Kaplan University MISLEADING/MISREPRESENTATION Davenport Iowa

I have been looking for an online school where I can become certified to do Medical Transcription from home. I live in Texas and found Kaplan thru an online education search engine. I've seen their commercials and heard their name so I was interest. After discovering that is was going to cost in excess of $33,000 for the course, I turned my attentions to less expensive certificate programs that are Accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council, as I am VERY worried about going thru a program only to find out that I wasted my time and money and can still not be employed in my field of choice.. In fact, the program I was looking at has an A+ rating with the BBB. Reps from Kaplan called me several times. I had to finally tell the rep I was going to go to another program because of their price. The rep tried numerous times to push me to enroll at Kaplan, inquiring about the other program till I felt like I should be sitting in a police station answering questions about a grizzly murder. (I tried telling him when I answered I was driving and could not talk, but he was PUSHY.) Now I read the comments on this report and wonder why he was pushing me so hard to enroll, when the person defending Kaplan posted info he got off the Dept of Education website that doesn't list Texas in those states in which Kaplan credits are accepted. The rep knew full well I lived and planned on working in Texas because he asked me twice while he was grilling me. Now I know I made a good decision not going with Kaplan.

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html  This is the web address at the Dept of Ed to verify the following. In quotes are the statements from this site.

To those who complain about their classes not transferring keep in mind the region the certification comes from.  Kaplan for example is in the same region as Indiana University. You say that the 'program' is not covered, but neither is IU school of business. does that mean that the program is worthless. NO. You do need to verify that your certification is covered in the state you are trying to continue your education or work in.  You could run into the same kind of problem coming from a big ten school like IU.  So before you go about spreading ignorance, and disseminating defamation, you really should know what you are talking about.  I attended IU and have run into transfer issues when I attended a school in a different region.  Certifications are different from state to state. I had my EMT certification through the DOT (Dept of Transportation) which was accepted by the state that I was in. However, when I moved I was told that I had to retake all of my classes to get my EMT certification in that state.  You should be mad at the state for their arrogance, and not the school.

"The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities as well as governmental agencies."

"The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit educational institutions and/or programs. However, the Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies that the Secretary determines to be reliable authorities as to the quality of education or training provided by the institutions of higher education and the higher education programs they accredit."  

"The states assume varying degrees of control over education, but, in general, institutions of higher education are permitted to operate with considerable independence and autonomy. As a consequence, American educational institutions can vary widely in the character and quality of their programs."

"Accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance by an institution of credit earned at another institution, nor does it give assurance of acceptance of graduates by employers. "

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools,  (Same that accredits IU and Kaplan) covers these states:  Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

Arron,

Kaplan is not only a rip off for SAT schooling they are also an online ripoff. Their brick and mortar headquarters for their on line courses are in Davenport, Iowa. Why don't you take your own advice and do research before you mouth off? Oh for your information since you like to sit behind the keyboard and not do anything useful Kaplan's SAT strip mall courses are a different identity of Kaplan which means the headquarters for that part of Kaplan are in a different state too. If you want to find out more well you do the research and I don't have time to spoon feed you.

To the original poster- Kaplan likes to beef up what they are accredited for. Most of their credits will transfer to other private schools. They will also tell you they are accredited in a certain state or region but will fail to mention it is only for one of their programs and not the one you are signing up for, they have the information buried on thier site. I too was taken by Kaplans smooth talking but so far they only got me for one semester of crap. The courses are useful but I know I will have to take them again at the state college I want to attend next year. You can try to take them to court for lieing to you but it is their word against yours because everything was verbal and not in writing. A lot of state colleges are getting into online degrees you can always check your local state college to see if you can find one or you can try to go through a different states college for on line courses. But make sure it's state run. Good luck and I wish you the best.

Seriously who takes classes in IA for teaching in NY?

Also I am glad you are not teaching my kids. I want a teacher smart enough to look into these things.

I live in the Quad Cities. Kaplan is in a strip mall, seriously what do you expect from a strip mall education?

This is a government office which investigates universities. their number is 877-557-2575 web address is www.ombudsman.ed.gov . i filed my complaint today.

I worked at Kaplan for over 4 hours in a health care department. All the courses that were taught in that department did not transfer to other schools. Most of my LPN students wanted to go on to get their RN degrees. Many were very upset when they had to retake all the courses. What is sad is that Admissions would lie to them and tell them that 6 courses transferred when they knew none of them did! If a student asked me if the courses transferred, I would be honest and tell them that they did not. I got called over to the President's office where he yelled at me for telling the truth. What a place. Now I work in a real school. I am waiting for all the class action lawsuits to put this place out of business.

There is a certifcation process that in New york this person can take that wont take long that would coincide with the requirement that he has a master degree, this guy needs to investigate a little bit further.

Kaplan's Nursing programs are accredited by the CCNE, not NLNAC. Both institutions of Nursing accrediation are legitimate. But aside from that, Kaplan's business school does not have AASCB accrediation, their school of education does not have NCATE accrediation, and their school of legal studies does not have ABA accrediation.

They do not have any accreditations for their individual programs whatsoever. NCATE is the organization that accredits education programs, and NY is rejecting your KU degree because the courses are not accredited by NCATE.

The same thing goes for the Kaplan Paralegal/Legal Studies degrees. They are not accredited by the ABA. Kaplan's Nursing programs do have NLNAC accreditation, but aside from this program, none of Kaplan's other programs have the specialized accreditation that REAL schools have for all of their programs.

You really need to do thorough research on schools and programs before you enroll. 99% of students do not know this, that is why so many of them get suckered into enrolling in for-profits schools and schools with no accreditation whatsoever.

Note to students: DO YOUR RESEARCH. I hate it when one of you falls victim to fraudulent business like Kaplan. Your futures are too precious to waste on a crap bogus school.