Carrington College
reviews and complaints

Many students were completely unaware that the Externship program, which requires 180hrs of on-site time, was also unpaid.

In 2023, where most students (including myself) in college are working not one full time job, but sometimes multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, students who utilize financial aid and other resources to keep collections at bay, Carrington College says “Yes to unpaid labor”.

It is truly appalling, during my time here we were informed that Carrington College Portland Campus dropped both Legacy Health and Providence Health from their extern program due to the fact that both of these esteemed companies wanted to pay their Externs a fair wage during their 180hours. Multiple Medical Assisting Students were sorely disappointed, and Career Services had to find other locations willing to exploit students for their free labor.

This is my main complaint, that Carrington College as a company does not respect its students or have confidence that each of their students deserve a fair wage for the labor they give during Externship. I believe this should be changed to allow students to be paid for their time and effort, in order to bring a greater incentive to their education.

Hello,

I was enrolled at Carrington College in the PTA program at the Pleasant Hill, CA location, and upon being diagnosed with a couple of disabilities. Unfortunately, I was forced to withdrawal due to my current health circumstances. I then provided the school with all of the diagnosis documentation from my physician, where they were able to complete the withdrawal 9/6/22; however, they charged $2,252.54 for 4 weeks of attendance, and deducted that from a Sallie Mae loan from which I was initially told by Ebony during the financial aid process, that it would not be deducted from the disbursement right away. The school's financial aid department took 3 months to return the disbursement as well as the APR somehow increased from 7% to 14.99% and accumulated nearly $700 in interest just in the 3 months of not returning the funds to Sallie Mae. They based the interest off of the total $18,200 that was initially disbursed, and not the $2,252.54 that the school took. Also, they didn't even give me the option to just pay the tuition directly to the school in full. I had been going back and forth with Ebony in the financial aid department, who took weeks to return my messages. Then our last correspondence where she had informed me that she sent the concerns up the ladder to her supervisor, but then I sent a follow up email to see where things were at a week later, and I received an auto response that she is no longer with Carrington College. I then reached out to Ray who is the head of the school, and received a response from Karen in the admissions department. I provided her with all of the correspondence regarding my concerns, and she informed me that she also sent it to her supervisor, then after 3 attempts of following up, I received an auto email stating that Karen is no longer with Carrington College and to forward all correspondence to an R. [protected]@carrington. edu. However, I again am not receiving any responses. Now, because of these errors and failure to follow through, the accumulated interest is up to $900 with Sallie Mae. I am dealing with my disability with many medical bills to pay, and feel this entire process with the school financial aid department has been an utter disaster, and a lot of stress.

I had a horrible experience from start to finish. I went eight months with nothing to show for. The externship site they sent me was unwilling and uncooperative to let me have any hands on, on top of that disrespectful. The paperwork you sign says nothing about a guaranteed of job or externship. The site read the sign off sheet for externship and they told me it was outdated or obsolete. There was no respect for the college they would not let me do anything hands on they didn't care about the college liability insurance. They take in more students than externship site. I don't have a site and went eight months without a certificate. They said they would get me another externship site they lie allot!

I started on July 19th 2022 at Carrington college I was doing okay until I got sick and even then I try to contact several different members I eventually got a hold of Ashley West they told me she didn't know when I would get my money to be patient she never explained to me why I wouldn't give my money I explained to her that this money was for a home and all she kept telling me was be patient be patient well as September 9th 2022 I am now homeless because of this and I still haven't received my money yes I withdrew from because they did not give me my money and I was sick of course so I want to say thank you Carrington college for making me homeless

I attended Western Career College currently known as Carrington College in Emeryville, Ca 5/2009. This program was horrible. We constantly had substitutes because our teacher always called off work. This made for a very challenging and inconsistent learning environment. On days that my teacher would come to class she spent most of that time discussing her personal outings and social life. It was very frustrating and unprofessional. Me and several other students complained that we did not feel as though we were getting the education that we were paying for. Our complaints were noted and we were told it would be looked into. Nothing came of it. Around November of 2009 I requested a leave do to scheduling issues with my job. I was granted my leave. The day before I was to return I called and was told that I was dropped from the program and the only way I could come back was if I paid more money. I really felt taken advantage of. I was doing well in the program and was looking forward to returning and finishing my studies. I called several times and spoke with the program director and was told I could not return. I was devastated. I was 20 years old with no support other then my school counselors who had no compassion nor could anyone give me an explanation as to why I had been dropped. I enrolled in this school with the understanding that once I completed my program I would have a head start at life just to be dropped with no explanation. I am now in debt and paying a bill for an education that I never received. I called several years later inquiring about re enrolling at the now Carrington College and was told I owed a balance and could not return until it was paid. I have never even seen a bill from WCC. It all felt like a scam

Yes I havent been in Carrington since October 4 do to I had covid and wasnt better until November 2nd and was dropped out of the school and didnt start this school until September 13 or 14 th so I know my bill should not be 1796.00 when I only went for a month and a half. They need to fixed this to the right amount and I still have the books I asked if I can return them no answer. I also had government grants and loans not through the school. But im ok paying the right amount for the month and half of school. Not for three months.

Unethical and unprofessional behavior from the teacher. He graded me on exams and research paper a week ahead of the rest of class to be able to turn my B in his class to an F and to be able to drop me from the program. I had reached out to many of their staff to help me drop the program myself and I believe this teacher retaliated against me, by hurting me before I could drop his class.
Carrington College is a mess and do not follow procedures from their own policy manual. There was no tutoring offered. In fact he had an unqualified person babysitting the class while he was in another classroom teaching in person, simultaneously he was trying to teach two separate classes at the same time. And everyone was failing because no one was teaching us anything! I believe he fraudulently altered and manipulated grades and curriculum as to not have the whole class fail. This would appear that he was not doing his job correctly, which he was not!

Day and night it seemed I was working on this dark course. As a single mother at the time, thats the last thing you want, is some circus act that think I have time to play like that. Having a person do wants told and going from person to person just to get a simple answer. Bytime I called the last person on the list, right back to the front desk receptionist! Whats the point? Laughing and being immature com'on. I even drove to ask in person! If you really think im payinh money on something I disnt recieve because because ypur lack of profession communcation. Your wrong [censored]. Unless my degree is in my hands pf course. No longer needed so dont even bother.
_#1 question was;"now that I am completed my 10 month course online, where do I go to go forth with getting my certification?" thats it, why so hard tp answer' beats me?

I just want to say that I really have no respect for the student finance department of carrington college. I have been harassed constantly about my payments towards the medical assistant program. I have been doing my best to pay what I can, I have been in a financial hardship since I left the program in february of 2019. I was told by one of the enrollment representatives, that there could be an affordable payment plan to pay off all my debt, but that offer was never extended to me. Even during these circumstances with the coronavirus, they are still demanding for a payment. I have attempted multiple times to contact a representative from the student finance department to work out some sort of payment arrangement, but I never get an answer. I have just had enough of being harassed, so I have submitted a payment to pay off the remaining balance, and don't want to have anything more to do with this terrible school. I will never recommend anyone to come to this school, you are set up for failure. The teaching staff have zero patience with someone who has a learning disability, they show no remorse. I had the worst experience in all my time as a student. Due to this experience, I will never recommend trade schools. I am very displeased with all this. If I receive any more letters in the mail for a payment, I will sue this school for harassment.

This school should be shut down. They lie to students, don't keep their end of the contract, go after students for money that have paid, the certification prep class is a joke and they do not have qualified instructors. They only had one student out of 12 that passed their certification exam because they do not provide the education students pay for. They have lost multiple clinical sites due to their lack of professionalism and education.

I am submitting a formal complaint about a fraudulent experience at the western career college in antioch california in 2007 for medical billing
My school was a book mill. My class had no teacher on site. I did not get a proper externship at all. There was no real training or promised job placement. The fact is, when I got out, the ads for employment in my field of "training" explicitly said things like "western career graduates need not apply" or"no western career college applicants" and they were sued for same! The action was began very same year, and I found out soon after. It was different then and the internet was not as informative as it is today. You can easily see clips of terrified students speaking about being forced to preform procedures they were suppose to know but did not. Fear of lack of training. My experience was similar.
My class had no teacher. They would send the teacher from the veterinarian class to sit at the class sometimes and we were just given test answers to practice. Sometimes the principal would substitute as sitter. We would get a teacher, and they would leave in weeks.
We were forced to buy books we never were asked to use in class. Never part of the class. I complained.
Toward the end of my class they finally got a steady teacher. I requested opportunity to take the class over but they refused.
I "graduated"
My externship was at a place that was literally closing down. My externship was literally packing files and clearing out.
I did not get an education or experience or job placement as promised. I never was able to gain a job as a medical biller. I am now disabled and these loans are stopping me from getting housing
It is unfair and there is a mountain of evidence to support my claim. My complaints on this very information board with same experience.
Please review my request
Thank you
Dawn

After graduating 2 years ago I was told all my paperwork and financial account was good to go. 6 months after, I receive a notice from a claims department stating carrington sent me to collections for $5, 000! AfTer I called carrington, they stayed it was for the amount that FASFA paid during my last semester. When I asked to speak with someone in charge to explain the claims, I was informed that everyone involved had been either fired or quit and that I was responsible for the amount in question. I talked to my lawyer and he said we could sue the school. The head of the financial department called me saying my account had been taken care of. Recently I was sent to collections AGAIN for the same amount! And yet again all persons involved were fired or quit. I'm ready to take them to court this is ridiculous!

Hello,

I would like to submit a formal complaint against Carrington College's Surgical Technology program at the San Jose, CA campus due to my experience during the 5 months at the program and my reasons for leaving.
I have sent several emails to Scott Sand, Esther Andrade, Leigha Bentz and others regarding this situation. During my time in this Surgical Technology program, I was subjected to a variety of horrible experiences that no student should ever have to witness. My lecture instructor was more than inappropriate; he was racist, homophobic, prejudiced, and a long description of his offenses were detailed to Scott Sand via letters from myself and other students at Carrington College. The most recent graduating class failed their CST exam with the exception of one person (10/11 students failed the CST exam) and only 1/10 students in the current externship class was placed by Carrington College; the other 9 students had to reach out to the former program director, Julie Hamrick, to personally beg her to find them sites so that their $40, 000 tuition was not a complete waste of money.
I left the program in early April after these issues continued to worsen and after a meeting with the school dean, Esther Andrade, who yielded no answers to my questions and has not responded to me since. I had to go above her and contact Scott Sand regarding all of these issues, who I had a 42 minute phone conversation and several email exchanges with. I requested a refund of the money I had paid for my first term (after which I unenrolled) totaling around $5, 500. Not only did Scott Sand refuse to refund me (his reasoning being that I completed the term) which I feel I deserved a refund due to the horrific treatment I received from the school and the lack of education that I got. I signed up for a fully staffed, functioning Surgical Technology program with a quality education system, and I received none of these things. The program had no instructor for the ST250 program, and only 1 lecture instructor for the ST150 and ST350 classes. There was 1 lab instructor for the entire program, who is a traveler that is due to leave in August. There is no program director (when I left). There is no clinical coordinator (when I left).
I can submit many pages of documentation on this issue, as I have everything both in writing and in recording to support my case. I requested a refund which was denied, and Carrington went ahead and decided to try and tell me that I owed them money for the second term -- which I am not even attending.
If I don't receive the refund that I am requesting (and I am requesting this refund because I did NOT receive the education that I signed up for), I will be unable to find another program and this loss will put me in a substantial amount of debt. If this cannot be resolved with the dissolution of the loan that I took out (which Scott Sand told me on recording that I didn't have to worry about, only to receive an email from FSA that I have a balance of $3500 of which I have to pay starting shortly) and a full refund of the approximate amount of $5, 500 that I spent for the first and only term I attended, I will be seeking legal action against the school, of which I have already drafted a lawyer to take my case.
Please respond to me via email at [protected]@gmail.com at your earliest convenience.

Thank you,
Hillary Bright

I attended this school back in 2000-01 was told if I attended this school I would get my certificate and would have job placement. I graduated and they never helped me find job placement never even got any job with medical assistant. Then they are tryn to collect money for services that was never completed. They are taking my income tax checks for services I never received they scammed me and I have to pay back that's not fair. Is their any lawsuits out for this

This entire school is a joke. You are pressured to enroll from the moment you step into the place until you leave. I came in for a tour and was pressured to enroll in the vet tech program, was told that I didn't have much time to decide and that I needed to enroll as soon as possible to ensure I had a spot; as if this school doesn't have a constant rotation of new classes. Not only is this ridiculously overpriced (almost $35, 000 for a minimum wage job) but the loan interest is insane. How do they expect students who graduate from this program to pay off loans? It is ridiculous. When you have questions you can never get a straight answer. The staff is not well informed on the rules at all if anything they just tell you they don't know and dismiss your concerns. They just switched owners apparently and changed policies mid term without letting students know of the changes. A classmate of mine is two weeks away from finishing our fourth term and now they are saying she has to retake the entire term because she didn't pass one online class, although there are several of us who haven't. This school is a total waste of money and time. They prey on students and make you feel pressured to go here for an education that's not even worth it. We are all sharing one small lab and not getting sufficient experience here despite what this school claims. The only reason some people are actually working in the field is because they took initiative on their own. This school does not try and help their students land jobs at all. They even claim that you are not allowed to be paid for your 200 hour externship as if we can afford to do that much work unpaid. It is ridiculous and I am shocked that no one has done anything about these corrupt, greedy, for-profit colleges that don't care about education but about money.

I went to Western career college with the promise of full time placement as well I was on AFDC with my 4 children. I was approved for a Pell Grant which was never applied to my student loan. I also never received my sashe for being a mentor. They told me I owe the school $ or I won't get my certificate. I had a 3.8 gpa only missed 2 days out of 18 months. I'm now after all these yrs having my wages garnished for $18, 000 I don't feel I'm all responsible for. Seems they pocketed my Pell Grants fromva single mother trying to make a life for her children

In 2015 I attempted suicide and carrington college is to blame. They promised me high pay and job security. Every dentist I ever worked for told me that I am a horrible dental assistant. I was broke and could not afford rent, my car was repossessed, I was forced to declare bankruptcy, I became homeless, and I blame carrington college for all this. I was top of my class in 2009, the teacher announced to the class that dentists prefer a staff of cute young girls, not older males like myself. I was a registered dental assistant for 5 years from 2010 to 2015. Even with my bankruptcy my student loan is still there at over $19, 000.00 in 2017 and nobody cares and I feel powerless. I would love to sue carrington college in court and expose them for the horrible people they are, and I would love to be on national tv news. If you can help me find a lawyer please call me. My phone is [protected] — I will never work in dental offices ever ever again... I wish to sue carrington college, please call me if you can help me do this or if you know someone who can help me. My name is jeffrey reyes. I am part of the 2009 class at carrington college, then known as western career college. I am furiously angry with them. I blame them for a ton of horrible things that happened in my life. I'm 46 years old and i've never been arrested. Please help me somebody

So I started school in May 2015, almost done in two days I would have been done with my last term and going to my externship. Well about 5 weeks ago, career services told me I had to go do a urine drug test, ok no problem I do have my medical marijuana card well of course I quit smoking but when I took the test my test results came back 23% THC AND they said 15% would have been ok, well I told program director mrs A. About this problem told her I do have my cannabis card so it's not like I'm getting drugs off the street. I RECENTLY found out I was pregnant so I do not smoke I'll be 8 weeks in 1 day, MRS A told me well usually with situations like this because you have your cannabis card you will have to AUDIT THIS term and just redo 6 weeks of lab work 2 hours a day? Makes no sense to me why I couldn't just redo a drug test since I am pregnant and have no THC in my body now! 5 weeks ago yes I may have had some in my system still. Anyways so I was doing great good grades and all, I said I was fine with redoing 6 weeks auditing my term, last week on Thursday. mrs a called me into her office to say, teena I talked with the dean on Monday he is going to make the decision on what we do with your situation and he will let me know Monday coming up. Monday comes and she didn't talk to me that day. Instead I am home, asleep because I'm pregnant and tired. The dean left me a voicemail. I called him back and he tells me unfortunately we're gonna have to drop you from the pharmacy technician program? I paid $18000 in school loans, had finals this week. And now being dropped he told me I can re apply to take this term over again but this term was compounding term that doesn't get taught again until next year? Really I'm gonna wait a year to retake a term that I could have just re took my drug test because I'm not smoking and overall I had my cannabis card. So my doctor gave me a cannabis card to go into a cannabis club give them my rec and pick up medicinal marijuana it wasn't like I was buying drugs off the street to top it off I'm almost 8 weeks pregnant and they won't let me redo a drug test to prove I'm not doing any drugs in my system! I feel like they scammed me over. Of course today the day after the dean called me they were quick to email me saying I still have $18000 in loans that is due in6 months. There's nothing I can do? No lawyer I can get to fight this? I feel like I was wrongfully terminated. So if I was on norcos and it showed up on my drug test or a drug prescribed to me by a doctor and I had a doctors note I'll be terminated? So now I am pregnant with my second child, With no job, $18000 that's due in 6 months and my child will be born 1 month after I'm in a ton of debt! This is so stressful I had great grades? Any advice? This was carrington college on Folsom blvd! I advise you don't go to carrington college they only want your money then throw you out!

I went to Western Career College located in San Leandro, CA for Dental Assistant Certificate. The year was 2002, I classes were fast pace, I was young and really didn't undestand what debt I was taking out for this 6 month program. I graduated, I was not given Internship placement. I hs to find my own, it seems like after graduation they basically don't care or keep their word about job placement. On the internship I was confused about vital chemicals, dental procedures, and medical equipment I had been trained rather quickly. After my internship was over I was not offered employment as was the process if I'd gotten the placement through Western Career College Post Graduation services. I searched for jobs on my own, working interviews, but no job. I called the graduation services seeking assistance as promised but was blown off. AFTER a year of dedication to job search I really didn't know what I was doing anymore. I deferred my student loan, I hadn't worked in the field as of yet. I called to inquire about refresher courses, those were only for Certified Dental assistant, how can I even attempt to pass a state test when I haven't even worked in the field. Going on a year and after graduating, no job, no experience, no help from this scam of a learning Institute. I owe money, I am in default and I can't go to a real college because of this money I owed in field I never worked in. I have this worthless certificate with a old school name that isn't even accredited anymore. I can't get a real trade because of this debt. I can't get retrained nor will they help me get a job. I feel scammed it's now 2016 I applied for a online course in Psychology, I can't attend even with a scholarship because I owe this school for profit Institute I never worked in. I feel cheated, scammed, hopeless, and I need help. My credit score was decent before all this, now because of this terrible scamming school I have a terrible low score. I hate Western Career College my behind!