Corinthian Colleges Calling It Quits

caliotter3 · Apr 27, 2015

I heard on the radio this morning that students who were at Corinthian schools when the first part of the school "problem solution" was initiated last year (or 2013, not sure of date) when they originally closed many of their school campuses, are not going to have their government student loans forgiven.

caliotter3 · Apr 27, 2015

Looked further and it seems the students who will not get loan forgiveness are the ones who were attending those campuses that were bought out last year. We'll see if there is any further clarification. At any rate, I wouldn't want to be one of those stuck in this quagmire, but then the students could have chosen more wisely to begin with.

anon456, BSN, RN · Apr 27, 2015

This is a good time to share this link again. It's very informative.

College, Inc. | FRONTLINE | PBS

Even if the loans are forgiven, it's time and money out of people's pockets for related expenses.

I feel sorry for many of these students. While we may have "seen it coming", many students don't have the advantage of good mentors to guide them through the college application process. Many are first generation students or even first generation Americans. The shady for-profit colleges take advantage of the inexperience of such students. It's criminal.

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Apr 27, 2015

I'm sorry to hear that -- why should the students get a free pass on loans they took out in good faith and agreed to pay back? Maybe they should have thought this through and done some further research before they got suckered by the "school." What lesson do they learn if they get magically bailed out?

Good point. Students that get suckered in shoulda known better but these schools are just so damn tricky in their advertising. They play to the down and outers watching TV at three o-clock in the morning and show a young person like themselves get a second chance at a good-paying career and buying a car and walking around in a lab coat carrying a clipboard etc...... It's a slick sell job. The government is gonna pay for school and you don't have to do much but sign right here. Sounds really appealing to someone already on government assistance.

Hopefully they will have at least learned they wasted their time and are no better off.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Apr 27, 2015

I feel sorry for many of these students. While we may have "seen it coming", many students don't have the advantage of good mentors to guide them through the college application process. Many are first generation students or even first generation Americans. The shady for-profit colleges take advantage of the inexperience of such students. It's criminal.

Your points are salient. I was a first-generation student from a family of origin who had not been informed consumers of higher educational products. In essence, my parents saw no difference between an unaccredited degree from ITT Tech and the fully accredited degrees conferred by schools of more solid repute.

Many of us from undereducated first-generation backgrounds had to fend for ourselves in the realm of higher education. The figurative vultures are keenly aware that many first-generation students were not bred to be informed consumers of higher education, so we are targeted for the most odious sorts of deals out there.

caliotter3 · Apr 28, 2015

I would think that college would have been a topic of even the slightest discussion in the final three years of any American high school. Seriously doubt that high school counselors or teachers are lauding the benefits of ITT, Everest, or Wyotech instead of NC State, Georgia Tech, or the local community college, as a starting point.

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 28, 2015

quagmire

Giggity

pixiestudent2 · Apr 28, 2015

I would think that college would have been a topic of even the slightest discussion in the final three years of any American high school. Seriously doubt that high school counselors or teachers are lauding the benefits of ITT, Everest, or Wyotech instead of NC State, Georgia Tech, or the local community college, as a starting point.

Honestly no one talked to me about college. I was seen as a "lost cause" I suppose and I eventually dropped out because I didn't see the point of graduating.

When I was looking to get my GED, after some googling, I called Everest and they said since I didn't have a GED, I just had to take a test (not the ged) and if I passed I could start classes....

I believe they get a lot of people that way....

I never went, because they honestly made me uncomfortable.

And I did research, but a lot of people would just see an opportunity and jump.

E Non Imus, RN · Apr 28, 2015

-- why should the students get a free pass on loans they took out in good faith and agreed to pay back? Maybe they should have thought this through and done some further research before they got suckered by the "school." What lesson do they learn if they get magically bailed out?

Maybe because the school agreed to train them and provide a degree? When I go into a restaurant and order a steak, if the chef lets me have two bites and then his lawyer comes and takes it away, I'm not paying the damn check. I ordered a whole steak, not two bites.

Did they make a wise decision attending school there? No. But as you are looking down from your high horse, think about how many of your coworkers came from for-profit schools. I guarantee it is more than you realize. Some of the biggest idiots I've ever worked with came from some of the best schools in the country.

The bigger question is: which kind of nurses are you okay with being screwed over? What schools did they have to come from for you to care? Which specialties are on your approval list? Are there nurses of certain classes you are okay with being screwed? Everyone here needs to know because if they are not on one of your approved lists, we should probably know in advance that you don't have our backs.

elkpark · Apr 28, 2015

Maybe because the school agreed to train them and provide a degree? When I go into a restaurant and order a steak, if the chef lets me have two bites and then his lawyer comes and takes it away, I'm not paying the damn check. I ordered a whole steak, not two bites.
Did they make a wise decision attending school there? No. But as you are looking down from your high horse, think about how many of your coworkers came from for-profit schools. I guarantee it is more than you realize. Some of the biggest idiots I've ever worked with came from some of the best schools in the country.
The bigger question is: which kind of nurses are you okay with being screwed over? What schools did they have to come from for you to care? Which specialties are on your approval list? Are there nurses of certain classes you are okay with being screwed? Everyone here needs to know because if they are not on one of your approved lists, we should probably know in advance that you don't have our backs.

Ummmm, speaking of "high horses" ...

People pay tuition in colleges, even the for-profit "schools," as they go. Students got the "education" that they paid for at the Corinthian schools up until the point they shut down. A more accurate analogy would be if you went to a restaurant, ordered a steak, salad, and dessert, and you got the steak and salad (and ate them), but the chef and his lawyer came and told you you weren't going to get the dessert you ordered. Would you not still be expected to pay for the steak and salad that you received and ate??

If I were three-quarters through a degree program, at any school, and the school was destroyed by some kind of natural disaster, does that mean my student loans for the education I've already completed should be forgiven? Obviously, I'm not going to be charged, or pay, any additional tuition, but why would I not continue to be obligated for the courses I've already taken?

LittleCandles · Apr 28, 2015

I went to this "school".

The education was worthless. Yes, I graduated and got my PN diploma. Yes, I managed to pass the NCLEX. Yes, I managed to get a job. However I was ill prepared when I started working. The community college students who got their licenses and graduated when I did could do laps around me.

Luckily I am learning more in the job but this school is a joke. I paid 33,000 . Don't get me started on how unprofessional they were also. (My enrollment advisor asked me to sell him my baby for 10k or have a baby for him and his wife but it involved doing it "the old fashion way")

I'm glad they're finally getting shut down.

LittleCandles · Apr 28, 2015

Oh and there is way more to the whole "we want our tuition back" then being greedy. 90% of the students were lied to and misled to come to the school and take out loans. For me they tried to get me to do the MA program THEN PN to "gain experience" which meant they wanted another 20k from me before giving me a degree I can actually use. Most of the programs you can barely get employment in and it is def. not in the pay rate they said we would get. (MA students getting minimum paying MA jobs not the 12-15 an hour they were promised). Schools would lure students who couldn't even speak or write English and get them to take out loans knowing they wouldn't be able to pass because they couldn't understand the teacher.

The school said they'd help you find a job after graduation then wouldn't help. After you graduate they harass your employer for information about you. Some of the campuses were falsifying records. Attendance/grades ect.. Online programs were worthless. Employers were telling students their degrees are not worth the paper they were printed on and they wouldn't hire them.

Do you know how humiliating it is going to an interview, being asked where you got your education and then being asked about the scandal and asked why you should be hired because the education you received was not very good? (I've had that personally) I was told this school was highly respected for their PN program in the community. However that wasn't the truth.

A girl in my PN class passed level one, got to level two and told she couldn't go to clinicals this round because she had something on her background check that none of the clinical sites would allow her. Why didn't they tell her that before enrolling her? Ohhh they wanted money first.

So these students who were lied to should not get their money back?