ECPI University
reviews and complaints

This school is very cruel to military veterans. They will pump you up at the beginning promising the impossible. They paint an unrealistic fantasy that major corporate human resorces departments will respect the institution's credibility. The misleading education pushes you through fairly easy just to boondoggle all of your VA benifits. Then, the career services department has a money making plan to squeeze more money. If you happen to make it through till the last semester, be prepared to fail an easy class. This is done so that they can keep charging the Veterans Affairs for a class that is extemely unnecessary. My advice is go to a different school. There were a few professors that tryed to help. However, my most negitive experience was with a school administration official teaching a class. Unfortunately, that school representative was at a level where competence was crittical for ensuring academic success. This experience has realy placed a spotlight on what is wrong with "for profit" online schools. Leaders representing arguably non-reputable academic institutions should relinquish themselves of being bad instructors themselves. The ECPI policy makers promote a long lasting commitment support network for very bias behaviors, unprofessional attitudes, and compassion lacking credentials. I wish that the effort made to graduate was bit more supportive.

This school is very unprofessional and disorganized. They don't have enough instructors or have the wrong instructor for the wrong class. They allow their instructors to make their own rules. They don't teach the material, they expect you to learn it on your own. They never have your schedule up in advance or they will change things at the last minute. The same rules don't apply for each student. The pick and choose who they would like to stay. They don't have proper clinical sights and will send you home. Some of their instructors are never on time but they expect you to be. They are not confidential. If you have an issue and inform the DON, she will let the staff know who said what. Not many of the instructors have our backs. They are vindictive and underhanded and they only take each other side.

Please help me pass the word! Ecpi rips off veterans and others! They do not care about your concerns... They just want your money! Beware if you sign-up to go to school there! My daughter was told they are not there to teach you... They are facilitators.. Not instructors or professors... The student is supposed to read and learn on their own! Her entire class is failing this one class and they don't see this is a teaching problem. The facilitator is not teaching the material they are testing on and will not even review the exams so they know what they need to improve on (why because she doesn't know the material herself) and they can charge all of these kids again to retake it! Please help me get the work out! I want to get their credentials pulled!

I have been attending this school since February 2018 . My first encounter was a death in my family whereas, the DON came out of her mouth and asked me would my name be in the obituary and if not it would not be an excused absence. My second encounter with her was when I passed a ati and she still failed me in the class and forced me to retake the same ati 5 times when i has already passed it once . My third and current encounter, she voiced to an instructor that I went over her head and that she had a trick for me . She is now holding me back from going into my last class in which I'm suppose to graduate in 5 weeks . Meanwhile she let a student miss 2 clinicals and passed him, she let another student do extra credit and allowed my entire class a ati retake except for myself . So she is basically forcing me to sit out until another seat in the class is available.

I have been recently been informed by a student that they were given the opportunity to retake final exams worth 20% of the final grade at home to ensure that they pass. Opportunities are still being given to select students and it is unfair. Please consider looking into how students like Reagan Jennings was allowed to take test from home from the start of the LPN program at ecpi. I just want a fair chance.

The sc/va lpn program will overcharge students with poorly disclosed fees, I witnessed bias teachers try to purposely fail students, give unfair grades passing who they personally think deserves it by adding points. I have been overcharged, accused of ridiculous accusations, and even failed a class unfairly.. The fairly new small group employees teach classes they know little about. I had had teachers who should have not been hired. And some who are amazing. There are thousands of dollars of hidden fees. The things I have witnessed and been through is unjustified and has made me hesitant and fearful of continueing my education with this campus.
However I graduated and fought through the strong, I believe my intelligence is the only way I made it out and built my skills.
In a class of 17 usually 1/3 graduates.

I used to be an electronics teacher at ecpi.in a nutshell, ecpi is a fraud. Any student with a social security number is let in. Each class is 5 hours long. Students cannot concentrate that long. Students are not learning any skills and are given passing grades to keep going. Most students know it's a fraud but keep attending for free on federal grants and easy grades, by showing up once in a while. Most ecpi graduate don't have any chance of landing a job, unless they already have skills from military or someplace else.

Since my attendance was about 10 years ago, this is more a note to others.

I attended what was known as ecpi technical college at the time at the richmond / glen allen / innsbrook location. While going through the week everything seem fine, but the last few months was a nightmare.

1) I completed both an associates and bachelors degrees from ecpi. After I completed the associates degree I asked to sit in a networking class as it was offered for free once you have completed it. They scheduled me in and I was only participating in the class work. Almost 3/4 into the class they informed me that due to some missing credits I was meant to retake the class... Which then prompted the teacher to give me 0 on the homework and exams that I did not participate in which gave me a c, even though I got an a before... (and I got as in all my other technical classes). The teacher would not even allow me to try to make up for it.

2) during the last couple of months of the bachelors degree the finance department came around to tell me that I owed more money than they initially laid out in front of me because they were projecting that I was going to get x amount from grants but I didn't get them. This is unacceptable as you shouldn't be guessing what I am getting, that should have been worked out before I started the degree, not 2 months before I finish it. Needlessly to say, the main financial lady was never around or returned my messages for a very long time.

3) and this are the 2 most painful parts — a) I finally *finally* got a good job at the university of arizona where I get an awesome deal in their degrees. I was trying to apply for a master's degree, but lo and behold, because ecpi is not regionally accredited school, I could not use any of my credits to even get admitted to the master's program. To add insult to injury, I had to hunt down the registrar on facebook to obtain my transcripts and took a week to do a frigging email... Anywho

B) consider this... I have an associates degree and a bachelors degree that totaled about 47k in student debt... My wife has a bachelors and masters degree and her student debt is less than what I have. Imagine that — I have a less of a degree for more than my wifes masters...

Bottom line: if you want a degree go to vsu / vcu / uva, which ever one is closest to you, or even see if those state universities have an online degree if you are not close to those school. For profit schools like ecpi, university of phoenix, and (soon to be defunct) itt tech are not worth your time or your money.

What I like to see from the school is full transparency about its accreditation, as well as the cost and not get blindsided with a bill close to the end of the program in which they were the ones that made the error.

Oh about the jobs thing... May be I was unlucky and was coming out of school when the job market was bad in richmond, but here is my complete list:

2007 - no job until a few months after graduation - working as a copier technician (not a computer technician, but a photocopier technician). I was supposedly was meant to replace the person that dealt with networking the copiers to client's network but that didn't happen... And I was the one that taught him! I did search while working for this company and the job market was really poor.

2009 - after a couple of years and a really poor excuse for firing me, I moved to arizona where the job market was better and I couldn't do interviews from virginia. Took a year of searching before I landed a technical call center job for a cable provider... It was *somewhat* related to technical and it wasn't bad at all, other than the micromanaging and the erroneous reports on productivity.

2014 - almost 5 years I finally gave in then quickly found an actual technical help desk job for the university of arizona...

7 years it took me...

And one more last thing!

I would encourage everyone to watch john oliver's segment about student debt and it kind of sums up how I feel ecpi is. You can find it on youtube and search for lastweektonight (the handle for his official youtube account) and then look for student debt. It's one of his earlier segments.

In brief: dont go to ecpi

The campus in greensboro is a joke. That place is a revolving door for instructors and students alike.

I spoke with melody swaim the career placement "specialist" and informed her I was a former student. I then simply asked her for information on job fair events that she may know about... Nothing more. I had to pull teeth to get her to tell me the same thing she tells all of the current students at ecpi which was (paraphrased) 'make an indeed.com account and go to goodwill industries for more help on job placement'

Sadly while I was a student there, that's what they told me then too, and every other student who asked. Seriously? Indeed.com is not really "cutting edge inside information" and in the city of greensboro nc, goodwill industries is practically the unofficial unemployment agency. Everyone and their grandmother knows about it. So it makes sense that I had already been doing that long before I contacted ecpi right? And it took a "career placement specialist" to tell me that? That is what I am in the hole for 30k now? Is that seriously what current students are paying upwards of 50k for?... Yes it is!

I have kept in contact with nearly everyone I knew at ecpi on a semi-professional/personal basis. Each one of them had a strong work ethic and a strong grade average, many of them also completed the programs we all started in. I see them working lousy, bottom of the barrel, it jobs around the city... Several of them even ended up working at goodwill in the side store they operated named computer junction for basically 8 dollars an hour. I visited that store regularly only to find more ecpi students I never met had also been pipelined into that same store until goodwill had to close it for financial reasons.

I just can't get over the fact that I am in debt now because of this place and they act like it is a terrible inconvenience to tell me to "go to indeed and goodwill".

Bottom line is, the success stories you see on here or any other websites are probably outright lies or at the very least the author had some major connections in their respective field prior to engaging ecpi.

I had completed all of my course work and worked really hard and to go on extern you have to have a class called 238 and its a prep class and a check off all in one, bad thing was I got "b's" on all the check and got a 76 on the phelobmoty part 1 and 2 and the teacher told me she didnt think I was profient in my skills that I needed to take the class over which it states that a 76 is a c and it is passing and they are failing me because of 4 points and making me take the class over how can I resolve this issue? I graduate tomorrow and I have nothing to show for it, if one teacher doesnt have confidence in my skill how can I feel good about being a medical assisant?

I am currently a student at ecpi-charlotte in the medical administrative program i'm attempting an associate degree. Technically I graduated june 5, 2011. My issues are that administrative officers are enept, the financial aide department is crooked as evidenced to me when they made me return moneis that never made it back to the lenders, and later refunding the monies to me, only because a higher power uncovered that the funds were still in thier posession. They refuse to give me access to my own funds but constantly charging for items that have no origin, in other words they make charges for which do not account. They refuse to give me an accounting of my money both borrowed and recieved by ecpi. The federal government allows for the student to borrow money for room and board and other school related expensesfrom thier unsub loans, but ecpi wont let you borrow directly, nor will they account for any debited amounts. The whole program is a rip-off and by the time the student can figure this out you have spent copious amounts of money and then they start trying to keep you in school longer so they can continue to get every available dollar you have.in my 15 months, they withdrew me when they had other options and then they want you to pay to come back. The grading system is so bogus as to be on par with the "magic bullet theory; unbeleivable! Most of the teachers have no real world experience in what they teach, only took the class maybe and worked in a related field. They have been known to show complete bias for one group of students and tell another group they cant do or say whatever the other poeple did. Once I was treated like a complete criminal, was told to put my purse at the front of the class, because someone at the university of maryland had a cheating ring. We are charged for books we cant keep, and they wont let us have the books to use on our time, for more than the days school schedule, this in a coding &billing class; (how can you learn to code with no icd-10) book to look for the codes.) where I already knew more than my instructor taught me. A complete waste of money. No faculty advisors whatsoever, at this school all the instructors talk to each other about everything a student says or does;even adding to things on occassion. They act like a bunch of sub-contractors always trying to undercut the other guy!
Students have no voice or recourse, and the federal government is allowing this to continue. If we could have a class action suit I would gladly sign right up.. When will someone put a stop to ecpi? Who do I have to invoke to see some change?

Not a total ripoff, but real close. I worked for these shady characters for a few years until I couldn't take any more of the pressure to process warm bodies through a system of nonsense. Start anywhere from allowing potential students unlimited attempts at an entrance exam - the constant rising co students of each degree program - failing to infom students of the tereminating degree status - retaining students that are clearly incapable of college level work - passing students that seldom come to class (a student I knew while I was there said that they now have this lady chasing down absent students on facebook)- changing grades against the teachers' will - over exagerating potential salaries - misleading placement numbers (a student can work a 2 hour contract job installing cable and they would be considered place in their field of study - take them off the board and move on to next)- a great number of medical students are still changing bed pans and shouldn't expect any help. I will give the teachers a thumps up - they are mostly inspired and committed to assisting the students and they cant help what that the admissions team spend a lot of time at the homeless shelter and blood plasma center. This high pressure sales group will drive you to drink or at minimum question your conscience - for every success story that comes from this place is two horroe stories - imagine being chased by debt collectors for the rest of your life while h0lding on to a degree that you cant take anywhere, but ecpi... On that's right these shady characters are now offering a masters degree...

Suggestion: check out the prices at your local community college.

I went to ecpi while active duty military. I was given 6months off to go to school after re-enlistment, so I chose ecpi because I had friends going there plus it was very close to my house. Well 6 months came and went, I had finished classes and wnet to the admissions office to dis-enroll myself. They said it was all taken care of and thanked me for coming in. Well fast forward 8 years later I want to use my g.I. Bill to go to school and when I go to enroll they ask me for my transcripts from all my previous colleges and what happens? Ecpi says I owe 12, 000 dollars because I dropped outof school so I have to pay for the rest of the program, whether I attended or not I have to pay for the rest of the school program I had initially signed up for. I have seen where they have many many lawsuits against them for various reasons. I ask thenm to send me a copy of what I owed as opposed to what was paid for by financial aid, they wouldn't or actually could not do it.

I attended ECPI for medical administration, I drove 1 hour, one way, 4 days a week to find that some of the classes were sometimes running late or rescheduled due to teachers quitting at random for unknown reasons. The teachers who replaced them were deficient in the medical field and unhelpful. Since I received no financial assistance to help pay a tuition fee of $75.00 per month I had to find a job which forced me to miss a few days of class. I was very surprised to find a postcard in the mail informing me that if I missed anymore days I would possibly have to take the class again! The staff is unprofessional and not qualified to equip students with the knowledge it takes to work in the medical industry. Organization is something that you will not find here. As far as financially, I owe $10, 000.00 for attending 5 1/2 months of school and have absolutely nothing to show for it. I saw none of the student loan money and went farther into debt by only working part time and driving so far. I strongly urge anyone thinking about attending this school to try a community college or university. Financially it makes since not to attend ECPI, people I know who did graduate were not satisfied with the job placement and the diploma you will receive is worthless. The worst part is none of the credits I received can be transferred. And reasonably so. Don't make the same mistake I did.

lpn program $29, 900
ceet program/it 34, 375-35, 938
cj 25, 200-26, 600
med asst-21, 000-22, 400
med adm-19, 600-21, 00
med imaging 40, 231

ecpi prices

jbd
app fee is 100-200 as well

I began attending classes with ecpi in march of 2008. My financial advisor was melanie bacon, who sent me an award letter with my grants, fafsa, and student loan information. She assured me that I was good to go, because I was very hesitant about attending the program due to the expense. I asked her several questions to make sure my award letter meant that my tuition would be covered, and she insisted that I was good to go. A few weeks went by, and melanie contacted me to let me know that there was an issue with my household form regarding the status of my niece, who was listed as someone I supported that lived in the household. Because, my niece's mother had claimed her on her taxes the previous year, I was advised to provide a reason for this. I asked melanie if we could just take my niece off of the household form and just proceed with the process. At that time, I filled out the household form again and emailed it back to her without my niece being listed. We moved forward, and I then started my classes. Two months later I received an email from melanie stating the there was an issue again with the household paper and that she had not sent them the new form that I emailed to her, so they had not been paid for any of my books or classes do the financial aid process not being processed. I had filled out all of the papers she requested in a timely fashion, emailed them back to her, and corresponded with her and heather savage frequently to make sure there were no discrepensies with my paperwork. They both affirmed before I started classes that I was good to go. I advised melanie after sending me the email, stating my aid had not gone through, that I no longer wanted to attend ecpi, because I entered into a contract with them assuming my aid had gone through and my classes were covered. I had even informed heather that I had just given birth to twins and was unemployed, therefore I was chosing to go back to college to further my education, so I could get into a career. Well I didn't hear from melanie again once I advised her that I wanted to withdraw from the program. Then, in the middle of october, I received a bill for $4, 300 due in full by november 1st. By this time, I had already been enrolled in a new college where my fafsa went through with no problems. I contacted chris lapicki and explained the situation to him. He then got together with other faculty at the school, and told me due to the circumstances of the events, they would not charge me the 4300, but only 1, 200. I told him I should not have to be responsible for any of the bill and that I didn't have 1200. He told me that was pretty much my only option. And the 1200 he said was to pay for orientation. How could orientation be 1200, and how can they charge me anything, when it was an error on their part?