Milwaukee Career College, Inc.

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Review: I have been a student at this school for the last year in the VA/VT program. In that year, I have maintained a GPA above 3.5. The program is set up such that the Veterinary Assistant portion must be completed prior to moving on to the Veterinary Technician portion of the program. I had reached the externship phase in the Veterinary Assistant portion of the program, where evaluations were given weekly, at 120 hours into externship and a final evaluation at 240 hours or completion of the externship, as well as weekly meetings face to face with an instructor, staff members from the externship site and the student. The first week of externship I received a few Cs, the rest of my grades were As and Bs, the subsequent 5 weeks grades consisted entirely of As and Bs, 120-hour evaluation was all As and Bs in fact my externship site had expressed to my instructor that I was "the best extern the have had from Milwaukee Career College". It was in my final week of externship that my grades took a turn for the worse, consisting of 3 As, 1 B, 5 Cs and a D. My subsequent 240 hour evaluation then consisted of 1 A, 2 Bs, 2 Cs and a D, clearly not a reflection of my 240 hours of performance at this site. This combined with 1 assignment that was turned in late, resulted in a final grade from externship of a C. A minimum grade of a B- is necessary for admission into the Vet Tech portion of the program and I was denied. This school has no student handbook that offers any type of direction as to an appeals process, I have been informed that there is no appeals process, there is no review board, the final decision and only consideration is left to the sole discretion of the program chair.

This program's tuition fees are $15,000 for the Veterinary Assistant portion and another $15,000 for the Vet Tech portion. Most Veterinary practices hire individuals for a Veterinary Assistant position, based on an individuals knowledge of animals, prior history of working with animals and a desire to learn more about working with animals. While helpful, most do not require any formal type of education, much less one that costs $15,000. It always was my goal to move on to the Vet Tech portion of schooling. I never would have agreed to such an expense for a position that would land me a position that pays most often just above minimum wage or, if you're lucky, $10/hour.

It is my feeling that this school should not only have guidelines in place to justify a grading scale at these externship sites, but also some sort of board to oversee a decision that ultimately lies in the hands of one individual when such high fees are being charged and an individuals future is in jeopardy.

Externships are not paid, 240 hours of time is what is expected and I feel that I was used as free labor for 7 weeks. I also feel that $15,000 worth of Federal Loan money was taken for a position that in most instances is acquired with on the job training.Desired Settlement: I would like a full refund for my tuition.

Business

Response:

As to the attachment you sent, Ms. [redacted] filed a complaint against us to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board (EAB) as well. After our sending a response to them, EAB sent us a letter to inform us that this case is closed. Please see attached files for 1. Our response to EAB and 2. Letter received from EAB. Our response to her complaint will be the same, therefore, I will forward them to you.

Business

Response:

Response to [redacted]

Ms. [redacted] states:

“The bottom line

here is, I did what was expected of me to gain admission into this program and

more. The fact that I apparently am not allowed into [redacted], is first if

all, unconstitutional (see Section 1983) and is the true reason for denial into

this program.”

Milwaukee

Career College

states:

The fact of the

matter is that [redacted] did not meet the entrance requirements for the

Veterinary Technician program. She did not earn a B- or above for her externship

grade, which is one of the criteria that must

be met to be considered for admission into the Veterinary Technician program.

That is the “true reason” Ms.

[redacted] was not admitted into the program.

Yes, it is possible for the program chair, Dr. [redacted], to waive one of

the required criteria for a student, but it is at his discretion. However, he chose not to waive the criteria

because she disparaged them

on Facebook, which came to their attention and told to Dr. [redacted]. Ms. [redacted] then asked another student, [redacted], (now an employee of [redacted]) to spy on [redacted] for her, which also came to

their attention and was concerning. Ms. [redacted] acted in an unprofessional

manner at [redacted], which resulted in [redacted] asking that Ms. [redacted] not return to

their facility. Regular field trips to

[redacted] are required in the Veterinary Technician

program so, Ms. [redacted] would not be able to complete the program.

Ms. [redacted] states:

“And finally, as

I have stated numerous times, there is no amount of money I would have paid any

school for a diploma to be a Veterinary Assistant. While being a

Veterinary Assistant is a necessary first step in becoming a Veterinary Technician, it does not require a brick and mortar

school and the fact that I will now either have to find an employer willing to

give me training necessary to take the VTNE

(National Veterinary Technician

Exam), or go and acquire even more student debt to attend a brick and mortar

school to achieve my goal based on this unprofessional and unfair treatment should

rightfully yield a refund for my tuition.”

Milwaukee

Career College

states:

When prospective students meet with an Admissions

Representative initially, it is told to them that admission into the Veterinary

Technician program is not guaranteed. It

is explained that Milwaukee

Career College

offers two Veterinary programs: the Veterinary Assistant program, which is a

diploma program and the Veterinary Technician program, which is an associate

degree program. All students start in

the Veterinary Assistant program as it is a prerequisite for the Veterinary

Technician program. Students are informed

of the criteria needed for admission into the Veterinary Technician program at

that time. It is then up to the student

as to whether or not they agree to those terms and choose to enroll in the

Veterinary Assistant program as Ms. [redacted] did.

It is true that “while being a Veterinary Assistant is a necessary first

step in becoming a Veterinary Technician, it does not require a brick and

mortar school”, but that was the choice Ms. [redacted] made when she signed the

enrollment paperwork for the Veterinary Assistant program. Furthermore, numerous students complete the

Veterinary Assistant program and find employment.

Furthermore, there was no unfair or unprofessional treatment

shown to Ms. [redacted] by Milwaukee

Career College. She simply did not meet the criteria for

Admission into the Veterinary Technician program. She states that she deserves a refund;

however, she completed the Veterinary Assistant program in its entirety. As is stated on her enrollment agreement under

the section titled “Tuition Refund Policy”, “it is the policy of MCC to require full payment of tuition from

students who remained enrolled in 60% or more of their scheduled classes”. Ms. [redacted] signed the bottom of this document

acknowledging and accepting this policy.

We are confused that Mr. [redacted] requests the refund because her

payment history does not support what she requests. Here is the history of her

payments.

11/18/13

- $100.00

11/27/13

- ($100.00) - Her payment above became NSF check. NSF check fee of $35 never paid

1/8/14

- $92.31

1/17/14

- ($92.31) - Her payment above became NSF check. NSF check fee of $35 never

paid

7/9/14

- $300.00 - This is the amount we

allowed her to go to externship because she has not paid anything toward our

institutional loan. Her actual balance of institutional loan to MCC as of July 2014 was $829.89 instead of $300.00

- $92.31 times 9 months (November 2013

to July 2014).

Milwaukee

Career College

is always willing to work with our student as long as they are willing to work

with us. Because of that, we have never had a problem like this case before. However,

if our response does not solve the problem this time unfortunately, we are

willing to go to the arbitration process as Revdex.com suggested.

Best regards,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]

Regards,

Below are excerpts from emails from Milwaukee Career College's Program Chair, Dr. [redacted] to [redacted], Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. In the first excerpt, Dr. [redacted] tells Ms. [redacted] of his decision to not allow me into the Vet Tech portion of the program. This email is dated July 23, 2014, weeks before my grades had been submitted and 2 months prior to me being notified that I would not be allowed to continue on at this institution in pursuit of a new career. I would suggest this to be highly unprofessional. It is my feeling that I was not made aware of this decision immediately after it was made and not before completion of the Veterinary Assistant portion of the program to prevent me from having any recourse to pursue refund of tuition, as indicated by another email between Dr. [redacted] and Ms [redacted] on June 13, 2014"In any case, [redacted] is on externship now, and is almost done with the VA program. She does want to go onto the VT program -- part of which, as you know, involves field trips to [redacted]. However, I have the authority to bar admission to the VT program, and I am now absolutely satisfied as to her unsuitability for the program. She will not be allowed to enroll in the VT program at MCC, so I can assure you will not see her at [redacted] as an MCC student."

Coming right out of high school trying to get a jump start on my career I thought Milwaukee career college would be great. On the website you can choose to get information for the programs so I wanted to be a veterinarian technician so I clicked on it and got my information. When I went to sign up for school the told me that I had to go through the veterinary assistant program first. Thinking that's not a big deal I sign up for it well a few weeks later I found out that you don't need school to be a veterinary assistant. So I'm paying way over the top to go to school for something I don't get a degree for. I was sticking it out until we stared doing practicals or hands on tests. When you take the practicals you get one chance to pass and you can't make any mistakes or you fail and have to take the class (6 weeks) over again. You get a week to learn how to do the practicals like the first one say was heart rate, pulse and respiratory rate. The day of the practical the teacher would take all those on the animal we would be using and we would have to get what the teacher got for all of them which is not fair seeing as animals heart rates change throughout the day. We had 25 students in my class before the practical and only 8 passed it. All the people that failed not only have to retake the class but pay more money. The school is not professional instead of correcting the students and showing them what they did wrong and what they need to work on they fail them for it and make them retake the class. Teachers should be teaching us what we need to be taught and what is going to help us in the field when we are done with school but instead at Milwaukee career college they would rather fail you and make you pay more money because you make a mistake. The teachers are rude and the head of the program Dr. C is very rude and does not care about the students. I would never recommend this school to anyone.

First and foremost, we were deceived about the class size. Told us 15 people max and I have had 35 people in one class. there simply isn't enough equipment for everyone. We were also told how to fill out surveys and how to talk to the people who accredit the school. then there's the staff. Having a teacher swear about the students to another teacher and name calling. It was beyond inappropriate.

Review: I have contacted Milwaukee Career College since 2010 in attempts to setup payment plans to obtain my official tranacripts. I previously corresponded with [redacted] on Thursday December 30,2010.

He instructed me via email to contact [redacted] to discuss obtaining my official tranacripts. I received a message to meet with Ms.[redacted] but that meeting never took place.

I recently called MCC on 10/14/2015 to speak with someone in student accounts I left a message with my student id, the time I called and phone number but I have not received a call.Desired Settlement: I'd like to setup a payment plan and obtain my official tranacripts so I can continue my education with the credits I've previously earned from MCC.

Business

Response:

We are sorry that you have not heard from us yet. Our [redacted], will contact you shortly.