WTSP, The CBS station in Tampa, Florida took a close look at student complaints about for-profit colleges in this report. They talked to two former Westwood College Online students and shared several quotes from hundreds of email complaints they reviewed. The story comes just as the Senate began the first in a series of hearings about for-profit colleges and growing concerns about their explosive growth, student complaints and how much taxpayer money is going to them. During the hearing, the Department of Education’s Inspector General reported that 70% of their criminal investigations are of for-profit institutions, even though only 10% of the students pursuing higher education attend for-profits. Click here to read the story and share your comments about your experience at Westwood.
The CBS station in San Francisco, KPIX, profiled a Westwood student who complained to their Action Help Line about the school. The 23-year-old student, Christian Duncan, says he currently owes close to $80,000, and still does not have a diploma. They call his experience “one expensive lesson.”
The story also focuses on the huge boom in for-profit education in the past decade. They report that tuition is usually far more expensive than what public colleges charge, and the reporter says even some top-notch private universities are cheaper. She warns that students of these schools can get stuck paying the bill for a long time. Click on the video above to watch. We’re sure many of you can relate, from all the stories you’ve shared with us. If you haven’t already, you can click here to tell us your story.
Posted by Jillian Estes on May 3, 2010 in Media Coverage
PBS Frontline produced a one-hour investigation called College, Inc. examining the business model of for-profit colleges, specifically the conflict between the purely profit-driven Wall Street execs and the obligations that a college has to look out for the best interest of its customers.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Mar 14, 2010 in Media Coverage
The New York Times ran an article titled “The New Poor – For-Profit Schools Cashing in on Recession and Federal Aid” by Peter S. Goodman. It ran on the front page of the Sunday edition of the Times and is currently one of the most popular stories online with nearly 500 comments so far. If any of you haven’t read this article yet, I encourage you to do so and to leave a comment with your experience. Articles like Mr. Goodman’s are critical in exposing the financial devastation caused by the scams taking place at for-profit schools around the country and your comments will help media outlets realize how it is to address this topic.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Jan 20, 2010 in Media Coverage
Hi all,
The Denver Post published a front page, in-depth report this Sunday looking at for-profit colleges and how many are cashing in, while leaving students deep in debt and dissatisfied. Click here to read the Denver Post story.
A former Westwood Admissions Rep was interviewed for the story and tells how they lured students to enroll with high-pressure sales pitches. Also interviewed, were three former Westwood students who’ve also shared their complaints with the James Hoyer Law firm.
The article is filled with statistics that show just how the schools are profiting off of students who say they often don’t get what the pay for. The report also provides a public service to help educate students, parents and citizens that more questions must be asked when considering whether to attend these schools. Be sure to check it out and let the paper know what you think.
You can also read another story the Denver Post ran Monday, which looks at how for-profit schools may soon face tighter regulations.
Thanks, as always, for checking in. More updates coming very soon.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Nov 24, 2009 in Media Coverage
Newsweek.com, one of the country’s leading sources of news coverage, featured a story about the high-interest loans leveraged on unsuspecting students by colleges like Westwood.
The class action suit was featured, along with the story of Tyrone Bailey, a Westwood graduate who was unable to use his degree to get job in his field and is now saddled with thousands of dollars of debt for a largely worthless degree.
“Graduation day should have been a happy one for Tyrone Bailey. The first in his family of three children to earn anything beyond a high-school diploma, Bailey, 24, received a bachelor’s in criminal studies from Westwood College in Torrance, Calif., two years ago. But even while the day’s pomp and circumstance played out, his thoughts turned quickly to the tough job market and the $20,000 in loans he borrowed directly from his alma mater that were set to accrue a whopping 18 percent interest rate.”
“Bailey says that process wasn’t strong enough, and he says the interest-rate reduction doesn’t cut it, either. “Here I am stuck with [$20,000] of debt and a degree that’s useless,” says Bailey, who is now working a near-minimum wage job at the Long Beach sanitation department while he works toward a master’s degree online via the University of Phoenix. He says he couldn’t get a job that would pay his loans, so he entered a new degree program in order to defer loan payments. According to Bailey, no traditional school was willing to accept his Westwood credits. That’s common practice—most traditional nonprofit schools rarely accept transfer credits from for-profit institutions because of differences in the accreditation process. “I’m asking for my loans to be forgiven and for them to pay for education at a traditional school; I still want an education so I can start a career.”"
The article also features a former employee of Westwood College who exposes the truth behind the deception. Ms. Morris said what so many former employees have told us so far – that Westwood knew exactly what it was doing when it lured students into the high-interest loans for massive amounts of debt.
“But the school wasn’t always so empathetic, according to Inez Morris, who was student-aid director at a Westwood campus near Atlanta for a year before being fired in 2006. She told NEWSWEEK that aid officers were instructed not to explain the full cost of a Westwood degree nor the terms of the loans. “I don’t think [students] understood the interest rates, I don’t think they understood that it was not a federal loan, or they didn’t understand what they were signing,” says Morris, who is working with the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the class-action suit against Westwood. Often, she says, the loans were originated to close balances for students who had dropped out but had not paid for the time they spent at the school. She also adds that students discovered they had high-interest loans only when notified by a letter after leaving school.”
Check out the article and post your comments letting them know what you think about these loans, what you were told, and what it has meant to your life since leaving Westwood. Your voices are being heard, so it’s important to keep speaking up where ever possible!
For the second time in six months, Colorado-based Westwood College has been hit with a class action lawsuit.
The college has physical campuses in both Dallas and Fort Worth, but it’s their online offerings that have the school in hot water.
Jillian Estes is a Florida-based attorney whose firm filed the newest suit Monday. “Our biggest concerns with Westwood college are the deceptive practices used to lure students into their school. The way they bring students in by promising them everything, but delivering them not nearly what they were promised.”
It seems like every few days there’s a new investigative exposé about something else at Westwood College. This time the spotlight is on Westwood College Online in Texas. The Texas Workforce Commission, a state government agency which oversees career schools, recently informed Westwood College they are operating an online school program in violation of Texas state law. According to the law, students are entitled to a refund of their tuition, because the school was operating illegally. KHOU reporter, Lee McGuire, examines this issue.
We’re on top of it. The James Hoyer Firm filed a class action suit on behalf of Westwood Online students in Texas to seek restitution for you. We’ll also be updating you on the status of that case as it moves forward.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Nov 10, 2009 in Media Coverage
Hello Everyone,
Thought you would like to see another investigation into practices at Westwood College. In this report, CBS4 in Denver exposes some of the same things so many of you have complained to us about. The station even went undercover showing that the school misled students about the school’s loan program and the ability to transfer credits.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Oct 16, 2009 in Media Coverage
Hi All,
There still isn’t much to report on the status of the case as we’re still waiting on the Preliminary Hearing, which is set for October 26th. But, in the mean time, I thought I would share an article with you all that does a great job of discussing our case and many of the allegations that we’ve brought in the suit. I posted the link on our Documents Page, but you can also access the article here: Diploma Mills and Debt Peonage: A Neo-Liberal Arts Education, by Danny Weil. Danny provides a comprehensive background of the developments of diploma mills and for-profit colleges, a thorough analysis of our case, and a brief discussion of how the current educational stimulus plan may effect these schools.
More updates on the case as soon as they’re available.
