When Your Nursing School is Shut Down

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Dear Nurse Beth,

My friend is going to school, for a nursing degree, at Antigua College International. That is the school that is in the process of being closed, by CIE. My question is, shouldn't the school let the students know that the school is about to be closed, for lack of accreditation?

---

Dear Shut Down,

On the website, it says

"This nursing education program is a candidate for accreditation by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing". So it sounds like they did not pass accreditation.

It's not unusual when businesses are going under to not say anything until the last moment. They may be waiting for a last minute reprieve from the Secretary of Education or trying to meet some urgent corrective plan of action to save their program. Expect that they will simply walk into the classroom and make an announcement, then close the doors.

Hopefully your friend and classmates have transferable units and can transfer to another facility but often this does not end well, with accredited programs unwilling to accept units from a non-accredited college.

Students can even be stuck with loans, but they can ask the U.S. Department of Education to cancel loans. That is, if the student doesn't transfers credits or in the unlikely event the school hires a successor training program.

These kind of for-profit programs give for-profits a bad name, and take advantage of often naieve people trying to better themselves. The buyer (student) has a responsibility here as well, though. Choosing a non-accredited school carries risk, or choosing a school that is just starting out offering nursing programs.

Another metric that's easily discoverable is the NCLEX pass rate compared to Florida's pass rate and the national pass rate. Google Antigua college pass rate and you may be surprised.

Best wishes to your friend, I'm sorry.

Nurse Beth

Author, "Your Last Nursing Class: How to Land Your First Nursing Job"...and your next!

[Forest2]

There was a school, not nursing, in Indiana that closed either this year or last. Students found out by seeing a sign on the locked door when they presented for class. Terrible.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

20 hours ago, Forest2 said:

There was a school, not nursing, in Indiana that closed either this year or last. Students found out by seeing a sign on the locked door when they presented for class. Terrible.

And they all have to still pay their student loans as of yet...sucks. But always check out the school thoroughly...

[llg, PhD, RN]

Sorry for getting political here ... but this is a big, hot topic in higher education ... one that Democrats and Republicans are fighting about. I encourage everyone to educate themselves on this issue so that we can write our representatives in Washington to address the problems with these sleezey schools.

The Department of Education under the Obama administration enacted policies and practices that tried to monitor schools and shut down those schools not doing a good job. They also tried to ensure that schools that closed would be required to make some decent arrangements for their students and to cancel their government-sponsored student loans.

However, President Trump appointed a for-profit educator to be his Secretary of Education and the Dept. has since eliminated those student protections in the past couple of year.

I am very sorry that this is happening to the OP's friend -- and to any student. Our government should be protecting naive students from being swindled like that -- instead of supporting the swindlers. But when the "fox is guarding the hen house," what can you expect?

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

I agree, for the most part, but a lot of these schools and their sleazy practices were up and running, for years, before the current administration took office, so it doesn't just boil down to 1 administration. In fact, an Indiana nursing school shut down during the last administration, and the students that were left holding the bag were told 'tough luck, Chuck', my ex-boyfriends daughter being one of them...

I think people should educate themselves on schools and research prior to signing their life away. The for profits prey on those who can't get into lower cost, non-profit, schools, and make promises and tell lies. I tried to steer my ex's daughter away from the school, but she did it anyway and would say she would "show me" for trying to steal her dream of being a nurse. Her dad thought I was being mean as well, and now that he had co-signed 126,0000 in private loans for her ASN that never happened, he's ticked because I should have stopped them. Ummmmm, don't know what else I could have done, I had printed out literature on the school, BBB ratings, etc.

Future students of any school, any career, do your research!!!!!

[llg, PhD, RN]

I agree with Hoosier, RN, MSN. Many of these schools have been in existence for years -- and consumers need to do their homework about any school that they select.

But government officials at both the state and national levels need to be made aware of the "bad actors" out there and held accountable for the policies they enact to either shut down these bad schools or support them. A lot of our tax dollars are going into the pockets of these school administrators.

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

20 hours ago, llg said:

Sorry for getting political here ... but this is a big, hot topic in higher education ... one that Democrats and Republicans are fighting about. I encourage everyone to educate themselves on this issue so that we can write our representatives in Washington to address the problems with these sleezey schools.

The Department of Education under the Obama administration enacted policies and practices that tried to monitor schools and shut down those schools not doing a good job. They also tried to ensure that schools that closed would be required to make some decent arrangements for their students and to cancel their government-sponsored student loans.

However, President Trump appointed a for-profit educator to be his Secretary of Education and the Dept. has since eliminated those student protections in the past couple of year.

I am very sorry that this is happening to the OP's friend -- and to any student. Our government should be protecting naive students from being swindled like that -- instead of supporting the swindlers. But when the "fox is guarding the hen house," what can you expect?

Wow, I had no idea about the lack of oversight but everything you see from the "buyer's" end speaks to what you are saying. I think it's shameful X 10 that vulnerable people trying to better themselves are given false promises. I'm a fan of community colleges for the low price and accessibility.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

On 7/18/2019 at 10:57 AM, llg said:

However, President Trump appointed a for-profit educator to be his Secretary of Education and the Dept. has since eliminated those student protections in the past couple of year.

I am very sorry that this is happening to the OP's friend -- and to any student. Our government should be protecting naive students from being swindled like that -- instead of supporting the swindlers. But when the "fox is guarding the hen house," what can you expect?

to universities preaching hate and pc language they need to give a refund to all those students for lack of a real education.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

On 7/18/2019 at 11:14 AM, Hoosier_RN said:

but a lot of these schools and their sleazy practices were up and running, for years, before the current administration took office, so it doesn't just boil down to 1 administration. In fact, an Indiana nursing school shut down during the last administration, and the students that were left holding the bag were told 'tough luck, Chuck', my ex-boyfriends daughter being one of them...

agree

[ThePsychWhisperer, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP]

4 hours ago, Leader25 said:

to universities preaching hate and pc language they need to give a refund to all those students for lack of a real education.

Leader, overall, we're discussing for-profits and their often times deceptive practices, misleading students into mountains of debt with no usable degree. Not sure where the discussion on hate and PC rhetoric came from.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Such a shameful situation. So sorry your friend chose to go to one of these schools. Like it's not bad enough that students are usually receiving an at best sub par education at an exorbitant cost the poor students that are in the middle of their degree program when a school just shuts down, often without warning are just stuck.

Stuck without reaching their goal of graduating and not having a clue how to resume their education if they are even able to be accepted at a more reputable school. Stuck with credits already earned and paid mightily for that won't transfer to a different school if the student is able to be admitted to one. Stuck with all the student loans that can easily be in the 6 figure range with nothing to show for it and no feasible way to pay them back.

These outstanding loans can make it unlikely if not impossible to get any more financial aid for continuing their education. I shouldn't even say finding more financial aid for continuing their education is difficult, I should've clarified that by saying more financial aid for starting over their education is difficult if not impossible to get. Since those already earned credits most likely won't transfer to any reputable school these students affected by this are essentially starting over from scratch. Only now starting over from scratch includes beginning with an already huge financial burden that is impossible for most people to overcome.

It's beyond shameful that our government participates willingly in the outright thievery of these students money and future eligibility for financial aid with little to no recourse. Sure, there are programs in place to supposedly help discharge this debt but they are beyond difficult to navigate and rarely if ever work. This is one of those situations that I am all for the government stepping in and making discharging these students debt an easy process. When one of these for profits shuts down with little to no warning that debt should disappear with the school.

[NurseBlaq]

I always tell people to avoid for profit schools like the plague.