ITT Tech (predatory for profit school/chain) to cease operations

[salin]

http://www.ibj.com/articles/60226-itt-tech-to-cease-operations-cut-nearly-8000-employees?utm_source=breaking-news&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2016-09-06

Going the way of Corinthian Colleges. They buried hundreds of thousands of people in deep student loan debt. Their practices were atrocious. Here is a website that has documented peoples personal experiences with the institution over a number of years. http://myittexperience.com/

[Tarc]

1. That's awesome, they have been a sad joke in the IT realm for years

We used to get an occasional resumè from an ITT grad from HR. Those applications went straight to the bin every time.

[malaise]

2. Add Trump university to the list

all scams all the time

[former9thward]

5. Are all for-profit colleges scams?

[salin]

7. I think there are still some decent ones - usually for specific trades/training

but in the early 2000s a few big industry players started gaming the system specifically to get access to billions of $ in student loans and aid. Wall street got involved in a number of them and concerns for students beyond filling seats (for a day or two was all it took for a semester worth of student loans). The large players started getting larger, scammier, and apparently in the case of some that had been decent huge expansion of recruiters over teachers/job placement etc. there were extreme declines in the quality of education or training provided.

Sadly the growing companies often bought small decent schools and converted into the scam schools. Now as those are shutting down including the campuses that were once decent enterprises.

[salin]

22. While I hate the Trump U rip off - it was tiny tater tots to the scope and vileness of these

guys and the other huge players (U Pheonix, Devry Inst., etc.) These folks were abhorrent.

[GOLGO 13]

3. A fate they so richly deserved. What a vile & evil entity that should have been long put down.

[PersonNumber503602]

4. Excellent!

I went there for a semester or two waaay back when. Pretty much everyone who started when I started left around the same time. Not only was it extremely expensive, but quality of schooling was awful.

Also, over the years I've worked with a lot of people who graduated from ITT-Tech, and they almost all said the quality of "education" they received was unacceptable. They passed pretty much anyone by giving out the questions and answers before the test. So people just had to remember those instead of truly understanding the concepts. Which definitely showed in the quality of some of the ITT grads I've worked with.


Hopefully the decent people who work there will be able to find employment at a more legit school, and that the current students will get their money back and have their loans discharged.

[salin]

8. agreed. Also I hope some find their way to more affordable and higher quality community colleges

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Great News

Obama's new rules they are applying to these schools are shutting them down.Millions have been taken by these schools, the government needs to start seizing the assets of the schools and their shareholders so they can pay the student loans off for the students.

As I've said before, I spent a summer working for ITT in the early 90s in their job placement office. None of their grads were getting jobs, a year after graduation only 1 out of 95 grads in the program I was helping had a job in their field. 1 out of 95!!!

And I worked in the same room with their recruiters. These guys were cutthroat hard core salespeople. I saw them brow beating kids and their parents into signing, I saw them bully, I saw them guilt kids and their folks, I saw them flat out lie. And they had a profile of kids to target, they were looking for kids whose parents weren't college grads, kids who didn't do so great in high school, kids whose parents didn't make a lot of money. It was a science and once they got these families on campus there was nothing that was going to stop them from getting signatures. "It's all paid for, just sign here." "We guarantee you a high paying job after you graduate, sign here." "We'll help with housing and food, everything is all taken care of, sign here." Even today after dozens of stories on TV and in print, people still have no clue how devious these places are. They pay their actual teaching staff next to nothing, and they're worth next to nothing because they probably are in no way qualified to teach at the college level. The sales force, the admins, and the execs pocket all of it. The facilities are cheap, the equipment is ancient, and the technology is way past stale. You'll find a more moral group at any used car lot in the city.

And once you are in the program, they couldn't care less about students graduating. They'd frequently push kids to switch programs so they could continue to max out their student loans. They actually preferred kids didn't graduate, less questions that way because the students would then just blame themselves. People have no idea how evil these people are, just pure predators.

[salin]

9. I read an account from a former local administrator that the school would constantly

change programs, rename programs so that a) students had to keep taking different classes to get a degree, and b) so that the program wouldn't be in place long enough to meet the metrics for accountability per the % of students employed in their field (ha! we know how they count those jobs...).

I didn't realize their horrendousness dated back so far.

This really is an accomplishment by the Obama admin. not just the dept. of education, but also FEC, Consumer Protection Bureau, and I believe maybe there were also some IRS investigations as well.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. It's horrendous behavior

These people belong in prison. They victimized countless families. Just disgusting people.

I went on to graduate college from a Big Ten University and now work in software engineering in the aviation industry. We have production for some devices downstairs from my office and I actually know a couple people down there testing and soldering parts. ITT grads who 15 years later are making maybe $18 an hour. They learned how to solder, one I know for a fact still pays on his loans for ITT, for learning how to solder.

I don't think it can be overstated how low the people running these for profit colleges are. It's not some hidden scam where the workers don't know exactly what is going on, this stuff is all in the open at these schools, they have staff meetings about how to keep scamming people. Everyone is involved, from the execs, to the teachers, to the salespeople, to the counselors.

I don't think people have a clue about the sales techniques they employ and how persuasive they can be. These families really don't know what they are walking into with these recruiters, it's all perfectly orchestrated to make the sale. And once you sign they will not let you change your mind, there are all kinds of fines and fees should the family get home and decide maybe little Jimmy should go to the local Community College instead. They'll say the family owes $Thousands if they try to back out.

It's about time this got regulated, and it took Obama to do it, the Reps in Congress are all for this stuff.

[salin]

11. David Halperin wrote a very detailed book

I think it is only in ebook form. https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Americas-Future-Profit-Taxpayers-ebook/dp/B00JAJGIIK#nav-subnav

Captures all you talk about in great detail.

Galling that those supporters in congress are so callous. Just a few months ago they were pushing back against VA regs limiting the use of GI grants as meeting the 90/10 revenue limit (on how much financing per student is from govt dollars - for yrs schools got around this with vets by those dollars not being counted.) So unfair - to the schools!!!! Who cares about the end results for the vets!!! Disgusting show, it was.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. I read some of this last night

Just disgusting. Totally systematic destruction of peoples' lives and dreams. Evil, pure evil to do this to people. Anyone who helped run these scam colleges should have every penny of their assets seized. Loan forgiveness is not enough, the victims need to be compensated.

[salin]

15. I am right there with you!

These entities are ruinous.

[LongTomH]

13. They've left thousands of former students in the lurch, with thousands of dollars in debt.

Some of these kids were close to graduation; now, they've got to pay off that debt, and hope against hope that some legit school will take their credits and let them finish their education.

[salin]

14. Spoke with a Dean at a local college

they can't take the credits from non accredited (regional) agencies, and every semester of student aid used, is a semester used up (limited number of semesters available to use.) Far too many are left in an awful circumstance - and mired in debt.

[Johnny2X2X]

18. This makes me sick

I couldn't have gotten my degree without student loans. They are taking more than just money from these, they are robbing them of their futures and of their dreams.

This is just heart breaking, here you have you people trying their best to make something of themselves and they are just getting robbed of their money, their futures, and their dignity. Absolute monsters.

[salin]

21. I stumbled onto Halperin's work and book about 2 yrs ago

as an urban educator, who has busted my back to get kids prepared for, admissions, and $ for (financial aid, loans, scholarships) to get to and through college - this raised my hackles. This area has had more and more of these predatory institutions move in in the past decade (though a number are now closing) - and they are preying upon kids not unlike those with whom I work, and their desperate older relatives.

If you can stomach it, there was an amazing expose of stories out of Florida (thanks Pam Bondi!) by the Miami Herald. I think the multimedia series is called the Higher Ed Shuffle. I tried to open it - but my aged mac tends to freeze up with some multi media.

[Johnny2X2X]

16. Damage was already done

Not graduating or graduating makes little difference when it's a worthless degree. And zero credits will transfer, none. These students are better off getting out now than paying another $30k or $60k for a worthless piece of paper.

The only good news is the loans are going to be forgiven by the government, not sure if this includes the private loans they were likely forced to take out though.

The shareholders and the execs running these schools need to be held accountable.

[Skittles]

17. now they need to go after the Medicare back / knee brace people

gawd, those commercials

[salin]

19. who knows maybe some of the scams overlap.

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/still-more-scam-for-profit-college-websites-linked-to-dallas-mystery-man/

posting fake websites for jobs, heating assistance, and other programs targeting those in need... which collect personal information - then sold to for profit schools for recruitment

[Initech]

20. Sucks for the students and teachers, but fuck these for profit leeches.

[Eleanors38]

23. ...and plenty more ready to turn turtle the same way. But the WaPo made millions.

[salin]

24. What does that tell us? Graham held on to Kaplan U but sold the WaPo

something about priorities...

Looks like Devry is also getting a lot of increased heat. EDMC (Art Institutes, etc.) are flailing and the hot light still burns on the ashes of Corinthian.

And sorry rightwingos - it wasn't the market place that corrected the monstrosity of this corrupt industry and its heinous and ruinous practices.