Students being bilked on the way out?

Two of my former nursing students are graduating the program now. They say that they are so ashamed of ITT Breckinridge that they may not attend the pinning ceremony scheduled for Sept 9. Also they are afraid that employers will not accept them as nurses, though they (hopefully) pass the NCLEX exam--simply because of the bad reputation of the school.

Yesterday, the students contacted me upset over something strange in the financial aid office. Both of them had been told they had a 20K scholarship and one of them had it in writing. In the office they were being asked to sign a promissory note to pay extra tuition for the upcoming quarter. They were told this was owed, despite the fact that they are not attending another quarter. When they pointed out that even if this were true, with the scholarship, actually they should be getting a refund not paying more, the person in the office said that well, it was an "as-needed"scholarship, and it had been determined that they "didn't need it." Luckily, they signed nothing and returned with the documentation showing they had the scholarship. After some hemming and hawing the person in the office said never mind, the debt would be written off! Unbelievable! Or maybe I should say amazing?

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Nursing entry-level employers could care less where the candidate went to school.

The license is the only thing they really need and look for.

Source: I used to hire nurses

"Opportunity Scholarship is an institutional scholarship and not a real scholarship."

...they just call it that to better play the deceit & shell game.

They called it a college, but it was probably not really one of those either.

It's the exact same in house scholarship that Everest under Zenith Education Group offers their students. A student must exhaust all means of financial aid before the foundation will pick up part of the tuition that student loans won't cover. What's crazy is the DOE thinks that it's fantastic that Zenith Education does this but finds fault with any for-profit that does the same thing.

I have been in financial aid for a long tine with ITT and as a person said before ths OS is only used after u have applied all financial aid u qualify for. In all my years i can say this i nor any one i have worked with has been asked or done anything unethical with a students funds. Even though ITT is under fire right now, this was and is a company that i have been proud to be a part of. Are some students unsuccessful yes, but so are some that went to Harvard, Rice, TCCC. I have also been a part of a lot of successful students you just dont hear from them. If u have been asked to do something in regards to your financial aid by an employee u should let someone know but a few bad apples doesnt meab we are all doing it.

Nothing surprises me about ITT. They apparently enrolled a blind student in a course requiring color recognition.

This is a joke.

Finally DOE steps in. Question is -- which school is next? Devry? Career Ed?

Your nursing students will be able to get a great paying job if they Academic Record is good and if the pass the NCLEX exam!

Every one of my nurses graduated and were placed in jobs making $50.00 per hour or more!

This story doesn't make sense. Simplified ITT's "scholarships" are need based. ITT defines need as they will use all available aid such as student loans, grants, and state aid then whatever amount is still needed to cover tuition will be labeled as Opportunity Scholarship. Way over simplified. If your students are eligible for Junior or third year academic level student loans and eligible for Pell grants then they probably didn't need Opportunity Scholarship funds. Opportunity Scholarship is an institutional scholarship and not a real scholarship.

"the person in the office said that well, it was an "as-needed"scholarship"

...of course if they would only grab the pen and sign the note (please oh please sign sign sign) then they wouldn't "need" the scholarship & wouldn't get it. Or the office could just sign it "for them' as has allegedly happened to other students.

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Students being bilked on the way out?

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