Devry promised: a bachelor's degree that allowed a flexible schedule and provided the education needed to enter the IT field.
What I got: no degree, 70,000 dollars of debt, delays in registration, and lies
I had signed up to take online classes at Devry in 2004. I talked to admissions officer who wasn't straight forward about registering for online classes, which is what was originally intended.instead, she told me to register as a campus student and said that I could transfer to online later. There was no reason given as to why she could not register me for online classes, but given that I was new to Devry, I trusted her.
After my first term, I tried to transfer campuses as instructed by the admissions lady when I first signed up to take classes. I was told that the policy had "changed" after I enrolled and devry said that I could no longer transfer internally between being campuses. Because I was taking online classes exclusively, I have never taken a class at the Naperville campus to this very date, even though I was considered a student there.
Additionally, I have had severe problems with the financial aid department in that my financial need is stated as $11,000. I need help obtaining $11,000 dollars according to Devry. I'm an independent student and by law, I should be eligible for a maximum of roughly 10,000 per year in government loans. Again, my need is $11,000. I'm also an illinois resident, and should be eligible for a MAP grant. Currently, my financial aid package has $2100 in government loans and no MAP grant.
I also had an outstanding balance on my educard from classes amounting to approximately $4000. Unfortunately, the lack of aid and exorbitant costs were difficult for me to handle on my own, so I tried to pay off that amount with private education loans. Herein lies the problem: Since I had more than $1000 due on my card and I could not pay it off before the new term, I was not allowed to register for classes.
I looked for a private loan to pay off the classes from Chase. Chase will not approve a loan if I am not registered for classes. Devry will not allow registration if the debt is not paid. The only way out of this is to use Sallie Mae, their preferred lender, because they will send a notification of intent to attend. Devry will not perform this communication unless it is to Sallie Mae.
This catch-22 caused me to be unable to attend classes for 1 full term in the first instance, in the second, I was delayed a half term, and the 3rd instance, the delay was 2 full terms and most recent delay is going to be 2.5 terms.in multiple cases, I had completely paid for the term, and Devry would send me a refund check in the middle of the term. Thinking that my education was paid for with additional government aid, I used the additional money to pay down school debt from private lenders, causing me to receive a bill for the amount refunding 2 months prior, plus 13% interest.
During the 3rd instance of the delays, I was dropped from the school because of the lack of registration for 2 terms. After explaining to them that it was their fault that I could not register for classes because they were so slow about getting private loans certified due to my campus location (they couldn't certify that I was taking or intending to take classes because they didn't "know" which campus I was attending), they allowed me to continue classes.
Unfortunately, there was ANOTHER policy change, this time to my course requirements for my major of Technical Management. Apparently Devry changed the way that they mark the requirements and I was told that I needed to take 4 additional courses to be able to graduate. And because I was technically not attending school and had to be reenrolled, the new policy applied to me. So, I had to waste more time and more money on classes because of financial aid red tape and some stupid admissions woman telling me to transfer campuses.
All of this mess can be traced back to this policy change dealing with the transfers and poor financial aid practices of sending back aid in the middle of the term. My wife went to a private school too, and she never had to deal with this. Once the semester was paid for in full, if there were any additional funds, they were sent back to the student in the middle of the semester. When she signed up for the school, the degree requirements remained the same throughout her attendance. She NEVER had to delay school because of a loan not being certified... And she never had to call to find out that the school was playing ping pong with the bank while not informing her for months.
To top everything off, I am also dealing with the typical Devry educational problems. The classes are not useful, and I'm not being prepared for my field. The professors are not accommodating to working individuals, and the system during finals is often down for long periods because of too many people taking their tests.
There have been other occasions where the professors will not answer their email for questions and half the time, they do not speak english, so they copy tests from the back of a remedial programming text. For the amount of money that I am spending on this education and all of the garbage that I've gone through, I should at least be getting something out of it. At this point, I already have a job in the field, not though Devry, but through my retail jobs at Best Buy and Circuit City.
I am now a corporate office's IT professional and lead advanced projects. Have I used anything from my education at Devry? Absolutely not. Devry doesn't offer SQL, advanced database management, Visio, Computer servicing and repair. My degree should REQUIRE some education about computers other than programming courses... Meaning training on anything that pertains to technical management.
I want the money from the wasted semesters back. I want my time back. I want a refund. If I had paid by credit card, I would dispute the charges. This school is a fraud and nothing more than a financial institution that hands out a cheapened piece of paper that says that you can do something without any backing whatsoever. What a waste.
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