A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
An important (shocking) report just released about some schools - Regarding Federal Approved Schools
Posted: Aug 02, 2012
A report from a two-year study was just released about 30 of the very large colleges that are approved for federal financial aid. Of the students who enrolled in these large for-profit colleges during the 2008-09 academic year, 54 percent withdrew by summer 2010 without earning a degree, according to the report. Nearly all of those students are being left with a huge amount of debt that they can't discharge, even through bankruptcy. Rather than putting most of the money into student resources, they spent 22.4% on marketing, advertising, recruiting and admissions staffing, with just 17.7 percent to student instruction.
If you were to enroll in a medical transcription program, for example, you might get a federal loan to pay the $30,000 tuition. You don't really worry about it because you expect to be able to pay that loan from the job you get when you graduate.
Something needs to be done to warn people away from this idea of, if you can get federal aid for it, it must be good.
So the 54% 'drops' don't include the 'fails' which means - see message
[ In Reply To ..]The 54% of students who withdraw or drop plus those who fail the course, means a pretty high failure rate for those schools, which are raking in the money for their stockholders.
Not to mention the taxpayers who paid for all of this - nm
[ In Reply To ..]nm
This is definitely a place where taxpayers should shut off the tap - Frugal MT
[ In Reply To ..]This is the kind of thing that makes our nation broke. Those enormous schools keep raking in the money, the students don't learn enough to get a job, but they have to pay back those loans, can't because they don't have jobs, aren't allowed to take bankruptcy for that loan under the federal financial aid conditions, so we pay for it. I am so not wanting to pay for it anymore. Cut it out of the budget!
It reminds me of our former AAMT/AHDI leaders who made $ making bad decisions for us - Please see message
[ In Reply To ..]I remember the old days when the AAMT leaders, or some of top leaders anyway, made money helping send MT jobs overseas. They didn't have our interests at heart at all. Now we bear the brunt of their bad decisions.
Now we have these giant schools profiting hand-over-fist, the student suffering because they aren't getting what they will eventually have to pay for.
We need to open our eyes and refuse to keep allowing big-shots to profit by our own sweat. Ask yourself if any one of these leaders who make these decisions would care if you will have to miss meals to pay back a debt for an education you didn't get. The answer is, no, because they are too busy feathering their own nest. The peons who talk to you are working on commission. The execs get huge salaries. Nobody in that whole chain of command actually cares about the student.
Nurse just quit to become an MT - Dallas
[ In Reply To ..]I was shocked. She didn't bother asking anyone, just thought working from home would be great. She's now enrolled in school and I sit here shaking my head..........
whoa - mmm
[ In Reply To ..]It says this 54% withdrew. It doesn't say they graduated with flying colors and then couldn't find a job. They withdrew, meaning they either quit or failed out. Why blame the schools/gov't for that? If they borrowed the money & then quit, I say they still have to pay that $ back. You can't just not pay back what you borrowed and spent because you changed your mind or decided to do something else or couldn't cut the courseload. I have no sympathy for them.
I think what that means was, they heavily and inappropriately recruit - My interpretation
[ In Reply To ..]I've read about this situation. It's ongoing. It isn't new. The recruiters apparently oversell, even when they know that the students they are aggressively pursuing don't have a chance of success. They do it because they are on commission. The schools approve this aggressive recruiting. I believe that's the situation that people are saying needs to be fixed. I agree. It has gotten out of hand.
Correct, and the most heavily recruited were - sue
[ In Reply To ..]Military personnel on the GI bill.
Money still comes from the gov, but not in the form of something the ex-military person has to worry about paying back.
The recruiters target these people, pushing them through the application/acceptance process, pretty much setting them up for failure. And they don't care.
Now remember, these are not public or state universities/colleges, but private, for-profit schools.
I remember a while back there was something the gov did to put a stop to this, but can't remember exactly what it was.
I think you are right - sm
[ In Reply To ..]The state universities and colleges are not career colleges. They are not intended to prepare people for job placement and the career colleges are. That report that was quoted was a study of 30 of the largest career colleges in the nation. Apparently the problem is still going on.
You are right - MT
[ In Reply To ..]If the school goes bankrupt you still would have to pay back a federal school loan.
$30,000 tuition for medical transcription??? - OHMT
[ In Reply To ..]Is this a real number or just a figure you pulled out of your hat to use as an example? I find it hard to believe that an MT education would cost $30,000 anywhere! If I had paid that much for my training, I'd still be paying it off! The course I took a dozen years ago was around $2,000 (I think it's $4,000) now and is one of the best MT schools out there.
Of course, these days I wouldn't recommend this career to anyone, even if the training was free. When I first got in, I was a big advocate. I think some of my friends were jealous that I got to work at home in my sweats. Now I'm stuck working at home because all I own are sweats & can't afford an office wardrobe anymore! lol
surely meant as an example nm - Drone
[ In Reply To ..]nm
Not just an example-fairly typical of diploma mills - sm
[ In Reply To ..]This is not necessarily just an example. I know a woman who took "medical billing and coding" at a for-profit career college and another who took "computers" at the same place--both of them ended up about $39K in debt for an "associate's degree" that will not transfer to any legitimate college and job skills that have so little relevance that neither can get a job with them. One thinks she took coding, but her course was more like doctor's office billing helper, and the other thinks she took computer programming, but her course was litle more than how to use MS Office. Neither work in those fields. Both are in lower-paying jobs.
Those schools target lower income folks who do not understand higher education and those who have difficulty getting into legitimate colleges. They misrepresent the reality of loan repayment and accreditation, as well as employment prospects.
The most frustrating thing on this board is the number of potential coding students we see getting sucked into useless programs at these schools. Apparently the attraction of the loans causes good sense to fly out the window. It makes no difference that we tell them they will wind up owing 30 to 40K and still be unable to pass a legitimate certification exam or get a job. It is like they have been taken in by Svengali. They are also perfectly willing to throw away their Pell Grant eligibility on this.
The diploma mill problem is under scrutiny. Google it for some interesting and maddening reading.
I have always respected Linda Andrews for having the courage to refuse to get involved with the student loan fiasco.
is this the next housing loan fiasco then? - kind of sounds like it
[ In Reply To ..]Who will pay for this one?
Yes, it is fairly typical of for-profit schools - Leaving MT
[ In Reply To ..]I am currently enrolled in an accredited surgical technology program at a local technical college that will probably end up costing me around $6000 when all is said and done. There is a for-profit school nearby that offers the same program, same degree, same time frame for $32,000. The latter for-profit school will admit anyone. My technical college only accepts 24 students a year based on GPA from prerequisites, an entrance exam (TEAS), and a manual dexterity test. The latter has less than a 50% completion rate. My technical college has a 100% completion rate. The latter has a dismal placement rate. My technical college has about a 90% placement rate.
It IS maddening that students are getting sucked into these schools.
but hey Obama asks moms to return to school right? - that explains it nm
[ In Reply To ..]nm
???? - nm
[ In Reply To ..]???
Just an example - nonnie
[ In Reply To ..]At age 57, I recently started exploring other career paths that I might be able to complete in a short period of time. SECONDS and I literally mean seconds, after I filled out information on Kaplan, they called me (and this was on a Sunday). When I asked about their fees/tuition, they quoted me $7500 per semester for the particular program I was interested in. I then proceeded to get INUNDATED with calls from other schools as well and politely told them that I would contact them in the future if I was interested.
I believe they were one of the schools mentioned in that article, weren't they? - sm
[ In Reply To ..]Those large schools have teams of commissioned salespeople ready to go at you like vultures. I have one rule when I am thinking about buying something. If they call me without my asking them to call, they are automatically and permanently marked off my list. I will not consider them after that. If they are that desperate for business that they don't respect my time, I don't want to do business with them.
If they send me unsolicited email, and I get those constantly, I advise others not to do business with them or even contact them. It's almost impossible to get rid of them.
Federal Aid - Old Pro
[ In Reply To ..]Ronald Reagan said that the scariest sentence in the English is: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."
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