Complaint Review: American Intercontinental University - Internet

I attended this school in 2006 working on my Bachelor's in Computer Programming. I was supposed to graduation in December 2006. I was one more full class away from receiving my Bachelor's degree. During this time, AIU told me I was missing some general elective courses, which was news to me, because I was under the impression that my classes were already mapped out and given to me when I first started my degree. I didn't understand why this school was allowed to just add classes right at the end before I was about to graduate. I was then told that I had the option to take CLEP exams in lieu of these 5 extra classes. So, I planned on taking the CLEP exams to cover take care of the credits I was missing. During this time, I was in the midst of a job change and I did not have money to pay for the exams. AIU informed me that because I hadn't taken the CLEP exams, five new classes were added to my schedule, extending my graduation until spring of 2007. I told them that I was still planning on taking the CLEP exams, but I just didn't have the money at the time. I had discussed my situation with an academic advisor and he told me I could take them as long as I get them done before December.

Well, that same week I was told that if I didn't get a loan to cover classes that were scheduled for April, then I would be withdrawn from school. There is no reason I should have to get a loan for classes that I am not going to take. I was stuck. I talked to Financial Aid several times as well as Academics, and no one could do anything about this. They wanted me to pay them for classes that I was not taking or I would be withdrawn from school that week. I was in my third week of class and still had one more class to go and they withdrew me from school, even though everything was paid for to finish my degree.

A couple of weeks later, I received a letter in the mail stating that I owed them about 900.00. It didn't make sense to me, because I didn't owe them any money while I was a student, so why would I owe them money after they withdrew me from school. I had school loans and grants to cover everything. I called AIU and they were very rude, of course. They told me that they sent the money from my Wachovia student loan back, and since they did so without first taking the remainder of my balance, that I was responsible for the payment. I told them to explain that to me, because it makes no sense to do that. They said that loan payments come in at certain times and they hadn't received anything from Wachovia during that session. They told me to call Wachovia to find out for myself.

Well, I called Wachovia, and the lady told me that the disbursements are made at the request of the school at any time they wish to receive the disbursements. She also said that the school should have taken the remainder of the tuition that was owed and then just sent them back the remainder. She said that it makes no sense to refund the money without first taking what was owed out.

I have noticed that this school has done this on numerous occasions to many people.  I don't get why a student who is paying for classes should be forced to pay for classes that were just added to their schedule or else they don't get the opportunity to finish out their classes that they actually did pay for. It's not fair to the student and its robbery. Not only did they not allow me to finish my paid for classes, but they made it so that I wouldn't be able to, without first paying them a fortune. Because of this, I wasn't able to get my degree and I was stuck with huge loans. Over 50,000 worth of Federal Loans and a Private loan of 5,000. It has ruined my credit, and it made my life extremely difficult. All this happened to me not long after my husband committed suicide. This put me in the whole and I am still trying to dig out of it.