I am from Jackson, Mi. I attended ITT-Technical Institute and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Project Management Administration, I graduated with honors. When I first contacted ITT-Technical Institute about enrolling I was told things like they are accredited, high percentage of job placements in their programs and credits will transfer to any school. I was told I would have Career Service assistance for a lifetime at any campus. I scheduled a tour at the Canton, Mi campus but later decided to move to Grand Rapids and attended the Wyoming campus. I toured the campus and took some cheesy entrance test and watched a video about how going to ITT-Technical Institute will help me be successful. After the video was complete the recruiter brought in a young women and a young man to talk to me about how successful they have been since graduating from ITT-Technical Institute.
I made the worst mistake of my life by signing up. When I first started things seemed pretty good. Class size was around 50 students per class. Many of them were Army Veterans which gave me a sense or the illusion that I did not make the wrong decision in deciding to attend this school. By the second quarter half of the students enrolled had drop out and never returned. I just thought maybe college was not for them and I continued to stick it out. Then I started noticing things like labs don't ever work, teachers changing grades, passing people that were putting very little effort into their studies and never getting my books on time.
Then when I entered my 2nd year in my Associates program in Computer Network Systems I was pulled out of class to meet with the finance department about financial aid. The school had told me that I was out of funding and I would have to take out loans through a different lender in order to continue my program. The financial aid adviser told me that the school offers a "Temp Credit" where the school would fund me the money I needed at 0% interest until the loan was paid in full. Sounded like a good idea instead of trying to find a private lender to finance through. I continued my program and graduated then I signed up to do the bachelor’s program but before signing up I asked the financial aid department if I would have all the funding available that I needed to finish the program without needing to find alternate sources. I was assured I had plenty of funding available.
So I started the bachelor’s program and by then the class size were no larger than 8 people and sometimes I was the only student in my class. There were many times I was forced to take online classes even though I was told that online was a option. I continued on and at the last 4 quarters of my program I get pulled out of class again by financial aid to advise me that I have ran out of funding for my program and I would have to finding other funding in order to complete my degree.
At this point I was extremely angry and they offered to give me more money on the "Temp Credit" account so I could graduate. I was too far into the program to just give up on it all so I agreed to add to the temp credit. A week after meeting with financial aid I get a letter in the mail saying that I have to start making payments on my temp credit account. I called the school to verify this because when I sign up for the temp credit I was told I did not have to start making payments until 6 months after graduation. The financial aid adviser then told me that if I wanted to return to school I would have to set up a payment arrangement because I cannot just go to school for free. I had already invested too much time and money in this school I was not about to quit now so I set up a payment arrangement of $75.00 a month to stay enrolled.
I ended up completing my bachelor’s degree program and have no assistance at all with career services or any help with internships, never getting any responses back on job prospects. I started getting statements in the mail about my temp credit. They sent 2 different statements that said different amounts on them. I called financial aid again to get verification and she said “one statement was wrong and the other was right.” I then asked her “what happened to the balance that I had on my temp credit when I first signed up” and she said "those loans were sold to private lenders". And the nightmare continues. Stay away from this school. Also if you are a victim of the predatory lending and abuses that ITT-Technical Institute has caused, please join us in the fight to get our loans forgiven. We are building a movement. Hope to see you there.