5. As soon as the DOE blocked ITT窶冱 access to federal aid, the school stopped enrolling students. ITT then quietly discontinued operations at many campuses ahead of Labor Day weekend and announced the decision publicly the following Tuesday. A week later, ITT filed for bankruptcy.
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In interviews with Gizmodo, dozens of former students and faculty have come forward to tell their stories about the school窶冱 predatory recruiting and lending practices, and the inner workings of a pervasive scam that affected tens of thousands of students across 136 campuses in 38 states.
窶弋hey sought out people who thought that this was their only option,窶? a former Charlotte campus faculty member says. 窶彈The students] were really trying to make a difference in their lives and trying to make a difference in their families lives,窶? she says, adding that the campus reps saw them as 窶彡ash cows.窶?
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By the time most students realized how bad ITT was, it was too late. 窶弋he credits that they earned couldn窶冲 be transferred anywhere,窶? she explains. 窶弋hey were stuck. They needed to graduate. It worked out for some people, and they were able to move on. But they were some of the few.窶? (According to a 2012 Senate investigation of ITT, about 52 percent of students who enrolled in 2008 dropped out by 2010.) 窶廬 know a con when I see one.窶?
As a 窶彷or-profit窶? college, ITT operated as a business. The company had a product (bachelor窶冱 degrees), customers (students), shareholders, and quarterly revenue goals. The school was even publicly traded under the stock ticker ESI from 1994 until September 2016, when it was delisted after ceasing all operations. By that time, the damage was done. ITT had drowned thousands of students in debt.
ITT charged an estimated $77,000 for a bachelor窶冱 degree and $45,000 for an associates degree, according to a Deutsche Bank analyst. ITT窶冱 own internal documents show bachelor窶冱 degrees were sold for as much as $90,000. The Senate investigation reported ITT had 窶徼he most expensive programs of any for-profit college, forcing many students to borrow the maximum available Federal aid and to take on additional private debt.窶扞TT charged about $77,000 for a bachelor窶冱 degree and $45,000 for an associates degree. In 2015, bachelor窶冱 degrees were sold for as much as $90,000.
It was a very simple business. The more degrees the school sold, the more money it made for shareholders. When student enrollment fell in 2011, both revenue and profit fell too. High enrollment rates were great for investors, but paralyzing for the 1 in 3 students that ITT projected to default on their loans.
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Mario Valladares is one of those students. He attended ITT窶冱 Seattle campus between 2008 and 2012. Like many former students, Valladares will now spend the rest of his life paying back loans for a degree that is practically useless.
窶廬TT was one of the few colleges offering the program I was interested in [called] digital entertainment and game design,窶? he says. 窶廣t the time, I didn窶冲 really know how to get into the game industry. When I visited the campus, everything sounded perfect. They told me I was accepted in the program [on the spot], so I didn窶冲 do much college searching after that.窶?
Valladares took out $65,000 in federal and $7,000 in private loans to pay tuition. Four years later, he now owes more than $200,000 on his loans due to compounding interest. When he first applied, he was told by ITT recruiters he窶囘 graduate with a bachelor窶冱 degree and find a good job. Instead, he found himself buried in debt and, like all of the former students interviewed by Gizmodo, he was placed in a job that did not require professional training and had little do with his field of study.
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窶廬 didn窶冲 learn nearly enough to get a real job at a video game company,窶? Valladares says. 窶廬 was placed in a game tester, not game design job. You don窶冲 even need a high school diploma to be a game tester. It was a huge ripoff.窶?
窶廬 wound up getting placed in a telemarketing job for $5.95 an hour,窶? a former student named Veronica Lakewood, who studied electrical engineering at the Tampa campus from 1988 to 1990, says. 窶弋hey thought they were doing me a favor. It was totally worthless.窶?
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窶廬 was placed in a job at Comcast as a communication technician,窶? says Zach Prater, who was enrolled at the South Bend, Indiana campus from 2008 to 201