Catch up...
The year is winding down and I feel like my life is in a slingshot pulled back ready to fire. Thing is, I can't tell if it's aimed a little high or aimed straight at the ground. I got screwed by this dumb school called DeVry... Ya see, I knew from the start this wasn't a school that would get me kudos from anyone. It's about as good as a mail order correspondence school. Thing is, I chose it because the new trend of 'for profit' schools is to be flexible with schedules and allow a more focused education. It was something I could supplement my commercial license with and eventually I could get a real degree from a real school if I wanted. The other major benefit was that I get my VA benefits to allow me a smoother transition to Southern California living. Boy oh boy was I given the shaft by these idiots. My complaint to several federal agencies is already eight pages long. And the shenanigans with them never seem to stop! I chose to return a two hundred dollar book for a class that hadn't even started and they are refusing to refund me the money. Funny thing, the return policy clearly states with no gray area, that refunds are allowed fourteen days after purchase or fourteen days after the class starts, whichever is later. Hello idiots, the class isn't even scheduled to start until January. Anyone know of a pro-bono lawyer that wants to initiate a class action suit against this school? I didn't realize how many consumer response groups out there have hundreds of complaints on this school. When I started, I took those complaints with a grain of salt. I asked all the right questions and I was pretty much lied to and mislead about how things would be with this school.
I've chosen to quit this school and pursue a different path for myself. I finished the two classes I started with and put a stop to any further registration. Now that I did that, they took away some scholarship and cut my federal pell grant in half. Meaning, they want me to pay back money on top of them still charging me for this stupid book for a class that isn't scheduled till January. Oh, and their 'veterans appreciation grant' was taken off of my financial aid package during my registration...
Probably the most asinine thing about my experience is when I sat with the 'dean' of the campus I attended. During my explanation about everything that was going wrong and what needed to be fixed she said to me, "Seems to me that you're bringing all this on yourself." A little voice inside me told me to keep my mouth shut. Her condescending attitude made me think of what I went through to earn the benefits that I officially wasted on this pile of shit school. At the end of the conversation, trying to remain as civil as I can I told her even though I was mislead about how this school operates, I need these pile of issues resolved so I can focus my attention on another school and not have issues with the financial aid portion. She said "Right, and maybe next time you'll know all the right questions to ask them." The unexplained calmness that took over me at that moment was quite scary. I just made an entire life move risking what little I have on the words that I was given by the questions I DID ask this school and was in fact lied to. I ran into the admissions rep that signed me up and we had a scattered conversation. He apologized for all the confusion and let me know that he was told he no longer is to deal with my situation. I'm officially a 'situation' at DeVry.
A tip for anyone that comes across this blog or feels like forwarding it along to someone thinking about attending this school, think twice. Almost every complaint I've read online (sans the subjective bitching from people who screwed themselves), has proven to be true. Veterans get treated like dirt. Financial aid is a joke. It's all about money for them. My orientation was about 90% them still trying to convince us how good of a choice we made and pushing the idea of sticking it out through graduation. Look up their graduation rate... 32% for first timers, 43% for all including transfers. That's from their website stats. Some specific states are less than 20%. This isn't an anomaly of the kind of school it is. Community colleges are typically lower graduation rates because they are often used as transfer platforms to bigger universities yet their graduation rates are leaps and bounds higher than DeVry.
Now, if I had the resources to re-align my life to attend a traditional university, I would in a heartbeat. Truth is as many people may know, it's not that easy. Among having to orchestrate transfer credits and scheduling with jobs, I'd have to wait until the next academic year to enter a 'program' of any sorts. Yea yea, I know I can take a class here and there but again, my life situation can't quite sustain that right now.
All in all I have better things planned than just school. Whether or not I attain them is another story. I have a story to write someday and how shitty would it be to say that I decided to live a life based on what everyone else expects me to do...