Westwood College review: horrible excuse for a learning institution 1

I unfortunately fell victim to Westwood in the summer of August 2003. I too a starry eyed teenager of 18 with all the hopes and dreams that one has at that age was deceived and lied to in my own home in front of my parents with a Westwood College recruiter.

I went to Westwood with the high hopes of becoming a successful computer programmer. I enrolled in the newly developed gaming degree that was only offered in the Denver North Campus and so I moved out to Colorado.

After being enrolled in the program for a few months and seeing how disgustingly unprofessional the instructors were as well as the financial aid department I decided to drop down from the BS degree I was aspiring towards in gaming to an Associate’s degree in Software Engineering.

The simple task of dropping down to the associates took about an hour until it finally came down to me threatening to drop out all together if not allowed to drop down to the associates degree. The reason for my decision to drop down to an associate’s degree was when I noticed that I felt as if I were a guinea pig for the gaming degree because I was there in its first running the very first time they were introducing it.

The reason for those feeling was caused by the lack of structure and knowledge on behalf of the instructors. I once had an instructor admit to me that he did not know the material himself and that we were learning together as a team. I undoubtedly replied, " I'm not paying $60, 000 for us to learn together you’re the teacher and I'm the student." Hence my decision to demote myself to an Associate’s degree that was $30, 000 VS $60 grand and I guess I figured I was cutting my losses.

Throughout my education at Westwood if that is even what it can be called I experienced teachers with half ### teaching methods and a mentality that as long as one person or enough people follow along then the rest can catch up. No one took the extra time to make sure everyone was on board before proceeding.

The classes were not structured at all I found myself at time taking advanced programming classes for which I had not even completed the assigned prerequisite math class yet. I also saw students that came after me getting a better overall teaching experience in the very same classes that I had just taken a few months before. Which all came back around to the whole guinea pig theory?

I was fortunate enough to have my father help me pay off the debt from a house he had recently sold as his profession often included flipping houses, but I can only image how much worse it could have been if it had not been for his assistance.

I graduated from Westwood with a degree that seemed as if they printed it on regular printing paper with fancy font but I guess it makes no difference than if they would have printed it out on Charmin for me.

Ironically I still pursued a career in the Computer Industry but I pursued it doing what I had taught myself before I attended the school which was Desktop support/Hardware support for PC’s.

The few things I did learn about programming I taught myself and I walked away from that school with a degree, but not with the confidence or knowledge to take those so called skills and apply it to a professional setting in the business in which I went to school for.

I look back on my years at Westwood and see wasted time and a great life lesson that came unexpectedly to a young man with hopes and dreams. Life preys on the ignorance of adolescence and unfortunately we all have to learn that lesson the hard way. My teacher for that lesson was Westwood and I can honestly say it was the only thing they taught me!

Education is invaluable and for an Institution to profit on the hopes and dreams of others with little remorse of the damage they do by providing false hope, financial burden, and a less than subpar service is not something that should be allowed or let alone tolerated.

Please to all those reading this story make your voices heard and fight back and join in seeking justice for those that have been harmed by Westwood's greed.

I fall out of the scope of those that can seek financial retribution due to my year of graduation but I fight and make my voice heard for those that can still have justice served for them and have Westwood pay for the injustice and harm they have caused.

More information can be found at: http://westwoodscammed.me/