I have been amidst a grueling game of back and forth, deceitful advised, entrapping entailed, and distraught ridden process by way of my student affairs @ Argosy University Online, that ultimately seems to be stemmed at a plot for them to get their hands on student (s) financial aid funds.
Before I go into the many situations that are attached to this claim, I'd like to start at the most central and/or current issue, I was told by both advisory and financial aid officials of the school that if I withdrew from the school, based on the fact that I'd already requested a refund of my application fee before the deadline of doing so in a manner in which I can receive a full refund, that I'd be charged personally via no financial aid despite my current economic hardship for the expense of the class and relative services.
Up to the point last noted (which occurred on 11/18/09) from early October I've emailed, called, quarraled, complained, noted, and journaled about how trying the process of getting into school at Argosy has been. They've informed me that the school has specific guidelines in regards to admissions and financial aid (which I'm well aware of the guidelines because I read the handbook), so I did my best to comply amidst these guidelines and requests. Such relative processes and actions have now pushed me into a corner where I have very little if any say in my selection of courses, how they are taken, and how they relate to the validity of the credits I've already attained from other accredited universities and schools.
The most outstanding incident (which is really just a single of a set of varying ones), is the one that says that if I withdraw from the school or from a course (even though I did n't choose this course, yes, they actually pick your first course (s) for you to insure that they control and manipulate your course of actions via school amidst the time period when the student's money is distributed to the school. I've tried to see if I could use the funds for a laptop or whatever things I'd need to applicably aid my education processes (IE. Software, hardware, etc.), but they've told me that if I don't stay at the school after a certain amount of hours then I can't access any funds. Yet they can access my funds as they wish.
Another oddity amidst this process is the "proctoring". Proctoring is when a person, place, or facility tests the student away or apart from the school for the merit of the school's well being, effort, and energies. Basically, online schools advertise that the classroom is your home or whereever your computer is, but you REALLY have to take certain tests somewhere where a specific person away or not affiliated with the school literally gives you the test. That person or place then reports the results of the test to the institution. They do not inform you that this is a typical part of the process or practicies of online schools, yet if you research it, you'll find that it is. (The library director that I spoke with says that proctoring is a trypical thing amongst online schools, yet it's becoming to be a burden as other people do not have time to stop their paying jobs to monitor someone apart from their typical job institution or duties to take a test that should be given by faculty and facilities of their school.)
The wavering truth among the university's suitors of my attempts to solidify my abiltiy to rightfully be at that school has also been an issue.By way of those I've spoken with in regards to my issues, I've received various codes or rules that are supposed to be the law of the school in regards to how admissions, financial aid, and relative issues are handled, yet I've read the handbook for the school, and rarely what the handbook reveals to be real is congruent to the different laws interpreted by what my advisors swear are God for students at Argosy. (I even asked a female I spoke with this morning to put in writing that I actually had until late or mid January to withdraw from the school without being charged for it, she's yet to send me the email that she said she would send.)
The clincher for me is tied into the defining reason I chose to go to school: money to escape from debt, yet Argosy University has stated that if I do not stay in their school and allow them to utilize my financial aid and my education path as they see fit then they will charge me personally for it (which deepens my debt), even though my financial aid papers purely state and show I'm unemployed and unable to afford school. (They-Argosy actually have documents showing this, yet they've threatened me twice that they will follow through with this course of action despite my economic hardship.)
I know of no organization that monitors the acts and deeds of online schools as well as how to monitor and aptly report their inadaquacies, and I've contacted every student aid, advisor, and support staff of Argosy that I could. (Even the school's support staff shunnned me off on others until the person's I was speaking with were far displaced from the processes of concern, so that talking about it further was only paining my self instead of helping myself and my cause of concern.)
This entire process is befuddling, and I can only hope that the powe
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