AMERICAN INTERCONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY RIP OFF, DEBT, DEBTS WESTON Florida

I too was a student at AIU Online and with all due respect, you are not being entirely truthful.

I had 4 more classes to take before I earned my Bachelors Degree and I had a stroke. I was released from the hospital on Friday the new classes were to resume on Sunday. I logged in on Sunday morning to start my classes, however, I had been dropped with no warning, no phone call, or anything else from AIU.

AIU claims they sent my books for the new course I tried to attend but I never received them. That didn't worry me though because I had yet to have to crack open any book from AIU as I found the classes easy with absolutely no challenge. As an additional blow, they charged me tuition costs for the course they had dropped me from. I now owe them $2,189 for a class AIU would not let me take.

Consequently, I can't get my transcripts to transfer to another college because I owe them money and I will go into even further debt without them to earn my Bachelor's Degree because now, without the transcripts,I have to start over.

I would have a case if AIU hadn't dropped me because it is illegal for a college to drop you if you are having health issues. This makes me wonder, since they had my work phone number, if they spoke to someone while I was gone having my stroke...either way, this was handled poorly and I didn't do anything wrong. I too have been royally screwed by the educational system.

What is your answer to that "Financial Aid Officer"?

CEC representatives need to get lives and layoff students that have credible ripoff reports to file. Quit clogging ripoffreport.com with rediculous cut/paste rebutals, it's getting old. CEC is is a lot of turmoil, so do use all a foavor and start looking for other jobs.

CEC knows they're running a chopShop for-profit institution and the proper authorities are aware of it..

Checkout the CBS 60 Minutes investigation:

CEC Truth Advocate Group on Myspace.com and Facebook.com

Myspace Link: http://groups.myspace.com/Theiadttruthadvocate

Facebook link: http://academy.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5604847490

The CEC Truth Advocate

I've been ripped off buy AIU has well. We need to find anyone else on this site (and others) and get in touch with them.

Jessica:

I have been reading here all day about ripoffs from AIU, the funny thing is that I am about to start with them. However I run into the same situation with CTU. Luckly for me, my company pays 100% of tution reimbursment but my case is different. I lived in Atlanta for a while and after they offered me a position in Miami working from 6:30am-2:30pm I took it to be able to go back to school. I am from Cuba but went to MD school there (did not finished because I came to this wonderful place on earth). Anyway, maybe you do not know this but for Cubans it is hard to get the transcripts because the gov would not released them; anyhow let me tell you my story.

I applied at CTU, BINGO! Accepted- This was once in Miami; I started school and make A's on the first 4 classes (10 weeks). Due to family issues I moved back to ATL and called the school before the next set of classes and told them "I needed to put the school on hold for a while until everything got settled", mind you I am still learning the English language... Guess what? They never dropped me out until they charged me for 2 classes that I did not take, according to them it happens to me the same thing that someone else that used to work as a financial advisor replied to you here. I signed the paper (Cash Agreement)! and even tough mine was not a Federal Aid deal, I still owe them about 10K. Go figure... You want to know the explanation behind this?

When I told them I "needed to put the school on hold for a while...", according to them when I called after receiving the first billl they plain and simple told me that MAYBE the person at the phone did not know what I was trying to convey, they even had the nerve to advised me to use the word WITHDRAW in the future to make more sense.

You see, You are not the only one. Now on the other end I wrote my story w/o telling you what CTU has to do with AIU. I found out by my Enrollment Adv at AIU that they are partners; and here now I know that they are owned by CEC. I just signed up with AIU but I am starting to doubt because since I owe money to CTU and they are from the company. Wouldn't you think that after paying for school they might not released my degree at the end since they are owned by the same company?

If anybody here knows the answer to this please help me out! Classes start January 08 for me and I do not know if I am getting myslef in trouble!

Ruby

I used to work for AIU-LA. They are all run the same! The Online campuses and the ground campuses. The Admissions departments are all run the same and so are the Academics.

They are a real school with regional accreditation. They are definately on probation and will be up for review later this year. You can go the SACS website and see why they were placed on probation. I can tell you as an ex employee - that school is seriously messed up. They are messed up from the top (administration/CEC) to the bottom (employees). The management at AIU LA was definately suspect in both qualifications and knowledge. The Admissions department (where I worked) was a rag tag group of cheap car salesmen for the most part. There were so many idiotic people in that department that I didn't last long. I think almost half of the Admissions department didn't have a Bachelor's degree. There was even one Admissions Rep who got her high school diploma from an unaccredited high school. They didn't let her start school at AIU because they didn't accept her high school diploma. How can they sell education when they don't have it themselves?

My suggestion is that you go to a community college and then transfer to a State school . It's the best education system in the country. If you want to finish faster - I recommend xxxx. They have their issues as well, but at least they're organized and employers have heard of them.

STAY AWAY FROM ALL AIUs and CEC SCHOOLS!

Dave

I am a recent graduate of AIU online. I have applied to over 150 positions IN MY CAREER FIELD. None of these potential employer ahve ever heard of AIU online. I was totally mislead by all the members of this school. You talk to one financial aide officer who tells you one thing. The next day you talk to someone else in financial aide who calls you over the same problem you thought you had just solved. Then they tell you that you did never call, I have had this happen many times. I was always wrong. Then upon graduation, they tell me until I pay my full tuition amount due, I will n ot receieve my degree. Why wouldnt they etll me this up front? Well, of course I would not have enrolled had they told me this. BEWARE! I fell like this school should be closed due to the fact it is way expensive, no one has heard of this school, and they employees deserve a job as a toll booth operator.

AIU is not a "scam", they are a regionally accredited university and have been so for over 20 years if I'm not mistaken. I would advise you to take the reports on this site with a grain of salt and also do your own research. Try CHEA at www.chea.org they are the regulating body that oversees all accreditation in the U.S., look for articles on their site about AIU and you can determine what is currently happening with their accreditation.

AIU is on probation and their accreditating agency has posted explanations of this process and the reasons for it, the accrediting agency is not affiliated with AIU, they regulate them. Any credits you earn there will still be transferable even while on probation. Be VERY careful when reading this site as these forums are not regulated and any information listed is usually just personal opinions.

My advice to you with any school is this: DO NOT drop out mid-term, DO NOT quit after the drop/add period which is usually the first week or two of school. If you do you will owe the school money as federal financial aid only pays for the time you were actually in school, but the school will charge you for the entire term of tuition because they cannot replace you with another paying student halfway through the term. This is the source of the vast majority of complaints on this forum about colleges, they aren't scams or ripoffs, the students didn't understand the terms of their financial aid and the school's policy on dropping out. If you withdraw properly(ie: follow the rules) during the drop/add period then you won't owe tuition.

This is the same with any accredited school, just look through complaints on this forum under "colleges and universities" and you'll see the majority of complaints are about financial aid(the problem I described above) or transfer credits(also something that student don't often understand).

Read any contract well, ASK questions, if the admissions rep doesn't give you a satisfactory answer then ask to speak to a manager or research the question yourself. And above all, read the schools catalogue or rules and procedures, they will spell out all the requirements and regulations. Again, any school that offers title iv federal financial aid(ie: pell grants and stafford loans) is NOT a "fake" school, they are currently in good standing with their accrediting agency, otherwise the federal government would not be offering you government money to attend that school.

As for customer service issues, I can't vouch for any schools on that, Harvard and Yale have as many, if not more, complaints against them than AIU or any local school does, that just has to do with the quality of people they employ and how effective you are in dealing with them.

Hope it helps.

My report is listed under dishonest business practices. For anyone who is currently enrolled and having the same problems, or a former student like myself fighting to resolve matters. It might be worth your time to read my report.

I would suggest doing research before signing anything. Attending AIU was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Just wish I would have done research prior to signing up with them.

I am pleased to say I have resolved the issue with the credit agency. Unfortunatly, I am still paying for my Stafford Student Loan. I am currently unable to defer my payments. I will however continue to persue this matter in hopes of recovering some of my hard earned money.

I feel foolish for being suckered into attending AIU. But like many others, I am a hard working individual with a family, so attending a traditional college at this point in my life was out of the question.

I decided to persue a degree in Criminal Justice. I enrolled in AIU and was told I needed an Associates degree before I could go into Criminal Justice. So I was enrolled in Business Management. AIU is far from easy, I spent many nights working my butt off to get and keep my 4.0 GPA.

Even though I am unable to transfer any credits I have earned. I have, however learned a valuable lesson. I just hope that others will do their research, and learn from the mistakes of others before attending AIU.

Hope this helps,

Melissa

My report is listed under dishonest business practices. For anyone who is currently enrolled and having the same problems, or a former student like myself fighting to resolve matters. It might be worth your time to read my report.

I would suggest doing research before signing anything. Attending AIU was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Just wish I would have done research prior to signing up with them.

I am pleased to say I have resolved the issue with the credit agency. Unfortunatly, I am still paying for my Stafford Student Loan. I am currently unable to defer my payments. I will however continue to persue this matter in hopes of recovering some of my hard earned money.

I feel foolish for being suckered into attending AIU. But like many others, I am a hard working individual with a family, so attending a traditional college at this point in my life was out of the question.

I decided to persue a degree in Criminal Justice. I enrolled in AIU and was told I needed an Associates degree before I could go into Criminal Justice. So I was enrolled in Business Management. AIU is far from easy, I spent many nights working my butt off to get and keep my 4.0 GPA.

Even though I am unable to transfer any credits I have earned. I have, however learned a valuable lesson. I just hope that others will do their research, and learn from the mistakes of others before attending AIU.

Hope this helps,

Melissa

My report is listed under dishonest business practices. For anyone who is currently enrolled and having the same problems, or a former student like myself fighting to resolve matters. It might be worth your time to read my report.

I would suggest doing research before signing anything. Attending AIU was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Just wish I would have done research prior to signing up with them.

I am pleased to say I have resolved the issue with the credit agency. Unfortunatly, I am still paying for my Stafford Student Loan. I am currently unable to defer my payments. I will however continue to persue this matter in hopes of recovering some of my hard earned money.

I feel foolish for being suckered into attending AIU. But like many others, I am a hard working individual with a family, so attending a traditional college at this point in my life was out of the question.

I decided to persue a degree in Criminal Justice. I enrolled in AIU and was told I needed an Associates degree before I could go into Criminal Justice. So I was enrolled in Business Management. AIU is far from easy, I spent many nights working my butt off to get and keep my 4.0 GPA.

Even though I am unable to transfer any credits I have earned. I have, however learned a valuable lesson. I just hope that others will do their research, and learn from the mistakes of others before attending AIU.

Hope this helps,

Melissa

My report is listed under dishonest business practices. For anyone who is currently enrolled and having the same problems, or a former student like myself fighting to resolve matters. It might be worth your time to read my report.

I would suggest doing research before signing anything. Attending AIU was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Just wish I would have done research prior to signing up with them.

I am pleased to say I have resolved the issue with the credit agency. Unfortunatly, I am still paying for my Stafford Student Loan. I am currently unable to defer my payments. I will however continue to persue this matter in hopes of recovering some of my hard earned money.

I feel foolish for being suckered into attending AIU. But like many others, I am a hard working individual with a family, so attending a traditional college at this point in my life was out of the question.

I decided to persue a degree in Criminal Justice. I enrolled in AIU and was told I needed an Associates degree before I could go into Criminal Justice. So I was enrolled in Business Management. AIU is far from easy, I spent many nights working my butt off to get and keep my 4.0 GPA.

Even though I am unable to transfer any credits I have earned. I have, however learned a valuable lesson. I just hope that others will do their research, and learn from the mistakes of others before attending AIU.

Hope this helps,

Melissa

i just wanted to know if someone could clear things up for me? i am about to sign my contract and accept a loan for 43,000 from aiu. are you guys reffering to the on line classes being a scam or the whole university... including attending the actual campuses???????

I have worked as a financial aid officer at a school in Florida for a few years and might be able to help you.

Your situation all comes down to whether or not you dropped from school before or after the drop/add period. You stated that you went down and filled out a drop form during the drop/add period but the school states you dropped after the 3rd week. Have you asked them to provide you with a copy of the drop form you signed? Ask them for that piece of paper, likely it will have a date on it showing when you filled it out. If you dispute the debt they will have to eventually provide proof of your drop date. This is the only issue you seem to have a possibility of resolving.

The best way to deal with collectors is to be calm, polite and persistant. Getting angry, refusing to talk to certain reps and filing complaints against specific people will only make your dealings with them more difficult.

The problem you ran into is a very common one with any school using financial aid, just spend some time looking at this site and you'll see many problems like yours with many different schools. What happens is this:

The student enrolls and applies for federal student loans, schools will make you sign agreements spelling everything out, the prices, the rules, everything. This way everything has your signature on it showing you've read and understand it, this is the same type of contract you enter in with any business, so when people claim not to understand their obligations under a contract they usually get shot down as the company can produce multiple documents showing you acknowledged you understood and you only have your word against their written docs.

So if you didn't know what you were getting into then, unfortunately as an adult able to enter a contract, you shouldn't have acknowledge in writing that you did. If the student then drops out, properly by filing a drop request(as you state you did) within the drop/add period, the school charges you nothing and cancels your financial aid, you're ok. If the student drops AFTER the drop/add period then, per the agreement they signed, the student owes either a portion of the tuition for the term or all of it, the logic and legality behind that is the school cannot replace your empty desk with another paying student and thus loses out on that revenue, the same concept is behind apartment rental agreements.

So now they owe tuition, legally, according to all the contracts they signed. Now if you drop after the deadline, your government student aid loans will only pay for the time you actually attended school, so they will pay a little bit of the tuition, but you still owe the rest of the term's tuition. This is very common when a student drops out, usually when students would drop they would just stop showing up, not withdraw properly as they agree to when they enrolled. So it becomes common.

Your situation may or may not be different, the school appears to claim you dropped after the deadline, if they claim to have attendance records keep in mind, many online programs track attendance by the time you spent logged into the classroom. So if you logged in a few times after dropping, even if you didn't complete assignments, they may show you as attending, just as if you sat in a desk on campus but just didn't do any work. If you did properly withdraw by filling something out during drop/add week and the school screwed up and didn't file it for several weeks then you have a case...the problem is you have to prove it, or overcome their records that state otherwise. So asked them for the copy of your drop form, not their records, the actual form you signed, it'll have a date on it. If they can't provide it and persist in contacting you then I would contact an attorney.

Hopefully this helps you. I don't know the specifics of your case and some of your info doesn't seem to jive. Your first sentence suggests its the school's fault you don't have a degree after 3 years, but you state yourself that you dropped out of your own free will, you haven't finished a degree so you don't have one after 3 years. I don't understand why you state you owe 50,000 in loans, fin aid loans are dispersed multiple times a year early, you don't take out one loan in the begining to cover all tuition, the governemt renews it periodically to insure you are still in school and they aren't paying a school you aren't attending. Possibly you took out an alternative credit loan, but then you signed all those docs as well under your own free will so you'd be breaching that contract if you didn't pay and can only blame yourself.

A lawyer can advise you of your rights and possiblity of recovery, as for a class-action lawsuit, that has to include people with the same problem you have, namely that they dropped properly but the school botched the records. They problem is that most of the complaints of this nature on this site freely admit they dropped after the deadline and just don't understand their obligations under the contract they signed. So it might be hard to find others in your exact situation, then again it may be a common problem, AIU is currently on probation.

Either way, you have to prove that they misled you or that you didn't understand the contract, both of which are very hard to do considering they have your signature on multiple docs showing you acknowledged and read the contract, and you completed all the paperwork to get the loans.

As for the way the school is treating you, I can't really say, you have to remember that the people calling you are collectors, they aren't supposed to be nice, they think you owe them money. Just keep your cool when you talk to them and you'll be better off.

And finally, I agree AIU is overpriced, but then again they are competively priced with most other online programs so it's like saying Shell's gas is overpriced when it's the same as Exxon's price. Online programs are more expensive for the same reason you get charged for using your debit card even though its cheaper for the bank than paying a teller, its a convenience fee. The best bang for the buck is always a Community College or State University as these are supported by your tax dollars so they have lower tuition. Proprietary schools(for profit schools) are always more expensive as the state doesn't pay their bills and they get all their money from the students.

I hope you resolve this issue and eventually finish a degree, it will really open up doors for you. But remember, you get out of college what you put into it, AIU didn't force you to quit.
And for every person that states they couldn't finish school because of pressing life problems I bet I can find you an active duty service member stationed in Iraq that is finishing their degree online....in a combat zone. It all comes down to desire and motivation. Good luck, hope I didn't piss you off, but sometimes the truth behind these financial aid problems isn't pretty and people hate to hear it.

R

Hi guys, this is Claudia.

I have already posted my own report and have responded to Jessica's as well as you can see above. I would like to see if I can get in contact with either one or both of you. I am looking into trying to get this all sorted out bu taking the next step and would love to talk with others that are going through a similar situation. If you have an email address that you don't mind giving me, that would be great! Hope to talk with either of you soon!

Claudia
Former AIU Student
Tamarac, FL

This sounds like you have a case actually that you could complain not only to the Florida attorney general about but also to the better business burea. If you droppped the courses before they billed you for them or before you where packaged for them then you have a case.

I have been on payment plan with aiu since I started in school they where trying to push me for a private loan to cover all my expenses and flat out refused to sign for their payment plan until I had a cosigner on a private loan. Now I had made it very clear to them that I was in this on my own and I could only afford 300 a month for my education but they kept on ensisting on this private loan. Or to increase my payments to $500 a month.

When I threated to drop out they said they had allready completed my financial aid paperwork for that coming semester and would owe the school on the cec loan they supposedly where unable to unrise for the next semester. Only when I emailed the president the comments from ripooff report about them bullying students for more money did they extend my payment plan to an 18 month payment plan and allowed me to pay it after I got out of school.
Hope I helped

Jessica,

Hi, my name is Claudia and I read your report and also filled out my own report about AIU on this site. You mentioned you would like to pursue this issue further and for anyone interested to contact you. I would like to get in contact with you and talk further. Prefereably by phone. I will check up on your report to see if you have responded back to me there and we can then see about how we can exchange contact info. so we can talk further.

Hope to hear from you soon!

-Claudia
Mislead student at AIU-Weston