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Loan Forgiveness Related to ITT Tech Is Different
My son Brian graduated from ITT Tech with an Electrical Engineering degree, for which he and I each assumed about $20K in student loans. I see on NRO this morning that this debt will be forgiven. Even though I have a reason to be pleased, I want to point out that this is not the same as other student debt.
Debt related to ITT Tech partakes of fraud.
I am immensely proud of Brian. We used to team teach NRA Pistol Safety classes, and I know he is an excellent instructor. The biggest reason I’m proud of him is that he has gotten through some incredibly bad luck without turning bitter.
Brian decided to become a gunsmith, so we did some research and found that there were only four colleges that offered a degree in gunsmithing at the time. The oldest and most respected was at Lasson College in Susanville, CA, up in the north of the state. So that’s where he went, and he was six months from graduating when California passed new gun control laws that shut down the program.
He came back home to Virginia and decided to go for a two-year EE degree at ITT Tech. Straight As, even in calculus, which surprised him more than us (kid has a high IQ). So when they offered to extend him to a four-year degree (with loans) he took them up on it. In his last term, ITT Tech lost their accreditation, and they didn’t tell Brian or their other students. He passed his final (only one B all four years), and the next day they announced that they would close the company. They mailed him a diploma. When he tried to use it to get a job he was informed that since the degree was from ITT Tech it didn’t count, and he could either go to a real school for a few years or take a job as something less than an electrical engineer.
And here’s something for you Starbucks-haters to consider. Brian worked as a barista through high school and almost all the years of college. He moved to Seattle and went to work at their factory, and now runs a production line. Starbucks has been his only good luck career-wise.
Back to ITT Tech. Clearly he got a raw deal; not as raw as hundreds of other ITT Tech students who thought they were going to be RNs, but plenty raw enough. This wasn’t just the student loan sales pitch. This was clearly fraud, and a class-action suit was instigated. We have been hoping for the best, and I think we can expect some good news when all this is finalized.
I wanted to tell the story so we could point out that not all the student loan forgiveness is gender-study majors freeloading off taxpayers. Thanks for listening to my Fathers’ Day bragging. Don’t get me started about my daughter unless you want to hear more.
Published in General
So, how’s your daughter doing?
I’m not clear, is this lack of accreditation legitimate or not? It sounds from your tone that you think your son’s program and his work are legitimate and warrant an accredited degree.
ooo. tempter.
ITT Tech lost their accreditation because of business practices. I think the training was fair to good, although not as good as from better-recognized institutions. I tried to get him to go to Messiah College, where my brother Don is a professor of engineering, but I think he was a little afraid of Prof. Pratt, who has a tough rep.
I personally think this might apply to many accredited universities.
Very likely true.
It applies to any university that charges tens of thousands of dollars for worthless degrees.
I attended 4 universities on my path to a Master’s degree, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, George Washington U., and Georgetown U. I didn’t pay but if I did I would take the first two over the latter two any day. I wish my degrees were from either of the first two but, alas, they are from the last two. Makes me ashamed to see what they charge and how they go about that process today.
Good for your son! It sounds like he knows how to battle adversity! It’s really awful to hear what he’s gone through, and I hope in the end he will be successful at doing rewarding and meaningful work.
You need to beware of for-profit colleges. Not necessarily avoid them, but beware. The Obama Regime despised any and all for-profit educational institutions, and did their best to shut them down. They succeeded part way. The University of Phoenix is one of the better ones, but even they suffered at the hands of Evil Obama. A friend of mine got an MBA from University of Phoenix, mostly online.
I don’t think ITT was ever ABET- accredited, so caveat emptor.