Financial Aid and School Chapter

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ITT Technical Institute, Sylmar Campus, Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology (AAS), 15-MAR-04 / 05-MAR-06, Electronics and Communications Engineering Technology (BS) 13-MAR-06 / 02-DEC-07

Department of Education,

This letter will describe my experiences at ITT and why I believe I was misled by the school and the victim of fraudulence. As a result of these experiences and the facts that have come to light regarding ITT (enclosed in the Appendix), I am seeking a forgiveness on my federal loan based on current events that made me realize that what ITT did was a completely wrong to not only myself but to countless other people.

While I understand that my satisfaction of the school is not a foundation for the fraud, however, the promise that ITT gave me regarding cost, job, value and experience of my education is what is fraudulent. They created an expectation of job security and financial future that was guaranteed as long as I completed their program.

I realized I was being defrauded and/or "substantial misrepresentation" by ITT after hearing that the school was being closed. The decision to close the institution put me and other students at risk, especially in relation to the millions of dollars in federal student aid. The institutions closure was fueled by a history of poor administrative capacity, financial viability, organizational integrity, and inability to serve students effectively. As I look back to my experience at the school, ITT brought worse academic and financial damage to me and other students. I did not realize these potential damages at the time of enrolment until I heard that the school was being closed. Actually, when I heard that ITT was closing down, I started gathering evidence, which implies that my time limitations should commence on that data rather than my start or graduation date.

I am outlining my argument according to my experiences in Admissions, Financial Aid, Education Experience and Career Placement.

ADMISSIONS

I was enrolled in ITT Technical Institute from 2004 to December 2007 in Sylmar, CA. My hope was to learn new skills and broaden my employment opportunities. At that time I was working as a Local 11 Union Electrician. The work was very demanding physically and the job security was day-to-day. I was employed full time and was making $31 per hour. However I knew that at any point I could lose my job and be back at the bottom of the books at the union hall.

When I first showed interest with ITT, I was soon heavily recruited getting mailers, phone calls twice a week and I finally I decided to go the school for a tour. Immediately after the tour, everything just happened rather quickly. I was signed up before I knew it and the process was easy enough. I felt good about the quick and smooth process because I had so much to do on my schedule. I was set up to attend at night so that I could work during the day. I kept up a full time schedule and I was prepared to sacrifice for my future.

Looking back at it, the "tour" was where it all began: my recruiter asked me what my ideal school would be -- I was candid and replied that I thought I might start at a community college and transfer later to a larger school like a Cal State or a University of California. He immediately warned me against going to community college by stating that most of them are only regionally accredited. He then compared this accreditation to ITT's national ACICS accreditation. He told me that national is better than regional accreditation because you can take it anywhere. I took his word for it, but I later found out that this is simply not true: a lot of non-profit, state-owned, degree-oriented schools are regionally accredited whereas, many for-profit schools are nationally accredited (and it is these latter types of schools that face less strict regulations). My recruiter was trying to convince me that by being nationally accredited, ITT was superior to regionally accredited schools. He even went so far as to say that if I wanted to work with computers, ITT would probably be even better for me than MIT.

He explained this by saying that, "98% of ITT grads are placed in jobs in their field of study" and the starting salaries for these positions were between, "$80,000 and $100,000" a year. He assured me that ITT worked with big name companies like IBM, Schumberger.

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He told me that Schumberger hires primarily from ITT's pool of graduates and that I would easily be able to get a $120,000 to $150,000 salary and not have to pay taxes on the first $100,000 because I'd be working all over the world. I didn't understand all of this, but he spoke on authority of the school, so I accepted it at face value. He went on to compare ITT to MIT saying that while MIT is the bigger name, employers are actually seeking out ITT graduates because they are better trained and the best equipped in the real world instead of theoretical concepts that MIT could offer. Basically, he told me that if I wanted to work in the real world and make real money then ITT is where I needed to be.

I asked about cost and the recruiter said that he could not tell me what the exact cost of attendance while attending ITT since it varies student to student. I later found out with my wife that there is an actual Cost of Attendance for every program for students to be able to compare schools. He directed me to the Financial Aid Administration. He assured me that they would make it work and that by the time I was ready to graduate I'd have a high-paying job lined up that would more than compensate for the loan.

They told me that they had a high number of program completion and this would come into play later as I suspected when my original class of 30 that ended with 3 students graduating.

It all sounded too good to be true and I was so happy that I had come to ITT. Looking back, I could see how easily I fell for what they were selling. I was a number to them and made to fulfill a recruiter's weekly and term start. They made sure that I started my classes that first week. I felt like from the time I was recruited, I was locked in and could not get out between when I signed up and when the classes started. I could not cancel my contract.

FINANCIAL AID

For all the time I spent with the recruiter being informed on why I should attend ITT, I spent few minutes with the experts in the Financial Aid offices. Everything was filled out on Smartforms and everything was filled in so quickly and I was pushed through so fast that it was over before I even had time to blink. When I tried to ask how much I would owe, I was told, "about $30,000" but not to worry because I wouldn't have to pay back a dime until I was out of school for 6 months and that the federal government would pay my interest on the loan while I was in school. Since they offered to do all the paperwork, I never really got a chance to double check any of it. I felt like I'd just signed my life away without really knowing what I was getting in return. The promises of my recruiter were beginning to dim as reality began to dawn.

When all these allegations started to happen against ITT tech recently, my wife and I started talking about my process in financial aid. She used to work as a financial aid counselor for ten years and just recently quit to have our son. She started asking me questions regarding what should have happened and I realized that I did not physically agree to a lot of things regarding my financial aid.

Some of these things include the following:

• When the school did my FAFSA on my behalf, they were supposed to also be named as an entity that signed my FAFSA. ITT just signed my information away without me reviewing and inputting my own pin number. I did not even get a printout of my summary. I do have a learning disability and I felt ignored, rushed and confused through the process.

• I was supposed to get entrance counseling for my federal and private loans. I was not aware that this even existed as the highlights of the Master Promissory Note and the private loan promissory note. I was clueless on the interest of my federal and my private loan. I did not know the difference between the subsidized and the unsubsidized loan.

• I signed up for private loans without knowing what.....

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