Dept. of Ed axes ACICS

The last of your links addressed a question I had:

"Military and veteran students who attend colleges that are accredited by the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) should be able to continue receiving Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to attend those institutions, at least for another 18 months."

 

update

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/06/06/update-moves-acics-accredited-colleges

 

From the article (emphasis mine): 134 colleges have applied to either the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training or the Accrediting Commission for Career Schools and Colleges.

Nice to be right, for once. Hope it works out for them. How fast d'you think they can accredit 134 schools? :smile:

J.

 

This is very true. Most employers aren't interested in sitting down and comparing the dates on your transcript with the exact dates of the school's accreditation. In general, people view accreditation as one of those things a school should just have always. If it doesn't then they assume the school is shady.

If you're lucky the school either finds alternate accreditation or closes. No one is really going to fault you for attending a closed school. Lots of schools, even private liberal arts schools, close. The state DOE should make sure the records are safely kept and life goes on.

The unfortunate alternative would be that the school refuses to die a dignified death. I'm looking at you University of Atlanta. Add on the shady accreditors and the move offshore and the graduates, who did their due diligence at the time they enrolled at an accredited school, end up getting lumped in with the mill crowd.

 

I am. I think it's downright foolish to attend a closed school. Sitting in those classrooms by yourself . . . no one to talk to . . . you might even get arrested for trespassing.:mischievous:

 

Unless you're one of those shrinking Ph.D.s that you wrote about yesterday. ("Shrinking Ph.D. Job Market")

John Bear
Former Yellow Cab driver

 

And how! This school has been linked to AXACT - the immense Pakistan-based fraud degree scheme. Here's a little bit of an FBI interview with Umair Hamid, a VP of Axact, who has since pleaded guilty in US courts:

FBI: Had he (Umair Hamid of Axact) heard of University of Atlanta?
Hamid: Yes, Akber Mithani rented the domain for that university to Axact.

Johann (Not present at the interview of course): I believe Akber Mithani is the father of the Mithani Brothers, Nick and Alex, who ran U. of Atlanta. IIRC, Akber or his corporation financed the purchase of the former Barrington U for his sons. It was re-branded as University of Atlanta and subsequently accredited by DETC. 5 years later, accreditation was not renewed. It was soon thereafter accredited by ASIC...

And here's another mention, in an article on Axact: Man spends Dh250,000 on fake degree | GulfNews.com
The U. of Atlanta heading is about two-thirds of the way down. An Axact customer spent a ton of money and was eventually "upsold" to a University of Atlanta "degree."

I get your point, but I also think we can give up on them, Neuhaus. They're not about to change their ways.

J.

 

CIE lost their DEAC/DETC accreditation, they are still around, they continue to offer career diplomas, technician training, etc. Good for them they didn't go for unrecognized accreditation.
They still provide transcripts for the students of their programs, including the World College graduates.

Some become certification training companies. Their boot camps cost from 5K to 7K USD.
For example there is some coding institute that trains people to be a three full stack programmers in 6 months.
They teach three full stacks to train in every different level of the development process—from front-end to back-end to data storage.
They claim 94% of their students who complete the career services program find a job within 180 days of graduation.
After 6 months a person who learned and took it seriously can land a job that is paying 75 K USD a year on average or higher. Some people took a break (or dropped)
from college to train in this provider. Their in person bootcamps expand to many cities. Great marketing as well. including on line boot camp.

I remember long time ego there was CLC - HC computer learning enters training provider.
Many immigrants that wanted to get in to the US computing industry took their training. Most found programming jobs that lead to ability to support a family.
I know personally many successful professionals that retrained via such provider and today are highly successful in their field. Very popular with ex soviet union immigrants.

But some say greed took over, the marketing and success of the graduates made CLC according to Bloomberg one of the best selling investments.
Eager buyers--including Fidelity Investments--couldn't get enough of the shares of Computer Learning Centers (CLC).
The offered training programs suffered, less graduates were able to find employment and some say the programs became outdated, they didn't move with the demands on the job market. Then soon after the dot com crash.

DOE financial aid was the catalyst for enrolling students, as many immigrants couldn't afford the high tuition.
In Jan 2001 Computer Learning Centers has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education stopped pre-paying financial aid and demanded the return of $187 million.
Students arriving at CLC centers found the schools closed. Teachers and other staff members say they have not been able to cash their paychecks.
Education Department officials said that students who paid the school directly, using their own funds, will have difficulty getting refunds. If the payments were made directly by Sallie Mae or other agencies, the loans will be forgiven, in most cases.
lesson to be learned from this.

 

I agree - good for them. The only thing CIE can't do is offer degrees - and they had a long (and good) history for many years before they awarded any. They can just go back to what they were doing (very well) before.

Unlike CIE, most of the ACICS schools are pretty expensive. Many will die without accreditation as they have relied heavily on Federal Student Aid dollars. Without them, no more Cadillacs and Courvoisier for the owners.
I think CIE's most expensive course nowadays is not much over $2,000. A vast difference from the average ACICS school..

This thing can be called payback.

J.

 

Update: I checked the CIE catalogue and found my statement contains only about 98% "truthiness." Thanks, Stephen Colbert, for your fine term. :smile: There are just two courses that cost significantly more: Electronics Engineering (6), at $3,615 and Electronics Technology with Digital and Microprocessor Lab (14B) at $4,945. CIE finances these courses for students at about $100 month, so it doesn't need Federal Student Aid - or Accreditation.

J.