ComplaintsforAmerican College of Education, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  09/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I withdrew from the College early August and they are unwilling to refund the balance of loan to climb credit. I have been back and forth with both climb and ACE for nearly two month and now ACE is claiming the $5300 just is gone as climb has no record of a refund being issued.

  

  Business response

  10/03/2023

  Dear ************,
  Thank you for reaching out. We understand your concern.However, the College can assure you that the referenced refund of funds, in excess of your obligations, was returned to your lender as required by the Colleges refund policy.
  As you indicated in your statement your withdrawal request was processed on August 17, 2023. And as shown in attachment A the College subsequently issued a refund for $5325 directly to your lender on September 18,2023.
  

  It should be noted that the College recently verified with your lender that the refund is in process as shown on attachment A. But that it may take up to ninety days from receipt for your lender to process and post to the account that is maintained and provided by your lender.  We strongly recommend that you contact your lender directly for additional information specific to your account maintained directly by your lender.

  Thank you,

  ***************************
  Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
  American College of Education
  101. *********., Suite 1200
  ************, **  46204

  Customer response

  10/03/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined the response would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  
  [Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************
  

  

  Business response

  10/11/2023

  Dear ************

  Thank you for your reply. As stated in the prior response the college issued a refund of $5325.00 directly to your lender on September 18, 2023. But that your lenders 90 day processing time may apply before posting to your lenders account. However, the ******************** has received notification from your lenders servicer, ***************************** (***), that the refund process has been completed and is now posted to your *** account. To view your loan balance, you must log in to the *** account portal.  You contact your lender or *** directly for assistance with logging into your *** account.  

  Thank you,

  ***************************
  Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
  American College of Education

• Initial Complaint

  12/31/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have spoken to my success coach about this issue. I need the best option to continue my education. I would like to pay my balance and make an adjustment to my climb loan. The school uses a lender that does not work with students. They did not adhere to my autopay and the account ended up in collections. When I asked them to take their loan back they told me they cannot do that it has to go through ********** they have my loan amount at $14,000 and they are collection on a $14,000 loan and Ive taken classes that have totaled $*****. Therefore the amount they want me to pay back is not the terms I signed up for (because they are a collection agency). Climb/UAS loan servicer said the only way they can take the loan back is if there is an adjustment to the loan. I need the loan adjusted so it can come out of collections. The students have no way to contact the finance department (if they have one) and I have yet to get a resolution thats in a students best interest. For me as a student it looks as if I am on the hook for $14,000 through a collection agency and cannot go to school unless that is being paid however I only used $***** worth of the $14,000. Ive been through several programs I am at the doctorate level and have never felt with a school that uses predatory lenders and will give no help. *** filed a complaint against Climb or UAS service to get a resolution so I can go to school. My goal is to pay the ***** and start the terms over on that climb loan if I am awarded $14,000 I want to use that for my education therefore an adjustment needs to be made either on the loan amount either increase or decrease or the date of terms.

  

  Business response

  01/13/2023

  Dear **************,

   

  The College has attempted to contact you directly by email and by phone to assist with payment and loan adjustment as advised. However, we have been unable to contact you directly and have not received a response. Please feel free to reach out directly at *************** to request assistance with payment to allow loan adjustment.

   

  Thank you,

  *********************

  Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance

  American College of Education

• Initial Complaint

  11/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  The College is using a faulty system to flag students' papers for plagiarism. Some professors warmed students against ahead of time. Other professors punish students for something they didn't do. This practice does not reflect good customer service. Furthermore, the system doesn't tell the student why the paper was flagged, and the professors ask students to provide reasons as to why their paper was flagged. The student doesn't know the criteria used in the system, so they have no way of answering the question. Desired Outcome 1. Use an accurate and transparent system to test for plagiarism 2. Train new professor on how to use the current system and when it can give a false positive. 3. I'd like to speak to the leadership team about this issue.

• Initial Complaint

  06/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been a student in the online transition to teach course at ACE for a little under a year now. There is one class that I was told I would have to retake because I did not meet the minimum grade requirement for passing. I understood and accepted this. Immediately prior to the beginning of the most recent course, I received an email saying my cumulative GPA was "not on track" and would need to be improved to complete my program. This was exclusively because of the class I needed to retake- the program is only a few courses long so one poor grade pulled my GPA below 3.0. This information was the extent of what the email said, which is important to note for later. I didn't think much of this, because I assumed that when I eventually retook my course, my new grade would supersede my old one. This is in part why I was so surprised when I began my most recent class and found it was one I had already taken (only a few months ago, in fact!) and passed with a satisfactory grade. I looked at my degree track on ACE's website and found that in addition, I had also been reschedule for another course I had already passed and received a satisfactory grade in. I must reiterate that the "Cumulative GPA" email I received did not ANY information about my program being changed automatically or an explanation of why I would have to retake these classes. Despite this, the only official correspondence I have received from ACE as of time of writing only refers to these emails to explain why I was automatically put back into these classes, and did not address any of my other concerns or questions.It is difficult for me to see this as anything other that a scam to attempt and force me to take additional, unnecessary classes and keep me in the program (and thus, paying tuition) for longer. Help would be enormously appreciated. Attached are images showing the classes I have completed and am being forced to retake and the aforementioned email from ACE.

  

  Business response

  06/03/2022

  Dear **************,

  Thank you for your communication. Please note that the rescheduled courses listed in your correspondence are not related to your receipt of notification of the required GPA for student teaching.  That notice was directly related your overall cumulative GPA track based on all coursework completion.

  The courses as referenced were rescheduled due to the following reason:

  Pursuant to the Field Based Experience policy in the Program Specific Academic section of the *** College Catalog students are required to complete field hours as part of the degree completion prior to student teaching. Field hours are embedded in the assignments within the course along with the diversity experience form. All field hours must be completed prior to the first day of student teaching.

  As of the date of this response, the required diversity experience forms for each course as referenced in your concern have not been received by the College pursuant to the policy. This is not a new or current change in policy for the Transition to Teaching, secondary program curriculum or program completion requirements. Additionally, *** has provided consistent reminders to all applicable T2T students since January 2022 of all the requirements to enroll in student teaching. Including the prior provision of the receipt of the required diversity experience form.

  However, pursuant to the College's Appeal policies, you may simply submit an appeal along with the completed diversity form documentation to satisfy the requirements of the Field Based policy.

  We encourage you to reach out directly to your teaching and learning coordinator for additional information on submitting an appeal.  You may also access the appeal form through the student portal at my***.edu. We hope this clarification is helpful.

  Thank you,

  ***************************
  Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
  American College of Education

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