Make the school easy = Low student complaints
Tuition Refunds = Encourages student loans
Accommodating Schedules = High Student Retention
Poor Curriculum = Low Performers (Upon Graduation)
High Tuition = Severe Student Debt
Low Performers = High Unemployment = Student Ruin!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2012
CONTACT:
Education for American Adults
Email: thetruth@argosyscam.com
Web: http://www.argosyscam.com
Argosy University Policies Negatively Affects its Black Students Most
Universities often see an increase in enrollment during poor economies. Poor economies overwhelmingly affect minorities the most. This equation causes an increase in minority attendance, especially at non-traditional schools. Argosy University, a school owned by Education Management Corporation where Wall Street goliath Goldman Sachs is a 41% partner who won’t hire these graduates, has made profitable changes over the past few years. They have reduced the amount of available classroom instruction courses and increased the amount of classes online. They have also instituted a tuition policy where students are charged for two classes even if they only register for and take one. This policy has enraged students but since it only reduced the amount of refunds to students, rather than eliminated it altogether, many of their unemployed and underemployed students who are deep into the program remained enrolled.
Students preferred to remain anonymous. One stated, “In regards to their change in tuition policy, they never had existing students sign anything acknowledging this change. They slid it in and said tough luck! They claim it is to get students to not see a tuition shortfall at the end of their program but if this was true, they would be holding this money to apply it to the students’ courses later, if need be, not keep it. If you ask me, this is another form of defrauding the government and banks.”
A group of displeased students are vowing to expose the school’s practices, even risking expulsion. The groups’ name “Education for American Adults” is a group of accomplished doctoral level business students, an unorthodox set of activists, where activists are typically viewed as uneducated, blue collared or unemployable, will focus on the failed promises of college-level schools that leave students holding the tuition bag with little career opportunities in it starting with Argosy University. Their pleas to Dr. Murray Bradfield, VP of Academic Affairs and Dr. Ronald Swanson, campus president, both of the Atlanta campus, went unconsidered. They vowed to begin lawsuits against these schools if warranted.
Another student, a college professor said, “Traditional schools expect students to use portions of their tuitions for living expenses. These private schools see it as money out the door. In my opinion, if a school is reputable it wouldn’t be so concerned about students getting tuition refunds and not completing the program because the students would manage their finances right so they can actually have an educational affiliation with the school. If there is a tuition shortfall that is a reflection of the school’s prestige and credibility.”
An article published by the Huffington Post stated, “You’d probe to find a weakness,” said Brian Klein, a former admissions employee who worked for three years at Argosy University Online, one of four major colleges operated by EDMC. “You basically take all that failure and all those bad decisions, and you spin it around and put it right back in their face as guilt, to go to this shitty university and run up all of this debt.”
A third student stated, “This school has a disproportionate proportion of black students. It’s because most young blacks are forced directly into the workforce right after high school for obvious economic reasons. But the time we are able to juggle work, family and school, we typically pursue schools with accommodating schedules and understanding faculty. Argosy views it as a predatory opportunity and expects their students to accept whatever they do!”
In 2011, Argosy University’s accreditation went from national to regional, which in academia is seen as an accreditation downgrade. Few exams, modified schedules and relaxed admission requirements create a low barrier of entry. However, in situations where barrier of entry is low, one can expect the key players to exploit the newcomers. Students who are unable to take two or more classes per semester and unwilling to have a charge of two classes even if they only take one will experience a further delay in completing their program or will have a higher student loan debt than the amount of courses they took.
The Truth About Argosy 