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Students, please go to a real university. My son went to the University of Washington, earned a degree in computer science, and started off making 6 figures and now much more.
Why do people even go to those schools?
You can go to the local State College and get an Associate's or Bachelor's in a tech field, pay MUCH less, and get real advising and job placement in time for graduation.
I went to a tech school for a year to supplement my college degree and it worked perfectly - landed a job in a field I wanted in 2 weeks. A couple of years later I had to attend graduate courses (free) at a big university due to my position.
This whole thread is wacky. The OP hasn't responded to all of these posts which tells me something. Much good advice and info yet no response.
In my state u can go to C Collage for 2 years at a very fair price (as most anyone can get grants) and roll over your credits to a Legit University like U MASS Lowell or their other branches with not that much student debt.
And offered a job but turned it down! Go to work and maybe make some decisions based on ur experience.
There are plenty of jobs out there, and yes some are low paying but u have too start somewhere to gain experience and knowledge. That knowledge and experience is something paying for college can't give u and if learned well lead u too a higher paying job.
I know a guy who went through not one, but TWO for-profit colleges, including Academy of Art. Both 'Bachelors' degrees.
And the guy still can't find a job. He's almost 34 and he still has only retail experience.
Now that's someone I feel kind of bad for...God knows how much debt he's probably in.
I feel bad for those type of guys. Some people are career students.
If he spent some regular time with a mentor and attended career development groups, he would be debt free and out of retail.
It's too late for the debt, but he can still get out of retail. It's time for him to start attending those career development groups.
I didn't start attending until 31 and made $12 or less for years. Those groups were amazingly helpful. By 35, I was making $75k/yr in the middle of a recession.
Now, I give some career advice to my younger friends and online. They have been able to make the same progress.
Omg, you guys are wailing on him hard.
Yes in this case, it was his responsibility but then there are people, younger than 24, who gets suckered in even if they were smart.
FAFSA goes *both* ways, stop blaming the students and only the students. The average high school graduate is 18 years old, and up until the age of 24, BOTH the students and the parents have to sign the documents for enrolling in the school. A 21 year old college student has limited freedoms when it comes to colleges.
They can go to the college of their dreams, the ones that make financial sense, the one that has a good degree program, etc. but it would not matter if the PARENTS refuse to do their FAFSA. If a parent refuses to let you go to a specific college because they just don't like it, they know better, or they think the reason you're dropping out to transfer to another school means you're a quitter, then you're screwed.
According to the FAFSA website, they view a student as Independent (without needing parents' permission) if they are:
24 years old or;
Married or;
Independent via court order
I personally fell through the cracks, I was a rare exception. My parents and I had a tug of war near the end of my high school years, they controlled everything and nearly all classes that I took, only thing different was my extra-curriculars. So when it came time to pick a college, I was denied from going to the following schools that I applied to and got in:
NAU
UofA
ASU
Temple University
UofOregon
OSU (Oregon State)
PVCC
SCC
NMCC
University of Rochester
These were all legit schools I applied for. The degrees I wanted to get? B.S. Computer Science, B.S in Political Science (I wanted to work at lawfirms), B.S. in Economics/Finance, B.S. in Veterinary Science... the only other "lame" degree was a B.A in Philosophy simply because I loved theories. Point is, I wanted to go to these legit fields and everytime I brought it up, I was shot down. I was even forced to decline the scholarships I won because it wasn't towards a school my parents wanted to me to go to.
It took a family intervention to finally let me go to PVCC instead of GCC just because I felt that PVCC had the better campus learning experience and as a bonus was pretty far from home (and tied to NAU). That's when a for-profit college called me into their program. At the time, that specific degree program they had was too new. They were the only campus in the entire state that had that degree. I almost didn't go, it took another large family intervention with them wearing my parents down to let me go. I went there for six months to test the waters, not even intending to graduate... just six months to see if it's a viable education and if I learn something.
Nope. Nope, I didn't. They were smart, they only allowed gen-ed classes for the first two years and then core-classes the last year. So they wouldn't have taught me 3D animation unless I was close to graduating. I wasn't stupid, I found the research that the college was a scam, I told all my classmates and teachers, even the professors agreed! In the end, only three students dropped out. One dropped out to move back home, the other went to a private college (he was pretty well off I think), another went to another for-profit college (ugh...). But most didn't drop out.
Their reasons for not dropping out was various. Some didn't want to re-do the FAFSA, and wait another year or several months to start over at another school. Some had an agreement with the state to be enrolled in college in order to live in their temporary housing (we had lots of displaced Hurricane Katrina students), they couldn't afford to drop out temporarily in order to transfer since their apartments were tied to student enrollment... drop out, and they are homeless. Some didn't have the grades to apply to a regular school. Some had severe physical and learning disabilities. And then there were the few like me that only enrolled at that school because that school was the only one with a particular degree program that they wanted.
Ofcourse that was in 2006, after 2008 more and more schools started offering the degree programs even state and public schools. I often wished I would have started college two years later, because then atleast I would've gone to a public school for that degree program instead of a for-profit. I also regret letting my parents control everything, I should've called their bluff and drop out 6 months in like I wanted to and just waited the 5 years to go to a public school if their bluff was real.
Just saying that not everyone that went to for-profits are stupid, some had no choice in the matter especially when housing was involved. And no, my parents didn't care it was a scam school even if I told them that it's affecting them financially too, they didn't give two craps mainly because they were raised with the "the degree doesn't matter, you can get any job" mentality..... very VERY out-dated mentality if I say so myself.
So yes, I honestly believe that some for-profit alumni that went through these schools and graduated really need forgiveness on these loans. And some were really swindled with misinformation.
Just an example, the FAFSA stated that I wasn't eligible for a PELL Grant no matter what. My parents made too much. Come to find out years later, that the school I went to? Somehow got extra money via a PELL Grant given to me. Now why would the government say that I am not eligible for a PELL Grant (got denied), and yet after I graduated when I finally got all the loan paperwork back, it all of a sudden said that they took $15,000 from the government in PELL Grant money for my tuition? If I didn't know any better, I would say they fraudulently changed my information (my mom and I both signed the papers after reading through it, it never mentioned a PELL Grant) after the papers were signed.
Good points, Sabiya, except he was 28 yrs old. He wasn't some 18 yr old teen, back in 2010. He's 33 today.
At some point in everybody's life, we need to make our own decisions for our career and not have mom and dad make them. If he can't do it at 33, then he will continue to struggle with his career.
Last edited by move4ward; 04-15-2015 at 08:40 PM..
If these diploma mills and for profit colleges are scams? How are they legally permitted to still exists? If the government sued them, why didn't they shut them down?
If these diploma mills and for profit colleges are scams? How are they legally permitted to still exists? If the government sued them, why didn't they shut them down?
They basically shut down at this point. Out of 100+ schools, they got rid if 97 schools last year. That's from the original post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Business Insider
Before 2014, Corinthian Colleges Inc. was a network of more than 100 schools and one of the largest for-profit college companies in the US.
But numerous investigations and lawsuits alleging wrongdoing against the company rapidly decreased its size. In July 2014, an agreement with the US Department of Education forced Corinthian to sell 85 of its schools and close another 12.
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