I recently attended Westwood College in the begining of 2007 and I thought everything was fine. They welcomed me with open arms and told me everything I wanted to hear. Only to discover that four months later a student loan I was told was approved actually was not.
The loan provider that Westwood claims it uses is Sallie Mae. The student aid department had told me that no loans were ever approved for me, however, no one told me while I was attending their school. Now that I have withdrawn from Westwood, and transfered to the University of Phoenix, I am now recieving loan notes to pay back the tuition that I thought that the student loan was to cover.
The times I have called to their student aid office I am met with either having to leave voicemails or that particular person is either "busy" or on another "phone call" this is very nerve racking. When I finally talked to someone they basically told me that there was a mix up with the student loans and in fact that there were a handful of students whose loans were approved from Sallie Mae but that there were not enough funds to disperse among all the students who were actually approved.
So now because I was never approved for any student loans I am supposed to pay back the tuition to this company called APEX LOAN PROGRAM. The thing that really upsets me is that before I even started any classes I was told to use a co-signer for the student loans. I had told them several times that I did not have any, and they insisted that I find at least three co-signers and this way I would be denied three times and the student aid department would put me in a "special program" to assist me with the tuition.
I would caution anyone that is interested in going to college to pay close attention to this story. Research your potential schools before you enter into any agreements.
I hope that this story sparks an investigation into the shady practices that this particular institution engages in. Taking advantage of students and their credit.
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