Complaint Review: Ultrasound Diagnostic School Tampa

Have you had any luck on who to contact about getting some of your money back?  I see where they was a class action lawsuit filed and has been settled.  I attended school 2001-2002 and when I moved out of state I sadly found out that my schooling was not recognized.  It would be nice to have the school cover the loans since they misrepresented the school.

Thanks for any info.

Sarah

 I went to this school in 2000-2001 in Tampa, Florida. I'm still in major debt because of this school. I was considered low income at the time and all I want was an education that I could build a career out of . That was a major joke. Nothing that was promised happen, was told at the end we had to have prerequisites in math and science to move on to Ultrasound we weren't we told this at beginning. I now have a pile of debt because of them. How could they expect a low income family to pay for 9000.00 student loans, how come they didn't find more grants than just student loans. Why because they were greedy and wanted money. I can't even work in the field I went to school for. Does anyone know how I can get out of the rest of the debt, I got 6000.00 taken from my taxes this year when I really needed it the most due to health issues

I spoke to an employee regarding my "personal" student loan that was taken out on my behalf by UDS (which I was un-aware of) She suggested to me that I do some more research and see if the states attorney general had any class action law suits against the school. I have found a few against the school dating back to 2000 here is a copy of one of the most recent that I could find:

I seriously think all of the UDS students who were SCREWED out of thousands of dollars should get together and file another suit!!!!!
Anyone who reads this, email me if you are interested!
*****.com

WHITMAN EDUCATION ( OWNERS OF ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC) : Sandals Langer Announces $7M Settlement Of RICO Suit
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Class counsel, Sandals Langer & Taylor, LLP and Golomb & Honik announced
a settlement of $7.3 million had been reached in a class action suit
brought under the Racketeering Act (RICO) by former students of the
Ultrasound Diagnostic Schools owned by Whitman Education Group Inc.
(Amex: WIX). The settlement was preliminary approved in federal court in
Philadelphia by The Honorable Anita B. Brody.

The recovery is believed to be the largest ever against a vocational
school. Whitman operates fifteen schools under the name "Ultrasound
Diagnostic Schools." Schools are located in New York City, Philadelphia,
Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa,
Atlanta, Silver Spring, Md., Springfield, Mass.

The suit alleged that Whitman ran the schools as a complete sham to
secure funds through the federal government's guaranteed student loan
programs. In its 1999 class action opinion the Court described
plaintiffs claims:

The heart of [plaintiffs'] theory is that UDS failed to meet even the
most minimal and basic standards for an ultrasound program.

Plaintiffs claim that the UDS administrators were unqualified, the
teachers were unqualified, the school lacked meaningful admissions
requirements, students were permitted to graduate without proving
proficiency, externships were unsupervised, and training was inadequate.
By holding themselves out as an ultrasound vocational school, plaintiffs
argue, defendants were committing fraud.

The settlement provides for a Court appointed ombudsman to oversee the
schools' admissions practices over the next four years.

"Whitman represented to the Court that it paid the maximum it could
without running afoul the Department of Education's solvency
requirements," said Howard Langer, co-counsel for the class. "I think
that says it all. Fortunately, Judge Brody's management of the suit made
it clear that the students would ultimately have their day in court."

His co-counsel, Ruben Honik explained that, "by providing for a
federally guaranteed student loan and financial aid program, while not
providing adequate oversight of the schools authorized to receive the
federally guaranteed loans and financial aid, the federal government
provides the funds for those who would otherwise lack the means to
enroll in the deficient -- and what we alleged here to be sham --
programs. Absent the federally guaranteed loans, the scheme we alleged
in the suit could never have been undertaken."