Complaint Review: Ashford University

Hello,

I am writing to ensure everyone is aware of how misleading Ashford University online courses in regards to cost and ability to communicate with you.  I did attend Ashford for period of 1 year and 3 months and always had mixed feelings towards their classwork, price and lack of actually learning anything.  I was explained the online course set up by my first academic advisor Taylor Tomlin and he ensured me that the classes were set up well, not much involved with writing papers and that my credit hours would all transfer; also i kept discovering there were several extra fees that were intially quoted in cost of school. My first calss was simple enough and was more of a test run tos ee if I enjoyed it the first couple of weeks. I asked Taylor if allthe clases would have this much busy work with weekly journals and writing papers and he said "no."However, after the next couple of classes I realized this was definitely incorrect and was on the fence whether to continue or not.  I did have a hard time adjusting and decided to proceed, but then decided that i was spending all this money to not gain any knowledge out of my classes. I did eventually discover you could take a short leave and also have ability to drop class after 1st week without any penalties and was not originally told this information. This would have benfited me on 2 previous classes that i was not able to fulfill my writing and journals on weekly basis.  the classes are only around 5 weeks and hard to really get anything out of them.  

Another concern was that my advisors and all points of contact kept changing and that made it hard to get a flow with school and issues that i was having at the time. i did expereince a family crisis and it effectd my classwork. I was giving failing grades and finally informed of grade appeal by new academic advisor; i thought i submitted the form but it does not show anything. As of this past week, I started another process of grade appeal and it is a year late, but still goign to see if it will owrk. Also, I want to see if i can have thsi school information removed from my academic record becaus do not feel it was worth anything and is hurting my future ability to attend school again. I want to attend campus and did not list them as on my record becasue disgusted, but it still appears on National Clearinghouse.  As a result, I contacted the school and discovered I have ahold on my account and my accoutn was sent to Collection Agency. I never received any calls regarding this or mail and there is a balnce of $3400. Of course, i cannot afford to pay this and have learned it is due to fact I unsuccessfully completed/failed couple of courses which I am trying to appeal now.  All i want is these courses to be dismissed, my balnce to school paid so I can continue with classes elsewhere. I will take the credit hours I received even though not my best work and just go forward. I really hope thsi issue can be resolved and think i may have to seek legal action. It has been difficult for me to reach the correct person via email at Ashford to resolve situation, too. 

I do not think Ashford shold be allowed to continue with there online courses and should stick to campus in Iowa. It is inefficient and feel like they mislead you.