Complaint Review: AIU Online - Hoffman Estates Illinois

I too was rip-off my AIU, thry also changed mu financial agreement at the last minute, just before graduation. I did complete my tenure but I did not receive my diploma. I was instructed if I do not pay the money I would not re ive my diploma and as of now I still have not gotten it. I graduated March 2004 with honors. I certainly would love to have my diploma to show everyone with har work and determination you can do anything.

I worked at AIU Online for over a year, and I must say it is a horrible company. I worked there because i needed the money, but the way they treat students is horrible. All they care about is money. They say you need an "Entrance Essay" in order to be considered to attend, but they will accept ANYBODY, just to get a quick buck. Unfortunately, there are tons of horror stories from students. For every one satisfied student, there are over a hundred disgusted students. If you are interested in being a student, the first person you deal with is an admissions rep. The admissions reps are SALESPEOPLE. All one needs to be an adm rep is to have a high school diploma or GED, and they all come from employment agencies. They have barely any training and only care about one thing - enrolling students. They read from a script, which is posted on another thread on ripoffreport.com. They will LIE TO YOU to get you enrolled! If you need proof that admissions reps are only salespeople, go to monster.com and look for jobs with keyword "sales" and company name "AIU" If you don't have an associates or bachelors degree, the next person you deal with is an articulation coordinator. They give you a "tentative degree plan," which means they can change your degree at any time - hence the complaints for thousands upon thousands of dollars increased from the original plan!! The next person you deal with is your academic advisor. An advisors main job is to fix up all the lies and mistakes the admissions reps tell students. They have to constantly apologize to students for admissions reps lies. You see, once you enrolled in school for a week, you are assigned an academic advisor, and the adm rep is no longer able to speak with you. So the admissions rep can tell a student whatever they please, because they know the student will no longer be able to talk to them after their first week of classes. You also deal with a financial advisor. If you have any questions at all about your finances/charges, these are the only people allowed to talk to you about them. They will tell you you can get tuition assistance from this loan and/or that loan, but they could care less about any financial hardships. If you are thinking about attending, obviously i think you SHOULDN'T, to say the least. My opinion has nothing to do with being an ex employee and having hatred towards the incompetent managers and all the lies they tell employees, but rather from all the horror stories i have heard from students and employees. I am very glad i made the decision to leave such an immoral company, and i am just warning everybody to stay away. Here is my favorite example of the horror at AIU Online. An admissions rep told a student they were enrolled in the Bachelors Degree in Education at AIU Online, which doesn't even EXIST. The student saw that they were enrolled in a business program, and called up their adm rep. The adm rep told them not to worry, that they are enrolled in a bachelors in education program. A couple weeks later, the student received their books- all for business classes. The student angrily called up the adm rep, and again the adm rep assured the student they were in the education program! Once the student was active (in class for a week), the advisor had to tell the student they don't even offer a bachelors degree in Eduction. I feel very sorry for the student. How adm reps can get away with telling such lies is beyond me. I wish something could be done about it!

Unfortunately, I never actually received any paperwork of any type. The funny thing is that I applied for AIU a year or two before I actually enrolled. I had forgotten about applying when I talked to them this time (and since I had never actually attended or truly enrolled before, did not have any paperwork from that application). They said I had already sent in an application fee before, so didn't need to this time and didn't need to fill out any new paperwork. I sent them an updated transcript and that's about it. Thus, I don't have any actual paperwork. I think my first advisor's name was Anthony. However, I had at least 3 academic advisors in the first 6 months. So, I'm in limbo and working on the next step.

Print a copy of the application packet that you filled out identifying yourself, the date of your apllication and the name, if you have it of the Admissions Advisor that enrolled you. Put it all together with a letter indicating that you are withdrawing your enrollment, effective (Date). Send it certified mail to the Nick Fluge, AIU CEO, at the address you have. Be sure to keep return receipt. That should cover you. Best of luck.