It’s hard enough these days getting a job if you graduated from an accredited college. Now imagine that you have to look for a job with a useless diploma from a college not accredited in your area. Further imagine that you were misled by the college’s high pressure marketing tactics, and now have tens of thousands dollars of debt and no realistic job prospects.
This is what allegedly happened to students at Westwood College, After numerous complaints of about useless degrees from the school, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan decided to champion Westwood students’ cause by filing a Westwood College lawsuit for fraud.
Westwood College is a for-profit school operated by Alta College of Denver, reports the Associated Press. The college operates four campuses in the Chicago area, and allegedly makes bold promises about the school’s criminal justice program through online, radio, mailed, and television advertising. Apparently, the school convinced hundreds of students that a Westwood degree would help them land a job at local law enforcement agencies and police departments. It didn’t.
To get a job at most area police departments, including the Illinois State Police, applicants must have a degree from a school accredited by one of six regional accrediting associations, reports the AP. While Westwood has a national accreditation, it has no regional accreditation. And so, graduates looking for jobs in the area were left holding a worthless piece of paper.
While students voluntarily handed over their money to the college, the Attorney General may still be able to show fraud if the college engaged in deceptive business practices, such as misleading advertisements, false promises, and suppression of information.
Westwood College says that it never concealed the fact that it is not regionally accredited. In fact, incoming students were required to initial a box in a fine print agreement that stated that Westwood’s accreditation status “could have an impact on economic employment with some Chicago and surrounding area employers,” reports the AP.
In the Westwood College lawsuit, the school is alleged to have deceived students into enrolling with false promises of non-existent and unavailable jobs. Whether the Attorney General wins her lawsuit may come down to the fine print.
Related Resources:
- Find a Chicago Personal Injury Attorney (FindLaw)
- Attorney General Lisa Madigan sues Westwood College over its accreditation (Chicago Sun Times)
- Fraud (FindLaw)
- Law School Scam: More Schools to Join New York Law School Suit (FindLaw’s New York Personal Injury Law Blog)
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