Hello Folks;
I am so lost, and depressed at what I am finding about Kaplan University. I am partaking in the "online" schooling that I enrolled in back in June.
Back in June I was a mother of two small boys, working as a P.C.A., my husband worked out of town all the time, and I needed a change in our lives. We are a family of poverty. Not that I minded as long as our bills are being taken care of. I did think it would be nice to get some sort of higher education with a promising career at the end. I used to go to the library all the time to check my email and browse on the net. I didn't have a personal computer.
One day I decided to look for schools that serve students all online. I found the University of Pheonix, Kaplan and a couple others. Prior to this I should have just stuck with a writing school or getting my CNA license. I must have given out my information, and a woman called me from Kaplan. She was african american, I could tell by her voice. She sounded so nice and very assuring. Little did I know it was all to persuade me into doing something that would screw me over in the end. We talked for hours!
My damn phone bill was 400 bucks because they wouldn't leave me the hell alone as I was enrolling. I am a believer (Christian). And the woman knew, so she pretended to be a believer too. This made it all the more convincing. She even called me from her HOME/PERSONAL phone. I thought that was odd.
I had many questions such as;
*I don't have a personal computer
"Go use the Libraries, or someone you know"
*I DON"T want to start next week, it's too quick for me.
"If you don't start now, you will never start. This is for your future!"
*How is my tuition going to be payed for, I don't have any money..
"FINANCIAL AID AND GRANTS"
WHAT?! Are you kidding? COOL! The woman said that I may have about 3,000 dollars in student loans taken out. I was a little iffy about that. 3,000 dollars is ALOT of money in my world. But then I was ok with it. I was convinced yet again.
Then came the enrolling fee. $90.00 Who came up with this figure? It's not that much at all the colleges in my area! I was a little skeptical about this, but again, I didn't say anything and I was convinced. But I didn't have the money. They tried so much to get me enrolled within three days of them first contacting me. Funny. They told me to write an essay, and if mine was picked, they would knock out 40 bucks from the enrolling fee. Who else thinks this is a bunch of nonsense?
I had LOADS of paperwork to fill out and fax. Did I mention REFAX? They would claim to have not recieved it. Which meant wasting the money to re-faxing them. Drives me nuts. I filled out my FASFA info. And my EFC was $0. I am a low-income family. Living off of my husbands income plus foodstamps. The academic advisor and Financial Aid I was talkign to in the beginning told me that financial aid would cover most of my tuition. I was okay with that.
Then the nightmare started within a few months attending Kaplan.
They would say that I was "missing" documents for financial aid. Slowly they started taking out student loans from Citibank to cover costs. I have had nonstop problems eversince. Now I have student loans amounting to about $15,000. And I am sure that it will be more by the time I graduate. I have about 6 months left! OR so they say.
I decided to call Financial Aid. I am not racist but I end up talking to some foreign lady who couldn't speak english well. I argued with her non-stop to get the answers I needed. She didn't do well answering them. I tried emailing them, nothing worked. Finally I get some other lady calling me, and I answered. I asked her why I haven't recieved barely any financial aid assistance, and she said it was because Kaplan is a PRIVATE school. I almost cried. Why didn't anyone tell me this before I enrolled?
They are taking my money. My HARD earned money. And it isn't like I think I am getting a free ride, but I am LOW INCOME. I am so damn poor. I can't be dealing with this. Now I have no choice but to finish this out, and at the same time, be out of 20,000 dollars. I don't even know what to do next. Kaplan is not being cooperative with me.
Misty
Superior, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
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