Complaint Review: International Academy Of Design And Technology IADT Tampa

I settled for a local art school, I had seen the name every where. On TV, on the web, in mail and from word of mouth; the International Academy of Design and Technology had found me.

Within days of contacting them, I had been interviewed and accepted into a prestigious private school'. No background, no portfolio, not a single example of my artistic talents. The only thing I had to do was sign some paperwork saying that I would not take legal action against the school for any reason and my financial aid checks.

The next year and a half was a roller coaster of excitement and frustration.

They promised me that the staff was the best of the best. They had either a Master's degree or had 5 or more years in the profession I was learning about.

Class by class, I noticed inconsistencies. Many of the teachers were failed professionals who had little or no teaching talent, some were prior students who had graduated only quarters before I started. Some of the classes had the name of one instructor on the schedule but, were actually taught by other teachers. The school had absolutely no requirements of teaching certification or teaching experience for their professors'. In all fairness though, I did have a couple of amazing teachers, teachers that I will remember forever. Those kind of teachers can be found at any school you decide to attend.

I received the standard promises that their private school was respected through out. The school spoke of their graduated student; the artists that they craft and mold into professionals. That they would have little issues getting into their dream career. The school left me feeling that the return of my future career would more than pay for the cost to attend the International Academy of Design and Technology.

Again, I was frustrated to find that in the industry, students of IADT were often quietly pushed aside for schools of better statue. I had often heard the students and teachers saying how they would love to go to Siggraph (A well know and respected gathering of the animation and gaming profession) and actually place in the competitions. How it would be great to be the first' class to actually get noticed there. I am saddened to be apart of the school years that, again made nothing of themselves there.

With all of the ups and downs, I was still motivated to finish what I had started.

Sallie Mae had something else in mind. Sallie Mae cut my funding. After 18 months of schooling, half was to my degree. Over 35,000 dollars borrowed on my credit, and mine alone. They said no more. I fought with Sallie Mae for weeks, it was getting down to the wire. I either needed to come up with the money or stop going to school.

Sallie Mae offered, that if I found someone else to put their credit on the line for me, that they would continue to fund my higher education. The problem was, I had no one. They had been made aware of it from the beginning. After the following weeks of anguish on how to get back into school, I realized that from day one, they had absolutely no intentions of paying for my education in full, without the co-signer'.

I searched the internet for anyone I could email about this. I found a list of their owners, CEO's and regional directors. I emailed them all. Next thing I know, Sallie Mae says that I no longer need a co-signer. That Sallie Mae would continue to fund my education.

By this time though, IADT had sat me down to do my exit interview. They wanted to spell out my financial future for me. They showed me how much that had been borrowed, the interest rates and the future payments.

For 32,000 dollars borrowed at 18.125% interest for 15 years, I will have paid a little over $111,000. My monthly payments were $680 a month.

Now Sallie Mae is willing to continue my education, and IADT really wants the other $40,000 dollars from me. So I start getting the calls to come back to school, to take more money out. Not sure if I wanted to get back into more of this, I start looking for another school. I tried the local colleges and universities. My credits will not transfer, not a single one. If I wanted my degree, I would have to start completely over. Or get back into a private for profit school.

I was beyond scared. What do I do? Finish a degree that might very well hold absolutely zero weight in the industry, or cut my losses before they get any worse?

Sadly enough, I choose to walk away from the International Academy of Design and Technology.

After all of that, I was willing to just kick myself for the decisions i had made. To make my payments for the next 15 years and then get on with my education.

But Sallie Mae had a little more to say to me about the situation. Sallie Mae took my private consolidation loan checks from another company, and applied them to my federally guaranteed loans. So now I was faced with the reality of paying for Sallie Mae's private loans at 18% interest, the new bank's private loans at 11%. That they didn't apply these checks to the principal of my loans, but instead as payments. Loosing much of my locked in 7% interest rates on my federal school loans. I assume that Sallie Mae, thought that I would not have checked on how they applied my payment checks.

On so many levels, they were wrong.

So now, for the next 15 years, I will do everything in my power to educate people about For Profit Private schools and the Private Student Loan Lenders that support this unethical practice.

ourstance . blogspot . com

Joey
Tarpon Springs, Florida
U.S.A.