As part of our free legal assistance to students, Veterans Education Success receives complaints from students using veterans’ benefits, such as the GI Bill, to attend colleges and universities around the country.  

We received 109 veteran and servicemember complaints about Ashford University.  We analyzed those complaints for trends, and found:

Ashford University

Of the 109 complaints our organization received:

  • 28% of complaints raised concern about the school’s accreditation and transferability of credits.
  • Nearly 17% raised the quality of the school’s education.
  • Another 17% had student loans they had not agreed to or had not expected to be required to take out.
  • Over 15% complained about recruiting and marketing.
  • Complaints about program costs were raised by 13% of the students.
  • Another 13% complained about post-graduation job opportunities.
  • 12% complained about a lack of student support
  • Over 6% of the complaints raised the school’s failure to release transcripts.
  • 3% complained the school was changing the degree plan or requirements.

Some examples of the complaints were:

  • “Prior to applying to Ashford University, I was informed by them that the school was the only Online University backed by the Army.  They contacted me repeatedly. Once I began the process, the actual educational benefits were very poor with little to no feedback/communication from the professors.  Throughout my education, Ashford repeatedly misplaced/lost many of my financial records and funds. At the end, they repeated[ly] charged me for my transcripts and graduation fees even though I had payed them several times.” M.L.
  • “They were very pushy, and made promises about job placement service, which never happened.” K.W.
  • “They lied about the costs.  When I asked to withdraw I was told I would have no debt.  I asked a number of times. I explained to my advisor that I was struggling and they continuously harassed me about getting back into the university and I felt pressured to go.  The tuition and fees were outrageous. I never finished. I got behind in my work. There was no support system. I withdrew before taking another class and the university is saying I owe them money.  I was promised a military grant that would pay over 25% of my tuition and fees. Now I’m overwhelmed with loan debt because that grant was only 5%. So many lies and it’s hard to contact someone once you’ve got in.  They don’t want to discuss anything.” N.G.

Also, in 2017, Yale Law School summarized the trends in the student complaints we had received about Ashford University in a report available here:  https://vetsedsuccess.org/veteran-servicemember-complaints-about-misconduct-illegal-practices-ashford-university/ 

 

Download the PDF here:

Ashford complaints