I am a previous student of the Anthem College Vet tech program in Phoenix, AZ and I feel that I have been ripped off also by Anthem Colleges schemes to get people to enroll. When I first entered the program the enrollment recruiters acted like car salesmen throwing many sales pitches at me trying to get me to attend. I remember my experience with the whole enrollment process as being hectic, on a number of occasions I found myself driving back and forth trying to figure out if I wanted to enroll in the school or not because recruiters kept on telling me different stories about available class schedules.
I finally decided to attend because the school was the closest college to my house that offered the vet tech program. After enrolling I started to realize that (High-Tech) was not the type of college that the enrollment recruiters and staff had claimed it to be. First of all the classes were jammed packed ranging from 15-24 students a classroom. I remember actually using lab tables to sit and do my class work at because there weren't anymore tables.
Secondly, the school is run down and old. Anthem does not even have a cafeteria for the students to eat it, therefore giving the hint that it was not even built to be a school in the first place. Thirdly, the staff is horrible after you enroll many staff members do not even care about your needs and concerns. When I was attending I could never find any directors or teachers to talk to about any issues I was having while attending.
For example, I remember having to wait a month just to get my ID and going to career services so they could help me find a job and being handed a thick packet of job listing printed out from the internet. The worst part though is when I found out that the Vet tech program I was paying about 25,000 dollars for was not even AMVA accredited.
I looked at the AMVA website and there it was plain as day Anthem had signed up to begin the accrediting process, but is not actually accredited. This upset me, but being a 4.0 average student I didn't let that stop me from continuing my classes. After taking three classes at Anthem and getting straight A's and one B I took my Biology class.
A couple of days into the class and I realized I wasn't going to pass the class was too advanced for me. I then went up to my Instructor (the Director) and asked if it was OK for me to go to a community college and take the same course at a much slower pace. Of course he said NO it can't be done because accrediting issues and at that I just bluntly said " Well aren't community colleges more accredited them tech schools anyway" and he confirmed it was true. I decided to drop the class at that point and even went down to the school to talk to the director to drop the class. He gladly dropped me and scheduled me to start another class for a later date handing me documentation saying that I would have to give it to the registration office to notify them of my drop.
Time went by and I eventually forgot about it thinking that the director of the program had already put it in his system. A month later I get a call telling me they terminated me from the school because I wasn't attending. This is when I go down to financial aid to get my finances explained to me and to tell them that I did not intentionally try to skip class, and didn't know I was still being put on the roster.
I even told them I spoke to the director of the vet tech program and he had approved it himself and knew about me trying to drop my Biology class. Anyway it came down to a technical error and the school blaming me for not attending.
Finally they slammed me with $2,000 that I owe to Anthem and $1,000 dollars for a Sallie Mae loan I had taken out. The school claims that they gave back all the money I had applied for including financial aid, and now I have to pay the High Tech Corporation for the classes I took while attending. Is this even fair on the schools part to make me pay $3,000 for a school that terminated me because of a senseless technical issue and for a private school education I hardly received?
Mary
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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