|
| |
Credit Transfer Issues at Chain Career Schools
Students who think they may want to move to a state other than the one where
they graduated from, need to pay close attention to the transferability of their
programs. Since state licensing requirements vary by state, the transcript from
a program in one state often has to be reinterpreted for other states.
The problem arises when a school is unwilling to assist the student with
getting licensed in other states. This is particularly an issue with big chain
schools that have curriculums that include keyboarding skills, medical billing,
accounting and other classes that are not related to the professional skills
required by the state license.
This was brought to our attention by a graduate from another school who was
getting Continuing Education classes from Spa Tech to fill in the requirements
that were not covered in his 900 hour program. This was relayed to me by one of
our directors.
I was speaking on the
phone with a graduate from one of the “chain” career schools and he was
very upset because his school would not translate their transcript for
him and did not have course descriptions so that trying to get licensed
in another state has been a nightmare. He stated that on initial look
the state already had said they knew they would not take at least 300 of
his hours because they were not relevant to the requirements for being a
therapist. While they thought that psychology, math, English, and
medical transcription were good classes they did not see them fitting
the requirements for being an LMT.
As always, it is up to the prospective student to make
sure that the program they select will meet both their short-term and
long-term objectives. Too often we have heard from graduates of programs at
chain schools that they chose the school because they could get 100% of
their program financed through student loans. In fact, these schools tend to
design their programs based on getting financial aid first and what the
student needs to graduate as the second criteria. Very few of these programs
are designed with the first priority being what the student needs to succeed
once they graduate.
The question that you should ask yourself is which is
more expensive; taking a program that may cost more, take more hours to
complete but is fully financed with student loans and grants but does not
give you the skills to succeed, or a program that may use a combination of
student and private loans, can be completed more quickly and gives you a
better chance of succeeding. The choice is up to you.
|
Education