Complaint Review: Westwood College

So what legitimate college keeps getting sued for fraud? None that I know of. Here's the latest on Westwood College, article written by Susan Graybeal, March 15, 2012:

Colorado's attorney general, John Suthers, announced on Wednesday that a settlement has been reached with Westwood College to address allegations that the school has been misleading students by engaging in deceptive advertising and has violated the state's consumer lending laws. Here are the details.

* Under the settlement, Westwood has agreed to pay $2 million to the state in penalties, restitution, attorney fees and costs. The school will also pay $2.5 million directly to students who financed their tuition through the school's finance program.

* Westwood must also now disclose to its students an accurate number of students who find employment in their fields of study, the full cost of obtaining a degree from the school, and that the credits earned at Westwood will likely not transfer to other schools.

* According to the legal complaint filed by Suthers, Westwood College, which is headquartered in Colorado and operates 17 career school campuses in six states, including two in Colorado as well as a Colorado-based online program, has advertised high rates of graduates employed in their fields of study and high salary figures on television and internet ads as well as in admissions interviews with prospective students. Surveys show that 75 percent of the students at Westwood in the last five years chose to attend the school because it offered a career-focused education. Students cited Westwood's job placement statistics as a main reason for enrolling in the school.

* The attorney general's investigation revealed that though the school routinely advertised employment figures between 83 to 85 percent for Westwood graduates, some of Westwood's most popular programs had employment rates far lower than that. Additionally, the school included in their employment figures students who found jobs where the title and responsibilities did not relate to their field of study and didn't match the jobs that the school advertised and stated in admissions interviews.

* The complaint also alleges that Westwood misled veterans to believe that their GI Bill would cover the cost of their studies when it usually did not. The school also failed to disclose the terms of its student financing, the attorney general's office noted, and it charged improper finance fees and failed to maintain records as required by Colorado lending laws.

* The school rewarded its admissions representatives for enrolling students, providing incentives for admissions representatives to enroll students in bachelor's programs rather than associate's programs, the complaint stated. Students were enrolled in the school's financing without their knowledge or consent and students were not notified of scheduled payment dates before being assessed delinquency charges.

* In 2009, the complaint states, students went to the Better Business Bureau to report that the school had misled them as to the total cost to attend, the terms of the school's institutional financing, the quality of its programs and the graduate employability and earning potential. These complaints were forwarded to the Department of Higher Education and the Colorado Attorney General's office in late 2009 and early 2010.

Just an FYI, though we know it doesn't really mean that much but the BBB has revoked Westwood College because of maintaining an F rating in most states. Even the BBB will not touch this college. So for the shills that keep posting that this is a great college and for the others who think we are just complaining, try again. This college ripped every student off from a valued education for years and yet the are still in business, why?