Thread regarding Education Management Corporation layoffs

Bullshit. Guess what? Being an AR is a job, the job is to get new students. If my job was to tell students to go to the police academy instead that's what I'd do. Additionally I cannot in a compliance sense say, "you will have to go through the police academy." Further it's not my job to know what all 50 states require for someone to be a police officer. My job is to know the programs we have, be honest with students about those programs, and recruit new students.

If you were any good at you job you would actually help them instead of "check with your state" pass the buck attitude. Here is a thought, maybe as part of your job you actually spend a hour doing research and make a list you can give them every time they ask that question. That's the kind of BS reps say about transferring to another school..."oh yes we are accredited, you just need to check with the school you transfer to." That's still not honest considering you KNOW that most schools will not take Art Institute classes and credits. Or how about real customer service....."tell me where you think you want to go and I will check for you" And if you are a student, ask them to do the work for you, they should work to earn your business. Remember, you are buying a product (education) from a business.

Students have asked flat out, "will this degree get me a job as a police officer?" I always tell them they most likely have to go through the academy but to check their states requirements. It's possible to get students without bullshitting them. The people that lie or dodge the truth are the ones f***ing students over. It's possible to do your job with transparency about the programs and the cost.

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If your going to post threads, spell check and grammar check are key.

It is more complicated than these two extremes... On the one hand, the school may have told the student what he or she wanted to hear and carefully shaped what they said to omit damaging facts about some programs. On the other, the student may have only heard what he or she wanted to hear and felt that "having a dream" was sufficient to find an answering universe that should help them fulfill that dream. The student would not buy a car without a lot of checking, but somehow bought the sales pitch without, it seems, much checking. The school gets an unfair advantage by calling a salesperson an admission officer and the fact that schools are expected to be places where people are taught.

The school also benefits from the fact that most people never think of things like credit transfers, assuming that "college is college" even when some programs are closer to 13th grade and often filled with students who did not excel in K-12. I have taught PhD psychology students who could not read or write past, about, fourth or fifth grade, who were incredibly angry when they did not get good grades, often arguing that they believed in themselves and would succeed because they had dreams. Both school and student are trying to get the best outcome for themselves, recognizing that neither is bringing an A game to the table. Faculty are pressured to pass substandard students, admissions have to bring in fresh students, school wants to make a profit, student wants a degree that helps them get ahead without having done the groundwork to know what they are buying or, often, to succeed once enrolled because they have a dream or "believe in themselves".

So, it seems that everyone has an excuse. The sad thing is that it results in bad outcomes for the student, disheartened faculty, bad reputation for the schools so that they can only get even lower classes of students in many cases, admissions folk who are worried about their jobs and feel guilty about some of their enrollees, etc. Forgive loans and let students keep the credits earned and only the taxpayer is on the hook (student has the crummy credits but can claim a degree, and school spent their money long ago)

The other people who benefit are the top levels of management who do a poor job of leading, get whatever pay and benefits are on offer, and move to do damage elsewhere when they have siphoned off all the money that they can (see Todd Nelson, Craig Swanson, Goldman Sacs, etc.).

What's there to say? You echoed the same sentiment I had about a criminal justice degree and another commenter brought up the same point I did about 2 year degrees being worthless, not to mention the fact that you don't even need a degree to become an Idaho state trooper. It's great to have a dream, in this case becoming a state cop, but what does that say about how seriously you take it when you don't even know the requirement of your "dream job". Instead of researching it, take some local yokel's word for it. I think there are a lot of people who get screwed by EDMC daily but it's hard to feel bad for someone that can't deduce going to school for criminal justice to become a police officer vs. going to business management.