FYI ITT Tech closes

[MarkT]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/itt-techs-closure-one-largest-154806610.html

[gstharr]

Ahead of the posse.

[creekland]

:party:

 

Their advertising at our school always sickened me.  "Don't worry at all about cost.  You can get loans!!!"

[RootAnn]

Well, I feel bad for the employees who had nothing to do with ITT's policies who are out of a job.

[Elizabeth 2]

Thank goodness the students who did get the loans can get them cancelled through the federal programs. But those who took PEll grants for their education have now jut lost all of that eligibility. Pretty sad and disgusting.

[Guest]

I'm skeptical. I believe they will merely change their name, rebrand themselves, and continue on... just as so many of the other for-profit colleges already have.

[ktgrok]

My husband's degree is from there. We have over 100K in loans due to that education. He makes good money now, but those loans are such a burden. So overpriced, and they talked him into getting private loans for much of it, that have high interest rates. Now he's worried that if he needs to change jobs his resume will be skipped over, or looked at askance, because of that degree and the issues around the school. I think he's fine, with the experience and certifications he has, but he's worried. He's looking at getting a master somewhere else, just to have another degree to legitimize his education. 

[ktgrok]

My dh got a degree from there almost 20 years ago. He was Salutatorian of his class, but it was a joke of a school back then. He pretty much taught himself and much of his class before class would start. He did feel mislead. He went in wanting to make computer games and ended up with an electronics engineering degree. He makes good money in a field that he's been in since graduation. His experience makes him sought after, but he has wanted to go for a project management degree. His student loans will finally be paid off in 2 years. We could have paid them off a couple of years ago, but we were able to combine and refinance them to 3.5% around 2000, so they were always low on the priority list. 

 

I feel bad for the students who put in all of the work and now have to figure out something else. I hope they waive the loans for them. 

 

My husband was Salutatorian too. but there were only two people in his program, lol. 

[creekland]

My husband's degree is from there. We have over 100K in loans due to that education. He makes good money now, but those loans are such a burden. So overpriced, and they talked him into getting private loans for much of it, that have high interest rates. Now he's worried that if he needs to change jobs his resume will be skipped over, or looked at askance, because of that degree and the issues around the school. I think he's fine, with the experience and certifications he has, but he's worried. He's looking at getting a master somewhere else, just to have another degree to legitimize his education. 

 

I suspect he'll be just fine with experience on the job.  A degree mainly counts for getting that first job and is a box check deal after that as employers then want to know what one has done.

 

ITT's misleading students about the loans - and yes - providing high interest private loans is my big beef with them.  Some of the jobs they charge those huge fees for don't pay well, but they never talk about that with kids or show them what their payments will be like whether they get their dream job or not.  It's always been "Live your dream - money is no object because you can finance it" when I've had to keep my mouth shut in their info sessions.

 

Regardless of type of degree, one needs to look at something very carefully when even remotely considering high value loans IMO.  (AKA, I feel the same way about high value 4 year college loans and certain colleges that push them.)

[ktgrok]

Very true. At the time, no other school in the area offered a degree in Information Security, so he went there. He was working full time while going there, and they worked with his schedule. It worked out, but yeah, we only got a mortgage because the mortgage company messed up and thought his loan repayment started later than it did. A typo, and we could get a loan. It was crazy. 

 

Now we could, as he makes triple what he made then, but still.