Kaplan University emotional roller coaster Cedar Rapids Iowa

I am truly sorry for the heartache you have experienced. It is hard to hear but you have essentially wasted your time and money on education that will not be valued anywhere. You are one of thousands that have their lives ruined forever by this greedy enterprise. 

You will never get your money back and you are unlikely to have any of your student debt forgiven. Asking Kaplan to pay for your student loans is the same as taking out a gym membership and paying for it with a credit card. And then going back to the gym a year later because you did not lose any weight even though you used the facilities and asking them to pay the bill. You purchased a product, and you received it. The sad part is that you were sold a lemon and there is no recourse for you. Just like when someone buys a used car and does not take it to a mechanic fist. You should have done your research first to see if what Kaplan offered was legit. I was in the same boat as you, I did not do my research and I wasted a year on them. But I cut my losses and ran after I started doing some digging. There is plenty of information on the web.

Do you think politely asking a thief to return your belongings to you is going to get you your stolen stuff back? Accept the reality, Kaplan University is no better than a thief. They stole from you and robbed you of your future. However, you have your own obligations to be a savvy consumer. 

Do you want to know why so many people get burned and how these schools continue to operate? Well it is simple, these schools have deep pockets. Plenty of money to hire lobbyists who represent them in Washington and block any initiatives to regulate for profit institituions. Next time you are voting for a representative, look at who is donating to their campaigns. Do you think this representative will represent you??? No my dear, this representative is going to promote interests of his or her contributors. That is how they were able to get away with it for so long.

All is not hopeless. Thousands of people like me and you rallied to get some changes done and now there is a little bit more oversight. After all, they finally shut down one of the worst offenders, Cornithian College (Everst, Vyotech) and it is a matter of time before they finish off Kaplan and the like. Google Kaplan lawsuits, there are plenty. So things are happening, and people are getting vindicated. But trying and pleading to get your money back is pointless. Sorry but Kaplan executive used your tuition dollars for his or her luxury lifestyle. Guess what, right now you are paying for someone's oceanside condo. You will not get your money back but you can write to your attorney general, your state representative and the board of education to stop these monsters and put them out of business once and for all. Spread the word and tell your story everywhere, warn other people that they don't make the same mistakes. 

 Yes I am a real person who fell victim to Kaplan University.. I know how to spell and I'm a very smart person.. Yes it was really hard for me to get that degree but when I came out of school I did suspect to start from the bottom and work my way to the top.. But I could even get a job from anywhere..no interviews no nothing.. I gave up after a year and kept going back to Kaplan for help and they didn't do a thing.. I was already doing everything they said to do.. And I paid for that and what a waste of time and money.. Now my credit is bad and there making me pay for a bachelors degree I never got.. I don't know what to do or where to go.. I just want them to pay my loan off and be done with it.. I also would like them shut down they shouldn't be taking people's money like that.. It's sucj a shame and I'm so disappointed in myself for going there..

I absolutely love this post. I am not sure if this is a real complaint but it is in and of itself brilliant. I am not commenting to put down this unfortunate individual. She clearly had put a lot of effort and time and was cheated by a for profit parasite masquerading as an institution of higher learning. I want to educate other would be students of the perils of for profit institutions like Kaplan. Perhaps a bit harsh but nonetheless, it might save someone some heartache.

A bit about me first to build some credibility. I am a graduate of state university with a master’s degree in computer science. However, I did attend Kaplan for one year before I learned a costly lesson. English is my second language. I am a first generation immigrant, from a poor family and I have put myself through college and grad school, paying tuition as I accrued it and graduated with zero debt. I did not get lucky, no one helped me, I just worked and worked and worked. But let’s go on and actually analyze this complaint.

First off, this is a college graduate. If you note the amount of spelling and grammatical errors you would assume that this individual probably did not graduate high school, let alone college. This is important because if Kaplan graduates individuals who have not mastered grade school grammar then what value will such diploma have to a potential employer?

Then the author goes on stating that she thought it would be easy to “get a degree, have a career and make real money”. That is her first misconception, first of all getting a degree is not easy. It is grueling work that takes a lot of time and effort. If a college is offering you an easy degree, remember, you are paying a premium price for a shoddy product. You should not go to college to get an easy degree, which is a huge financial investment. The true purpose for going to college is to learn. Employers know that Kaplan and other for profit institutions give out “easy” degrees and they don’t value them. Secondly, you do not get a career after getting a degree nor do you start making real money. Despite what admission reps tell you, you will not make a “ton of money” from the start. Careers are built through experience and years of hard work. No one will pay you a decent salary if you are right out of college with no experience. So expect to get a low paying, entry level job until you have enough experience to apply for better positions. When I graduated summa c*m laude and the first corporate job I landed averaged less than $10.00 an hour because I was salaried and was required to work 60 hours a week. I make six figures now, but it took years, years of virtual slave labor to get to where I am today. So no, dear friends, a college degree will not magically give you a career and allow you to make a lot of money. That takes effort and time. So please have realistic expectations about your earning potential if you plan to invest tens of thousands of dollars into your education.

She goes on to mention that she is poor and does not want a lot of debt. Well that may be true, no one wants a lot of debt, but unless you are rich you will incur debt for your education. Furthermore, if you are poor then why do you chose a college with such an astronomical tuition? Kaplan’s degree programs cost twice if not three times as much as local community and state college programs. Well reader, I will tell you why people such as her opt for schools like Kaplan. It is simply because no community or state college will accept such a student. They have requirements such as basic English, math and composition. They have entrance exams to weed out students who are not college material. If you are not college material you will not succeed. They do not want your money nor do they want to straddle you with debt that you cannot pay off because you will not succeed. Not everyone is college material. Frankly, if you do not have a basic grasp on grammar I WANT you to be a janitor or a gas station attendant where you are less likely to cause any harm. I don’t want you to be a medical assistant and I don’t trust your skill or ability to provide me with medical care. This is not personal, this is self-preservation and if you do not have the mental capacity to master certain skills you should not be in a position where you can cause grievous harm. No one in their right mind is going to hire you or keep you even if you have a diploma if you cannot perform the basic tasks assigned within your position. And if your diploma does not validate your skill then your diploma is worthless.

In the next few sentences the poor soul above continues to lament her position and further demonstrates her lack of critical thinking. She paid for a worthless degree that no one recognized and was forced to work minimum wage jobs.Instead of cutting her losses, she attempted to invest even more money for a bachelor degree at the same shoddy scam school. If you make a poor financial investment, cut your losses. Don’t keep throwing money on the fire in hopes of smothering it and saving what you invested.

Lastly, the complainant has absolutely no idea how loans and grants work. There is no free money. Those grants have to come from someone and that someone is us the taxpayers. Ladies and gentlemen, we just paid thousands of dollars in grants and federal loans that will never be paid back for this woman to go to college, earn a worthless degree and straddle us with her debt.

Kaplan University and for profit colleges have devalued a traditional college degree. If everyone who could barely spell or form a coherent thought got a degree in their field of choice then what are our degrees worth. Those that were earned through tears, sweat and blood from legitimate institutions? Kaplan University, University of Phoenix, DeVry, Globe, ITT Tech, the defunct Corinthian/Everest colleges and a slew of other for profit education corporations are not institutions of higher knowledge. They are predators that go after people like the complainant, they target individuals who are incapable of critical thinking, those that are too lazy to do their own research or don’t have the mental capacity to truly understand what they are signing up for. They fill their heads with promises of money and success and in reality they rob them of their lives forever. And the worst part is that we are all victims of these monstrous conglomerates. We as taxpayers provide the funding and line the pockets of greedy executives while people like Mandy suffer a life of destitution and shattered dreams.