Nadine
South Haven,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, January 25, 2007
India I have been reading your post with great horror and the utmost concern knowing what it means to be a foreigner. However, I assure you that the horrendous experience you received abroad with so called help from AIU comes to no surprise since these people are not only incompetent but out to get the most money out of anybody they consider a prospective student. There are many people that have posted to this site regarding AIU with a common complained regarding AIU advisers and FA. AIU will make up factious claims to keep your FA plus adding more cost to it. AIU will keep you under duress by for example amoung others claiming that your transfer credits are not enough to graduate and then offering challenge examinations, clep tests and extra credit classes that are not covered by your FA. In return you have to take out loans or sign promissory notes for self-payment so you can continue to study. If you are not compliant with AIU then you will be facing no excess to the campus or being dropped. Perhaps by then you have made the decision to quit AIU yourself only to be faced paying whatever AIU can come up with. If you make it to graduation then you have already paid thousands to AIU and now start paying on your FA loans always concerned NOT to default these FA loans. The so called career team at AIU is a joke unless you need assistants with writing a resume, or finding leads to obtain employment which you can easily undertake by researching the web and connecting with your local employment agencies for guidance. AIU will tell you that there are great employment and future opportunities yet a good research beforehand can safe alot of problems. What ever you due keep a hard copy regarding all interaction with AIU, don't be discouraged, and remember you are not the only one. Be aware of postings from AIU former or still employees and file a complained with the attorney general and the board of education to start with. AIU is on probation for many violations which is public record and must lose its FA like so many other for profit entities in the past that are using unethical methods by not only defrauding the government yet any prospective, honest student trying to get a higher education. AIU is claiming enrollment numbers are always up. Not surprising considering their FA (cash cow # one) thru the government by simply guiding you to obtain a FASFA application for FA. Ones you (cash cow # two) receive FA you are accepted by AIU no matter what your financial, living, or future situation is. Take that away and enrollment goes down which would make AIU privat with no FA from the government. AIU has one thing going in the legal department by sliding just barley by being illegal and therefore accountable for their deceit and fraudulent methods of operation in the name of greed, profit, and EDUCATION. AIU want go away unless drastic changes taking place and eventually you will be ruined since you want get adequate employment if you graduate from AIU, your degree could be under none acceptance by employees or other educational entities among other reasons. Nevertheless you will be financially ruined for life and still face another hurdle namely your defaulted student loans which according to Student loan justice have become the most profitable, uncompetitive, oppressive, and predatory type of debt in the USA. In 1997, under intense lobbying from student loan companies, The Higher Education Act (HEA) was amended, and defaulted student loans became among the most lucrative, and easiest to collect type of debt. These amendments allow for huge penalties and fees to be attached to defaulted student loan debt, take away bankruptcy protection for student borrowers, disallow refinancing of the debt, and also provide for draconian collection and punitive measures to be taken against student borrowers, including wage garnishment, tax garnishment, withholding of professional certifications, termination from employment , social security garnishment, and others. Further, according to Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren in a Wall Street Journal piece by John Hechinger , "Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious." Wish I could be more positive in my reply to you yet I face the same predicament. Good luck to you and perhaps you let it be known how you resolved this dilemma which in return can help others in the future.