San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

In response to post #260. If the OIG contacts me I will tell my experiences. In fact maybe I should call them.... Do you have there phone number?
— May 28, 2010 6:23 p.m.

“The City is broke and they are talking about a retractable-roof stadium"

Redundant here.... let the Owners pay what they wasnt with there own finances and no help from the tax payers for the stadium.
— May 26, 2010 8:06 a.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

As suggested by Surfpuppy619 I googled Erin Dillon and found the web site educationsector.org. There is an article titled "lowering student loan default rates". The date is 02/23/2010. The whole article should be read by everyone on here and tell your friends too! lol. Here is the paragraph that clearly makes BPI nervous. It also appears to show that Congress has already seen the problem and is holding schools more accountable. Surfpuppy619's #242 post has bits of the article but again everybody should read it. It looks like starting in 2014 Congress will hold universities more accountable for the high default rates I am envisioning BPI execs and other scoundrels like them on there knees in front of Congress saying "please don't ruin us! Give us time to adjust." My attitude is "you guys knew what you were doing and manipulated our current laws which by process ruined the least of our citizens financials to bolster your own and we paid for it."
— May 23, 2010 3:13 a.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

my response to post #239. In my view that is ok. If an online degree can't function under for profit conditions with out abusing tax payer assistance this nation shouldn't afford to keep it afloat. Such action might make not for porfit higher education institutions more efficient as well.
— May 22, 2010 5:38 p.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

I agree with the persons post for #27 but just the second section rather than the first. Have Universities responsible for the receivables of student loan debt. Manipulating how you pay the advisors is a messed up calamity between lobby groups and the D.O.E.
— May 22, 2010 3:09 p.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

TO the person that posted #24 Mcgraw Hill is in the business of publishing books to whomever wants to publish them. As for the benefit of how easy it is to get into Ashford versus USD or SDSU that is not a fair comparison because the San Diego universities are very competitive and very reputable. And the default rate of those students is drastically less than those attending AU. With you bringing in a 3.6 GPA into AU and having served in the military you would be an enrollment advisors biggest hope! And they would be begging you to refer all of your friends and relatives to AU through them specifically. The majority of AU advisors get much less quality in a student. My enrolled students use to call me and complain on how "stupid" the folks in there classes were. Stupid sounds harsh but it is what they said.
— May 22, 2010 2:58 p.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

I might find For Profit Education Companies more ethical if they were held financially responsible for collection on all bowered Title IV funding by there enrolled students. You can bet your ass that that would change the whole dynamic on entrance screening and enrollment criteria. Some have predicted a coming surge in student loan defaults, kind of like home loans. I think that is very likely if the economy doesn't improve quickly with wages to support the debt these folks have incurred. But without such a financial responsibility noose around the likes of Andrew Clarks neck and his crew they and his competitors will continue to use there experience at cheating the US government out of tax dollars.
— May 22, 2010 2:12 p.m.

Solar Man

Hey Refriedgringo: I understood that in Mexico that all energy produced in Mexico is property of the state. And that includes Solar energy. Any truth to that?
— May 22, 2010 1:55 p.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

Post Number 223 is very telling. I think Clarissa is naive and if you take my experiences and what was posted on #223 my view is that BPI is making money off of students that are not ready for it as Don accurately rephrased in comment number #224. Your perspective on leads depends on where you rank on your team. If you are a student that is interested in an online education and you pick up on the phone and call the 800 number for Ashford you are very motivated. Equally true if you navigate on line and send in an email to Ashford Universtiy or select on line chat. Those three types of leads are typically the best of opportunities for enrollment advisors but are not evenly distributed amonst the employed masses. Instead they go to a select 2-3 members of a 15 manned team. The rest of the advisors go off lists. Being new I was one of the rest. Lead flow off of those lists started to fall off and the reason as we all learned in a company sponsored meeting was that Bridepoint wasn't going to purchase sourced lists anymore from the outside. That source list the university representative spoke of was that "sucker list" and stuff like that. We were then told we had to start working referrals effectively to hit our numbers by our manager. So maybe to rephrase "lions Share" it would depend on your perspective on where you ranked on your team. The days I got to speak to better students were the days that other enrollment advisors called in sick or were on vacation. Those days there were more leads getting to the remaining Enrollment Advisors. And my best referrels were from students that I had enrolled on those days.
— May 22, 2010 7:50 a.m.

San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education

Don: fantastic article! I worked at Ashford University for 6 months in 2009. I found a job with another company in a field I was experienced in and was relieved to leave. I have read nearly all of the posts on here and blame our federal government for allowing this utter waste of tax payer dollars to go on. Your response to Post #12 is provacative and silly. I was told by the three different Enrollment Managers I had, the trainer for enrollment advisors and my Director that this was a production based job and we were expected to produce numbers. That said no enrollment advisor would ever take on a roll of financial advisor to weed out quality prospective students with consideration of the students personal financial impact position. This would be like asking mortgage lenders counseling folks on taking out a mortgage to purchase a home that did not meet traditional loan criteria. Like consulting them to not take an interest only loan but wait until you have 20% cash saved.... Oh by the way Don, numerous enrollment advisors at Bridgepoint were ex mortgage loan sales folks with years of Phone selling experience. We never asked for A.C.T.,S.A.T, or HS GPA numbers we looked at eligibility for Title IV funding. Nothing else matters beyond if they were elegibile for Title IV funding or not. In Training they tell you to dig and find what there true motivation is and play on that to spin them into a succesful student. What training never told us was that the lions share of the leads we would be receiving were leads sourced from from "check cashing, or Pay Day advance loan" businesses. The mind set of that individual(bridepoint would say prospective student) is "if there are excess funds available to me after the tuition and fees are paid when do i get that?" The quality students those that were shopping for a convienient on line accredited school experience, they call in or send in an email. Those leads were never evenly distributed they were handed out to maybe 20% of the advisors on any given team and then comparisons were made about how great those adviors were compared to everybody else. As if this was a fair comparison. Anything else I continue to say will be redundant but I must tell you I don't like to admit I once worked there and consider it dishonest employment.
— May 21, 2010 7:34 a.m.