Complaint Review: The Art Institute Of New York - Sallie Mae

I attended the Art Institute of New York and thru the help of Sallie Mae was awarded loans to cover the cost of the program. My very first day of classes we were told by construction workers where are only two classes were and to be careful. The school wasn't even completed yet.

We had to take classes all the while having to put up with noises of aluminum being cut for dry walls, stench of paint and thinner and constanst dry wall fine powder all over the place.

This school was not ready to have us as video Production majors and were not even ready to the point that they did not have sufficient equipment for us to learn on.

An example of that is during our lighting class we were told that we would be skipping the chapter on light metering. The most important tool in the trade, we would not learn about nor how to use one b/c the school only had one and it could not be taken out. We were advised that we should try and buy one on the cheap and go back on our own time to learn how to use one.

Yet another example of the schools false claims of offering a stellar education was during my Film Theory class. Our teacher whom I might add had no experience in the field had us walking all around downtown Manhattan showing us where the Tribeca Film festival would be. What this had to do with Film Theory, I couldn't tell you.

We were made to feel very rushed in borrowing equipment to work on our projects b/c there wasn't enough of it and too many students requesting to use it. Terrible learning environment.

For me the final straw was when we were made to believe that we would have press passes for the Tribeca Film Festival and would have to set up production and film/interview the people. What really happened was that we were sent to assist elementary kids to carry their equipment around while they interviewed all these stars. We did not set up no production at all and in fact had no equipment to borrow from the school b/c once again other students needed to use it.

I left school and requested to be removed from all of my financial requirements b/c the school was a sham and was not ready to have students their.

Sallie Mae refuses to remove my loans b/c they claim I signed a contract and that they will not take responsibility for a school that they did not investigate to see whether or not they were liscened (turns out they are not) and hound me for repayment of loans I never even touched with my own hands.

Sallie Mae engages in these tactics with school as evident by all the suits being brought against from students who have attended fraudulent schools and now are forced to repay loans back, while never having recieved an iota of relevant education from these schools.

Sallie Mae continues in this practice and entrap people with hidden arbitration clauses basically removing them from any and all class action suits against them involving schools they know not to be fit to be classified as learning institutions and yet they approve them to offer loans to give to students.

They know what they are doing and expect the student to default on payment, in which case they would be guaranteed all repayment b/c it is federally funded. At the same time a student could not declare bankruptcy b/c student loans are not able to be included in such declarations.

They are completely covered and people like me whose only mistake was to seek a better chance at being succesfull in life get the shaft.

I need help here.

John
woodside, New York
U.S.A.