I could write a book about this school, trust me it's something I've considered so I would maybe have someone out there to actually listen to me. Empire Education Group and it's school Empire Beauty College, formerly known as Artistic Beauty College in Littleton, CO promised me a fabulous education in cosmetology in return of a $17,000 tuition. I went for 5 months and now owe over $10,000 for nothing.
I even filed a complaint with the Board of Higher Education and my case was dismissed, mainly due to lack of evidence however I feel much of my complaint is based on "he said, she said" which is out of their jurisdiction.
Here are the details;
-I found out at orientation I would be the only student for the night class (new students start every 6 weeks). Since I had just moved to Colorado 3 months before and only knew one person I was hoping to meet new people. I was disappointed I wasn't made aware of this before. To make matters worse, my first day of school was very confusing. My instructor offered no guidance, even when I was her only student. We jumped right into the curriculum without a syllabus and it felt like I had to ask a ton of questions to understand anything with how the school was run. Like how our hours worked; we needed a certain amount of hours in order to graduate and it wasn't explained very well how the hours worked and what to do if you missed a day of class.
-Because my first week of school was so confusing I choose to drop class and restart the next cycle during the day. However, during that time the school was changing it's curriculum and I was verbally promised I would be getting the same new books the rest of my class would receive. Students got 6 new books, however I only got 3 of them. The school made the decision to not supply me (as well as other students) the proper materials that the rest of our class had and expected us to use the old material. It was very hard to follow along, harder yet to study at home when I didn't have the proper books.
-The school rarely had enough products to use on clients. I learned how to give a facial with hair gel, never knowing how the proper products worked because we weren't allowed to use them. Not until we had a real live client, making students extremely nervous to do services.
-I was made to feel extremely guilty if I missed class due to illness. I was constantly told I wasn't being proactive with my education. This occurred mainly with one particular instructor whom the regional director claims is a "great and popular instructor".
-I was forced to miss advanced classes to provide a service to a client. There was mixed messages about advanced classes. My class was constantly told in the beginning of school we would later receive an awesome opportunity with advanced training. When that time came, many students didn't get that opportunity because they were forced to service a client, which many students felt was for the schools financial gain and disregarded students education. Later, in a position statement the regional director would tell me these advance classes were given by choice of the head instructor and not a guarantee, yet students were graded on them. If you missed the demo, it was up to the student to learn on their own.
-In a personal event, the regional director (Michelle Capra) lied about a statement I never made and a meeting which never took place. One day at school, I became overwhelmed with panic having to service my first client (when I wasn't prepared to service public clients and was under the assumption I wouldn't need to for another 2 weeks). I had gone into the directors office to calm down and come to a solution. However, I was made to feel worse when the head instructor entered the room and made me feel extremely guilty for being nervous and anxious. When he directed me to stand up and leave the room, I fainted and collapsed to the floor. I quickly came too, realizing what happened however to my shock, this instructor had his hands tightly wrapped around my upper arms and was trying to pull me up while shouting "stand up! Stand up!" I felt the entire situation was handle inappropriately and wanted to fill out an incident report. I went to the directors office over 5 times to ask for the form and was told "I'll get back to you" then to find out an incident report did not exist for students. I sent an email to the regional director the day after I dropped classes, explaining what happened.in her position statement, she stated her, the director, the head instructor and myself had a meeting about the incident, I apologized and stated I overreacted. This situation is a complete lie. I have never met the regional director and I never admitted I overreacted.
Within my contract I signed that I would seek resolution from an arbitrator before I contacted a lawyer, however in order to even file with an arbitrator I have to send a fee of $500 to start, the fee then climbs from there.
Empire Beauty College has completely ruined my interest in cosmetology and never will I return to continue an education in that field. Further more, I was contacted by a employee of Empire Education Group, Delia Sube in regards to my complaint and the position statement from Michelle Capra. She said she was interested in my complaint against the school and would like to investigate it. I was hopeful she was serious in her investigation so I sent her what I could via email, which was about 4 separate emails. Unfortunately I never heard back from her and my balance owed to Empire Education Group (over $5000 for early contract termination) has gone to collections.
Empire Education Group and it's College is a joke. They fill your head with lies and promises they have no intentions of keeping. Anyone employed or affiliated with Empire Education Group seem to go through training on how to BS their way to getting what they want; you to sign a contract.
I, like many of you who will read this am no where near rich and do not have the means to pay a lawyer. However I do have a voice and with that I will spread the word on how Empire Education Group is a corrupt company.
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