Complaint Review: Strayer University - Huntsville Alabama

Deceptive, fraudulent Financial Aid Practices, & unprofessional administrative personnel.
Dates: 08/2009-01/2011 

My experience at Strayer is so similar to other posts it struck me as a little creepy at first. How is it that so many people in other parts of the county are reporting the same situations when referring to Strayer University and their horrific experiences. First let me say when I first stopped by the tour the campus and speak with admissions I was really impressed. They are very friendly during that initial contact. Especially when they know you have a number options in regard to financial aid. (They smell $$$).

After discussing the programs they offered I chose to go ahead apply, did my financial aid, and even registered for the upcoming semester. Every thing was fine the 1st week after classes started, but then that all changed. My paperwork showing my school budget for the year and what was showing up on my student account didnt match at all. So to gain clarification I contacted the same financial aid representative I had just seen weeks prior, but didnt get a response. Im very persistent especially when its important and this was dealing with my money in the end.

I continue to call, no respond, then I started sending emails. Two or three times a day. After a week of doing thing. I finally got a response and the representative tried to give me some lame excuse about a refund release form not being completed prior, so I went back to the local campus filled it out and made sure she got it. Another two or three weeks went by and guess what I hadnt received any of my refund amount.

No one would respond and this time when I went up to the campus. The front desk secretary would walk to the back of office, come back and say the financial aid rep wasnt available, "To leave a message." I decided enough was enough I contacted another campus and spoke to the financial aid rep there. She gave me the information and come to find out the local office reps hadnt turned in the form. Now this was half way through a 8 wks session. Which makes no sense and is just bad business practices.

Next eight weeks started and guess what same problem over an over. To make matters worst I hadnt even received my first refund until that semester started. This is why my time with Strayer was so short. Things with their faculty and staff just escalated in a negative or unprofessional way. As if them not knowing the true meaning of customer service or the students are the core of the university, they continued to ignore their students concerns and calls. I know that to be true first hand.

The only time I received a response back from them was whenever it was time to registered for the upcoming semester, then they had no problem emailing or even calling to remind me of that. The last straw for me came the end of the Jan 2011 semester I noticed some strange fees and charges. For me I think my mind was already made up that I wasnt going to be attending Strayer the next semester b/c after registering this particular term I found out they no longer offered the program of study I orginally enrolled in to get my Associates degree.

I had only one class to take for that, and should have been done with it all that Jan term. This issue caused more problems with my financial aid. They had to change my program yes right when I was suppose to get my degree to a BSA one, which meant they could get more money from my Pell and Student loans. I ran my credit report that same year and was shocked to find that I owe over $45k in loans. Why? Because come to find out Strayer has the practice of charging fees for future services.

In other words if you have Time Warner Cable you may be familiar with some companies charging you for the month to come, well thats what Strayer does. They charge for the next semester even before you register. Thats what they did to me the following semester after the one I attended in Jan 2011. I made it very clear to the local office I had enough of all the problems and disrespect or lack of concern from their representatives. I wasnt going to register or ever return back to this school.

They continued to email me about the matter which was shocking because these are the same people you cant get a response out of no matter what its about. Well thats why I strongly feel that we the students should be the ones filing a class action suit against this paper mill. Strayer is not a university or a college for that matter. They are a big business who see and uses potential students & uncle sam as suckers to increase their profits. Ive kept every email that they did send, which most are from other states rep, because my campus didnt bother until I reached out.

If you are tired of this kind of behavior why dont we do something about it? The shareholders are not the ones who are getting taking to the cleaners. We the students are. Now I cant take any more classes with another university because they have lied and stolen more of my loans money available than I signed for. Worst school ever. I would never refer anyone to them.