medical assisting too easy and want to do something more than just draw blood and patient intake it is important to keep in mind that NO school will take your credits from IU. Being internationally accredited does not mean every program/school will accept IU credits. I am attending nursing school at a big university and they laughed at my IU credits. I had to retake all my prerequisites that I had already taken with IU. For example I toke PSY255 and MAT110 with IU and had to retake those same classes with the new university. I went into this school thinking that if I wanted to continue my education my at least some of credits would transfer but they do not. So keep that in mind if it matters to you.