adjunct instructor

student advisor

admissions advisor

adjunct faculty

academic coordinator

Westcliff University

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at the company is being part of an organization that supports international students. Knowing that the company helps students from around the world pursue their educational goals and adjust to new environments is inspiring. It’s rewarding to contribute, even indirectly, to efforts that create opportunities for international students to thrive academically and personally.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part about working at the company has been when strategic decisions were made without enough data or planning. That often created ripple effects for staff and faculty, since we had to adapt quickly and manage the impact without clear direction. While it was challenging, it also highlighted the importance of thoughtful planning and communication to support both employees and students.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment and culture at the company were generally positive for employees who worked on site, with good day-to-day collaboration and support. However, remote employees often felt overlooked, which created challenges in communication and recognition. Benefits like healthcare were not very cost-effective, and opportunities for promotion were limited, which made long-term career growth difficult. Overall, the culture had strengths in certain areas but left room for improvement in how it supported all employees equally.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day at the company often involved a lot of meetings with senior leadership. Unfortunately, those meetings frequently started late and tended to run over the scheduled time. For remote employees, especially those working in different time zones, this created extra challenges and made it harder to maintain balance and efficiency throughout the day.

The admissions department is very insular and promotes an atmosphere of constant sucking up, and being disingenuous.  Coworkers and management gossip amongst each other constantly, the managers namedrop employees who don't like working with you, and the entire department has an air of hypersensitivity.   I've never worked in any work environment so sensitive where I felt like I was walking on egg shells. Don't ever expect to be given the benefit of the doubt as anything you say or do is looked at in the worst possible light.  Management committed several very inappropriate actions that I wanted to tell to HR but thought it'd be easier to just quit and not expect anything to actually happen given the power dynamic.

The management also contradicts their own words often and never gives clear messages, and then discourages clarifying questions.  I got eye-rolled constantly for asking basic questions and only seniors got to ask questions or ever be taken seriously.  Meetings are always negative in tone.  They only care about "numbers", no matter the cost.

They talk about being like a "family" all the time but that only applies to senior-level employees  and people who worked with them for a long time.   I'm sure some in the company truly believe it, but I wasn't fortunate enough to work with those people. 

Take note of the reviews here and see which departments they're from.  There's a reason why admissions has a very high turnover rate and reviews here mentioning it are one-star.  

There's little pride to take in your work as well when most students are not here to study, just extend their eligibility to work.  The standards are rock bottom for admission here and no one gets denied.  The admissions department works like a visa mill.

This is a university that sees criticism for improvement as negative (sad considering all organizations have room for improvement). The university has potential, but unfortunately, focuses more on expanding than improving the quality of education and service. Must continually stay positive and turn a blind eye to negatives or your chances for promotion quickly diminish. Annual raises are extremely minimal and do not keep up with inflation rates. Employee retention is terrible as it seems that every 6-months half of staff is replaced especially in admissions department. Great place to start off and use as a stepping stone before going anywhere else. Many last minute/ not fully thought out decisions implemented by leadership. Policies changes happen often which can be difficult for students and staff to keep up. Many students (mostly international) do not care about their education here as the university accepts almost all applicants. International F1 students study here mostly to easily attain CPT. Makes it difficult to advise students when having CPT is a student’s only goal. Many students just hoping to get their H1B or gain work experience. Plagiarism rates (outside of quantitative courses) can be extremely high for many students and good grades are still given. Although there is a standardized grading table, professors are provided with little training resulting in large grading differences. Once again, there’s a lot of room for improvement and many things can be easily changed, but all things mentioned seem to take very low priority over expansion. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at the company is my specific team! The Global Engagement department is small, but mighty. Our VP & Dean is incredibly supportive, thoughtful, and understanding. She provides helpful feedback and consistently lets me know what I'm doing right as well. This is so important as a remote employee. Also, our team works so well together. We support each other and are not afraid to step in and help as needed. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part right now is the lack of a proper CRM. The lack of a CRM makes everything very manual which takes too much time. It can definitely result in overworking or having to work the occasional weekend to try and keep up.  Also, as our team continues to increase our number of partnerships, we could really use another person to help us. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I work remote, so I don't often interact with people from other departments. With that said, when I do people are very positive and kind.

I started off loving the school. However I started noticing red flags the first month being at Westcliff. The students are very demanding, the caseloads get out of hand, the other departments don’t catch up causing a delay in everything else and a mess for student services to clean up! Most of us have a masters degree and get paid as much as a high-school graduate In a retail store. We get High demands and little credit. People quit left and right and no one is satisfied with their self there taht is why no one is able to stay for a long time due to so many issues that this school has. To think yet we still cant get paid the same as new hires or promoted better yet we’re not ever going to be offered more if we work extra hard (doing tasks for other departments that aren’t things were trained for). 

I was excited to work here and the first month was good with some friendly coworkers. However, I soon realized that this university is very disorganized with rude management. I didn’t feel that they were receptive to my concerns and ignored them. I sometimes felt that most departments thought that the front desk didn’t do any work. Phone calls were nonstop, the students were needy with many complaints, management didn’t know my job responsibilities, and gave random responsibilities from other departments. I also felt that management would retaliate if I said something. The job was soul sucking and depressing. It is run like a business and less like a school. The culture certainly felt that way to me. Now I know why there’s a high turnover of employees. 

This company has been growing and staffing rapidly. Leadership truly cares about input and collaboration from all levels of staff and working to communicate its core values. Professional development is promoted, there are monthly employee engagement activities or community volunteering, most staff has the option to work hybrid. The CEO just announced open office hours, so it's nice that if I ever want to, I can meet with him.  Lots of new programs are being developed and announced: new college of nursing, new certificate programs, new Doctorate degrees... since the company is growing, it feels like there is room for growth in my professional and career development as well. 

A lot of my experience had both pros and cons to it. I will say the people and coworkers at this job were really friendly and made it more enjoyable to work at , but for the most part it was constant pressure to meet goals and standards while being understaffed every single time. 

Management is always making changes within the department and communication is always an issue every single day whether it's internal or if we need to reach out to another department. Students at this job need constant help with little stuff and on top of that you need patience to deal with trying to reach the right person for something within your own company.

Westcliff Unviersity has provided the best, most positive, and inclusive work environment that I have ever experienced. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this company or management. I hope I am offered the opportunity to grow and advance in the future!


The company culture is one of a kind here at Westcliff. Everyone speaks to the Westcliff Family culture and I have seen it in practice. Especially so during the pandemic. Management and co-workers really go above and beyond to make sure that you are ok and have all the resources that are needed. We have had numerous team-building activities as a department and as a company. In speaking with some others here, the culture wasn't always like this in earlier years, but from what I have seen and experienced I have been impressed with the company culture here. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Adjunct instructor 5 salaries reported	$35.50 per hour
Student advisor 9 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour
Admissions advisor 6 salaries reported	$24.83 per hour
Adjunct faculty 20 salaries reported	$34.15 per hour
Academic coordinator 5 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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