how can these schools get away with SCAMMING people?

DebblesRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2011

Wow. I took the CNA course at my local community college back in 1994. Cost me $565 for the class, got me a CNA/HHA certification, AIDS and Bloodborne Pathogens, Domestic Violence, and BLS for healthcare providers, and included my fee to sit for boards for the certificate. Plus I got plenty of clinical experience. When I started my first job as a CNA, they were so happy I had taken the class at the college, they paid my tuition back to me. LOL So essentially, I paid NOTHING.

People need to shop around before they take those classes. It's amazing what some jerks will charge and some idiots will pay out.

ckh23, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2011

i am set to enter nursing school in august 2012, and i wanted to get some experiance as a cna or a tech. i saw an add in the paper for everest college, its a local trade school and they had a new program for a patient care tech.. i called to find out more info and the program was 9 months long and cost 16,000! *****??!!!!! where i live pct make 10.50 an hour!
no thanks, my rn degree will cost half of that!

Why is it a scam? Just because someone gets ripped off for not doing any research doesn't make it a scam. Ever go to a sporting event? A can of soda cost $5, but if you did some research and brought your own it would only cost about $1. Just because someone gets ripped off for being lazy, doesn't mean they are getting scammed.

Is someone who pays $75,000 to a University for a BSN being scammed because I got my ADN and then my RN-BSN for about $10k? It is all about the service being provided and what people are willing to pay.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Oct 21, 2011

This is very sad that people are mislead into an overprice profit degree mill that couldn't care less about them and will literally tell them anything including plenty of lies to get them to sign away their future!

Greed is really the biggest problem in America today and like another said the ads are full blown top of the line glitzy and splashy all over the air waves hoping to lure naive unsophisticated and unsuspecting people into a boatload of debt for a questionable degree and low paying job.

Why don't the legit colleges do half the advertising these greedy for profit do, especially the technical community colleges that offer these same programs for a fraction of the cost of a four year college degree!

Personal finance should be a high school requirement, and I think pushing college only classes to the exclusion of practical classes like home ec, finance is doing students a real disservice. There should be a requirement for some basic practical classes and at least offering practical classes as an elective. A lot of the elite schools in the best neighborhoods only offer college classes with the end result of a glut of college grads unable to get decent jobs. Everyone would benefit from practical classes like finance, budgeting, home economics, and family life etc!

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Oct 21, 2011

There have been exposes about these profit mills and they are unethical and lie to people, telling them anything they want to hear to get them to sign up and take out the loans. All of you who are so judgemental because you are so much smarter than that and they are so stupid, for the grace of God go I.

Blaming people who have been taken advantage of by greedy, unethical ruthless businesses is like pouring salt in the wounds! Don't think you couldn't end up the victim of a financial scam!

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Oct 21, 2011

I am a sitter and all the sitters and SNAs and PCAs are trained and paid for said training by the hospital.

Prior to being accepted into a big ten nursing program, I looked into forrest, a diploma program. You were required to be an LPN before being allowed into the RN. program and So I looked into medical assisting and their nine month program and they wanted 25k! Ridiculous. When I saw that price tag, I ran the other way...what a rip off.

DixieRedHead, ASN, RN · Oct 22, 2011

In the state where I work, you can buy a book. Study, challenge the CNA exam. If you pass that's it. Scary huh?

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Oct 22, 2011

In the state where I work, you can buy a book. Study, challenge the CNA exam. If you pass that's it. Scary huh?

:eek: What about OBRA 1987? I thought all CNA's were required to have a minimum amount of training?

heelhook80 · Oct 22, 2011

Why is it a scam? Just because someone gets ripped off for not doing any research doesn't make it a scam. Ever go to a sporting event? A can of soda cost $5, but if you did some research and brought your own it would only cost about $1. Just because someone gets ripped off for being lazy, doesn't mean they are getting scammed.
Is someone who pays $75,000 to a University for a BSN being scammed because I got my ADN and then my RN-BSN for about $10k? It is all about the service being provided and what people are willing to pay.

Ripping someone off for $5 is childs play, there is some trickery and taking advantage of someones stupidity here when these trade/vocational schools like Concord charge someone 35k for a respiratory therapy degree. Its laughable to rip someone off for $5, but it takes a special kind of cockroach to rip someone off for 30k.

I ran into an old friend going to Concord for respiratory and felt bad for him, maybe I'm wrong but I know the guy's had a hard life and I think he is being screwed and doesn't even know it. Shame on him for not researching. Shame on him for not knowing better. But that doesn't mean he deserves to get a worthless unaccredited degree that won't help him land a job.

I have relatives that went to Ivy league colleges and spent 120k on their bachelors. They landed 100-150k a year jobs right out of school and were talented people. Thats one thing. Its completely different when trade schools push student loans on people, promise them that they will have these high paying jobs waiting for them when they graduate, and taking them for every cent of student loans they can possibly squeeze out of them for what are, essentially, worthless degrees. Apples and oranges my friend.