ITT Tech

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ITT Tech (or ITT Technical Institute) was a scam that pretended to be an institution of higher education. It had many campuses peppered across the continental United States, but by September 6, 2016, all campuses were shut down after the loss of accreditation. ITT Tech was also known for illegal business practices. [1]

ITT Tech's predecessor was incorporated in 1946, and it first became a publicly held corporation in 1966.[2] Major problems with ITT Tech did not start appearing until the Great Recession of 2007, when the quality of education declined and new enrollments became dependent on dubious sales techniques.[3] Sales representatives started looking for students who were "likely to be kind of desperate to enroll, and likely to be eligible for the highest amount of financial aid."[3] By 2012, ITT Tech charged "among the highest tuition in its industry. It also has the industry's highest rate of loans that [went] into default within two-years of attendance."[4] Their motto was scamming students "Education for the future" [5]

Concerning their shutdown, ITT Tech stated:[1]

After more than 50 years of educating students, ITT Technical Institute has discontinued operations at our resident campuses.

At this time, we expect that online students in the July 2016 academic term will be able to complete the term which is scheduled to end on October 16, 2016.

We want to thank all our students and staff who were with us over those years and wish all of you the best in your future.

This site contains key contact information for ITT Technical Institute graduates and former students. For students who did not graduate, ITT Technical Institute has agreements with several partner schools that will provide an opportunity for you to complete your program of study.

Accreditation[edit]

ITT Tech held accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS), a national accreditation agency. However, the ACICS stripped the scam of accreditation because of low standards. ACICS was itself later stripped of accreditation authority by the United States Department of Education because of their own low standards.[6]

Academics/Tuition[edit]

ITT Tech had "degrees," primarily in engineering, information technology and business administration; other programs included nursing and criminal justice. Having a degree from ITT Tech does not imply that the piece of paper is worth anything. Hardly anybody got work in the fields they wanted, and many of were stuck at the same crappy jobs. An associates degree from ITT Tech cost around $48,000, the same cost for a bachelor's degree from a decent school; many student loans went into default, costing students tens of thousands of dollars. In a nutshell, if you have a degree from this school, you have a $40,000 piece of paper that means nothing. Even an ordination from the Universal Life Church is more valuable because you can actually do something with it. [1]

Controversy[edit]

ITT Tech was (in)famous for education fraud that included grade inflation, coercive recruiting methods, class action lawsuits, and poor job prospects. It had no credit transfer except to other ITT Tech campuses with the exceptions of Cornerstone University and DeVry University [7] (these "credits" would not even transfer to Pensacola Christian College, which is a fundie school accredited by TRACS) nor community colleges [8]. An example of grade inflation would include a guy getting an "A" grade for a term paper when he only sent in a noodle recipe. With the cheating and lying, ITT Tech became the target of federal investigations when the school got almost one billion dollars in federal aid, despite a retention rate lower than 60%. Another case of controversy came from ITT Tech's claim that they were trying to get professional accreditation for their nursing degrees, which they never even filed for. As for the class action lawsuits, the courts ruled in favor of the students. Because of all of the crap the school was pulling, they ended up shutting down. [1]

External links[edit]

References[edit]