Mom Of Three: "They Told Me Kaplan Was Just Like An Ivy League School"

by Carol Scott · 2011-03-20 04:30:00 UTC
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A growing number of students are coming forward to share their negative experiences at Kaplan University, the for-profit college owned by the Washington Post Company.

Today marks the last day of a seven-day series on Change.org of Kaplan student accounts. These students are part of a group of former students -- led by Shannon Croteau, whose story appears today -- urging the Washington Post to stop preying on low-income students (sign their petition here). The below accounts are students' descriptions of their experiences.

Shannon Croteau, New Hampshire
Student at Kaplan University from July 2008 to February 2010
Shannon is married and a mother of three.

I was taking paralegal classes at Hesser College in New Hampshire when I heard about a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies available at Kaplan, so I decided to transfer.

My admissions advisor at Kaplan told me that Kaplan was just like an Ivy League school. "We hold the highest level of accreditation available, the same as the nation’s Ivy League, State and private universities such as Yale, Harvard, Duke, NYU, and more,” he wrote in an e-mail.

This started the lies upon lies from Kaplan. I never signed an online enrollment form, a buyer’s acknowledgment, a student withdrawal clearance form or any of the other forms I know now I should have signed. I never filled out a Federal Stafford Loan Entrance Counseling Quiz, which I know now that students are required to take before they apply for loans.

I was told by my admissions advisor that federal loans would cover my degree - but when I was 11 classes away from graduating, I was told that I was out of financial aid and wouldn’t be able to graduate without paying in cash, offering me a high-interest Kaplan Choice loan and/or a private alternative loan.

Kaplan’s behavior made me worried, so I started researching paralegal degrees in New Hampshire. I was shocked to find out from the New Hampshire Bar Association and the Paralegal Association of New Hampshire that there is no regulation of paralegal programs in NH, and that Kaplan was not even accredited by the American Bar Association.

Kaplan has ruined me. I am now $30,000 in debt from Kaplan, with no way to pay my loans back. I started a group for former Kaplan students in 2010 who are working for justice for victims of Kaplan. We are now more than 40 strong and keep working to make sure this does not happen to anyone else.

Photo credit: quaziefoto via Flickr

Carol Scott is the Education Editor for Change.org.

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