What should you do if you found out your school is a scam?

I recently attended ITT Technical Insitute and felt that the school was wonderful. All the teachers were great except for some, and the homework was okay you can say. I was 1 year into the Criminal Justice Program when I heard that my school was ripping off students for their financial aid money. Well I thought about it and it could be true becasue when I first attended my rep. said it would cost me 70K for the 4 years that I will be there. But the school is having me take out a loan for 10K for every quater and they get all my financial aid money including money that was suppose to be given to us the students to pay for gas, rent, and ect. Then I did a little research and found out that ITT was a scam and for profit school meaning that they only care for the money not the students. I got really angry and brought it to the attention of other class mates about the issue. I want to transfer out however I am entitled to pay the loan back as agreed in the contract. What should I do?

I agree. You have to talk to a lawyer. Don't know much about ITT but you probably signed something somewhere that protects them. Review the paperwork, see what can transfer, and get out. It seems a little fishy - if you got a loans and advances, and there is a set tuition, then whether the money goes to you or ITT, there is a fixed amount that you owe.

You really need to talk to a lawyer. Get ALL your paperwork together and get a consultation.

You should get legal advice from a lawyer.

don't trust ads you see on TV

You need to tell this to a lawyer and get legal advice

What you should do is calm down and look at what you are saying. I don't know ITT Technical Institute but they have a website and on it they say they are a private college with campuses in 30 states and that they have been in business since 1969. So they don't hide the fact that they are a for-profit school. For-profit schools are not automatically scams. Normally for-profit schools are not much different than publicly funded schools - both kinds of school have to make money in order to survive. Publicly funded schools just get a portion of their revenue from your taxes and for-profit schools do not. Having gone to several publics and a couple of privates and participated in much student government, I can tell you that at publicly funded universities the university president has been known to call students "funding units". So don't try to say that the publics care for their students above the revenue that the student represents.

"the school gets all my financial aid money"???? Didn't you sign an application for admission when you started? Didn't it have the total cost of the course on it? Didn't you read what you were signing? Didn't you and the financial aid officer make a payment plan?

Financial aid money is given to students to ASSIST them to attend school, not to pay their expenses while they are in school. YOU are expected to take some responsibility for your educational expenses. If you are going to a school with very high tuition, then of course they are taking it from your financial aid. But you should have realized that when you enrolled.

And since I am in Canada and not the US, I don't know the rules under which schools operate but I can tell you that any for-profit school that is approved for government financial aid schemes must comply with a huge set of rules and regulations surrounding what they can and cannot charge and what they can and cannot take from financial aid monies.

If you want to quit, then the first thing to do is get a copy of the school's refund policy. Read it and find out what happens to any "unused" tuition and if there are any financial penalties to breaking your contract with them. If you feel that they have somehow deliberately mislead or defrauded you, and your loans are with the government, contact the student support branch of the appropriate department and make a complaint. All student complaints are investigated and if the school is doing something illegal they will be dealt with.

Unfortunately, if the school has met the terms of the contract that you signed with them then you probably will have to pay back the entire loan. In the future, you ought to read what you are signing and if you do not understand, consult a professional for advice.