For profit universities have been a target of state and federal investigations for years.  I have written about this topic since 2012.  It should be noted that not all for profit colleges are scams, but there are a large number of for profit colleges, sometimes referred to as “diploma mills” that at times offer credit for your “life experience” and lure students in with promises of a helpful degree, but the students end up with a worthless degree and an empty wallet.  Sometimes the names of these scamming colleges and universities are confusingly similar to legitimate colleges.  For instance, Columbia State University is a diploma mill while Columbia University is an eminent Ivy League school.

In February of 2016 I told you about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) lawsuit against  DeVry University alleging that the university’s advertising, particularly as it related to their graduates’ opportunities for getting a job after graduation were false and deceptive. Specifically, DeVry made the false claims that 90% of its graduates got jobs within six months of graduation and that its graduates had 15% higher incomes a year after graduation than the graduates of other colleges. Now that lawsuit has been settled.  As a part of its 100 million dollar settlement with the FTC, DeVry has agreed to pay 49.4 million dollars for partial refunds to some students and 50.6 million dollars of debt forgiveness for loans made to students by DeVry.  The first round of refund checks went to victims of the scam in July of 2017.  In 2019 the FTC sent out 128,875 more checks totaling an additional 9.4 million dollars to the victims of the scam.

Now the Department of Education has announced that it will be forgiving 71.7 million dollars in federal student loans for students who were deceived by DeVry University.  Here is the link for anyone interested in submitting a claim for loan forgiveness https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/

TIP

If you attended DeVry University and want to find out if you qualify for the refunds, check out the “FTC Scam Refunds” tab in the middle of the first page of http://www.scamicide.com. You also can find information there about the mailing of the refund checks.  There is no cost or fee to file a claim or get a refund.  Anyone who tells you differently is trying to scam you.

If you are considering attending a for profit school, first check it out with the United States Department of Education’s website at www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation to make sure it is an accredited institution.
You also should investigate whether a local college, university or community college would be more cost effective for you.  For profit colleges and universities are often more expensive than these other alternatives without offering any distinct advantages.  Also, check out the graduation rates of any for profit college you are considering and finally, investigate the job prospects in your field of study.  Don’t just take the word of the college.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”