ECPI College Of Technology ripoff, still charging tuition + interest a year later Virginia Beach Virginia

To anyone who is looking into going to school at ECPI, I highly recommend not going there. They claim they are a college, but they are actually a business. ECPI is more interested in making money then they are in giving you an education.

My experience with ECPI started in May of 2000. I was told that I would be eligible for financial aid, and that the cost of tuition would be taken care of. The concept of the classes was that they were taught in 5 weeks if you are a day student 6 weeks if you are a night student.

Most of the classes were poorly taught, and most of the teachers had no business teaching. Some teachers may as well not have been there, we would just use the book. This so-called college would charge $200 per credit hour (tuition has probably increased by now) for a class that you can do on our own.

I kept hearing about how much graduates make, and how a degree from there school would get me a great job, and so on, and so on. So, I stayed with the program. Then I decided I can challenge a class that I needed to graduate.

It was an internet resources class, and all I had to do was complete an internet scavenger hunt, paste what I found on a word document, and turn it in. The test was easy, and I knew that I hound enough things to pass the test. The test was graded and I failed because I used Notepad as a word document (Notepad is an early version of Microsoft Word).

The test was written by an instructor that was no longer working there. She was terminated for making sexual comments in class. I sent a very professional email to the instructor that graded the test. His responding email was very defensive and unprofessional. All I asked was for reconsideration. He accused me of wanting him to "cut me some slack." Needless to say, he did not reconsider the test result, and the ECPI policy is that you can only challenge a class once.

After I left the school, I never heard from them until 14 months later. I recieved a billing statement for about $3500. I thought that financial aid covered everything and that I was paying my tuition back through student loan payments. As it turned out, financial aid didn't cover everything like they said they would.

It took ECPI 14 months to find me and bill me the remaining balance. Not only that, but they have been charging me interest of 12% on the balance owed since leaving.

I am outraged at ECPI for their irresposibilty to me as a customer. They should have informed me that my financial aid was not going to cover my tuition. But, I think that they kept quiet because that might mean that I leave the school and they would lose me as a customer.

A representative of the company told me that they tried to contact me, but since I moved so many times, they could not find me. I relocated twice since leaving ECPI, and both times I reported my new address to the DMV and the Post Office.

Now I am recieving legal action against me. I do not have the money to pay them. I will most likely have a Judgement placed against me, which will severly damage my credit report.

ECPI is not worth it!!! If I could do it all over again I would have gone to a community collge that is state funded. My advice to anyone who is looking in to ECPI is to remember that they are a business, and they are trying to make money. I would not trust anyone at ECPI.

Nathan
Fredericksburg, Virginia
U.S.A.