Serious Problems with Northcentral University

Dear Fellow Board Members,

I have a huge problem with Northcentral University. I have only told a few people here, but I was enrolled there last year and took one course. I earned an A- ,but soon found that a PhD in Business would not help me. I thought that working on two PhD's at the same time was suicide. I withdrew before my next class came up and now I am being charged a WITHDRAWAL fee. I have never heard of a school doing this. The lady in accounting states it is in the handbook, but I was not informed of this. I used to work at Firestone. We have people sign contracts all the time. What do you think would happen if we charged you an amount and didnt tell you why. Exactly. Tires would be thrown at us. ( That did happen). My wife was there too. She enrolled in two courses , but dropped out before April 15, She was due back 60 percent of her tuition. She was told this by her academic advisor. Guess what gang. They took her second payment of 567 and told her she now owes 100 dollars. If this is right, please tell me how. UH and Rice dont deal this way. The accounting department states that they are different. Really. I thought they were accredited by the same NCA like Arizona State, University of Arizona.

Signed

HOPPING MAD

 

Michael,

I went through several folks to try and resolve this issue when I withdrew from NCU. I had completed all current courses and started a program at another school when out of the blue I received a bill for the $50 university withdrawal fee. Ultimately I decided that it wasn't worth fighting over and I would let my consumer power fix the issue. NCU will not see me as a student ever again.

I was able to transfer in a couple of the NCU courses I completed so I didn't feel quite as bad as you folks.

The catalog in effect when I attended indicted you were not due a refund after day 14 of the semester and you had to notify them in writing of withdrawal to get any refund prior to that date. I don't know if this policy is in accordance with NCA or if they even look at these policies

Hopefully one of the attorney's here will offer a better solution but after I reread the catalog I realized I learned a hard lesson and would be fighting an uphill battle. Not worth $50 to me but in your case I might be a little more obstinate, especially if I had an email or other document from the advisor.

Good luck and best wishes for a successful resolution,

Kevin

 

I know. Here is the other kicker for my wife. She dropped 6 days after April 1 and was told she would have her money credited to our account. My problem is that instead of her getting some of her money back, she is now having to pay. Sad, sad little school. Are they that hard up for money? Realize that everyone will see this and stop to think about it. Most of you know that I am one of the the least contentous people here. You must know that I am pretty steamed about it. One last thing. The lady in the accounting department said it was wrong as well. She has been blindsided by this. Sad. Very sad.

 

Kevin,

One last point. Her academic avisor never said anything about putting it in writing. I know it is in the handbook, but the lady in the accounting department stated that either my wife heard it wrong( She is a counselor, she rarely mixes things up...she cant), or as the lady stated, her academic counselor got confused. Lilia actually wrote down her conversation with her counselor. After reviewing her notes, she couldnt find anything about the policies that were in the handbook part of the conversation. Thanks for letting me rant.

 

No Kevin, thank you.

I was thinking of NCU as an option for an education doctorate. Now I'm not gonna touch the place.

 

As irregular as it may appear it is clearly spelled out on the fees page on their website -- and it's not even in small print. It is just one of the quirky things students agree to abide by when they enroll.

 

Well, there it is. No way around that.

 

Maybe it is not so irregular.

A simple Google of: "Withdrawal Fee" University

finds many schools like
Columbia University

A "non-profit" University

http://www.ce.columbia.edu/stratComm/withdrawal.cfm

Refund Policy When Dropping Entire Program (Withdrawal)

Their fee is $75

 

crazy fees

Wow, that is very silly. They have a drop fee, and a fee to evaluate transcripts after you are matriculated into your program, I thought UOP was bad w/ fees, but they don't charge for any of that, and tuition credits (if done properly) last 60 days, go figure.

 

Be glad it isn't Longwood University

A "non-profit" school:

http://www.longwood.edu/studentaccounts/withdrawal.htm

 

I stand corrected on the withdrawal fees. I have never heard of such a thing before. I know ( at least it has never happened to me at UH) that UH doesnt have such a fee. We students have a hard enough time just trying to pay for tuition without other fees being added. As I have stated before, the UH Board of Directors has approved a 5 percent increase in tuition. For this fall, I have no clue as to how much I am going to have to pay per class. I truly was not aware of withdrawal fees. I do wish that someone ( my academic advisor) would have told me about such a thing. It is one thing to have it in writing. It is certainly another to tell someone as well. At least as students we would have a heads up about it.

 

The requirement of being in writing is very common. How would you feel if a wise guy calls your school up and withdraws you over the phone without your knowledge. I think you would really be steamed.

Notice how strict Amberton University in Texas is:

http://www.amberton.edu/Finan.htm

A not for profit school:


AFTER THE FIFTH WEEK, NO REFUND IS DUE.

The official date of the drop is when they formally receive it, not the postmark. With this school I would certainly use certified return receipt.

 

She had it in writing. She had all the notes and sent an email to her advisor as of the same day she spoke with her. I do understand where you are coming from. I also put my withdrawal in writing. Again, as I have said before, I have never heard of universities having a withdrawal fee. That is not to say that it doesnt happen, I just have never heard of it. A side note, I paid the withdrawal fee to them. I dont like it, but I did it. One last note. My wife withdrew on the 10 th day of instruction. She, according to NCU, is due 60 percent of her tuition. It is in the handbook, it was verified by two officials of the school, it was put in writing( they found it) and now they are balking on it. There is the rub. If I am incorrect, I will stand corrected.

 

I totally agree about the 60 % tuition part. If they do not reimburse her as per the handbook please let us know. I am in the final stages (known as procrastination!) of enrolling in my first MBA course at NCU.

I am hoping your problem is only temporary and part of NCU's growing pains. If it isn't then perhaps I will give Nova SU another look. They are my first choice but NCU fits my work and lifestyle better.


My SO went through something like your wife is when she withdrew from a local not for profit university. Took a long time to get her refund.

Good luck!

 

NCU fees

Hi,
I think many Unviversities have these types of "charges." I am very happy with most things at NCU but a person has to be careful with "accounting." I feel the person who handled my accounting is not doing her job well. I have no major problems but I was due a refund of over $2000. After calling accounting and being told over the phone everything was being worked out, weeks went by and no refund...I waited a while and still did not get my refund so I wrote my credit card company to give them a little push to refund my money. Well, instead of her admitting that I called her and I tried to avoid this whole mess, she denied remembering anything about the call. Because of the credit card company involvement, my entire last payment of over 7000 was refunded and this caused complication which I won't get into (I had only wanted the 2000+ refunded, not $7000+) When I called them once again to straighten out the mess and "pay back" the $5000+ I was assessed a $25 transaction fee for their troubles. If they didn't straighten it out it would have cost a lot more so I didn't make waves and just paid the $25. But let me tell you, their accounting person should have paid the fee, not me! I am quite certain she either "lied" to her supervisor, or at least did not keep track of or remember important facts of my case. I suspect she told him I was being a pain in the _ _ and she left out all the details. It wasn't worth arguing over. I'd still go with NCU if I had to do over again.

 

My .02

After completing one NCU intro class, I signed up for a second class...

They sent me a book and told me to answer a few questions in the back. I was dissatisified with their lack of a teching methodology, so I withdrew from the class on the 2nd or 3rd day, but I was still charged an exorbitent fee. I never did any assignments and requested the withdrawl within the first week.

I felt it was extremely strange to be charged an exorbitent amount of money by a virtual university:
1. with little overhead
2. when no assignments were submitted
3. when a request for withdrawl was submitted on the 2nd or 3rd day.

But since I was permanently leaving NCU, I decided not to make a stink because, well, I didn't want to make any waves. And now I read of similar instances. Interesting.

 

NCU seems to be a rip-off

Yes, NCU, in my opinion, is a total rip-off, and apparently they're only in it for the money. Sorry about your $50, TireMan4, but I wasted thousands of dollars on them, and they ruined my academic career. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal any details, because I'm considering litigation against them (so please don't ask for details).
Are there any lawyers on here that would be interested in taking on this case???

 

It's difficult to imagine that anyone would be willing to take your case without knowing anything about you or the details of your complaint. Of course, if you were to hypnotize them, who knows?
Jack

 

Well, Jack, don't you think it's one thing to blast out details on a public forum, and another to reveal details to an attorney in a private session??? Think about what you wrote !!!

 

If you had a valid case, you wouldn't be afraid to state the facts of your dealings with NCU in chronological order and let the rest of us decide for ourselves and possibly be warned if we were considering NCU. But the fact that you have nothing to say for yourself does tend to make one a bit suspicious.