Complaint Review: Westwood College

I began attending Westwood College around June of 2006. I moved to WC North Denver campus from another online school that didn't provide me with the tools for success at the time. I was studying a B.S. degree in Marketing/Sales.

My academic counselor was Bethany Paterson. When I first looked into Westwood College I made certain that I asked about accredidation, and also had done some of my own research online. At the time everything seemed sound and like a good choice. Within a few weeks I was in the first of my classes, and everything seemed to go well.

During my enrollment at WC I was periodically contacted by 'Adam Shay' concerning the continuing need for more financial aid to continue my classes to remain in school. This happened about every 4 months or so.

After sometime with the school I would often be concerned with the financial aid that I was applying for. I was always being asked to apply for amounts that seemed well above what I could ever possibly afford to repay when the time came. These loans often amounted over $7,000 for a single class term. And on 1 or 2 occassions were over $10,000. At the time of my enrollment I was barely making $9.50 an hour at my job, in full-time employment.

I brought this concern to both Bethany and Adam and they told me not to worry about it. This was normal for educational expenses and that once I graduated I would have a degree and good position with a company that would earn me enough money to pay my debt off quickly.

About a year after I began my classes my former counselor left WC, and I was assigned a new counselor (name not recalled at this time). However, I did voice my concern with her as well, and received the same replies.

Around December 2007 I began looking into the two community colleges in the area of were I lived and one university, in a hope that I might be able to leave and transfer my credits from WC and finish my degree locally. All 3 schools had informed me that my credits with WC were non-transferable. I asked my counselor at WC concerning this and she assured me that WC was accredited and that once I was finished with my degree, I wouldn't have to worry. I voiced this concern several times but was always told the same thing.

'Adam' was always pressing me for more financial aid money, for one reason or another. Often times his reply was that there wasn't enough financial aid money to pay for my last set of classes, so I had to get more money. All the time it was more money.

Finally in February 2008, I was terminated from my employer and was barely able to maintain my living expenses. My grades had been declining for some time by this point due to stress between both work and schooling. I was told that I had to apply for financial aid again by Adam, but I had informed him that I wasn't able to qualify due to my recent termination. He informed me that I had to get a co-signer, but I didn't have anyone to turn to. My parents were retired and on fixed income, and no other family members were in a position to be able to help either. Adam told me that if I didn't get a total amount of $3,200 soon that I would be dropped from my classes. Big surprise (not really). Especially since he told me it was because I didn't have enough financial aid to pay for my last set of classes . Big surprise? Not really.

By the end of March 2008 I was dropped from my classes, but not before I had ran up a mountain of student loan debt with WC to about $65,000.

Westwood College had suckered me into their worthless programs and left me with a worthless education. Even if I was able to return to school to finish a degree, all the class credits I earned are worthless, and I will have to start over from the beginning. Westwood College should be made to repay my student loans I incurred while attending there, along with all the interest attached to those loans.