Everest College sued; for-profit colleges under fire

Everest College's Milwaukee campus on North 6th Street, a block north of Milwaukee Area Technical College's flagship downtown campus, is bustling with activity as the newly established for-profit college plans to open its doors.

The Everest development was the subject of controversy last year when it received $13 million in interest free bonds from the City of Milwaukee.

Across the country Everest and its parent corporation, Corinthian College inc., continue to be the target of harsh criticism for extraordinarily high student loan default rates and for misleading students about job placements and credit transferability.

Corinthian is one of the most active for-profit colleges in opposing proposed federal regulations that would require proprietary colleges to meet quality standard's to remain eligible for federal financial aid.

Yesterday, USA Today's education reporter, Mary Beth Marklein reported that Everest had been sued because credits it promised would transfer did not.

Marhlein writes:

For Chelsi Miller, the wake-up call came when University of Utah officials said her credits wouldn't transfer from her old school.

Utah's flagship public university accepted her to its pre-med program last fall but said her courses at Everest College, a national for-profit institution with a campus in Salt Lake City, wouldn't count toward her bachelor's degree. That left Miller with a 3.9 grade-point average for an associate's degree that she says did nothing to advance her education and career goals. And, she has more than $30,000 in student-loan debt.

She says Everest misled her when it suggested her credits would transfer and misrepresented what it would cost her.

"I feel as if I had been sold a college experience from a used-car salesman," says Miller, 26, of Midvale, Utah, who last week filed a class-action lawsuit in state court with two other students accusing Corinthian Colleges, Everest's owner, of fraud.


The rest of the story is linked.