The diploma mills in my town are making a killing

[Crazy Dave]

They post fake ads on the internet for local jobs. You'll see about twenty ads a day for "Need certified medical assistant, $20 an hour, fax or email resume" and of course no company name or phone number.

Next, go to the local craiglist section where people looking for jobs post and you'll see about forty ads from people saying, "I just graduated from ______ Career School and can't find a job, please hire me!"

They all charge $18k - $20k vs. the community college that has the same program for about $5k but the career schools have dream commercials on TV 24/7, all the fake ads and used car salesman as recruiters.

[murielm99]

1. My husband works with a guy who will soon graduate

from Phoenix. DH has tried to tell him that he should have gone to a real school. He is in for a world of hurt and debt, with no employment prospects beyond what he now has. He better not quit the job he has. Poor guy, he was just trying to get a better life.

[galileoreloaded]

2. UOP is the WORST. It should be a crime. n/t

[Dappleganger]

3. Our local community colleges are hitting back at them, hard.

One paper has done a pretty decent job of reporting the charges our community colleges are brining against some of these places (UOP, Virginia College, etc.), charging them with false advertising and misleading/high-pressure sales tactics which lead to extremely high student loan debt and students who drop out before finishing.

My daughter has a friend who used to live with us, and she was pressured into signing up for Virginia College's cosmetology school to the tune of $28,000--she dropped out midway through the program because she hated it, and now she's stuck with this huge loan which has to be paid back--for cosmetology school! Our daughter is in cosmetology school but at the local tech school for under $3500 total. She loves it and should be finished sometime next summer.

[Crazy Dave]

4. I've seen many I know personally get duped

As friends and parents we have all told the would students with a stuffed head full of dreams from a high pressure recruiter what it's really like. I've even experienced it with ITT drafting students who paid $30k plus for their certificates. They weren't even close in skills compared to the students who graduated from our local community college. The recruiters plan for this by telling the prospects that everyone is going to be against them because they're either jealous of how successful they'll be or they just don't understand.

I really have to give big time kudos to our local community college here in my town. They really do care about educating people and that's their priority rather than have someone sign the dotted line and commit to an expensive loan that will take 20 years to pay off.