Westwood College Scam

Students say college misled them
01:46 PM CST on Tuesday, February 22, 2005

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV


There's a long-held American belief that education is the key to a better life.

But a News 8 investigation has found that scores of young men and women claim to have been duped by a chain of private schools in North Texas.

They were fresh out of high school. They often lacked the grades or money for college. Yet, they wanted a degree that will lead them to a career, so they went to a private for-profit school called Westwood College of Technology for an associate degree.

What many said they got, however, were a worthless piece of paper and crippling debt.

Each morning seems bright for hundreds of students on Westwood's campuses in Euless and Dallas, because every minute spent on those campuses is based on the promise of a better life through education - a sense of promise based on Westwood's widely-aired TV commercials.

"You need to know where the really hot careers are," said the ad. "You have lots of questions, and Westwood College has lots of answers."

Westwood is expensive, from $27,000 to $34,000 for about a year and a half of classes. That's as much as a year's tuition at Harvard, or four years at UT-Austin.

Brazell said. "We were trained to make them 'feel their pain.'"

And pain is what Katrina Vargas, a single mom, felt after completing her degree at Westwood.

"Now I'm a single mother, still, and I'm in so much debt," Vargas said. "I have marks on my credit, I can't pay for my daughter's needs ... my mom has to help me."

"I got people in financial jeopardy rather than getting into a career," Brazell said. "They made bets with me on how many students I would enroll."

READ THE ENTIRE STORY:
Students say college misled them, WFAA News, Byron Harris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharon"
To: stephen schoeni salliemae com
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:52 AM
Subject: Prison


"...And pain is what Katrina Vargas, a single mom, felt after completing her degree at Westwood. "Now I'm a single mother, still, and I'm in so much debt," Vargas said. "I have marks on my credit, I can't pay for my daughter's needs ... my mom has to help me."
~ Dallas /Fort Worth, Texas

I feel their pain, Mr. Schoeni, being I'm living through the same financial nightmare your predatory business practices lured me and untold tens of thousands into.

When Mr. Wong asked me to advertise your scam from _my_ science blog and our science web sites? Ha, there's no way... but I did tell him I'd give Sallie Mae/Westwood Scam lots of PRO BONO exposure.
I read today on one site I found discussing the Westwood fraud, that somebody 'had taken down the fight westwood site'..
Okay, as promised to do, I'll do my part and create a blogspot (~fight-westwood.blogspot.com) their idea which is good enough -- and adding lots of links to information like the article at WFAA News (Dallas / Fort Worth).. and I'll use all the pre-existing sites at my disposal to give top billing to exposing and linking to the Westwood College Online / Sallie Mae fraud, republishing some of the same letters I've shared with you and the reporters.
If victims of the Westwood fraud want to come mourn their sorrow, then I'll welcome them with an open embrace. But there will be no greater reason to rejoice, when the criminals at Sallie Mae and Westwood, are sitting behind bars.

You people deserve only a long stretch in federal prison, and the key thrown away!

Best, Sharon