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Can't go to university because DeVry wants money
override367
ALL minionsRegistered User regular
ALL minionsRegistered User regular
A little background:
About 8 years ago I went to DeVry, I got suckered into that scam of a school by their commercials like a good little highschool grad. Now being poor, I was going to be entirely reliant on financial aid, which according to them was not a problem. I got everything set up and started classes, apparently things are fine. I hear zero words from them about anything, an entire semester passes and I start a second semester.
Then all the sudden it turns out my financial aid coordinator quit (bonus points: the loans I qualified for never happened because she quit before there was movement on her end) and nobody gave my info to the new one, and my account was waaaaaay past due. Last time I spoke to them they wanted $6000, which is fucking absurd.
Anyway so a bit over 2 years ago I went to a community college and got an AAS (which I graduated from last winter), since then I've just been working and I also took some classes that would transfer to UW. Now I'm trying to get into UW for fall but I can't because they insist by law they have to see my DeVry transcripts, but DeVry wants an amount of money I'm simple incapable of obtaining.
Am I going to just be stuck forever unable to attend college? This is fucking lunacy
About 8 years ago I went to DeVry, I got suckered into that scam of a school by their commercials like a good little highschool grad. Now being poor, I was going to be entirely reliant on financial aid, which according to them was not a problem. I got everything set up and started classes, apparently things are fine. I hear zero words from them about anything, an entire semester passes and I start a second semester.
Then all the sudden it turns out my financial aid coordinator quit (bonus points: the loans I qualified for never happened because she quit before there was movement on her end) and nobody gave my info to the new one, and my account was waaaaaay past due. Last time I spoke to them they wanted $6000, which is fucking absurd.
Anyway so a bit over 2 years ago I went to a community college and got an AAS (which I graduated from last winter), since then I've just been working and I also took some classes that would transfer to UW. Now I'm trying to get into UW for fall but I can't because they insist by law they have to see my DeVry transcripts, but DeVry wants an amount of money I'm simple incapable of obtaining.
Am I going to just be stuck forever unable to attend college? This is fucking lunacy
override367 on
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I'm surprised you even got credit for the courses without funding, I would just call UW and let them know the situation directly explaining that they had an issue with a financial aid coordinator that caused your financial aid to bumpkis and you dropped because of it. And now they want you to make up the difference in cash instead of fixing the mistake on their end.
For clarification: I do *not* care about the credits from DeVry, I already took the classes over at a reputable school, I just want them to go away. The debt isn't even on my credit report its been so long for crying out loud
If you never did anything about it and just let a huge pile of debt sit and fester in the corner, then yeah, you're probably going to have to pay that off to get anywhere with it. You may just have to pay the $6k.
According to her regardless of that they are required by law to get my transcripts
How is a guy who works at wal-mart supposed to fight DeVry in court?
I don't have $6000 and there's no way I can get it, so yeah I guess I'm fucked forever. I've already qualified for $22000 in federal student aid for 2013 to go to UW but $6000 owed to devry is going to fuck me, this is retarded. I could set up a payment plan with DeVry maybe but only if they release my transcripts immediately, there's no way I'm going to be able to pay back my student loans and DeVry at the same time (and I wont have to start paying my loans back for a while if I can go back to school)
Edit:
Would it be worth trying to make an arrangement with DeVry? Maybe instead of asking for my transcripts I should tell them I want to finish my degree with them as a self-pay student, which would motivate them to work with me, and once it's unblocked send the transcript request. I dunno
Maybe I can take out a bunch of credit cards
I don't know, though. Have you made any attempts at all (in writing) to get the debt tossed out by Devry?
The thing is, you had a deal with Devry. You said you'd pay them $texas, and they said they'd give you what they'd give you. You think they didn't give you what they should have. You can't just say that and ignore the debt, though. They run a crooked business, that's absolutely true, but some of it is legal enough that you can't just totally ignore the agreements you made with them.
Alternatively, some quick googling says that the "must have transcript by law" point doesn't necessarily count if you're taking advantage of something called the Fresh Start program, which requires you to be 10 years from your time at the university and to give up all prior credits.
I guess I'll just file bankruptcy
Success is never ending. Failure is never Final.
Good luck.
PSN: rlinkmanl
I'd literally rather shoot myself in the face than become a debt slave for what remains of my youth. I'm 28 years old, I've wasted my entire life being poor working retail and accomplishing nothing, I couldn't even go to any school until I was 25 and got independent status and was finally able to get loans
You know it's my fault too because I included devry in the registration form, the reason I got an AAS without any problems is probably because I never included devry in list of schools when I registered
It doesn't work that way, I can't get the loans for UW until I am registered for classes for UW which I can't do until I get the transcripts from Devry which I cant do until I've paid Devry
Who appear to have applied considerable interest to the debt and now want well north of $11000
Well I'd probably go get that knee surgery I've needed for a few years and that dental work I've needed since I was 12 first to make it go up a bit
Edit: God damnit Devry's computers are down so they can't even discuss it with me at the moment, I took a day off specifically to deal with this. Fuck's sake I'm going to have to take another day off if they don't have it back up by the end of the day.
My biggest hope is that they'll work with me on the debt, I'm really unsure as to how to approach this though.
Student loan debt isn't dischargeable*. This is why banks loan tens of thousands of dollars to 18 year olds.
It isn't student loan debt, I owe money to DeVry. I have student loan debt for a community college which I am wholly current on. Legal precedent is that if you declare bankruptcy on money owed to a college they have to release the transcripts. But I am seeing the flaws with this, it will screw me down the line. I mean my credit score for an auto loan right now is pretty good, and I'm going to need a new car eventually
How about this:
I go back to the community college this fall, take some easy online but transferable gen ed classes that will transfer to UW and keep working while I do that, and then when I get my $4500 or whatever after tuition loan check I pay off devry?
Actually I really like my first plan: As soon as their computers are up, I tell DeVry that I really, really want to finish my bachelors with them, don't even mention transcripts. Is this a good plan? I would assume they'd be far more willing to work with me in an effort to obtain further debt from me in the future
Touché, you are correct. I am a dumb. Tuition isn't protected like student loans are.
Filing bankruptcy over four figures is still unwise, even if you intend to jack it up with medical bills and hope those get discharged as well.
These are good plans. You also may have card with DeVry. IANAL or familiar with wisconsin law at all, but the statute of limitations for them to take you to court for that debt is probably expired. $3000 over a year or two may look a damn sight better to them than $0 spread out over the past's future history of GOFUCKYOURSELFDEVRY.
my biggest fear is how to approach asking them, because of me being honest with UW "oh yes I finished a semester there" I got fucked, if I had just lied I'd be okay. If I say the wrong thing to devry they'll realize they have me by the balls and demand the full amount (which is now gaining interest so fast I'd never, ever be able to pay it)
If anyone is aware of any avenues for borrowing money that might exist I'm not aware of that would be great also, because I suspect devry wont give up the goods until I pay the full amount even if I set up a payment arrangement
Call DeVry and see what their solutions are for fixing this issue, keep your $3000 ready, and begin throwing out numbers, like, "I can pay you cash $1500 right now if I can get my transcript and settling this account" and you can probably get it down to the ball park of $2000.
Don't file bankruptcy over this nonsense and don't get credit cards to pay it either. Also make sure you get them to send a final, paid in full, whatever it's called statement ensuring that you doing this is enough to close the account and get your transcript.
And I think it isn't a law for the transcripts in other schools, but I thing it's a law that you can't lie about going some place you didn't or the opposite.
Secondly... how did they find out you attended Devry? Did you list it on your application? Is it attached in any way to the courses you took at Community College?
Are there other state schools near you that you could attend? Barring that, do any of your state schools offer an Online program? When I say online, I mean entirely online. It doesn't have to be a program you want to do, but it could allow you the means to go to school while meeting other requirements for the major you want at UW. But the viability of that depends on your answers to the above questions, so I will follow up when you've responded.
University of Wisconsin, and its because I put on my application that I attended devry, like I said it was a stupid mistake.
Maybe I could write a letter saying I didn't attend devry at all and this is a mixup and sign it, but wouldn't that be illegal?
My community college isn't even aware that I went to devry as far as I know, the only thing they wanted was my highschool transcripts
the fact that you want your transcripts doesn't necessarily mean they won't be compliant. you're the only potential customer for your transcripts. so they might know you want them, and that might make their bargaining position stronger- but if you can't afford to come to their high ground, they get nothing. sure, you're not supposed to tell the car salesman that you are in love with the car before discussing price- but in this case you're the only potential buyer.
i've heard of people having success with the line of argument that my income will never bear the debt i owe you unless i can continue with my college education. someone on another forum once mentioned how they were asked to make some amount of payments (9, i think?) on a plan to establish good will, and the school released their transcript in exchange for them continuing to make payments.
my advice is to make it clear that you're against a wall and if they can't offer you anything, then you can't help them either.
that said, in case you're thinking about just not reporting your attendance to a potential new school other than UW: that's pretty firmly against regs. since you owe a direct sum to devry, and not student aid, you avoided that paper trail... but you're still in the student clearinghouse registry. it's always possible they wouldn't catch you, but if they did and they're hardasses they can (and have, previously) revoke your degree. that'd obviously be a nightmare.
I'm still a registered student with the community college and have all the paperwork filled out for financial aid there for 2013
In case for whatever reason things went south with university I was going to go double major and get an AAS in some kind of programming or networking or accounting or what the fuck ever since it's not a lot of extra money
Hmmm
Well the fact that after 10 years I can have the transcripts nuked does give me some leverage, after all if I just wait for 3 years I can just walk away from the debt entirely, it's already no longer on my credit report, I have no real incentive to repay them.
Alright thanks Chu, I'm going to go this route.
Do you have any sort of written correspondence from the financial aid people at DeVry? Did you maybe discuss it with them via GMail or something? Or was it purely an oral agreement?
Yes I have the entire correspondence in my e-mail account. A back and forth of me being frustrated and not knowing what the hell I'm supposed to do and the financial aid officer they assigned to me being a prick, then an e-mail of her saying "alright we've got everything" and then several non returned e-mails from me and then the next correspondence is a bill for ~$5700
Do not write a letter saying you didn't attend Devry. I don't know about legality, but it's pretty transparent at this point.
Here's my suggestion... find another school to apply to. It looks like each UW school has a different application process? If that's the case then it should be relatively easy. If location is an issue you could take your courses online while you wait. When you apply, don't put Devry on your application. Wait a semester, take courses, online if you have to, and then reapply to UW. Submit an entirely new application and don't list Devry on it. If you settle up with DeVry later, you can transfer in your credits. You could see also about just reapplying to the school you want... but I doubt the system will allow that.
It's kind of shady... I don't know about the legality, but you are certainly supposed to list all prior schools attended on your application. But they don't actually check this. Normally I would suggest something this morally ambiguous, but seriously fuck DeVry... you shouldn't be screwed forever because of how badly they suck.
Lastly, it doesn't hurt to call them and see what you can work out. I wouldn't have high hopes, but for a profit driven university any money is better then nothing. It doesn't hurt to see what you can negotiate.
Back after this happened I sought legal advice and basically was told that it was on me for not pursuing the issue more, but my classes were online and arranging transportation to them was very difficult as it was a few hours away
I mean I could have done more, I should have done more. As far as the law is concerned the onus is entirely on the person who isn't a big company to do everything. It would be great if private colleges had some responsibility to tell people that they won't actually be able to afford it, but afaik they don't
Edit: however, DeVry probably does not have these e-mails, or easy access to them, it does give me some leverage, I guess? Idk
Edit #2: come to think of it, I did get some loans, but they were disbursed to DeVry after I was no longer a student, and DeVry never applied them to my debt. It's only like $1500, but I never saw a dime of that and DeVry didn't put it towards my balance
It looks remarkably well in your favor though.
Agreeing with this.
Talk to a lawyer about the situation you're in now, don't rely on advice from years ago, the situation was not the same then.
Yeah, hearing the rest of that... it seems like this is the best option.
but they're listening to every word I say
it's very possible but as i mentioned, if caught your degree can be revoked.
Wait on what grounds? Generally Universities want to know this so they can figure out your FinAid; you can't (usually) get government help past 180 credit hours, but I doubt they will tear up your degree over it; if anything, if you got past 180 hrs of government FinAid due to them not knowing about DeVry, you probably will owe the UW and/or the government some money, but why would they want to tear up your degree?
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Pretty sure colleges and universities generally reserve the right to expel you (or rescind your degree if you've graduated) for any misrepresentation on the application, in the same way that many jobs will reserve the right to fire you if you misrepresent yourself on your resume/CV or in an interview.
Information on that sort of thing will generally be either in a contract you need to sign, or an application (or student) handbook / guide.
it's not about money. they admit you under the pretense of your application materials. it doesn't matter whether you go to that school and perform marvelously, and manage a 4.0 and write an amazing thesis. they can void your degree should it come to light that you misrepresented your academic career on your application.
I think they care more that things are not added fraudulently than not listing something. It's like not listing your job at burger hut when you apply to grad school. It just isn't relavent
i understand that is the reasonable position- and it's very possible that some places don't give a fuck. but technically you are asked to report all institutes at which you attempted any credit-awarding coursework (or something along that wording). it doesn't make sense that they need to know you took and failed a course at a community college 10 years ago... but almost all of the applications (including the Common Application) call for absolute disclosure. and dismissal/revocation have occurred previously.