Complaint Review: Virginia College - Birmingham Alabama

I will apologize for assuming that you are a terminated employee. That was unfair accusation and I should not have assumed that. I will say that is fair to assume that you are a current or former employee based on your attempts to describe the internal operations of the company. I will add this, IF you are a current employee, it speaks volumes about your character that you would go to work everyday know that you are defrauding people (Your words not mine). As for my sentence structure and grammar, my post was type on my phone. Some of the errors were due to auto-correct. I would also add that before you judge my post, you should re-read both of yours. You even had errors in sentences where you were judging my grammar. Now to respond to you last post. I will bold my statements and italicize your comments. ( I also bolded and underlined you errors.)

Most of what this person said is a gross misinterpretation of what VC does.

How so?  You did not address me in a clearly written rebuttal.

I actually addressed every issue you brought up. However I will do so again now.

This report was filed by a terminated employee.

Not true, where is your proof of me being a terminated, existing, or previous employee? I might be someone you talk to in the break room. 

I addressed this above, but again I apologize for the assumption.

1st of all not everyone can be excepted at the school. There is an admissions test that had to passed to get in.

Congratulations for having an admissions exam!  Please tell everyone how this compares to the SAT/ACT that other schools require.  Please past the link for this admissions test for the readers to take the test and judge the difficulty for themselves.  Based on your sentence structure I would guess this test was extremely difficult for you.

I never once tried to compare the Wonderlic test to the SAT/ACT. However, the fact that we have one speaks volumes. Most online programs only require you to fill out an application, pay a fee and you are accepted. Entrance into an online program does not have the same standards as some ground programs. If you don't believe me apply to St. Leo University, Florida Tech, or Jacksonville University. Notice I didn't name any notorious online programs likes UOP, Devry, or AIU? The schools I listed are non-profit regionally accredited school. It's more difficult for a student to get into VC than it is to get into a "better school".

As for financial aid, if have borrowed a certain amount of money previous or have attended 3 or more schools in 10 years without getting a degree you will be denied admission. That's hardly a school that let's in everyone.

No it is just a school that follows the guidelines set forth by FASA for student academic progress.  Guess what, all schools follow these guidelines because they want to get paid.

You are WRONG. This is a policy that VC implemented to avoid "check chasing" students. VC is attempting to stay ahead or curve by implementing policies BEFORE they become mandated by the department of education. This policy has nothing to do with FAFSA requirements. The academic progress requirement deals with student having to pass a certain percentage of their attempted credits.

As for the military benefits, of course VC wants to maximize the benefits. That means the student
will decrease there out of pocket or loan expenses. We also discourage students
from taking out "extra money" for living expenses because 1.Financial Aid is for tuition 2. It's loan money and will put the student further in debt.

Does this have anything to do with you being a private school and the military benefits off sets the ratio of federal aid to no federal aid funding allowed by law?  Or is this simply VC has such a big heart
that they are looking out for the best interest of the student?

It has absolutely nothing to do with being a private school. The 90/10 rule that you are referring to is a requirement for ALL title IV schools. Whether it's a private school, for profit or non-profit school. The fact that VC wants to maximize the military benefits does help both parties. The student minimizes their debt and we meet the 90/10 standard. No school, profit or non-profit, is going to do anything to jeopardize it's ability to operate. VC does try to look out for the students best interest because ultimately that's in VC best interest.

There are quotas for phone calls, because the company does not want us doing nothing all and get paid. They expect us to WORK while we are on the clock. This entails contact students and potential students.

I am sure VC like any other company wants their employees to work.  My comments concerning the phone calls are that they are very excessive and borderline harassment. 

This is simply par for the course in this industry. If you have talked to students, you will know that they receive calls from multiple schools on a consistent basis. So, if that makes VC a predatory school, it pretty much means all schools with an online program follow predatory practices.

Last but not least the accreditation. VC is nationally accredited. That's not hidden. Many regionally accredited schools may not accept credits from VC.

Please name 3 regionally accredited schools that will accept VC credits.

This may be the worst part of your response. How can I name 3 regionally accredited school if credit transfer is discretionary to the receiving institution (which is stated below)? I also mentioned in the statement above that many regionally accredited schools may not accept credits from VC (I underlined since you seemed to miss it the first time). There are school that will accept the credit though they maybe few and far between. The bottom line is that they do EXIST. 

That's also not hidden. The reality is transfer credits are up to the discretion of the receiving institution.

Explain the difference in credit transfers between regionally and nationally accredited schools. The process itself is very telling.

There is no difference in the process. The transcripts are sent to the registrar's office and matched up to programs curriculum. That is the standard procedure for regionally accredited schools and VC. So, what is this "telling" process that you refer to? The difference you find between schools, is the residency requirement. Each school sets a standard of how many credits you have to receive from their institution to receive the degree from their school. That varies from school to school, regardless of accreditation. For the record, many regionally accredited schools are notorious for accepting transfer credits that do not apply to the students degree. For example, they may accept 60 credits in, however on 20 actually apply to the degree. The student then ends with a total of 160 credits for 120 credit degree. That's a deceptive practice because the student is lead to believe that those 40 credits meant something when they enrolled. I have never seen this happen at VC.

The degree is not worthless, just ask the many people that has used the degree to get a job through VC's Career Services department.

I will believe this if you can tell me 100% of all the programs VC offers are accredited.  The answer is no, so please tell me how a degree or certificate from a non-accredited school is helpful?  Then I will entertain your thought on how nationally accredited degrees are better than regionally accredited schools. 

I will speak for the online programs, because I don't know about all of the campus programs. ALL of the online programs are accredited. Secondly I never said about nationally accredited degrees being better than regionally accredited degrees or vice versa. That actually really depends on the field in which you received your degree. For example many nurses have degrees from nationally accredited schools (fyi: many regionally accredited school do accept nursing credits from nationally accredited programs). For you to say the degree is worthless is bogus. As I stated many people have used VC degrees to get jobs. Career services has standards that they have to meet for placement or we could lose our accreditation. Does that mean the degree helps everyone? No, but that is the case regardless of the school that you graduate from. Many people have degrees from regionally accredited school and cannot find jobs.  For the record, the job placement rates for VC are available online to verify that people DO get jobs with VC degrees. If people are getting jobs in their field how is the degree worthless.

In closing I would like to ask you if you are attending VC as an employee?  If not, the cost of tution is free for you as an employee, so why not?  They offer a wide variety of programs from cosmotalogy to MBA programs.  That is a very wide range of opptions withing the 27 or so programs VC offers.  So again are you a VC student or graduate????

I am not a VC student or graduate, but only because I do not have the desire to go to school right now. That's a personal choice for me, but not because I look down on VC's programs. I will say that I did consider getting into the Networking program and I still may in the future.

In closing, you are extremely uninformed and based your whole argument on your OPINION and not on facts. Everything I stated can be researched and verified. I will say I truly hope that you are not an employee, because if you are there is a lot that you don't understand about your job. It's scary to think that someone like you could be giving information to students. If you are an employee, please see Allie or the MSC trainer ASAP. 

P.S. See you in the break room.

I am not a terminated employee and you should refrain from such accusations. 

Your post gives people a better example of the type of establishment you are trying so hard to rubber stamp as "higher education" as your sentance structure is horrible and several words are missused. I will address each of your comments.

Most of what this person said is a gross misinterpretation of what VC does.

How so?  You did not address me in a clearly written rebuttal.

This report was filed by a terminated employee.

Not true, where is your proof of me being a terminated, existing, or previous employee? I might be someone you talk to in the break room. 

1st of all not everyone can be excepted at the school. There is an admissions test that had to passed to get in.

Congratulations for having an admissions exam!  Please tell everyone how this compares to the SAT/ACT that other schools require.  Please past the link for this admissions test for the readers to take the test and judge the difficulty for themselves.  Based on your sentence structure I would guess this test was extremely difficult for you.

As for financial aid, if have borrowed a certain amount of money previous or have attended 3 or more schools in 10 years without getting a degree you will be denied admission. That's hardly a school that let's in everyone.

No it is just a school that follows the guidelines set forth by FASA for student academic progress.  Guess what, all schools follow these guidelines because they want to get paid.

As for the military benefits, of course VC wants to maximize the benefits. That means the student will decrease there out of pocket or loan expenses. We also discourage students from taking out "extra money" for living expenses because 1.Financial Aid is for tuition 2. It's loan money and will put the student further in debt.

Does this have anything to do with you being a private school and the military benefits off sets the ratio of federal aid to no federal aid funding allowed by law?  Or is this simply VC has such a big heart that they are looking out for the best interest of the student?

There are quotas for phone calls, because the company does not want us doing nothing all and get paid. They expect us to WORK while we are on the clock. This entails contact students and potential students.

I am sure VC like any other company wants their employees to work.  My comments concerning the phone calls are that they are very excessive and borderline harassment. 

Last but not least the accreditation. VC is nationally accredited. That's not hidden. Many regionally accredited schools may not accept credits from VC.

Please name 3 regionally accredited schools that will accept VC credits.

That's also not hidden. The reality is transfer credits are up to the discretion of the receiving institution.

Explain the difference in credit transfers between regionally and nationally accredited schools. The process itself is very telling.

The degree is not worthless, just ask the many people that has used the degree to get a job through VC's Career Services department.

I will believe this if you can tell me 100% of all the programs VC offers are accredited.  The answer is no, so please tell me how a degree or certificate from a non-accredited school is helpful?  Then I will entertain your thought on how nationally accredited degrees are better than regionally accredited schools. 

In closing I would like to ask you if you are attending VC as an employee?  If not, the cost of tution is free for you as an employee, so why not?  They offer a wide variety of programs from cosmotalogy to MBA programs.  That is a very wide range of opptions withing the 27 or so programs VC offers.  So again are you a VC student or graduate??????

Most of what this person said is a gross misinterpretation of what VC does. This report was filed by a terminated employee. 1st of all not everyone can be excepted at the school. There is an admissions test that had to passed to get in. As for financial aid, if have borrowed a certain amount of money previous or have attended 3 or more schools in 10 years without getting a degree you will be denied admission. That's hardly a school that let's in everyone. As for the military benefits, of course VC wants to maximize the benefits. That means the student will decrease there out of pocket or loan expenses. We also discourage students from taking out "extra money" for living expenses because 1. Financial Aid is for tuition 2. It's loan money and will put the student further in debt. There are quotas for phone calls, because the company does not want us doing nothing all and get paid. They expect us to WORK while we are on the clock. This entails contact students and potential students. Last but not least the accreditation. VC is nationally accredited. That's not hidden. Many regionally accredited schools may not accept credits from VC. That's also not hidden. The reality is transfer credits are up to the discretion of the receiving institution. The degree is not worthless, just ask the many people that has used the degree to get a job through VC's Career Services department.