Even their short introductory courses that they claim to be free is not in the real sense.

I did apply for one introductory to project management which the agent said its completely free plus the textbook I think it was supposed to run for some weeks.
They did send one nice textbook, a flash drive, a pen and a sort of ID card. I didnt even finish the module.


Late last year I got a letter that I was to pay for IT I guess information technology.

I just checked now its 160 dollars. The agent told me the short course was completely free though.

AyeeIdris:
You took their books. What did you think? You can't just stop and expect it to be over. The proper thing to have done is inform them on your decision to no longer continue the program and then ask the procedure. You can't just sit out a year with their property and expect things to be fine.
Can they come after you for the money? You need to study their regulations. I know that they can blacklist you from being able to apply for any foreign program again. Handle this with tact. You are in the wrong here

even if he spent a century with the books, how much be one wey e wan amount to more than four hundred thousand hard earned naira okay.... let's say 3weeks of classes fees is involved is it even supposed to be up to the said amount? abegi..... OP Threaten them back..... send their books back....

I would recommend that you inform them plainly that they don't have the right to keep disturbing you since you didn't pull through with the course. Besides they should not expect that they run things their way if they are trying to woo students from other countries.
I would even recommend that you send this Nairaland link to them that Nigerians have gotten aware of the scenario could blacklist or shun their future offers through 'caveat emptor'.
I think this is what is stopping me from making progress with one online offer I got recently. Some of these things are bound to come with hidden charges

Ask yourself this question, who will employ someone with an online degree? if it is Havard or a well recognised online university like the British Open university I can understand but I checked your university. They admit 98% of applicants....what does that tell you? Let me help it means their degree is not worth the paper it is printed on...don't waste your money.

http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/walden-university/undergrad

note that in the above link it is not even featured in the top universities

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/walden-university-25042

similarly it is not ranked by USnews


Furthermore I doubt any University worth it's salt will admit you to a master's programme based on a degree from Walden.

bigtt76:
E yaaa. I feel you. Don't be scared those guys in Lagos are just marketers too aiming for their own commission.

If they disturb you too much involve the police armed with all correspondence with the course advisor etc. It's a bad debt and you dropped out. They can't force you.

It's a lovely course though. Finished one with University of Liverpool and it was quite interesting. Wished you could finish it though.

Jesus!! Nairalander since 06

Ooh pulesssse stop insulting the OP it is his problem not yours. If you can't help him out with good comments then STFU

DedeNkem:
The real truth is that you owe them because you arranged to study with them, they sent you all the necessary materials and you attended few of their classes. So if you stopped on your own, is your problem not theirs.

That's why it's always good to study an application, rules and conditions of anything carefuly before applying! You behaved like a village illiterate! You're the type that rubbishes the name of this country and make it hard for other serious students!

You owe them and that's the fact. As you're a broke as*s, consult a lawyer now to arrange something with them. If the lawyer is good, he may arrange a reduced debt and also arrange with them for you pay them instalmentally per month until the debt is fully paid.

bigtt76:
You mean with University of Liverpool?

Yes pls

I be your mate? Lol

yinkeys:

Jesus!! Nairalander since 06

Compliance:
Hi fellow nairalanders, I need urgent and serious advices. I applied for a masters degree at Walden online university in 2013, I always had one of their agents calling me to consider studying with them since I showed my interest. He suggested the course I should put in for. That was masters in public health administration. Sincerely, he was too really on my neck then and I got his calls almost everyday. I guess is a white man. He's always calling to intimate me of the processes, until I got the admission letter, at a point he asked if I could be paying monthly.

I was sent some hard copy textbooks too. I started a few classes online, but when I started it was entirely something, I attended about 3 classes, did an assignment but didn't click with the way things were going. I wasn't used to all online lecture stuffs. Besides, I didn't flow because the course was basically based on the American system of health care delivery. I am and agric graduate, that course was like Latin to me.

I then lodged a complain to an advisor that I couldn't cope and besides its difficult keeping with classses due to several Nigerian factors. He said he'll look into it. Since that time I stopped attending the online classes and stopped totally. I attended the class like 3 times or four before I stopped. My laptop was latter stolen some few weeks after that and all materials were even gone.

After about a year I was called to pay up my school fees, I was like, what school fees? I didnt understand, I never wrote a test or exam let alone of obtaining a certificate. I told them I stopped long ago. They sent a few mails too trying to threaten me to pay up or they'll involve a third party, after about another year, They sent me a mail again, and I replied them the same thing, I even told them I would send the textbooks back to them, to me that was the only thing I can say I'm oweing them or I pay for them so they won't say Nigerians are corrupt. I told them my plight, I stopped working, and had no means of livelihood, a graduate looking for job and trying to make ends meet.

Some weeks ago I was contacted by some agents in Lagos about my indebtedness and that I must pay, I repeated the same response and explained to them that I'll pay for the textbooks and that I only did few classes not up to three weeks. They replied me that I must pay for those classes and the books when I converted the bill to Naira, it was above 400k. I was at first laughing it off, but I got a reminder again tonight.

Please I need urgent advises on what my actions could be. That amount is far too outrageous, even if they sell all I have right now, t won't pay the bill. Anyone that has encountered similar issue should please help with suggestions.

you saw d advert online as scholarship right?

like 70% off.. stuffs like that

DedeNkem:
The real truth is that you owe them because you arranged to study with them, they sent you all the necessary materials and you attended few of their classes. So if you stopped on your own, is your problem not theirs.

That's why it's always good to study an application, rules and conditions of anything carefuly before applying! You behaved like a village illiterate! You're the type that rubbishes the name of this country and make it hard for other serious students!

You owe them and that's the fact. As you're a broke as*s, consult a lawyer now to arrange something with them. If the lawyer is good, he may arrange a reduced debt and also arrange with them for you pay them instalmentally per month until the debt is fully paid.

Where you ever trained to be courteous in a 'public discourse'?

bigtt76:
I be your mate? Lol

Coding Error

Very simple, just go to their website and access the online courses select any suitable one and it should request your contact details through which an advisor would contact you.

You need to meet their entry requirements such as having graduated with good grades or having professional work experience.

Once you're certified qualified to start you will be enrolled for an introductory class after which the main courses would begin.

Fee would need to be paid though before start of classes.

Let me know if this answers your questions

enigmatique2124:



Yes pls

Lol

yinkeys:

Shey na by age. Jesus no reach 40 o (Lord forgive me)

Dear Op,

Sorry about your problem.

Let me try to explain a few things to you that might help in making you understand the matter at hand better.

Once you were able to gain access to the online classroom, it means you had acknowledged your acceptance letter hence were ready to start school; it also means you were already registered for class (this can be done by you, your enrollment advisor, or your academic advisor)

Once that had happened, it means Walden had already billed you for that quarter.


According to most universitys' policies, there is a given period of time in which you are allowed to cancel any course you have been registered for; this is what you should have done when you decided you were no longer interested in studying at Walden any longer. However, it is important that it is done early enough so you don't attract a penalty(they would normally retain a certain percentage of your fees); at this point, since you did not cancel or defer any of your registered courses, the assumption is that you were still enrolled in the program; as to whether you attended class or not is not their issue.

At this point, let me say that both your academic and enrolment advisor were not entirely helpful; since you had addressed your concerns to them, they should have advised you appropriately, or acted fast to try and salvage the situation; but then again if you attended about four classes, then maybe the deadline was past for dropping the course- meaning that you forfeit cancellation of that terms fees.

Do you have evidence of all the correspondence you had with the advisors? If yes, then attach the trail of e-mails to a new email you will send them, and let them know you informed the necessary people of your plight.( The US is very big on paper work, and everything you say has to be backed with evidence).

ADVICE FOR FUTURE TRANSACTIONS ANYWHERE- Never overlook orientation programs nor policies and guiding principles of any institution- do not think you can rely on others to provide such information to you. Always do thorough background research before making a move- not knowing is not an excuse.

I really wish you all the best, and if you do plan on responding to them, please do so with the highest form of decorum- everyone of your transactions is being documented.

Hope I have been of help!

bigtt76:
E yaaa. I feel you. Don't be scared those guys in Lagos are just marketers too aiming for their own commission.

If they disturb you too much involve the police armed with all correspondence with the course advisor etc. It's a bad debt and you dropped out. They can't force you.

It's a lovely course though. Finished one with University of Liverpool and it was quite interesting. Wished you could finish it though.

I am about to apply for Msc Corporate Finance with the University of Liverpool, please can you give me the estimated amount you spend and the mode of payment you used, did you attended the graduation ceremony? plus any other advice. Thanks in anticipation

Unfortunately I don't know Ow how much it would cost you but fee payments are like a minimum $500 monthly till you clear the cost of the program before you're allowed to graduate.

Yes I attended their graduation ceremony last summer. Mode of payment used then was through card payment (Naira card sef).

You must be dedicated and hard working to survive. Once you start try and finish rather than go for breaks in between as it would only end up costing you more (they review fees upwards every 2 years).

You can pay your fees through referrals (you get study points for every prospect you bring on board and registered).

ABDULKKR:

I am about to apply for Msc Corporate Finance with the University of Liverpool, please can you give me the estimated amount you spend and the mode of payment you used, did you attended the graduation ceremony? plus any other advice. Thanks in anticipation

bigtt76:
E yaaa. I feel you. Don't be scared those guys in Lagos are just marketers too aiming for their own commission.

If they disturb you too much involve the police armed with all correspondence with the course advisor etc. It's a bad debt and you dropped out. They can't force you.

It's a lovely course though. Finished one with University of Liverpool and it was quite interesting. Wished you could finish it though.

Is TOPEL must before they admitted you?

Keneking:
Lalasticlala ..this one is serious

Hello why do you always like calling and mentioning Lalasticlala even when ure not the OP of a post or thread just wondering.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/for-profit-college-student-debt


The folks who walked through Tressie McMillan Cottom's door at an ITT Technical Institute campus in North Carolina were desperate. They had graduated from struggling high schools in low-income neighborhoods. They'd worked crappy jobs. Many were single mothers determined to make better lives for their children. "We blocked off a corner, and that's where we would put the car seats and the strollers," she recalls. "They would bring their babies with them and we'd encourage them to do so, because this is about building motivation and urgency."

McMillan Cottom now studies education issues at the University of California-Davis' Center for Poverty Research, but back then her job was to sign up people who'd stopped in for information, often after seeing one of the TV ads in which ITT graduates rave about recession-proof jobs. The idea was to prey on their anxieties—and to close the deal fast. Her title was "enrollment counselor," but she felt uncomfortable calling herself one, because she quickly realized she couldn't act in the best interest of the students. "I was told explicitly that we don't enroll and we don't admit: We are a sales force."

After six months at ITT Tech, McMillan Cottom quit. That same day, she called up every one of the students she'd enrolled and gave them the phone number for the local community college.

With 147 campuses and more than 60,000 students nationwide, ITT Educational Services (which operates both ITT Tech and the smaller Daniel Webster College) is one of the largest companies in the burgeoning for-profit college industry, which now enrolls up to 13 percent of higher-education students. ITT is also the most profitable of the big industry players: Its revenue has nearly doubled over the past seven years, closing in on $1.3 billion last year, when CEO Kevin Modany's compensation topped $8 million.

To achieve those returns, regulators suspect, ITT has been pushing students to take on financial commitments they can't afford. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking into ITT's student loan program, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how those loans were issued and sold to investors. (Neither agency would comment about the probes.) The attorneys general of some 30 states have banded together to investigate for-profit colleges; targets include ITT, Corinthian, Kaplan, and the University of Phoenix.

A 2012 investigation led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) singled out ITT for employing "some of the most disturbing recruiting tactics among the companies examined." A former ITT recruiter told the Senate education committee that she used and taught a process called the "pain funnel," in which admissions officers would ask students increasingly probing questions about where their lives were going wrong. Properly used, she said, it would "bring a prospect to their inner child, an emotional place intended to have the prospect say, 'Yes, I will enroll.'"

For-profit schools recruit heavily in low-income communities, and most students finance their education with a mix of federal Pell grants and federal student loans. But government-backed student loans max out at $12,500 per school year, and tuition at for-profits can go much higher; at ITT Tech it runs up to $25,000. What's more, for-profit colleges can only receive 90 percent of their revenue from government money. For the remaining 10 percent, they count on veterans—GI Bill money counts as outside funds—as well as scholarships and private loans.
Study Haul

How for-profit schools leave their students high and dry.

96% of students at for-profit colleges take out loans. 13% of community college students, 48% of public college students, and 57% of nonprofit private college students do.

For-profit colleges enroll 13% of higher-education students but receive 25% of federal student aid.

The 15 publicly traded for-profit colleges receive more than 85% of their revenue from federal student loans and aid.

42% of students attending for-profit two-year colleges take out private student loans. 5% of students at community colleges and 18% at private not-for-profit two-year colleges do.

1 in 25 borrowers who graduate from college defaults on his or her student loans. But among graduates of two-year for-profit colleges, the rate is 1 in 5.

Students who attended for-profit schools account for 47% of all student loan defaults.

Sources: Sen. Harkin, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Education Sector

Whatever the source of the funds, the schools' focus is on boosting enrollment. A former ITT financial-aid counselor named Jennifer (she asked us not to use her last name) recalls that prospects were "browbeaten and hassled into signing forms on their first visit to the school because it was all slam, bam, thank you ma'am." The moment students enrolled, Jennifer would check their federal loan and grant eligibility to see how much money they qualified for. After students maxed out their federal grants and loans, there was typically an outstanding tuition balance of several thousand dollars. Jennifer says she was given weekly reports detailing how much money students on her roster owed. She would pull them from class and present them with a stark choice: get kicked out of school or make a payment on the spot. For years, ITT even ran a (now discontinued) in-house private loan program, known as PEAKS, in partnership with Connecticut-based Liberty Bank, with interest rates reaching 14.75 percent. (Federal student loans top out at 6.8 percent.)

Jennifer, who had previously worked at the University of Alabama, says she felt like a collection agent. "My supervisors and my campus president were breathing down my neck, and I was threatened that I was going to be fired if I didn't do this," she says. Yet she knew that students would have little means to get out from under the debt they were signing up for. Roughly half of ITT Tech students dropped out during the period covered by the Harkin report, and the job prospects for those who did graduate were hardly stellar. Even though a for-profit degree "costs a lot more," Harkin told Dan Rather Reports, "in the job market it's worth less than a degree from, say, a community college."

Jennifer says the career services office at her campus wasn't much help; students told her they were simply given a printout from Monster.com. (ITT says its career counselors connect students with a range of job services and also help them write résumés, find leads, and arrange interviews.) By the time she was laid off, Jennifer believed the college "left students in worse situations than they were to begin with."

It's not just whistleblowers who are complaining about ITT. There's an entire website, myittexperience.com, dedicated to stories from disappointed alumni. That's how we found Margie Donaldson, a 38-year-old who says her dream has always been to get a college degree and work in corporate America: "Especially being a little black girl in the city of Detroit, [a degree] was everything to me."

Donaldson was making nearly $80,000 packing parts at Chrysler when the company, struggling to survive the recession, offered her a buyout. She decided to use it to get the college degree that she never finished 13 years before. Five years later, she is $75,000 in debt and can't find a full-time job despite her B.A. in criminal justice from ITT. She's applied for more than 200 positions but says 95 percent of the applications went nowhere because her degree is not regionally accredited, so employers don't see it as legitimate. Nor can she use her credits toward a degree at another school. Working part time as an anger management counselor, she brings in about $1,400 a month, but there are no health benefits, and with three kids ages 7, 14, and 18, she can barely make ends meet. She has been able to defer her federal student loans, but the more than $20,000 in private loans she took out via ITT can't be put off, so she's in default with 14.75 percent interest—a detail she says her ITT financial-aid adviser never explained to her—and $150 in late fees tacked on to her balance each month. Donaldson says she has tried to work out an affordable payment plan, but the PEAKS servicers won't agree until she pays an outstanding balance of more than $3,500—more than double her monthly income. "It puts me and my family, and other families, I'm sure, in a very tough situation financially," she says.

Donaldson says she didn't understand how different ITT was from a public college. If she had attended one of Michigan's 40-plus state and community colleges, her tuition would have been roughly one-third of what it was at ITT. Now, she says, all that time and money feels wasted: "It's almost like I'm like a paycheck away from going back to where I grew up."

mr. compliance, just install call blocker and block all strange calls. shikena

http://www.alternet.org/education/profit-colleges-get-rich-sinking-students-debt-and-their-scam-financed-our-tax-dollars





For-Profit Colleges Get Rich by Sinking Students Into Debt — and Their Scam Is Financed by Our Tax Dollars
Let's make higher education free to all.
By Jim Hightower / Hightower Lowdown
July 14, 2015

Print
39 COMMENTS

Butch Hancock, one of Austin's finest singer-songwriters, grew up in the Texas Panhandle, out among dryland farmers and strict fundamentalist Christians. Butch once told me that he felt he'd been permanently scarred in his vulnerable teen years by the local culture's puritanical preachings on sexual propriety: "They told us that sex is filthy, obscene, wicked, and beastly-- and that we should save it for someone we love."

Today, America's higher education complex approaches students with the same sort of convoluted logic that guided Butch's sex education: "A college degree is the key to prosperity for both you and your country, so it's essential," lectures the hierarchy to the neophytes. "But we'll make it hard to get, and often not worth the getting." Touted as a necessity, but priced like a luxury, many degree programs are mediocre or worse--predatory loan scams that hustle aspiring students into deep debt and poverty.

On both a human level and in terms of our national interest, that is seriously twisted. Nonetheless, it's our nation's de facto educational policy, promulgated and enforced by a cabal of ideologues and profiteers, including Washington politicos, most state governments, college CEOs, Wall Street financiers, and debt collection corporations. What we have is a shameful ethical collapse. These self-serving interests have intentionally devalued education from an essential public investment in the common good to just another commodity. Caveat emptor and adios, chump.

A little ancient history. Back in the olden days of 1961, I enrolled in the University of North Texas. At this public school, I was blessed with good teachers, a student body of working-class kids (most, like me, were the first in their families to go to college), and an educational culture focused on enabling us to become socially useful citizens. All of this cost me under $800 a year (about $6,250 in today's dollars)--including living expenses! With close-to-free tuition and a part-time job, I could afford to get a good basic education, gain experience in everything from work to civic activism, make useful connections, graduate in four years, and obtain a debt-free start in life. We just assumed that's what college was supposed to be. It still ought to be, but for most students today, it's not even close.

Screw U

The nation's fastest growing provider of higher education is, unfortunately, the worst: private, for-profit schools. Unlike community colleges, non-profit private, and four-year public institutions, the for-profits are in the learning game--as their name states-- for profit. While a few deliver an honest educational product and still make money, honesty is not the business model embraced by most of these sprawling, predatory chains, largely owned by Wall Street.

More than 40 years ago, John Sperling--a college professor-turned-entrepreneur--noticed that many local, independent trade schools provided a useful public service: They trained and certified auto mechanics, bookkeepers, therapists, and such. "Eureka!" shouted the professor/entrepreneur, spotting an opportunity for big bucks: He would consolidate the scattered, local, privately owned trade schools into a nationwide corporate-run chain of colleges selling a variety of degree programs--a McDonaldization of higher education.

Today, mass-market college conglomerates suck in millions of U.S. students, generate huge profits, and draw Wall Street speculators and hedge funds to finance their expansion. The company Sperling founded, Apollo Education Group, owns the University of Phoenix and other chains, and has subsidiaries in Chile, India, South Africa, Mexico, and Australia. In 2014, the year Sperling died, Apollo took more than $200 million in profit.

This corporatization has been a disaster for education. After all, corporations are managed and governed not to benefit consumers (in this case, students and society), but to please investors by goosing up stock prices and maximizing profits.

To achieve that Wall Street imperative, this educational sector routinely applies the full toolkit of corporate thievery: fraudulent advertising, high-pressure sales tactics, bait-and-switch scams, loan sharking, PR shams, legal dodges, political protection, and outright lying and cheating. Instead of spreading enlightenment and broadening life's possibilities, the for-profit industry has bilked and bankrupted hundreds of thousands of students. Its rap sheet is endless: 37 state attorneys general have formed a joint working group to investigate illegalities; 24 states are pursuing legal violations by specific colleges within their borders; the usually phlegmatic U.S. Department of Education has begun tentative actions against five notoriously abusive student debt collectors; and students, parents, staff, and others have launched a slew of private lawsuits.

The industry's record of criminality is made more disgraceful by: 1) preying on struggling, low-income workers (especially single moms, people of color, and veterans) desperately hoping a degree will provide a toehold in the middle-class; and 2) financing the scam with your and my tax dollars.

Yes, what we have here is a "free-enterprise" industry that's wholly sustained by federal dollars. The for-profit house-of-cards could not exist without being allowed to siphon into its private coffers the billions of dollars in student aid the government makes available annually to low-income students and veterans. "Get on our upward-mobility escalator," blare the come-ons, "and we'll enroll you in government loan programs that'll pay for it all--plus, you'll get a degree qualifying you for well-paying jobs, and we'll even help place you in them!" What's not to like? That it's a scam, of course. The for-profits drastically overcharge, knowingly piling on intolerable levels of debt; they deliver such poor education that students can't get jobs that pay enough to make loan payments; they divert precious education dollars from better and much more affordable degrees at community colleges... and they laugh all the way to the bank.

Meanwhile, the $1.3 trillion mountain of debt rung up by students at all types of U.S. colleges is endangering our entire economy. It is more than people owe on credit cards or auto loans, and second only to home-related borrowing. Student debt will soon surpass the subprime home mortgage debt that crashed the economy in 2008.

For-profit college corporations are the biggest creator of this looming danger. David Halperin, an excellent public interest watch-dog and author of Stealing America's Future: How For-Profit Colleges Scam Taxpayers and Ruin Students' Lives, sums up the industry as "an immoral enterprise."

To say there are lots of horror stories about private, for-profit colleges gouging students is like saying there are lots of ouchies in a bramble patch. A profusion of books, articles, reports, investigations, and lawsuits, as well as social media websites such as MyITT Experience.com, documents the toll.

But, you might ask, if they're so awful, how do they stay in business? The old-fashioned way: By lavishly spreading money around to the right people. And since most of their revenue comes from taxpayers, it's actually your money they're spreading.

LOBBYISTS. Growing student anger about the industry's nasties and demands for basic reforms have reached Washington and forced the colleges to respond. Not by altering their ways, mind you, but by hiring more lobbyists. To keep government funds gushing into their poorly performing schools, the industry has quadrupled its lobbying budget during the past decade. Reforms are almost impossible, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) explained, because for-profit colleges "own every lobbyist in town."

Well, not all, but a bevy of the best-connected--from former GOP Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt. And in 2013, a former eight-term congressman, Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin, swung through Washington's revolving door to became head honcho of the industry's chief lobbying front, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU).

As the industry drew public ire, scathing press, and sagging enrollment, the APSCU launched a save-our-bacon political "reform" plan. Gunderson's fellow for-profit college booster John Boehner (R-Ohio) fit perfectly into the scheme, which essentially became the House speaker's protectorate. As outlined in a six-page internal memo (leaked to Halperin), the APSCU bluntly said it would follow a strategy "as directed by House Republican leadership."

Sure enough, GOP representatives have aggressively (and usually unanimously) formed a solid wall blocking a modest regulatory proposal by Obama to hold the industry's worst performers accountable. Under the proposed "gainful employment rule," colleges that have a high percentage of students who don't graduate, accrue heavy debts, or are so poorly educated that they can't earn enough to repay their loans would be cut off from the federal trough.

But being reasonable and fiscally prudent is in the interest of students and taxpayers, not of for-profit colleges. So Gunderson threw a histrionic hissy-fit last year, wailing that Obama's proposal was "an ideological declaration of war against the private sector's involvement in the delivery of post-secondary education." The gainful employment rule remains bottled up.

CANDIDATES. Campaign dollars are what grease the lobbying skids, and for-profit colleges have become major grease monkeys. As the industry's reputation with the public has sunk, its political donations have soared--to nearly $3 million in last year's congressional races and $4.4 million in the 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns. Reflecting their strategic reliance on Boehner (and their anger at Obama for daring to cross them), donors allocated 70% in both 2012 and 2014 to GOP campaigns. Indeed, Boehner himself is among the top five recipients of the colleges' electioneering largesse.

The numero uno beneficiary, at $183,000, is chairman of the House Education Committee, Rep. John Kline--a faithful mule for carrying legislation to prevent new constraints and undo old rules that impede greed. The industry's third-and fourth-place money winners in the 2014 House races were Democrats Alcee Hastings and Robert Andrews: Those two pushed fellow Dems hard to pressure Obama to drop the gainful employment rule. There's a word for corporate money in, public money out, Halperin says: Corruption.

CREDIBILITY. Having destroyed their own integrity and reputations, the colleges have become bulk buyers of others' credibility. APSCU parades an A-list of political sparklies onto the stage of its lavish annual conventions: former Sec. of State Colin Powell in 2011, George W himself in 2012, ex-NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark in 2013, and Jeb Bush last year.

Television personalities also lend their celebrity to the schools' scams. Ubiquitous, self-promoting financial "expert," Suze Orman, has been on the payroll of the giant University of Phoenix for-profit chain, promoting its educational rip-offs on Capitol Hill and online. Comedian and TV host Steve Harvey has hyped Strayer University in TV ads. And U of Phoenix also sponsored an uplifting TV special by Al Sharpton--the MSNBC host subsequently

Op while I empathize with you, my questions are:

1. when you did you bsc in Nigeria, did you pay school fees before getting your certificate?

2. Did you read the terms and conditions?

3. Do you understand that after you agree with the terms and conditions, you cannot change them midway?

4. Going into contract law, both in UK and Nigeria, do you realize that partaking in their classes is an implicit acceptance of their terms and conditions, which includes their fees?

If you provide the terms and conditions which you accepted by partaking in their classes, then we can further analyze whether you have defaulted or they are wrongfully charging you.

Before you partake in anything, read the terms and conditions because according to contract law, partaking implies you have accepted to pay.

Solution: engage them. Talk to them. They shouldn be able to give some respite based on your economic situation.

Yes I completed an online registration and got an admission letter

Amefrica:


What does this have to do with what OP has said?

OP, it is very possible you are owing the school. If you complete registration (registered for courses and stuff) you get charged and the money goes/adds into your student account, since you did not register for another semester then you only have to pay for the one semester you attended. Do you remember if you complete any registration online?

Here is my 50 cents. First you did not tell us how your fees were financed. Usually, a third party agreement is involved in terms of financing because schools do not directly finance students. You accepted the admission and was registered for courses an was financed by a third party. In American universities, there is what they call PERIOD OF ADD OR DROP. This period is usually about first two weeks of the beginning of the semester, when you drop the course within this period, you get a 100% refund and nothing on your transcript. But one day pass this period, you are responsible for the charges in fees and tuition up to certain amount. Then at a certain point, you will responsible for the whole amount charged.

Remember, stopping to attend classes does not officially mean that you dropped out of the class. To officially drop, you must contact your adviser or use the add/drop menu if online, to drop the class. Did you do this within that period? If no, then you are responsible for the all fees. The people calling you from Nigeria might be a collection agency who have bought the debt at a ridiculously cheap amount from the third party.

All you can do for now is to ask them for proof that you owe anybody any money. If they provide that, ask them for evidence that they have authority to collect for the third party. If they provide that, ask them for detailed documentation showing your transaction/agreement with the third party. If they provide it, tell them you are unable to pay and request for them to give a you a form to fill showing you financial situation.

Next wait for them to make decision based on your circumstances. Most time if truly you can't pay, they will conceal the debt. But in case they don't, tell them to go to court.

If they go to court, use the service of a lawyer or they might win on technical grounds. As you are going to court, let your lawyer write them and promise to settle for say 10-20k. At that point, they will counter and if their counter offer is reasonable, pay it and sign a joint stipulation for dismissal with them. If you allow it to go for trial, you have 50-50 chance but if you loss, it might cost you more than the 400k because of other claims and legal fees..

Never, and I repeat never sign any document with anybody until you talk to a legal professional. Good luck.

noblealuu:
.

Hi would like to tap from your wealth of experiences as regarding the MSc in Pub. Health in the area of cost effectiveness, flexibility, acceptability in the labour market as well as feasibility in terms of its knowledge application to humanity.

Sorry to bug you though. I'm contemplating many opinions, please be my career facilitator. Thanks in advance!

PM me there might be a better option for you. Liverpool online costs a fortune.

bigtt76:
E yaaa. I feel you. Don't be scared those guys in Lagos are just marketers too aiming for their own commission.

If they disturb you too much involve the police armed with all correspondence with the course advisor etc. It's a bad debt and you dropped out. They can't force you.

It's a lovely course though. Finished one with University of Liverpool and it was quite interesting. Wished you could finish it though.

my fellow alumnus! i just finished mine in december(MSc in Project management ( oil and gas ). are u
travelling for the graduation?

INDUSTRIALFAN:
even if he spent a century with the books, how much be one wey e wan amount to more than four hundred thousand hard earned naira okay.... let's say 3weeks of classes fees is involved is it even supposed to be up to the said amount? abegi..... OP Threaten them back..... send their books back....

Imagine this in a business setting. You enter into a contract for someone to build a house for you. You give him materials. He starts and complains of difficulty in the project but he does not tell you he is nor doing it again. A year later, you return and see that nothing is done. You either ask that he complete or compensate you for time wasted. And he says he doesn't owe you anything but will return your materials You go vex na.
The school is a business. The books could have gone to a paying student. That the op chose not to continue is not their problem. The contract is valid. Hopefully, he can work out a settlement with them. But money he shall have to pay

bigtt76:
E yaaa. I feel you. Don't be scared those guys in Lagos are just marketers too aiming for their own commission.

If they disturb you too much involve the police armed with all correspondence with the course advisor etc. It's a bad debt and you dropped out. They can't force you.

It's a lovely course though. Finished one with University of Liverpool and it was quite interesting. Wished you could finish it though.

Loool.

How are you sure that they're marketers?

Ever heard of debt factoring houses?

At op Compliance, it is the t&c that can only save you.

If the terms and conditions you signed up for(yes!!!. That lengthy,boring blah blah blah legal jargons!!!) doesn't warrant this,then you may have a case!!

Or else, change address, phone number and what-have-you

@op, you don't have to be scared. I am also an online student but not at Walden. Usually, after the letter of offer has been sent to you regarding your admission, they are also to accompany it with a student's agreement document. If you didn't sign any student agreement document, you have no cause to worry. Normally the schools won't let u start lectures if you haven't paid your fees.

Thanks so much. I may have to start searching my mails
But one serious issue here is that most of my conversations with them were through phone calls

YACAA:
Dear Op,

Sorry about your problem.

Let me try to explain a few things to you that might help in making you understand the matter at hand better.

Once you were able to gain access to the online classroom, it means you had acknowledged your acceptance letter hence were ready to start school; it also means you were already registered for class (this can be done by you, your enrollment advisor, or your academic advisor)

Once that had happened, it means Walden had already billed you for that quarter.


According to most universitys' policies, there is a given period of time in which you are allowed to cancel any course you have been registered for; this is what you should have done when you decided you were no longer interested in studying at Walden any longer. However, it is important that it is done early enough so you don't attract a penalty(they would normally retain a certain percentage of your fees); at this point, since you did not cancel or defer any of your registered courses, the assumption is that you were still enrolled in the program; as to whether you attended class or not is not their issue.

At this point, let me say that both your academic and enrolment advisor were not entirely helpful; since you had addressed your concerns to them, they should have advised you appropriately, or acted fast to try and salvage the situation; but then again if you attended about four classes, then maybe the deadline was past for dropping the course- meaning that you forfeit cancellation of that terms fees.

Do you have evidence of all the correspondence you had with the advisors? If yes, then attach the trail of e-mails to a new email you will send them, and let them know you informed the necessary people of your plight.( The US is very big on paper work, and everything you say has to be backed with evidence).

ADVICE FOR FUTURE TRANSACTIONS ANYWHERE- Never overlook orientation programs nor policies and guiding principles of any institution- do not think you can rely on others to provide such information to you. Always do thorough background research before making a move- not knowing is not an excuse.

I really wish you all the best, and if you do plan on responding to them, please do so with the highest form of decorum- everyone of your transactions is being documented.

Hope I have been of help!

I didn't sign any agreement document. I hope they just let me be.

mranova:
@op, you don't have to be scared. I am also an online student but not at Walden. Usually, after the letter of offer has been sent to you regarding your admission, they are also to accompany it with a student's agreement document. If you didn't sign any student agreement document, you have no cause to worry. Normally the schools won't let u start lectures if you haven't paid your fees.