Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Kaplan University
6301 Kaplan University Ave.
Ft. Lauserdale, Florida
United States
Phone: 866 343-9376
kaplan.edu

I would like to start off by saying I was into my third term at Kaplan University and decided to withdraw due to the schools incompetent, tenacious and corrupt Financial Aid and Student Accounts Department only to have it go from bad to worse.

I thought trying to deal with Kaplan’s Financial Aid and Student Accounts Department was a nightmare, but after withdrawing it only got worse. This so called University has no integrity, and is one of the most tenacious predators I have ever encountered when it comes to dealing with a school or business.

I had nothing hassles when ever tried ever get in touch with anyone from this so called FA dept. I could never get in touch with my own FA advisor no matter when I tried to reach her. I would call and leave voice mail messages, send email after email and FA would never return my messages, or answer any of my questions that I had.

When I first enrolled at Kaplan, my Academic advisor assured me that all the courses would transfer and I did not have anything to worry about, but after checking into several other Universities I found out that was a bunch B.S., not to mention that they are supposed to be an accredited University, what that really means is they are an accredited school of higher learning, not an accredited University, a big difference.

It was disappointing to find out that a good majority of the credits and courses that I would earn from Kaplan would not transfer over to some of the other Universities I wanted to attend. Most of the 5 credit courses that would transfer over were only worth about 3 credits to most other Universities.

I also realized that I would be going into an incredible amount of debt for courses and credits that would not transfer. At a cost of $320.00 per credit hour, and considering that most of the courses are set at 5 credits each, that ads up to $1600.00 per course. Since it takes a total of160 credits to earn a bachelor degree at Kaplan, that would be a total cost of $51, 200.00, and that’s if the tuition would have stayed the same, which by the way it increased to $340.00 a credit hour. Even with the combination of the Stafford Loans, and Pell-Grants that wouldn’t even cover the total cost of the full tuition.

Almost from the very beginning I started having trouble with the Financial Aid department at Kaplan. I explained to them from the very start that I was living on disability Income and could not afford any out of pocket expenses. I was assured that I would not have to worry about that because of my income, and they told me that it would all be picked up through my Stafford loans, and Federal Pell Grants.

Of course I found that was a big misrepresentation once I started receiving bills for past due tuition. That was when I tried repeatedly to have it resolved with FA and ended up with many different stories as why I now have an out-of-pocket expense that I was originally assured that I would not have in the first place.
When I originally got walked through Kaplan’s financial wizard by my Admissions Advisor it showed that I would not have any out of pocket expenses, but soon after starting my first term I started getting bills for unpaid tuition. That’s when I started confronting financial aid about it.

When I was able to finally reach my FA advisor she told me it was because my EFC rating changed. I asked her how my EFC could change when my income did not change. She tried to say I went into FAFSA and changed it. I told her that was a
bunch of B.S., so I called FAFSA and found out that that Kaplan went in there and changed my EFC from a 0 to 1873 rating which lead to a out of pocket expanse that I was not prepared to pay.

Once again they assured me not to worry because it would get picked up into the following year’s financial aid distribution. I found out that was a crock of B.S. also once I started to get harassed for more money. Now their excuse this time was my grants and loans for the new FA aid year did not cover the full cost of the tuition which once again was a different story that I was originally lead to believe.

I have a friend who enrolled at Kaplan around the same time I did, and she was going through almost the identical same situation I was, and she even had a different Financial Aid officer than I did. The longer I attended Kaplan the more screwed up, disorganized, deceptive, manipulative and greedy I found out Kaplan was. Once I decided to withdraw it took Kaplan about a month to figure out what my final bill would be.

They then wanted me to take this withdraw exit test and said it was required by the lending institution who was holding my loans. The website they gave me I could not even use because I got all kinds of security warnings about the sites security certificates. My Internet Explorer warned me not to leave any identifiable information at the site, which is what you had to do to complete the test.

I constantly called and wrote about this situation that I experienced to see what I could do about or what they suggested I should do, and nobody from their Student Accounts dept. would even get back with me on it. So I contacted the bank who is holding my loans and they said there was nothing they could do until the school notified them that I withdrew. Kaplan never even bothered let the Bank know that I withdrew from school, so I was still left in limbo on that too.
So to my dismay I ended up receiving a final bill in the mail on 08/05/08, even though I did not take the exit test that was supposed to be required to take by The Higher Education Foundation. In only three days after receiving the final withdraw calculation or final bill, I then received a late notice. I don’t know about you, but that’s the quickest late notice I have ever received, in only three days.

I never even received a notice in my hard mail or snail mail, it was through the e-mail. I then started getting phone calls on a daily basis. I contacted student accounts about it, and told them I would pay the full amount next month. I have since received phone calls three times a day on both my land-line and cell phone to the point it has become pure harassment.

It has only been a little over a week since receiving that final withdraw calculation from Kaplan and they have called over 23 times now, because I have kept records of every time they have called. I even wrote and called them back several times and said I would report them to the Higher Education Foundation, The Attorney General and the FCC for phone harassment. Can you believe they even have called twice today?

I can’t believe with all the complaints filed at Rip-Off and other places online that I have read about, along with some of class action law-suites that have been filed against Kaplan University, they are still taking advantage of so many people.

This bogus school has managed to destroy the hopes and dreams of many individuals wanting to improve the quality of their lives, only to have that dream shattered by such a greedy, ruthless organization called a University that’s just nothing more than a front for dishonest, shady and manipulative practices for their own financial gain.
I stand behind and would like to join forces with anyone that would like to get a class-action law-suit against this so called University. Kaplan University needs to be shut-down so they don’t continue to wrecking the lives of hard working individuals with the hopes of improving the quality of their lives. There are a lot of people out there whose lives are totally turned upside down by this kind of ruthlessness.