In late August, the U.S. Department of Education barred ITT (ESI) from enrolling new students who depend on federal aid and required the company to warn current students that its accreditation is in jeopardy. ITT also was told that it must increase its reserves from $94.4 million to $247.3 million, or 40% of federal student aid the company received in 2015.
The financial blow was too much for Carmel-based ITT to bear, so the decision was made to shutter operations, a move that will impact thousands of students and employees.
My sincere hope is that more of these types of schools will bite the dust.
I do feel bad for the students - but researching schools is super easy these days, and anyone should be doing that before signing their life away or plunking down hard earned cash.
In my opinion, the existence of these places is the fault of the Department of Education, who needs to start cracking down on diploma mills and worthless schools across the board. I can think of four right off the cuff that need to disappear....
They can look all they want, ITT was not regionally accredited. That is the problem. That's where personal responsibility comes into play. People have to research the school they are attending.
But not every for-profit is bad either. It would be unwise to put them ALL in the same basket when they are not. They shouldn't have to pay for someone else's mistake. I find a little fault on all ends, not just the student.
But not every for-profit is bad either. It would be unwise to put them ALL in the same basket when they are not. They shouldn't have to pay for someone else's mistake. I find a little fault on all ends, not just the student.
I would agree - but if the program isn't accredited - that is, in my opinion, the fault of the student.
The rest of the blame lies with DOE for allowing that dump to continue to exist. Yes, I say dump. Their predatory practices give legit online schools - and they do exist! - a terrible name.
I can say that even though West Coast University is high as ALL GET OUT, they ARE accredited by CCNE and their NCLEX pass rates have been above 80 percent for ALL of their campuses so even with the high money, at least the students are getting what they paid for. Not every for-profit can say that.
@carolinapooh This is true. That's why I looked at all the ones that were accredited by the Texas BON and had NCLEX rates of 80 percent or higher. I'm glad that every month, Texas updates each nursing program for every school and shows their accreditation (or no accreditation) and how their rates hold up every year. I use that VERY HANDY! lol
Here's the problem with prospective students doing their research, specifically about issues like accreditation.
If you are uneducated about college in general (say you're the first person in your family to go to college ) you really don't have a reliable person to help you through the process. There's no point of reference.
Couple that with the seeming incongruity of regional accreditation 'trumping' national accreditation and well, you have a perfect storm for a naive student falling victim to an unscrupulous for-profit school admissions person.
I'll repeat what I said in another thread: Those of us fortunate to have successfully navigated college need to mentor these prospective students who lack that person in their life. My Uncle Bob is the reason I went to college. My parents never went, and did not encourage or expect me to go. Not did their parents. Uncle Bob helped me, and now all four of my kids have gone to college- changing our family completely. I've mentored other family members through the process. Highly satisfying.
.thumb.gif.09f7460d3e1ff8d6732564d77b5465cb.gif){kind=avatar}
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
87 Articles; 21,287 Posts
Merged threads