Fred
United States of America#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, December 10, 2012
The car salesman analogy is spot on. I had a similar experience when I visited the campus for the first time, except I actually enrolled and attended this school (more on that later). About halfway through my time there, I looked deeply into how my loan was going. It turns out the price I had been given as the estimate for tuition (the whole tuition) was quite an exaggeration and I was looking at close to double than what I had been told. Mind you, they are legally covered when it comes to this exaggeration because they make you sign a paper saying that it is only an estimate. However, it is so badly off the mark, that although not illegal, I found it very unethical.
Needless to say, I made some noise about it. I wrote e-mails and threatened to let the media and the city of Monrovia know of their deceptions. This got me a meeting with a counselor and the Dean (not sure if that's the title they used there, but it was the top guy). Both of these people are no longer there as their turnover rate for administrators was quite high. The guy ended up getting into a yelling match with me, which the counselor had to defuse.
Nothing was changed as they did have legal ground to stand on. I simply stopped buying anything from their book store and swore never to do anything to promote their school.
Even though the car salesmen tactics were a turnoff, I ended up going to this school because I was very interested in the curriculum they offered at that time. In the end, I graduated and eventually got a good paying job in the exact industry that I wanted. A little secret that many people don't tell you is that a lot of employers don't really care where you went to school. In the many years since I left Mt. Sierra College, I never ONCE have been asked where I went to school, which is a good thing because no one has heard of it. I work with people who went UCLA or USC and make just as much as they do (and some times more).
Of course, if you want to be a big time network reporter, the college you attend might actually matter. You should always look at your end goal when deciding what college to attend. Mt. Sierra, academically speaking, was good for what I needed, and it worked. However, I will always be bothered by the lies I was told by their sales department and the way the administrators handled my complain about it. If you are considering this school, you need to weight your options. There is always a chance these type of small schools can go out of business, which will leave you out in the cold. This happened with a school that used to share the building with Mt. Sierra. But also know that, depending on your career goals, going to a big name school is not always the answer. If you find Mt. Sierra to be an attractive school for you, I would suggest researching a similar school that might be bigger and more successful.
Thank you