Complaint Review: Harrison Career Institute

I attended Harrison Career Institute in Baltimore MD in 2005 for Medical Assisting and only went for 6 weeks, I had to drop out and requested from the school that I be withdrawn completely since I wasn't returning. I had to return back to work, going to school just wasn't cutting it for the bill paying and my large family needed to eat.

Well now, I have a student loan out for them that I've been requesting a forbearance on for the past few years due to financial hardships.

Well after reapplying for this year, I find out that Harrison Career Institute (HCI) has gone under. They apparently were abusing the Federal Student Loan issuers by claiming students and reapplying for loans through copying and pasting scanned signatures in for students and basically got the Dept of Education for millions of bucks.

I was told by a representative at Direct Loans that because I only went to school for a few weeks that HCI should have either given me the remaining funds to send back to Dept of Education OR refunded that money to them directly, neither of which happened.

Direct loans said I needed to contact the school about sending me a refund or sending Direct Loans a refund because I only attended for a short time. I have tried to find a number for the school but they went out of business. After a few internet searches I found out that the whole HCI's in Northeastern US folded for abusing the Dept of Education loan system.

Now I have over $3,000 in loans and only attended classes for a few weeks in 2005. I know there's no statute of limitations on refuting loans but am I screwed because HCI went belly up? Hell, the teacher's weren't even in class everyday and we sat around and chatted most of the time, going to the corner store for snacks and taking extended lunches. The administrator was even loooking for a new job a few weeks after we got there.

The school obviously got paid for the time that I was there from the loan, so I don't owe HCI anything. I was from a different part of Maryland and they issued me a traveling stipend from the loan payment so I could get back and forth from where I lived to Baltimore each week.

Who would have my official records from the school to say when exactly I withdrew from the school? Or,When the school closed to find out if I qualify for a closed school refund? Or if their because of their bogus practices the students get to receive a refund towards their student loans?

I seem to be getting the run-around and no help and this school was WAY shady and I'm sure won't be leaving any cookie trails. I've emailed the Maryland Higher Education Commission with no response yet, I've spoken to Direct Loans who are sending all the information to the claims department. All because this place won't be honorable. HOW WACK! I almost feel grateful that I didn't finish... then I'd have to worry about non-job placement, non-testing opportunities and such. Geez.

Eulogy4innocence
Hyattsville, Maryland
U.S.A.