Heald students - Avenues for debt forgivness due to abrupt closure?

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Abner, Jun 16, 2015.

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  1. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

  2. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    I had about $19,000 for an A.A. and a B.S.B.A. when all was said and done. This year I will make my final student loan payment.

    $16,000 for most of a dental assisting degree is really too much. Still, while I empathize with their tough decision I am a strong believer in playing the hand you're dealt.

    Was CTU the best choice for me? In some ways it was. I was in the Navy from 2001-2005. Honestly, UofP was a major contender for my tuition dollars. There weren't as many online program offerings and SOCNAV was a messy way to earn a degree. Couple that with the fact that on-base educational programs never seemed to work for me scheduling wise (I was also stationed overseas at one point and we had no on-base education at all).

    I also saw a number of my shipmates jumping on board (see what I did there?) with NA schools. I didn't know much about accreditation then but it seemed to me that was a limiting path. I focused on RA. Cost was secondary because I was using military tuition assistance and, after my second year on active duty, my GI Bill. Most of my debt actually stems from my A.A. because the University of Scranton is unapologetically expensive.

    Had I known about TESC maybe I would have gone that route. But, again, I had some limited choices in terms of earning additional credit.

    The biggest issue with my degree is that all for-profit schools are kind of getting crapped on at the moment. I suspect it will pass. I don't think CEC is going the way of Corinthian. If I'm wrong then I'll pull up a milk crate beside my family's veterinarian (who went to Ross University) as we warm our hands by a burning 55 gallon drum.

    But for me to expect that others should bail me out? Why? I made my choices with as much information as was available to me at the time. Good decision? Bad decision? Mediocre decision? Whatever. It was my decision. And if it didn't work out then I would have done something else. And I would have repeated the process until I found something that worked.

    Honestly, if I were in this boat I would send my transcripts to a few different places. If it looked like the transfer credits would actually help me then I would transfer them and deal with the debt. If not, I would scrap them and do something else.

    The true shame here is on the regulators who wouldn't let Heald arrange for a teach-out with other institutions which could have allowed these folks to finish their degrees without running into credit transfer barriers. Honestly, I would send the tuition bill directly to Dick Durbin's personal residence. Let him put his money where his mouth is.
     
  3. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Wow! Last student loan payment? That's great! congrats. I agree with your comments. I think people really need to plan out what they are doing with an eye towards the future. My parent were going to pay for me to go to ITT, which wasn't cheap, but I declined because it would have saddled them with debt. So I spent about ten years going to Cypress College A.A., and studied via DL at U of Iowa. I gained a lot credits with Iowa, however it seemed like they kept raising the tuition every year. I got to the point where I could no longer afford it. I then stumbled upon this website. I learned the difference with UA, NA and RA. I then kept tabs on CCU. The minute they became accredited, I enrolled and paid a whooping $75.00 per credit. I received the max transfer credit, and I think I paid around $3,600 to $4,000.00 bucks total for the B.S. Then I applied to Aspen and received my MBA for $4,200.00 (I believe the price is now around 11K) and I paid for all this as I went. No debt.

    Moral of the story. Think about how you are going to pay before taking out a loan. Non payment of a loan can mean a bad credit rating, then things go downhill from there.

    Have a good day Neuhaus

    Abner :smile:
     
  4. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    See, it's great that you thought about that before you enrolled at ITT Tech. ITT is accredited but those commercials (which include the disclaimer "Credits earned are unlikely to transfer") has caused many of my colleagues to recently start treating it poorly.

    Years ago, I used to run into IT guys with degrees from ITT all the time. Now, not so much. One of my colleagues erroneously believed that they were unaccredited because of that disclaimer on the commercials so she was circular filing applicants with a degree from there as "not qualified." These sort of shifts in attitude are pretty impossible to predict.

    As to my last payment, it's hard to believe that this is my 10th year post-CTU. By selecting 10 year pay off I had larger payments than if I had gone with a longer time period. The reward, however, is imminent.


    Part of the problem is that more than a few people have the sophomoric mentality of:

    "Well, the school says I can get a job after I earn my degree. So if I get a job I'll pay my student loans. If I don't get a job then I won't pay my loans. That'll show 'em!"

    Except that isn't how real life works. It would be like withholding payment to Planet Fitness because you never show up and they aren't delivering the "results" you expect regardless of your attendance (or lack thereof).

    If you refuse to pay student loans out of "protest" then it will all be well and good until they garnish your wages and you're unable to get a Wal-Mart credit card because of your crappy credit.
     
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Heald College was a Corinthian-owned school. Corinthian's demise was discussed on this forum, here.

    http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/50210-troubled-profit-corinthian-colleges-shutting-down.html

    Debt forgiveness for Corinthian students is also undergoing discussion at DI, here:

    http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/50426-u-s-will-erase-student-debt-corinthian-students.html

    Yes,, there's been lots of bad press for ITT schools lately. Here are some examples:

    SEC charges ITT, two execs with hiding bad student loans | New York Post
    ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI), Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ:CECO) - For-Profit College Sector Pressured On More Bad News From ITT Education | Benzinga
    Is ITT Tech screwing over students? | The Verge

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 16, 2015
  6. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

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