I know that most people on CC do not pay attention to the so called “schools” that advertise on bus benches and reality tv shows…but these “schools” have preyed on many desperate people for a while now and milked them and the federal government of money. one by one these “schools” are shutting down. giving false hope of a better future with virtually no chance of that with a “degree” from these “schools” while milking the taxpayer and students for $$$ is/has been horrible.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article41967387.html
What are all those desperate people going to do now that they can’t pretend like they’re going to school to better themselves? Since every business has a “HELP WANTED” sign out, I hope they take one of those jobs and get down to becoming productive,
Our state’s attorney general launched a successful lawsuit against a chain here for luring students who couldn’t pass background checks into programs that required such for gainful employment. My overall opinion is good riddance to bad rubbish.
the “schools” knew the majority never make it longer than say 1/2 way…so they milked the $$$ and the “students” went back to whatever they were doing before.(in more debt and a broken dream) those who actually “:graduated” besides the debt found out they did don’t have a real degree. a “school” in a strip mall next to a smoothie shop and a dry cleaner is not going to launch your career. and most people they preyed on did not know there is no such degree as an assistant on site website administrator.(which translates into working in an office answering e mails).
The taxpayers are getting hosed, too. From the end of the cited Miami Herald article -
maybe people should be unable to get federal loans for these super high risk, super low reward for profit schools.
I did know a case where a new non-immigrant had attended such a school did advance the career on several fronts: got introduced to someone to get married relatively quickly, and then obtained the immigration visa which enabled him to be gainfully employed legally. He needed some “seed money” to fund his short stint at such a school though as he could not get loans from the federal government. But the cost is much lower than to apply and attend an official college and the bar for admission is set lower. If such a trade school goes that route, there could still be some gold mine there – however, most “educators” in such a nitche industry do not know there is still such a market if they work closely with a marriage broker.
This is a not a big surprise, the internet has created the university without walls that also are without education, too. Hucksters can easily set up a website, have ‘classes’, and get students who otherwise couldn’t go to a legitimate school, who can get student loans (many of the students of these places are poor and minority group members who are generally in the economic strata where they are aid eligible), and you have the classic sham. There are a lot of diploma mill schools out there, they have existed a long time, that give you credit for ‘life experience’ and the like and you get a diploma basically by sending them your X dollars and getting a ‘degree’, this is just a new variance on that.
Unfortunately, the government has been slow in acting, attempts at righting regulations to cover these institutions have run into issues, besides lobbying, there also is some ideological pushback that for profit education is going to be more efficient and so forth than the traditional non profit colleges. I don’t understand why at least the loans don’t require a school to be accredited by a legitimate accredidation group.
I don’t know how the ‘legitimate’ online schools, like University of Phoenix, Full Sail University, and the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople (specializes in music education lol) stack up in terms of how they educate students, they advertise a lot, but I don’t know how good they are.
Unfortunately we are in a time when a college degree is seen as the entry level to any kind of decent job, and this kind of scam is the underbelly of that.
We had a pharmacy tech who did nursing school with one of these and now can’t pass the boards. And is in debt up to his ears. It was sooooooo unnecessary as we have multiple real nursing schools in this area. I fee so bad for him.
the “nursing” degrees from these schools even if you pass the board (which is a long shot) is shunned. like you said there are many real schools that offer a degree in nursing. they may be competitive to gain admittance and you have requirements but that is the only route.
^^Wow. (from the article)
It’s really frustrating when - money that should be going to our community college and university system here in Florida - is somehow making its way to these shysters.
let’s not forget this other fake school operator that shut down 6 months ago.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/26/corinthian-colleges-to-shut-down-all-28-remaining-campuses/
the sooner they are all gone the better.
here is some more info on troubled operators of the for profit "school"companies…they list the “name brand” of the various “schools” they operate too.
http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/which-for-profit-colleges-will-shut-down-next.html/?a=viewall
Last night’s episode of The Good Wife had a focus on the less than ethical practices of for profit schools. They specifically called out Corinthian while they were plotting strategy for their fictional school. Timely!
I thought you were making up that name when I first read it… lol