Westwood College

I visited the Chicago Loop campus of Westwood College to research their program in Network Management. I met with an admissions representative and we discussed the program, the admission process, financial aid, and received a campus tour.

As to the admission process I was partially through it before going to the interview because I had completed my application online. I was automatically admitted because I have a bachelor's degree already. I do not have to take the entrance exam or placement test. They waived my application fee for me to enroll in August for the Fall term. I completed all enrollment documents and I was originally going to meet with the program director for the IT program to ask questions about which certification exams are covered in the program and if there was virtual lab software such as Element K to supplement classroom and lab instruction.

I also completed the financial aid process and took a very informative campus tour. We saw all the state-of-the-art computer labs and learned that Westwood was both a Cisco Networking Academy (CCNA Exploration)and a Microsoft IT Academy. This is excellent for a prospective IT professional.

I went home and completed some extra research and found some not so pleasing items. My first stop was a website called Ripoff Report and Westwood had four full pages of complaints about different issues. There were a few about Illinois campuses, although it seems that most were about out of state campuses and the online campus. I saw links to lawsuits from state attorney generals and settlements for obtaining student loan under false pretenses. The parent company is Alta Colleges, Inc. The Better Business Bureau has revoked its accreditation of the school because it did not honor its agreement with the agency. ConsumerAffairs.com also has a lengthy page including an IT professional who was caught by surprise when he could not pass his certification exams. A search of ComplaintBoard.com yields these results.

I will not be attending this institution and I will also take my mom and bother with me because none of us will be scammed.