Nightline tonight investigates For-Profit Education: Recruiters at the University of Phoenix - video

[Bozita]

Video at link:

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/profit-education-abc-news-undercover-investigate-recruiters-university/story?id=11411379

ABC News Investigates For-Profit Education: Recruiters at the University of Phoenix
ABC News Gets Answers for Student Who Claims She Was Duped by Online School

256 comments
By CHRIS CUOMO, GERRY WAGSCHAL and LAUREN PEARLE
Aug. 19, 2010


Ads for online schools are all over the Internet, plastered on billboards in subway cars and on television. The University of Phoenix, with nearly 500,000 students, is the biggest for-profit college. But some former students said they were duped into paying big bucks and going deeply in debt by slick and misleading recruiters.

"I don't want anyone else to be sucked in," said Melissa Dalmier, 30, of Noble, Ill.

The mother of three had big dreams to be an elementary school teacher, so when she saw ads for the University of Phoenix pop-up on her computer, she e-mailed them for more information. A few minutes later, Dalmier said she got a call from one of the school's recruiters, who she said told her that enrolling in the associate's degree in education program at the University of Phoenix would put her on the fast-track to reaching her dream.

" they had an agreement with Illinois State Board of Education and that as soon as I finished their program I'd be ready to start working," she recalled.

Within 15 minutes, Dalmier was enrolled. Since she didn't have enough money to pay for tuition, she said the recruiter helped her get federal student aid. In total, she took out about $8,000 in federally-guaranteed student loans.

more ...

[EC]

1. These schools are all what I call

Matchbook Cover Schools...

years ago matchbooks were used to advertise a lot of things...including schools, like Devrey, Concordia and Phoenix...they couldn't get accredited then and should not have ever had been accredited...

[Bozita]

2. A link and another news report on a pretty iffy business

Private job retraining schools often charge more, are less regulated - Some are scams

Last Updated: July 02. 2010 2:22PM
Assessing No Worker Left Behind: Part 2
Retraining boosts private schools
But for-profit programs often charge more, are less regulated
Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News


In a Southfield office park, the former ComputerTraining.edu suite is dark and empty. The desks, computers and servers were removed hastily months ago. Neat writing on a classroom whiteboard is the only remnant of the hopes of its students: "Microsoft IT Academy," it says, introducing the six-month course with "Graduation: 7/14/2010."

The private for-profit school once represented a fresh start for Senad Zukic, 24, a laid-off graphic design worker who qualified for tuition assistance through the state's $500 million retraining effort called No Worker Left Behind. But an abrupt e-mail to him and about 100 others on Dec. 31 announced the school would immediately close -- midway through his program.

Now Zukic is without a certification or a job and still on the hook to repay a $7,000 private loan he took out to help cover the cost of tuition.

"I felt really betrayed," said Zukic. "I was really disappointed. I had everything planned out. ... I was really confident that as one of the top students I was to get the best job."

The sudden closure of a school represents an extreme risk of the state's retraining program. No Worker Left Behind has been a boon to proprietary schools, which some argue are better equipped to quickly handle career-changers. They also typically charge and promise more than public schools, although they are sporadically accredited and loosely regulated by the state.

Proprietary schools are the No. 1 recipient of No Worker Left Behind dollars in Metro Detroit, ahead of community colleges, a Detroit News check of local Michigan Works! offices found. While the state could not provide figures on payments to propriety schools statewide, in suburban Metro Detroit alone private schools have collected $50 million in taxpayer money from 15,000 students in six counties. The figures exclude Detroit, which declined to provide financial information.

ComputerTraining.edu, also known as ComputerTraining.com, had been licensed in Michigan since 2005 but was not accredited. Zukic's six-month course cost $13,500 -- more than a year's worth of undergraduate tuition at the University of Michigan.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100702/METRO/7020390/1...