Disgruntled Students Sue Westwood College
You've probably seen this commercial before. Perhaps you have made countless "tighten up the graphics" jokes over the last four years. Maybe at some point, after the laughter died and the memes faded into the background, you decided to take Westwood College up on its offer of a fabulous career doing nothing but playing games and growing out your beautiful golden curls. Now a group of students whose reality didn't quite match their Westwood-fueled dreams are taking on the for-profit college in a class action lawsuit.
The gist of the students' complaint is that the school promised the moon, giving them unrealistic expectations of what they could expect after graduation, deceiving them about the true value of their education. Recently the for-profit college industry has come under fire for their "high-pressure sales tactics and deceptive marketing," with the government proposing regulations that would cut federal student aid to schools whose graduates are not earning enough to pay back their loans.
Westwood has defended itself, claiming that the suit is being filed by a predatory law firm. They also say that the majority of its graduates are happy with their education and are able to find good jobs in their chosen fields.
It's rough out there for everyone right now, with public, private, and for-profit graduates all facing a terrible job market. Based on this ad, and the others floating around out there, it does seem as though Westwood may embellish the results of its education just a tad, something webcomic Hijinks Ensue pointed out years ago. Whether they should have to cough up cash for folks who don't think they got their money's worth is now a question for the courts.
In Lawsuit, Students Claim College Deceived Them [NPR.org]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games, Videos on 22 August 2010
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: law, level 3, tighten up the graphics, westwood college
These places prey on the stupid. Though it's the model for many businesses.
I went to Le Cordon Bleu, which is a chain of for-profit culinary schools across the US. Luckily, I went on a full scholarship.. at the time, tuition was $40,000. Now, it's probably pushing into the mid 50's, and they promise everyone the glitz, glamour, and money of chefs you see cooking on TV. I kinda fell for it, though I had a better idea of what I was getting into when I went for it. They juice it up REALLY HARD though, and almost nobody can afford to pay the loans back once they find out that they're stuck making $10/hr for the rest of their life. Unless they actually become a 'real' chef, where they can make an astonishing $40-$50k a year, for just selling away any semblance of a personal life. It's really sad how they trap people into these models.
Ah, I this reminds me of the time I tried looking into ITT Tech. They were going to charge me around $19K a semester for a degree in game design. They tried to sign me up right on my tour of the campus, and seemed pensive to let me walk out when I said I'd have to think about it.
After this, I left and a couple of days later, I kept getting phone calls from the place saying that I missed classes and such. After that, I told them to stop giving me phone calls. About a year later, they tried calling me and telling me that I'd have no chance of a career if I didn't choose to attend ITT. Good times.
We just got back from Chicago Comic Con; we saw Westwood there handing out information and free totes. I didn't notice many people milling around their booth, though.