Fraudulent information was given to me by the Academy of Court Reporting, as I was told I was required to take certain courses and receive an associate's degree, and they are not certified to grant this degree.

Submitted 2008-06-27

Defendant: The Academy of Court Reporting

I have accumulated over $55,000.00 worth of student loans and career training loans from the Academy of Court Reporting, and was told I would have an associate's degree when I finished. Not only was I lied to about the degree, but the quality of education was so poor, and I learned so little, that even though I graduated, I have been unable to find and keep employment in court reporting firms, due to the fact I did not receive adequate training. I was also led to believe I had to purchase stenography machines and software through their supplier, which is also fraudulent information. Software, which costs around $10,000 is not a necessity of a professional court reporter. They manipulated me into thinking I needed this, and then they gave little, if any, training or education on the software. The whole school is one big scam! Students sit there semester after semester without accelerating on their speed (Words Per Minute), and are told by their instructors and by the Dean of the School that if they just keep coming they will get the speed one day. The speed hardly ever comes to most any student. For the few students who do manage to get the speed, it is usually because they have to sit there for years on end. It took me 6 years before I finally passed. I have heard of women who have stayed there for 8 years, 10 years, even 12 years, before they were finally able to graduate with an associates' degree, that means nothing; and a certificate of completion as a stenographer, which I believe means even less, since the teachers never once helped us learn the software, or any important things we deserved to know (considering the cost of the program). Unfortunately the school was a big fat joke and one malicious scam.
I learned no necessary skills I needed to know to become employable.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of dollars are being accumulated in student loans, which are so easily available through the Academy's financial office. They charge outrageous prices for tuition and students are made to take classes with little or no benefit, and told they are required, and that in order to get certified from the school, every stenography student must obtain an associate's degree from them!!!!!! I already had a bachelor's degree, and did not want to get an associate's degree from them, but I was told I could not graduate from the school without taking the classes required to obtain an associate's degree. It was just one big lie to get more money from me, money I have to pay back to the federal government now with interest. They also lie about their placement statistics. The placement director cuts every corner, and hardly any of the students who do actually graduate from there are ever placed in an actual court reporting firm or Courtroom. I have been taken advantage of, and feel I was outright manipulated and robbed in this malicious scam. It's caused me extreme financial hardship and my financial life has been devastated . It is very difficult to keep up with the monthly bills from student loans, and career training loans, and my entire retirement account (consisting of $10,000) was wiped out, because all that was pounded through my brain every day in school, was how buying these fancy machines and sophisticated software is the only way to become successful. Obviously, this was not the truth. I wiped out my retirement account to buy the elan-mira writer, a laptop computer (The Toshiba Satellite, had so many problems, there was a class action lawsuit against Toshiba, and had to fix the computers for free for everyone). I have a feeling the salesman representing The Academy of Court Reporting was fully aware of this information, and all the terrible problems caused by it, and bought the computer at a low price, knowing it was flawed, and sold it to me an extremely inflated price as high as he wished. Now I'm stuck with all this fancy equipment, but do not have the proper training or skills required to do the job. I gave up on my dream of becoming a court reporter a couple years ago, because I simply realized that I was scammed by the school, and there was nothing much I could do about it except to attempt to salvage the financial destruction and devastation left behind by these thieves who call themselves educators!

-- Michigan

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