Articles regarding a former student suing school over accreditation

Hello All,

These are some interesting articles regarding a situation that is currently going on here in Florida regarding a student suing a school because of accreditation.

Here are the addresses. Sorry couldn't get link to work. Cut and paste into your browser.

www.tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGACK61IBRD.html

www.sptimes.com/2004/03/02/Hillsborough/Former_FMU_student_su.shtml

Thanks.

Quiltlady

 

$37,000 for an associates degree?

 

Is highway robbery. My A.S. (regionally accredited) cost me much less than $10,000, and all the credits I earned at the school transferred to my B.A. program.

I don't think that suit is going anywhere. Being clueless is not a crime or an actionable offense, if I recall correctly.

 

Both of my RA associates in CA cost around $15/unit in the early 90's. + $2000 in books (that's being generous)...~$3000? And that was a dual program too. $37k is crazy. She would've saved money in the long run by finding degreeinfo, finding a program, taking a yr off work and get an associates in a yr fulltime DL or fulltime in residence or combination of both.

 

The 'scandal' in the community college district where my wife teaches is that credits have gone up from $14 to $20. That escalates an Associate's degree all the way up to $1,200.

(When my daughter did her AA about 15 years ago, it was a flat $50 per semester, regardless of how many units.)

 

What are people thinking!

In Chicago, where I live, city college classes are a whopping $150 per course, making an associates degree about $3000. Plus if you graduate at one of the city colleges here with an associates degree (and, I think a 2.0 gpa) you get automatic admission to several state universities. That is just about the best deal you can find. To top it off, I know several Elite universites that will accept credit from RA community colleges.

I still don't see why people pay these crazy tuitions for degrees like this. There had to have been a community college this person could have gone to.


Jon

 

I've been recommending that anyone who is able to do so should take their freshman and sophomore years at the local community college. Around here, the difference is $47/s.h. versus $150/s.h. for residents.

Really, who cares where you complete freshman comp or calculus 151?

 

Re: What are people thinking!

There was a Harvard student who took 2 summer classes with me at Quincy College.

 

Hey, if you want to get an education on the cheap - fine that's up to you. No reason to knock someone who sees the value in a school that might charge more. It is their decision if they go - not yours.

 

While my heart certanly goes out to this person I have to question anyone who spends $37,000 on an associate's degree.

I have never heard of anything so outrageous and I have been enrolled in both accredited and non-accredited institutions of higher learning having received degrees from both.

 

Value is a technical term in business...

In this case, the young lady is finding that increased cost does not add up to increased value. You can spend the equivelant of a Mercede's cost on a Yugo but you still don't have a Mercedes, you have a Yugo. Any of you Business PhD wannabe's wanna get a thread going on cost versus value?

 

How sad and pathetic you have nothing better to do than go to websites and attack the decisions that others may make about their education. If you think an educational costs can be compared to cars, it only shows the quality of your degrees whatever they cost.

 

Umm...doesn't the lawsuit itself that the student initiated just about say what the value she's gotten for her own degree and her $37k? and her own decision? She's not sueing because she got into too many colleges afterall.

 

Cost v common sense

I don't think I understand your argument. If a unless degree costs nearly eigth times a good degree, where is the advantage of paying more?

If a student sees the advantage of a more expensive degree as far as what he learns as well as affecting his earning potential then he should go for the more expensive degree.

That isn't what happened here. The lady is suing because she realizes that she has been ripped off. What we are saying is that if she had investigated the AA educational situation beforehand, she would have saved herself a lot of money.

 

Knock that chip off ...

of your shoulder mboston. It could make you start walking crooked after awhile. If you would open up your eyes for a minute (and shut your mouth) you would realize it is the girl herself whom appears to be the most upset about her situation. I am upset that schools like this exist to separate people from their money. If you wish to follow me around these boards and sling insults, feel free. I am a big boy and have taken much worse from better. Besides, your insults show their own deficiencies so I don't have to make much effort to defend myself.

PS, maybe you've paid too much for a degree yourself?
Maybe bitter?

 

I'll speculate that the suit probably argues that the school made false and misleading claims that induced this student to enroll.

The question will be what sales reps (aka counselors) are telling prospective students to get them to part from that massive tuition.

 

Re: Knock that chip off ...

While I haven't a clue on why people pay so much money for an AA, I certainly assume that rational reason might exist. IARC, FMU and Corinthian Colleges in general received only positive comments on this board, they are accredited (ACCIS), although not RA. I vaguely recall a post about them having articulation agreement with Nova.

 

Which was the point...

of the two threads on this topic. That maybe someone on this board could point the lady in the right direction.

Apparently, my observation that it was highway robbery to charge a student $37k for an AA was somehow offensive to mboston. He didn't even get the Yugo/Mercedes analogy. The lad (lady) has no sense of humor.

 

I didn't want to enter this discussion, but I will.....

I paid 30,000 for my AAS and another 13k for my BA. This covered, 3 years of books, all sorts of components (resistors, capicitors, thermal nuclear devices ) This also paid the meager salaries of my excellent teachers, and the not so excellent teachers. This also paid the rent on the buildings the school was in, and paid for all the equipment in the labs. This includes, computers, o-scopes, multi-meters etc.

Let see, After finishing my second degree I was hired within a month making more money than I ever expected to make right out of college. On top of that, I knew just as much about circuits, circuit design, and repair as the engineers I work with with EE degree's from RA schools.

The school in question is in my signature. Was it worth all that money? Yes. Why? Because I have a learning disability. I got the indivualized help I needed from the teachers, along with hands on training that helped me learn what I needed to do. I didn't get any of that type of attention from ANY RA school I attended. So yeah, to me the money I spent was worth it.

 

Associate degrees at FMU are 96 credits. Tuition per credit is $250. This calculates to $24,000. They are 4 credits each which means there are 24 courses. At an average of $100 per course for books, the total cost would be approximately $26,400. While this still seems to be a significant sum of money for an Associates, it is not near the $37,000. I don't beleive FMU has any campuses with dorms.

Would like to know where the additional cost comes in to the picture.