Thread regarding ITT Educational Services Inc. layoffs

I have a couple of points on this. I'm a graduated ITT student who had previously attended community college. I went to a community college, that was well respected for what it was, about 30 years ago, it was good, but I had to quit because I couldn't get the classes I needed at the time I could attend. I attended ITT and graduated within the last five years.

There were students at both schools who had no business being there. What surprised me was the quality of most ( not all) of the teaching faculty at ITT. Most were employed either in the field of study or also instructed at other main stream schools. The texts we used were contemporary to other mainstream universities ( found the same assignments from ASU and Cornell in some classes) BUT the lack of enforced accountability of those who had no business being there was frustrating. I had some fellow students who could not write above the level of a third grader (I compared with my nephew) and lacked even a rudimentary knowledge of history, civics, math or grammar. When qualified instructors are occupied compensating for skills that should have been installed in middle and high school, it disrupts the flow of curriculum. I was asked on several occasions to"mentor" some of these students, and discovered that mentoring meant doing the work so the student could sign off on it. I can say that our school genuinely tried to educate, but was hamstrung by corporate cluster foxtrot. I have MUCH more insight, that I'm not going to repeat just now. A lot of good people are going to be badly hurt by this, largely because a few bad people acted utterly without conscience.

P.s. I received a Bachelor's Degree and graduated second in my class for the school. I have yet to receive a job offer for anything more than contract work at less than I already make.

"Most universities and colleges are a complete ripoff, they are always...."

....and some charge 5 times what the others charge :)

Most universities and colleges are a complete ripoff, they are always after some kind of hidden benefits. A friend of mine had about 30 College Credits from Nova South Eastern University (Fort Lauderdale, FL), he wanted to transfer those credits to F.I.U (Florida International University), the Registrar was very sarcastic to him stating that they will not accept a single credit from that University. Why not? Colleges and Universities are always after $$$$$$. Simple, very simple. A college's name doesn't make you smarter or does it?

"Question: If the students do not want to go to ITT, why do they come back quarter after quarter and then continue into a Bachelor's Program?"

Answer: Because by the they were locked into ITT Tech's non-transferable credits and in debt. Some bachelor program students were there to stop their private loan repayments from starting and said so in class!

Employees overdosing on the kool-aid is one thing. But feeding it to the students, so they keep signing up for the next quarter, is criminal. That is why ITT-Tech is being shut down.

"We have Subject Matter Experts on staff daily to help them with any Academic Deficiency they may have such a math or composition."

This is such a joke! You have to be kidding here, right? At my campus, any adjunct faculty willing to stay and lock up at night was given the reward of being called a "subject matter expert!" One of my adjunct-faculty friends kept telling the dean he was happy to lock up, but didn't want to be called subject matter expert, since he felt his knowledge was limited only to the courses he was teaching. But all the other faculty in that field had quit, so the dean just ignored him and listed his name as subject matter expert! Finally, he quit and got a job elsewhere -- and writes to telll me he no longer feels exhausted and depressed all the time.

As for helping with math, you do know that a few hours tutoring here and there is not going to make up for zero admission standards for math, and having no intro algebra class.

ITT-Tech is a fraud! Move on!

"They just wanted focused STEM hands on curriculums and a lot of needed guidance to accomplish goals and guess what, many of them succeeded."

And guess what, even more of them did not succeed at learning STEM topics, or getting hands-on learning. That is because ITT-Tech is a rip-off.

I was an adjunct faculty at ITT-Tech for a few years -- and my education and work experience is in science (S), technology (T), engineering (E), and math (M). Tried working within the ITT educational institution to teach math, science, technical physics -- and believe me, those topics are not really what ITT-Tech is about. Seriously, there are reasons students with an associate degree in "applied science" from ITT-Tech can't find other colleges to accept their credits.

Please explain value here?

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?434052-ITT-Technical-Institute-Richardson

ITT is also what you make if it! The fact that you are an attorney now is a story many ITT Tech students don't relate to. ITT students never wanted to be attorneys.They just wanted focused STEM hands on curriculums and a lot of needed guidance to accomplish goals and guess what, many of them succeeded. I am not a HQ employee I am a field employee and had direct involvement and contributed directly and proudly to ITT Tech success stories.... something you would never understand as you are probably hired by some authorities that want to take for profit schools down without thinking of the non-traditional type students that up to this point, had educational choices. No debate here with you Mr. Attorney as it would be a waste of my time.

So what, the truth is ITT is vastly overpriced and has done a terrible job of helping graduates find anything or even know how screwed they will be when those bills start coming in.

I've been reviewing these boards because I have a personal interest in what is happening at ITT. I'm an attorney...and I started with an Associate's Degree from a community college. Just like many other schools, in many cases, community college was what you made of it. However, unlike those from nationally accredited, for profit schools, credits from regionally accredited community colleges transfer. Many of my friends attended community college while home from other universities over the summer to earn some general education credits and save some money. I spent an extra year at community college because I didn't take it seriously during my first year and therefore did not pass a number of classes. However, once I stopped treating it "like a joke" I graduated with honors and moved on straight to a Bachelor's Degree from a very reputable Liberal Arts College. From there, straight to law school for my Juris Doctor - 8 years total of hard work to accomplish what I did academically and a lifetime to continue to achieve what I am doing professionally.

The question becomes, why would these students be unable to accomplish what they are doing academically outside of ITT? I think that speaks to the exact point the DOE is trying to make about the school. A college degree is supposed to show adherence to an educational standard that a student could have achieved attending a comparable program. If ITT students would fail to get that degree if they were forced to attempt getting that degree in traditional public schools, doesn't that raise questions in and of itself?

Really? WRONG! 90% of them come back because had it not been for schools like ITT they would have never been able to accomplish anything academically and professionally. Community Colleges are a joke.

without that funding, the tuition would be comparable to ITT tuition

...that is the old meaningless ITT argument (you must being working for HQ)...what maters is how much an individual end up paying OF THEIR OWN MONEY to go to school. A community college will cost the student FAR LESS. The people at ITT HQ are rather ignorant on this point.

Students come back because credits don't transfer. It's not like they can switch between colleges before completing a degree like they could at any other regionally accredited school. Once ITT has you, they have you until you complete a degree, or you wasted your time.

I agree with you but the DOE does not care about our type of student....it is SAD I am just stunned and speechless.