I sent this letter off to the California Student Aid Commision. They don't seem to care that they are ripping off the education funds of America. (some of this letter may have cut and pasted a little out of sequence)
I'm not sure if you can help me, or point me in the right direction. I feel that I have been cheated by ITT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE and it seems like they have all the power.
This is how it is. I first signed on in 1989. I was young and fresh out of high school and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I saw one of the many ITT admissions personel, which I know now was just a salesman working off commision. He had lots of shiny pictures, and filled my head with grand illusions of what it would do for me.
However, I told him that I may still go to a junior college or four year university, I told him that I'd only be interested in their program if I would be able to transfer those credits from ITT to a college or university. And asked him if this would be transferrable If I conitnued on. His responded by telling me that they were transferrable to the state colleges and directly transferrable to Cal State Fullerton, but not transferrable to the UC system. I told him that Cal State Fullerton was the college that I was interested in, so that it would work out excellent for me.
He also told me that it wouldn't cost me anything while I was in their school and that If I decided later to transfer my units to Cal State Fullerton that I wouldn't have to pay anything back until I was done with school. He didn't explain to me about how expensive
it was, over 8,000 a year. He didn't tell me that most of their instructors did not posses college degrees. He just told me that they were a great electronics company and a conglomerate. He then pulled out a binder showing me pictures of their ITT Sheraton Hotels that they also owned. At the time, I was kind of wondering what relevence this had on their trade school. Now I beleive it was just more eye candy and it helped him to avoid giving me accurate information. He just told me that they had a 90% placement with big corporations that hire their students, and even with their firm.
So I took the bait and attended their school for two years. I worked during the day and attended their Buena Park location at night. So it made for long days. I was getting mostly all A's, but kind of wondered what I really was learning. It was made to be very easy,
probably so that you'd think you were doing well and keep attending so that they could still make money off of you.
They would call you into the office every once in a while so that you could endorse these big checks over to them, I'd asked them questions about it, but only got simple answers. For instance, they'd tell me not to worry about it, cuz when I finished their school
I'd be making great money, and wouldn't have to repay the loan until I was in a good job. So I went with it.
After about a year me and many other students questioned the quality of education they were offering, and how come these simple little electronic tool boxes were so expensive. We also thought that the text books were a lot as well. They would just tell us we shouldn't worry cuz we didn't have to pay for them ourselves cuz it is added to our student loans.By this time I was getting very disillisioned but felt that I was stuck because I had already been there for a year. I told the dean, or whatever the guy in charge was called, and he told me that if I left now that I'd have to start paying the loan back right away, instead I should stay cuz it'll get me a great job.
This company ITT is a huge money making conglomerate which includes the manufacturing of electronic componets
as well as the Sheraton Hotel Chain. Did you know they have a strict policy of not hiring their own students? Its pretty ironic of them to promise great futures with excellent companies, when they themselves do not.
Thats because they know that their program does not produce qualified graduates. Most of there own instructors, at least 90% of them have absolutely no college degree, or formal teaching credentials. This is pathetic! Its easy to see where they invest their money, just turn on the damn T.V. They saturate t.V. Viewers with an incredible high volume of commercials. I mean they're on every single day and at almost every morning, noon and night time slot. I do a lot of traveling to the east coast with my job in sales and find the same awful ITT Tech commercials.
It was very frustrating to get back to my hotel, flip on the tv and see that their infection is Nationwide. Wether its Atlanta, Miami, Maryland or New Jersey, there just isn't any escape from those commercials.
This is where they spend there money, you know why? Its because they have no respected academic foundation.
Their alumni sure isn't goin to recommend it to their friends. Especially when they graduate and find out that.
It got very bad in the 5th quarter. We had this instructor who just had a stroke a few weeks prior to teaching us. He acted bitter, and didn't know what he was doing. One time I didn't understand a question on a test and asked the instructor to explain it to me and he just pointed to the answer. It was a very bad experience that didn't do anything for me.
Our whole class complained to the man in charge and he did nothing. We then complained to the corporate office,
and they didn't care either. We even hired a lawyer by all of us pitching in. All the school was willing to do was to credit us back for the books that we used that quarter, however they never even did that. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to keep the lawyer, and were left hung out to dry.
How come you back schools that are'nt even accredited? How come they can lie about being transferrable, when they are not? They told me they were transferrable to the Cal State System but not to the UC system and even gave it to me in writing.
They also told me that they were directly transferrable to Cal State Fullerton.
I spoke w / Cal State Fullerton, head of the admissions department and they are not transferrable,
because they are not credited by the American Association and do not appear in the acceptable publication of schools.
I would not have attended this school if I had known that I couldn't transfer the units, I was out of high school and naieve.
They took advantage of me. There wasn't a company interested in an ITT Tech education with a 3.5 average.
This school is a joke and should be investigated. It takes so much money away from the guaranteed student loan program.
After I found out that I couldn't transfer the units to ITT like I was promised, I ended up going to Orange Coast College for three years. My counselor tried to get these ITT units credited to the jr. College cuz then maybe I could transfer them to Cal State Fullerton. However she was unsuccesful.
Why does such a poor school like that get to charge so much money, and receive guarantee funds from the gov't?
I always see they're commercials on T.V., constantly appearing. I mean all the time! This is where they
put most of their money. For a school that doesn't even have college graduates for instructors, why do they
get away with charging 20,000 for a two year program.
This is outraged! I am so upset! I wonder if they
have skirted any kind of investigation by using lobby groups and campaign donations. Please help me with my problem, I have been ripped off, lied too, and have nothing to show from this program.
In addition, recently I spoke with an old friend who I hadn't talked to in years and found out that he had just
started to attend ITT. I warned him against it and told him that they aren't transferrable to any colleges
but tell you that they are. He told me that they don't tell people that anymore.
So this leads me to think that it must have once been their policy to lie to the students. They sure lied to me, and even lied to me in writing. I can't transfer these units, or get any kind of job, yet I have been charged more than some of the credible colleges out there.
James
California
U.S.A.
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