I lived 27 years of my life taking care of 3 ill family members full time. When they died I was a 42 year old woman with no skills and no experience. I went and talked to Sanford Brown reps (then it was called Ultrasound Diagnostic School) and I told them I needed a promise that their school was NOT bogus because going there for Medical Assistant training would be my only chance at getting an education and job skills and that my life and future depended on the school's validity, accredidation and training skills. They told me countless times they had acceptable accredidation. They did not. Their accredidatio is not recognized by the AMA (American Medical Association) or anyone else.

I was told I could become a certified Medical Assistant. This is not true because the school does not have the correct accredidation. The accredidation they hold allows you to become ONLY a registered Medical Assistant. Being a registered Medical ssistant means absolutely NOTHING in the medical world.

I graduated from UDS (Ultrasound Diagnostic School - NOW called Sanford Brown University, in 2000. My grade point average was higher than 4.0 and I graduated at the top of all classes that were there at tthe time. At first I was able to get a few jobs - always temporary jobs. But there were very few jobs in the Springfield, MA area for Medical Assistants unless you graduated from an actual college training program with an associates degree.

So I moved to Henderson, NV where there is a great demand for medical assistants. But after eight years I was employed as a Medical Assistant for nothing more than 6 weeks. The training that UDS aka Sanford Brown provided was useless. They always skipped over all of the procedures in the books that we should have been learning and told us we'd learn it all on the job-sites! That is NOT true! They expect you to already know these procedures when you get a job. When I was in school for those 7 months, there were welfare girls there solely so they could continue getting their welfare checks. They disrupted the classes daily. We had several teachers abandon us and the school and quit during the middle of our courses. We were left without teachers and eventually had substitutes. There was no consistency in anything in that school.

In eight years here I have only been employed for a total of 12 weeks! In 2004 I almost became homeless because of my inability to find work as a Medical Assistant. I am currently living with my boyfriend, which is all I have between me and being homeless! I am broke. I lost my car and had to file banckruptcy. My boyfriend had to pay my UDS/Sanford Brown student loan off for me. I am financially broke, I am spiritually and mentally broke and my heart is broke because the teachers and school reps promised me they were on the up and up, they promised me written letters of reccomendation, and all I got was taken!

I NEED A LAWYER PRO BONO or one that will file a civil action. My life was destroyed by that school. After my family members died I only had enough money to go to school for one year so I told them my life literally depended on the validity of their school and training. They failed me and my life is in ruins.

And my mentor, Ms Terri (Ward) Wyman failed me most of all because I brought all of my concerns about the school to her attention numerous times telling her I was thinking about transferring to Porter and Chester (who had the correct accreditation) but she (and the female dean at the time) would reel me right back in and convince me to stay telling me one time that 'because I was the the top student, that if I left the school, they were afraid everyone else would follow and leave too.'

If it's also true what I heard about Sanford and Brown (formerly UDS) being closed in Springfield, MASS now it puts me in even more dire straits because now I have no back to all of the references I had that were all attached to that school. That school was there for one purpose only - to make money from the federal student grants. The more students they dragged in - they better - FOR THEM! But me - I was taken by them, screwed over big time! Where will they be if something happens and I end up homeless?

Jeannette
Henderson (formerly Chicopee, MA), Nevada
U.S.A.