Trade Schools cause big debts - Don't always pan out

[Nate Dogg]

Looks like trade schools don't necessarily give you a better chance in the job market. They carry big debts. Check this out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-ed...n-hard-times-lured-into-trade-school-and-debt

 

[Nate Dogg]

When TJ Williams arrived in Portland from his home in Utah to enroll at Le Cordon Bleu in 2007, he was shocked by the terms of the aid package the school had arranged for him: One loan, for nearly $14,000, carried a $7,327 "finance charge" and a 13 percent interest rate.

"They told me that halfway through the program, I could probably refinance to a lower rate," he said.

When he tried to refinance, the school turned him down, he says.

Career Education declined to discuss Mr. Williams's case, citing privacy restrictions and saying he had not signed a waiver.

Mr. Williams has been jobless since last fall and recently returned to Utah, where he moved in with his mother.

Awful interest!

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

food industry makes shitty salaries. pretty well known.

some of these diploma factories are crap.

 

[BlazersBlood]

Yeah my wife went to Apollo to get her pharmacy tech license. She graduated over 2 years ago and the job market is so tight that it's hard to get a full-time gig anywhere. When she applied they told her that they would place her into a job and it was a buyers market. The only good thing that has come out of it is that she is parlaying that into a unit secretary job part time at Legacy and she hopes to move into that full-time someday.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

really? even for Pharm techs? damn.

 

[BlazersBlood]

really? even for Pharm techs? damn.

12K for the schooling & it was only a 9 month program. We're still paying it off and will be for at least another 2 years. That's not even counting the home equity loan we took out to cover cost of living expenses while she was out of work. That will be another 11 years. Ugh. It makes me sick when I really think about it.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

what a scam.

 

[Ed O]

I'm reminded a bit by the old days with "company stores". Where employees and their families would work in the middle of nowhere and have to buy their groceries and sundries from the one store in the area... which was owned by the company.

It's great that people take steps to educate themselves, and I'd hate to think that restricting access to credit would be the answer, but schools that are in the business of lending money to their students should have a high burden of honest communication.

Ed O.