I've got to thank my boyfriend for finding this site for me. I read the article about AIU and the SCRIPT that they follow to enroll you. Whoever wrote that article really had it nailed... Word for word, basically. Hate to admit it, but I fell for the same scam. They accepted me before they even had my high school transcripts.
I had to have the admissions advisor help me figure out how to fill out all the financial paperwork, and I was led to believe that the $14,199 covered the full year it would take to get my associate's. I was told that REPEATEDLY.
Two months later, I got a call from the same advisor who enrolled me in AIU and helped me with the paperwork (Raniah Aburas), and she was determined to get me enrolled for the next year for my bachelor's degree "before the costs of tuition go up again" (I just recently got a letter from a company offering me student loans at about 2% interest because I have such a good credit score. It started off with "tuition costs are at an all-time low"). I declined because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do this for one year, let alone two.
Now, eight months down the line, I find out that AIU's "quarters" are actually three terms each, meaning the fourteen thousand dollars I've taken out in student loans only covers the first 2/3 of the year to get my associate's.
I called the school financial aid department because I thought the 14,000 covered the whole year, and they gave me the run around, and finally asked me if I still want to be enrolled in the school. My boyfriend finally clarified it all for me, with their terms and everything.in plain english, MY ASSOCIATE'S DEGREE ALONE IS GOING TO COST ME $23,000.
My other discrepancy with AIU is that they advertised the school as something you can do on your own time. Which in itself is true— so long as you maintain their deadlines, you can. But I don't know anyobdy who can read 160 PAGES OF REQUIRED READING IN ONE WEEK for only ONE CLASS, and still have time for the rest of their lives!
The "award-winning cybrary" is useless. I've been enrolled in AIU for eight months now and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $23,000 just to drop out. I use the internet because their text databases are too full of crap to be navigated easily.
All in all... If you want to pay almost ten thousand dollars past what you were promised, have no social life, and deal with their CONSTANT "technical difficulties"... Go ahead. Be my guest. Don't say you weren't warned...
As for me... I'm going to get my associate's, since I'm paying this much for it already, and go elsewhere for my bachelor's. This is ridiculous.
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