ITT Technical Institute is ripping Disabled U.S. Military Veterans off and Stealing their MGI Bill Money!!! Seattle Washington

I read the above employee's report about how a girl he enrolled got "her foot in the door" with a security job. I just wanted to point out that, in Washington state, the average security guard makes around $10 an hour. In my opinion, having worked extensively in the private security industry, an unarmed security job is in no way a foot in the door to any carrer. 

I went to this "school". I have seen many friends of mine graduate with $40,000 in loans, that before interest. After that most have gotten jobs, but the highest paid one ia about $17.00 an hour. one of my buddies just got a job for $11.25 an hour. So, he makes $380.00 roughly after taxes every week. His loan payment will be about 400-500 dollars depending on his interest rate. He is the number one student in our whole class. He never comes late, never misses class. Stays for everything, and gets straight A's. There is no way he can pay his loan let alone other bills. Please, please do not go to this school. So here is the point, this school is a joke. If you cannot pass a class, they will pass you anyway. I have seen it many times. Just the fact that they are offering someone a 30% interest rate on a $40,000 loan should tell you something about them. So with that interest rate, your 40Grand loan, is not about 65 grand. Adn what do you have for 65 grand. A BS Associated degree which will get you no more that 18 dollars an hour. And the 18 an hour is if you are really lucky. Another thing that i hate is that the people who help you find jobs, do just that. They don't give a hoot whether you get 25 an hour, or 12. As loing as you're off their board they are happy. Ohh yeah, the people who you talk to first about starting at the school have a quote. They have to get a certain number of sudents signed up every month or they get fired. I wish I knw this before I started. Now I have all these loans, and there is no way in anything that I will make that much money. I'm not trying to make 92,000 a year. but in this school, 30,000 is great. Which is not bad right out of school, unless you spent 65,000 for an associates degree. The point is this, their degree is not worth what they charge for it. I wish there was a class action lawsuit against them. I would join in a hearbeat. What you get at this school is worth maybe 15,000. Evertything else is a joke. Pleas believe me when I say this. I have no reason to lie. I wish I could have had the smarts to read some of this stuff before I signed up with them. I am 26 years old, and this is the biggest mistake I have ever made. And beleve me, I have made some HUGE mistakes in my life. If I could do it over, I would go to a community college, which is about 75% cheaper than this BS school. And not only that, ITT does not transfer credits AT ALL (I was told that more that 70% of my credits would transfer). Any community college will transfer credits to any other college. ITT will NIOT!!! So what you're stuck with is a 50-70 thousand dollar associates degree. And you cannot use this degree to get a bachelors. The credits will not transfer, you will not get more than 18 an hour, unless you are one out of the lucky ten people a semester who get more. If you go to this school you will regret it. Maybe not right away, but you will. I'm not an idiot, i just made some bad choices in life. I thought ITT would make it easier for me to get back on track. And what did they do, make it ten times harder for me.

I suggest that you file a complaint with your state Attorney General office. It sounds to me like you ran into some very unscrupulous people, and if you still have the deals they offered you in writing, report them.

I am currently a student at the ITT campus in Canton,MI. I did run into some high-pressure sales tactics the first time I approached them, and I walked out the door because of that. However, I did a lot of research into the programs available to me at every college in my area, and I eventually enrolled at ITT. I got around the high-pressure the second time by telling them that I knew exactly what I wanted to study(which I did), and I told them that I wanted to speak with someone other than the admissions rep I spoke with the first time. I'm not saying that you should go to ITT, but it has ended up being a very positive experience for me.

If in fact someone at that campus tried to steer you toward a loan at 30%, and they also tried to get you to sign over your veteran's benefits to them, definitely report them to the authorities, because it sounds to me like they were actually trying to cut a side deal. I had nothing like that offered to me when I enrolled, in fact I was specifically told that I could not use my GI Bill as backing for a loan.

I also suggest that you find out more about how the GI Bill works. It does not "kick in to cover all future payments". All it is supposed to do is help you defray costs while attending school. No reputable financial aid office will tell you otherwise.

Good Luck nailing those con-artists.

Okay, the radio ads aren't cheap with the commercials.

The radio ads go as much as $1200 depending on the markets in the cities.

The tv ads can be twice that, okay.

I talked to numerous people that I was going to attend the school and they all reacted the same way.

"Don't do it and don't sign anything because you won't get anywhere"

I used to do ATM's in the Philadelphia region and I had talked to different techs.

I also talked to someone who was an independent contractor for a network company and he told me that he went to CHI, which isn't that bad of a school.

You have a contract. Why on earth do they want $100 up front?

Once you get the paper(degree) , good luck finding work because I heard that you won't get any further.

All these school want is money and don't deliver the goods.

I saved $38,000 from costs. That would also include on the tuition cost and books and other things.

Wow Thanks God for this website, I am looking to get back into school to get computer networking bachelors degree, and I was about to request info from this Institute of (scams) I am surprised that no one is doing noting about it, if schools screw people over how come they still in business and THAT"S VERY S...Y thing to do of them trying to screw you over specially since you are ex-military were they thinking you dumb or something???, Thank you very much that you posted this, I would more likely caught that but at least you saved me tons of time that would go to waste and from putting my contact info on their website so I could get brochure , who knows what else they would do with the contact info.
Art. Seattle, WA

As a retired veteran, I feel your pain: It seems that everyone wants to scam us somehow.

I retired from the military after 20 years of service. I've been working in the electronics field since high school and all during my military career. I have plenty of experience and training in the electronics field, but I want that paper that says that I am who I say I am (plus it's a great way to get higher pay!).

My experience in the electronics degree program (Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology) has been a positive one. I went through years of training in the military to prepare me to maintain and repair equipment in the fleet. I felt like there wasn't really anything that I could learn from ITT Tech...until I started taking the classes and realized that, compared to what I was learning, the military hadn't really taught me anything at all! ITT Tech in Everett has filled in the gaps that my military training left out.

Does it seem expensive? I guess it does. My GI Bill takes some of the bite off of the tuition expenses. My company also pays part of my tuition, which helps take off a little more of the sting.

The value of my education, though, is well worth it! Three guys in my degree program are being considered by Schlumberger for employment. The company flew them all out to Utah for interviews and are offering to pay $10,000 of their tuition! The Schlumberger recruiter told me that his company loves to hirer people from ITT Tech because of the training that we receive. I got a similar response from another employer (ie: Fluke).

Is it worth it? I would say it is...

As a retired veteran, I feel your pain: It seems that everyone wants to scam us somehow.

I retired from the military after 20 years of service. I've been working in the electronics field since high school and all during my military career. I have plenty of experience and training in the electronics field, but I want that paper that says that I am who I say I am (plus it's a great way to get higher pay!).

My experience in the electronics degree program (Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology) has been a positive one. I went through years of training in the military to prepare me to maintain and repair equipment in the fleet. I felt like there wasn't really anything that I could learn from ITT Tech...until I started taking the classes and realized that, compared to what I was learning, the military hadn't really taught me anything at all! ITT Tech in Everett has filled in the gaps that my military training left out.

Does it seem expensive? I guess it does. My GI Bill takes some of the bite off of the tuition expenses. My company also pays part of my tuition, which helps take off a little more of the sting.

The value of my education, though, is well worth it! Three guys in my degree program are being considered by Schlumberger for employment. The company flew them all out to Utah for interviews and are offering to pay $10,000 of their tuition! The Schlumberger recruiter told me that his company loves to hirer people from ITT Tech because of the training that we receive. I got a similar response from another employer (ie: Fluke).

Is it worth it? I would say it is...

As a retired veteran, I feel your pain: It seems that everyone wants to scam us somehow.

I retired from the military after 20 years of service. I've been working in the electronics field since high school and all during my military career. I have plenty of experience and training in the electronics field, but I want that paper that says that I am who I say I am (plus it's a great way to get higher pay!).

My experience in the electronics degree program (Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology) has been a positive one. I went through years of training in the military to prepare me to maintain and repair equipment in the fleet. I felt like there wasn't really anything that I could learn from ITT Tech...until I started taking the classes and realized that, compared to what I was learning, the military hadn't really taught me anything at all! ITT Tech in Everett has filled in the gaps that my military training left out.

Does it seem expensive? I guess it does. My GI Bill takes some of the bite off of the tuition expenses. My company also pays part of my tuition, which helps take off a little more of the sting.

The value of my education, though, is well worth it! Three guys in my degree program are being considered by Schlumberger for employment. The company flew them all out to Utah for interviews and are offering to pay $10,000 of their tuition! The Schlumberger recruiter told me that his company loves to hirer people from ITT Tech because of the training that we receive. I got a similar response from another employer (ie: Fluke).

Is it worth it? I would say it is...

As a retired veteran, I feel your pain: It seems that everyone wants to scam us somehow.

I retired from the military after 20 years of service. I've been working in the electronics field since high school and all during my military career. I have plenty of experience and training in the electronics field, but I want that paper that says that I am who I say I am (plus it's a great way to get higher pay!).

My experience in the electronics degree program (Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology) has been a positive one. I went through years of training in the military to prepare me to maintain and repair equipment in the fleet. I felt like there wasn't really anything that I could learn from ITT Tech...until I started taking the classes and realized that, compared to what I was learning, the military hadn't really taught me anything at all! ITT Tech in Everett has filled in the gaps that my military training left out.

Does it seem expensive? I guess it does. My GI Bill takes some of the bite off of the tuition expenses. My company also pays part of my tuition, which helps take off a little more of the sting.

The value of my education, though, is well worth it! Three guys in my degree program are being considered by Schlumberger for employment. The company flew them all out to Utah for interviews and are offering to pay $10,000 of their tuition! The Schlumberger recruiter told me that his company loves to hirer people from ITT Tech because of the training that we receive. I got a similar response from another employer (ie: Fluke).

Is it worth it? I would say it is...

Hello, how are you?

I read your post and as it reads it seems as though, at least to some extent, you didn't seem to want to have to pay much to get your schooling done as it was in the first place. I have been working at ITT Tech for almost a year now as a, well as you would call me; a "fluffer" or a used 'car salesman' of old Buicks. Regarding your comments about the ITT Tech Education not being worth much and someone not being able to get a job after graduation -- in my time here I have only seen the opposite! From our previous years' numbers (2007) at just our campus alone in Boise we had on average nearly 90% post graduation employment throughout most of our programs. Which is to be interpreted as roughly 90% of our GRADS went out and got jobs in the field they received their degree in. I know that some might tell you that you won't be able to get a job using an ITT Tech degree but that just doesn't seem to be the case, at least here in the Boise region. Case in point, I helped enroll a gal into our Criminal Justice program last quarter and through our Career Services Department she was able to (in her FIRST quarter mind you) find a job that got her foot into the industry being a security person, all because she was enrolled in the CJ program and was working towards her degree. A glamorous job? Maybe not, but it's a start for someone who hasn't even finished with the degree yet!

I am not a Financial Aid Adviser for the school so I don't have ALL of the answers for you but I can tell you as an Air Guard Reservist who uses the GI Bill to help pay for some of my own schooling it is all up to your terms of service when determining how much at any given time will be used for school (and up to anywhere from $38-47k depending on when you start using it and years of service). For a Reservist, for example, since I am not Active Duty I am only allotted in the vicinity of about $11,500 for the MGI Bill (not including the GI Bill Kicker). SO, that being said it seems there needs to be some understanding laid out for those not interested in actually having to pay for their educations. You should be commended for your service and it sounds as though you deserve accolades for it. I fail to see, however, why you can say that an educational institution, ANY educational institution is ripping you off and stealing your GI Bill in the first place. Isn't education what the GI Bill is used for anyways - how could they be stealing it? It'll either be used to pay for your SCHOOL or not be used. Service for our country or not school costs money - and your right; it is a business. ITT Tech is not a Public University, which means that it is not Federally funded which means that it is very much in business to make money and be profitable. Not to get too far off into this subject but when considering transferring credits from even Public U's one to another you will notice that you won't usually be able to transfer all of them (on average only half of previously attained credits actually do transfer.) That being said, there is even an element of money-grubbing at the Public U level. That isn't to say that ITT can get away with being uncompetitive in the industry; else how could it continue to grow?

I can tell you that here locally (compared to it's "competitors") our per credit-hour cost of $464/credit- hour is about middle of the road for tuiton-cost. The Public U's (one of which I and my wife attended) range anywhere from an estimated $280/ch to $750/ch...what does that tell you? School costs money and ITT Tech isn't charging much more than some and definitely not as much as others.

Something that I still have yet to figure out is how people can find complaints with the loan process. Very few times (especially anymore) can someone go into a loan eligibility process and be considered eligible for a $40-45k dollar ticket-item and actually be considered strictly based on the previous years tax information. No credit checks, no assets counseling, nothing. Not only that but as you would go through the Financial Aid proocess and if you really were scrutinizing it as meticulously as you say you were then you would have caught the part where they ask (and they ask this every time, usually multiple times) that if you have a lender you would preffer to use to get your loans through you can and that they are always willing to guide you appropriately through the entire process. They give you multiple examples in that paperwork that has all of the fine print you mentioned of current loan interest rates and who is offering loans at what %'s so should YOU choose to want to go through a financial institution other than the one usually selected by ITT Tech you are more than welcome to. Also keeping in mind that some people's situations require special needs and consideration so there may just be a loan option needed for them that isn't quite as appealing as the one before it in order to get qualified for an amount of $40k plus! I CAN tell you that through the later part of 2008 ITT Tech was backing a lot of the loans they were giving out off of their own budgets to keep the lending available to students during the downturn in the economy; should students start defaulting on their loans ITT would be held responsible for repayment of them. I don't know many companies/schools that are willing to back their own loans.

Just as a rebuttle to your claim of the Financial Aid Admin. trying to push a loan on you with an interest rate of 30%; I just took a look at this on the Sallie May website regarding their Stafford Loans - I'm not advocating Sallie Mae but it seems pretty straight forward:

Finding a loan

Student loan interest rates and fees
Federal student loans
* Stafford Loan
* PLUS Loan

Federal student loans
Stafford Loan
* The interest rate on Stafford loans first disbursed beginning July 1, 2008:
o Subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduate students has a declining fixed interest rate.
+ July 1, 2008June 30, 2009 the interest rate is 6%.
+ July 1, 2009June 30, 2010 the interest rate is 5.6%.
+ July 1, 2010June 30, 2011 the interest rate is 4.5%.
+ July 1, 2011June 30, 2012 the interest rate is 3.4%.
+ Beginning July 1, 2012 the rate is 6.8%.
o Subsidized Stafford loans for graduate and professional student and all unsubsidized Stafford loans is 6.8%.
* The interest rate on Stafford loans first disbursed beginning July 1, 2006 is fixed at 6.8%.
* The interest rate on Stafford loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 1998 but before June 30, 2006 is variable and may change on July 1 of each year but will never exceed 8.25%. The rate is based on:
o The 91-day T-bill rate + 1.70% during in-school, grace, and deferment periods.
* Starting July 1, 2008 the interest rate on variable rate loans is 3.61%.
o The 91-day T-bill rate + 2.30% during repayment periods.
* Starting July 1, 2008, the interest rate on variable rate loans is 4.21%.

PLUS loan
* The interest rate on PLUS loans first disbursed beginning July 1, 2006 is fixed at 8.5%.
* The interest rate on PLUS loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 1998 but before June 30, 2006 is variable and may change annually on July 1 but will never exceed 9%. The current interest rate on these variable rate PLUS loans is 5.01%.


Notice this last part here where it says that for this loan the interest rate will never exceed 9%...I would imagine if you wanted people to take your claim to abuse more seriously you wouldn't have told such a bold-faced lie.

All of this being said, I think it is important for anyone who is considering college to do some checking around at ALL of their options before deciding on where to go. You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it nor the first house you see that is for sale without comparing it to others on the market so why would you consider going to a college and paying as much as most of them cost without seeing what else was available to you? There is no reason as me as a 'FLUFFER' to tell you anything that would mislead you or that 'wouldn't give you the full scoop' because at the end of the day when I collect my salaried paycheck - no commissions included and no champagne offered to me, I am told good job because if I enrolled the 12th student into a program that needed a minimum of 12 students in order to even be offered this quarter, for me that just means that there are 11 other people who wanted to start school that now can because I was able to do my job and show someone that out of all of the programs we offer this one seems like it would be the best for you in my experience and THEY get to decided if they agree or not. Believe it or not Satan isn't a huge part of my day and collectively my wife and I owe over 75k in student loans. We are happy to owe them because it means the difference between me being able to retain a job and earn more and more money year to year for my family where had I opted not to get my degree I would more than likely be joining the 7.8% American citizens at the end of 2008 that experienced unemployment largely because they didn't have a college education.

I hope this helps.

Christopher
Thank you for your service. And good for you for actually reading the paperwork and asking questions. Now I have a question. If you wanted an AA degree from a technical school, why would you want to trapse all teh way to Seattle when there are 2 very good and legit tech schools in Tacoma, Bates Techincal College and Clover Park Voc Tec. There are also several community colleges that a lot of vets go to TCC or Pierce College. Look into to one of those.

You nailed it on the coffin and you are correct. They are worst than sales people who would try to sell you something except that they try every tactic to get people in and steal their money.

I remember going to admissions and like everything seemed really decent. When I talked to people when I serviced atms I even asked those people and like your saying good luck getting by everything b/c you won't get that far.

A tech would tell me you will get what you need but there won't be any places that hire you. I was like tell me more.

They did tell me a lot.

You see what the public has to do is ask a million questions b4 they say all right is this what I want and with the money part.


Everything that you mentioned is correct and with two of us that witnessed on two different campuses I still can't believe that this school advertises and like makes it look so good on tv. I think there should be something done about this school and that people should know something better.