To start Apollo Group actually "manages" four colleges, for everyones benefit who has not yet been scammed by them they are listed as 1. University of Phoenix 2. Western International University 3.institute for Professional Development and 4. College for Financial Planning. STAY AWAY!!! Any ties to Apollo Group are financially disasterous.
Bottom line: at Western International University you take 2 classes every 9 weeks (called blocks) & Pell Dispursements, they tell you, will be sent to you at the beginning of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. Blocks of classes. This is NOT the truth-read on. The books cost between $150.00 & $200.00 each block for the two classes.
2/28/05 - Start date. Finally after having to delay my education for almost a decade I had a real chance! (or so I thought). Had to borrow money to start, but I got my Pell $ coming
4/14/05 - Pell check from the 04-05 academic year (keep an eye on the school years) cleared the bank. YEEEAAA - now I can pay back the money I had to borrow from family for books and food and bills!
5/2/05 - Second block of classes began. Yes it takes time to keep up with the assignments but it is worth it, right?
7/4/05 - Third block of classes start, I have a 3.8 GPA, and I am working my rump off (have I mentioned I am a stay-at-home mom with 4 boys?) Crap where is the Pell money???
9/5/05 - Fourth block of classes start, but I can not because I STILL HAVE NO PELL CHECK. Take two weeks off while waiting for Gabriel, my financial counselor, to do his job.
9/19/05 - Actual start of 4th block (3.62 GPA) with a promise from Gabriel and my academic counselor, can't remember who it was because they kept changing, that I would receive my Pell in the first week of that block (the second week at the latest) and what a shock it was to me when I got NO check - *#%! I can not afford books, so I am wasting hours trying to do the research online to finish my assignments. It will be a cold day before I bum money again, how humiliating and degrading is that!
10/14/05 - Pell check from the 05-06 academic year cleared the bank. Hey! Wait a second where is the second dispersement from the 04-05 school year? I will tell you this I never received that and according to the NLSDS it was never returned to the government, so you figure out who's pocket it is in.
11/21/05 - Fifth block of classes commence. Remember the Pell Dispersement schedule from the top - I should be receiving my third government check, correct? Not according to Apollo Group. Gabriel also was kind enough to inform me that at the final semester I would not be receiving the last installment of
financial aid because of his laxity.
Week of 11/28/05 I was forced to withdraw. I had failed the classes in the fourth block because of Apollo Group withholding my financial aid funds from me. But here is the kicker the second dispersement for the 05-06 year is still floating around somewhere, so the total amount of the missing government subsidized funds comes to $4050.00, again - You figure it out!!!
I have attempted to reach a solution by suggesting that they apply me for the FSEOG Grant (and if they did I never received the funds from that either) because with our imcome level and family size we are officially below the government guidelines for the poverty level, but Gabriel stonewalled me and gave me every excuse, and possibly lies, why I wouldn't be approved for the FSEOG.
I am now being harassed by their collection agency for the 2 classes that I failed, and when I related my dealings with Apollo Group to the representative he was horrified and placed my account on temporary hold, but the only response I receive from Apollo Group is that it is not their problem anymore.
Mark my words - I will NOT bend over and take it! I may be one individual, but I am certain that there are hundreds of others that you have scammed and stolen from, not to mention the actions that are enforceable by the federal government. There incompitence is unequalled.
Apollo Group, Joan M., and Gabriel U. You have crossed the wrong person. There is not one aspect of my life this has not negatively impacted. The second my childrens livelyhood was affected the claws came out.
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