I enrolled in the Axia Online College back in April of 2007, to do the book work of my nursing degree online. My enrollment counselor, Toriano Scroggins, told me that since I had never taken any college courses before, that I would first have to take my basics and assured me that after two years of getting my basics that I could start my RN degree online.
I received my first disbursement from a pell grant that May and was able to purchase my laptop so that I could do all my school work. I was told that I was to receive another disbursement shortly there after, yet I never received one. When I tried to contact my financial aid counselor, Rafael Quirarte, lets say I would have had better luck finding the needle in the hay stack.
I called him several times, left emails, and voice messages on his message machine. I did not finally get a call back until August, only to be told that I was not going to be seeing another disbursement because I had not gotten enough credits or something like that. He told me that the money was not sent from the Government yet. Okay, so lets fast forward a bit.
I noticed on my account that I had pell grants that were marked as credits. I once again tried to contact Rafael, and not one word. I ended up having to contact his manager, Jennifer something, and she informed me that I would be receiving one disbursement towards the middle of January 08, and another in February 08. She also confirmed that I was to receive yet another one this last May.
I asked her several times if she was sure, and she told me she was looking at my file and it said it on there. I got the disbursements for January and February; however when May came around nothing came in the mail. I actually got a hold of Rafael this time and the told me that he had no idea why she would tell me that because it does not say anything like that on my file. One year later, from enrollment, I find out that I am not going to be able to take my degree because in order to take their RN course, you have to be a Registered Nurse for two years prior.
Now why did these people not inform me of this before I started class? They new full well that I was not registered because I was practically fresh out of High School. So I decided to push forward, I was already half way through this so there was no reason for me to quit. I was/am just upset that I wasted my time with this when I could have already been licensed and working as a Nurse.
Just recently I was told by Rafael that I was out of money because tuition rates increased but it was the perfect time for me to apply for more money because Title IV Loans had just increased. I went ahead and approved it for him to apply for the money because I did not have the cash to pay out of my pocket for the tuition costs because they are rather high.
Just this last week I received two disbursement checks that were supposedly left over from the new funds. And yesterday (October 18, 2008) I received a bill in the mail for the amount that they disbursed to me. It really bothered me to see that they were trying to bill me for money they credited to me, so my husband did some research to see what it was all about and stumbled across this site and began to read all the problems that students have had with this school.
It really worries me, because I can totally relate to everything that the students are saying. This has been the most stressful thing for me. The e-campus is the most annoying thing because it is always having problems and then when assignments are late because of it, they act like it is my fault. I also just had to get a new Master Promissory Note because College Loan Corporation, no longer gave Title IV loans. Correct me if I am wrong, however College Loan Corp. deals with nothing but Student Loans. Therefore, should that not include Title IV loans?
Is it possible that they just refuse to send anymore money to UOP? I don't know, I am just so confused right now not to mention scared. My husband and I have worked our butts off to build my credit up. So far I have really good credit, no bad marks what so ever, and with this school, I am afraid that the Loan debt I have acquired is going to ruin that unless I am able to find a forgiveness loan or grant to pay it off.
On another note, when I first started I was told that if ever I needed to take some time off from class for what ever reason, just to let my academic counselor know and they would work it out for me. No problem. Well last October of 07 my husband and I suffered a miscarriage and when I asked for some time off to get my head together, my counselor said that he could not do that because if he did I was going to be held financially responsible for the classes(that were already paid for by loans by the way). It upset me however, Bless God, we were able to get through it.
My GPA has dropped from an A to a high C, and all because of a combination of their problems, and I have just shear lost my ambition to be doing this anymore. I want to transfer to Liberty University, however after reading all the problems that other students have had with that I am scared that I wont be able to. I am scheduled for graduation for April 04, 2009, and I am wondering if I should go ahead with it, or if I should protest now? I have had an odd feeling about these people for quite some time now, and after reading all the reports on here, especially the ones from the former employees, my suspicions are confirmed.
It upsets me because they have wasted my time and put me about 15K in the hole. And over what? This is Nonsense! And I pray that God gives these people what is coming to them. If there is a Class Action Law suite against these people I would like to be notified please. God Bless you all.
Marie
somewhere, Texas
U.S.A.
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