Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division Financial Aid Fraud Internet, Internet

When I withdrew from aiPod in September this year, my financial "advisor" was trying to get me to agree not to receive the stipends anymore. The reason: Some students were not using them for school stuff. Umm....first of all, how do you know how I spend it, and two, I don't think it'a any of your business aiPod. I am the one who is one the hook for all of this. I know they were trying to take it. Same "advisor" told me that I had to sign a POP (Payment Option Plan) before this happened. Which I stupidly did. What this is, in effect, is an indication that they plan on draining every bit of Financial Aid out of you before you finish the course. Then they force you to pay out of pocket (not happening, since I live on SSD) or find somebody to loan you more money (also not likely in my case, because I have nothing and nobody who would cosign for me). I am quite sure they would come to my rescue by getting me to take out a loan with exorbitant interest. Then, my financial "advisor" disappeared. Like many before her. I hung in too long. I got halfway through, worked my tail off, got great grades despite some horrible teachers (one was, what could only be described as abusive). Since I tried to do the "right" thing by sticking it out, I only dug my hole deeper, to the tune of $21,000. Guess I'm pretty stupid after all.

By the way, I don't know if you all might know this, but the parent company of ai (EDMC) is being sued by the Feds for 11 billion dollars, for fraud. Billion, with a B. Which means, the gov't will get their money back, but the students are still on the hook for it. I haven't heard of anyone fighting for us.

There are reasons why one enters into this fast paced program, and one is the open enrollment policy, which no doubt if this was not in place the complainer would not be writing this negative review. They may not have been allowed into any other institution? I do not know? In any accelerated program, like the online division is, learning must be a responsibility of the student not the reverse. Just 5.5 weeks and you are done! If the classes were 11 weeks like on campus it would perhaps be different? So built into the open enrollment system is the real problem with Ai. It follows that being For Profit it is also a serious business. Your complaints need to be about management and not the whole school which is filled with hard over-working faculty who management sometimes schedule to teach classes with a couple of days notice. They must work or they cannot feed their families or pay their rent.

I am currently going through the same thing. I have been enrolled in AIO for over a year, I have taken 7 classes, and this is the first time I have had a problem getting my stipend. I filled out my 2011/2012 FAFSA info in April, my new classes started in July, and I have yet to see my Pell grant. They had no problem taking my student loan money though. I have made over twenty attempts to get this situated, at first I was told that the Pell grants are taking a little longer to disburse because it was a new FAFSA year, then when I confronted my counselor's manager again, I was told that it is actually them and it is a glitch in AIO system that is holding everything up, I was assured it was taken care of, that was the beginning of July, now we are getting into September and I still have nothing. I was told two weeks ago that it was processed and should see it hit my student account by the 18th, well it is now the 23rd, and I can't seem to get ahold of my counselor. I left a message this morning advising them that I was going to file formal complaints with the BBB, Attorney General and Consumer affairs if this was not resolved. I have left my counselor two messages and sent an email and still have not heard anything. I am a single mom of two, who just went back to school supply less. I do not think this was President Obama's vision when he encouraged everyone to get their education.