Strayer University Deceptive financial aid practices Washington DC

In August 2009, I had left a shady local college and wanted to go to a school with a good reputation and chose Strayer based on the advice of others.  The staff at the Takoma Park location was very nice, helpful and explained how their school operated/teacher and staff/curriculum/etc. When it came down to my financial aid, I was told that my previous school had messed up my financial aid and that I would have to pay about $630 as a remaining balance. I told them that was great since I could not afford to pay for college directly on my low salary but I could definitely afford to pay the $630 in installments. I agreed and signed my promisary note.

I took 2 classes in one of their downtown DC locations from October through December, and was even given book vouchers to get me started. Around late December I noticed I had not received a bill and called on 1/8/10 about my $630 installment agreement because I thought it was odd that I didn't get a bill. I was sent an email stating that I was told about my loan with my previous school (true) and that I needed to contact the previous school and ask for proof of loan cancellation (which I did). I was told that I skip the Winter 2010 quarter, my financial aid would be stopped. I tried to sign up for classes and was told I couldn't.  On 2/4/10, I received an email asking when I was going to pay $3020. What??? I called the school and was told that I didn't get the loan money and had to pay the $3020 in order to start my next semester. I was sent an email which has a screen attachment from ...9/21/09....which means that they had PLENTY of time to tell me that I did not have the loan money to start class at that time and could have started in the winter!!