Kaplan University

Hi my name is Christina N. Mcquiston,

Fist let me start by saying I have read and followed most any and all complaints about Kaplan" formerly"( Maric) collage from all over the united states and from what I have read I believe to be undoubtedly true, I have personally dealt with .Kaplan University. Kaplan is an institution that not only misrepresent them selves and misleads each and every student "even if they are not aware" . Kaplan universities polices and practices are getting out of control and, I further more do not understand why they have not been closed down or investigated by the Department of education for unlawful practice's and misappropriation of government funds and student loans and further more fraud.
On December 12, 2007 I began Maric collage Bakersfield, located at 1914 Wible road Bakersfield, California As a student in the paralegal program in hope to fulfill my life long dream of obtaining a legal and professional career, unfortunately that was not the case . When entering Maric collage Of course I was told all about how wonderful this institution was and how Maric's Paralegal department was outstanding, Lead by Mr. J. Jameison Jr
As I started to really excel in the program obtaining honors and perfect attendance the school program director Becky Anderson had asked me to become the ambassador to the paralegal program ..ie; giving speeches and helping coordinate guest speakers to come visit the institution in hopes of furthering job placement for upcoming Grads, Of course I assumed the position with great hopes for this would really look great on my résumé. Well after about four months into my courses I had started to get bills for immediate payment, when I was told by my academic advisor that I would have no out of pocket expenses.. of course no matter what I paid the bills to keep in the program.
Well to speed up my story I started to really notice that not only the staff members but the students in the collage where being mislead or angered at the collage making students who transferred from " A real collage (Bakersfield community collage) with A's had been made to retake classes that they had already taken so that Kaplan would receive the full tuition Disbursements from all students. This really became a huge issue at the collage but also many students "me included" never received any of our living expenses, but were being asked for more moneys than originally told the program would cost.
So students and staff started to leave Kaplan under weird circumstances, then to find out it was due to staff trying to stand up for it's students rights, so they were terminated. Students leaving because of the overwhelming lack of understanding about why we were being charged different amounts and being forced to sign New contracts with the school, also charges for things we never received books, supplies, excreta.. during this time we had gone through three different program directors like MR. Anthony Halley and a few more came and gone.. We students also at this time started up a Law club, man they really tossed me to the wolves with this one . First they had let a student from the criminal justice program be the lead Present at first " allowing her to handle club moneys, but they never even bothered to do a back ground check on this person, even before letting her take criminal justice program .
well as time went on we worked with the staff members at Kaplan and any and all students of the cjp.(criminal justice and paralegal programs) earning money for the club to take students on educational field trip "jails district courts and so on.. Fist time a staff member mishandled the moneys from the club due to the director insistence that the staff at Kaplan keep the moneys in a safe place for the club, "Yeah right" it somehow just vanished, so of course we as students who had already made reservations in the city of San Francisco had to uphold our end of the bargain and make down payments to the destinations, we re organized the club and had opened our own bank account to maintain or hard earned money from bake sales serving dinners at the school to gather the money needed to put 70 students on the field trip,
So the president and secretary of the club were the only ones who had access to the money. well they decided one day to go and empty out the account and also have any and all moneys from the down payments made reimbursed to them "at there homes not the school.. when I found out I was outraged, I had went to Mrs. Becky Anderson to talk about what was going on and ask if she would aid me in reporting this issue to the police Becky said of course she would, then found out she could also be held liable and refused to help me prosecute these people for such an amoral crime, embezzling charitable funds and misappropriation of club funds and fraud.
So I myself called the police to make report well to find out that the president of the Law club at the time was using an alias name in fact she had three names known to the Bakersfield Police department ..I was in awe about this how did a person with previous criminal background and problems with the Law even get into a program that teaches law.
After all the turmoil I ended up with no charges and 70 student wanting there money paid, refunded again I went to Mrs. Becky Anderson for help she had verbally said she and the school would donate 700 dollars to help me pay back the students, even sent me a letter confirming the agreement . well when push came to shove she refused to comply with our agreement, and I personally held car washes ever weekend until each student was paid off, with the help of ex police officer now director of the CJP Anthony Haley and Mr. Ed Hammon we sent letters to Kaplan universities chair members informing them on the issues at hand with the collage and Tonya huerrta aka ex president of the Law club well needless to say that got us no where.
Further more this ended up being the tip of the ice burg.. a few months later I was told they where graduating out the Paralegal club at the Bakersfield compass and I had only had two classes left to complete my course studies, They told Mr Jameson he would no longer be needed and they could not afford to keep him on staff ..where was I in all this. left behind and pushed into Kaplan online I went from only needing to take one class of civ pro to being told I had needed six more months online( "more money" big rip off ) for the school. Also that I had to repeat classes I had gotten an A in, in the classroom setting, So I started to look at other options finding out that I had already been charge tuition for Kaplan on line and my Student loans were over lapping" really" how is that when I never signed any thing or agreed to go online" it just was not for me."
after checking into several other Universities I found out that was a bunch B.S., not to mention that they are supposed to be an accredited University, what that really means is they are an accredited school of higher learning, not an accredited University, a big difference.

It was disappointing to find out that a good majority of the credits and courses that I would earn from Kaplan would not transfer over to some of the other Universities I wanted to attend...
After investigated on my own I had found out that not only did Maric forged my signature when it changed its name to Kaplan university but It also over charged me for classes I never had to take. Putting me in such a outstanding debt with the Department of Education "unbelievable ". So here I am three years later no degree 17, 000.00 plus in loans .. trying to discharge this debt due to fraud and getting nothing but harassed every five minutes by the finance department from Kaplan and creditors, just today from 8 am to 11 am 12 calls from unknown numbers and collectors trying to get full payments from me . I believe this institution should be closed down and I know I am not the only one.