Applying for College? Take Notes on Westwood College Lawsuit

August 24th, 2010. By AbiK

Here’s a little tale of a consumer fraud class action lawsuit for you…

Girl finishes high school.

Girl wants to go to college.

Girl wants to be first in family to go to college.

Girl visits Westwood College in Denver, Colorado.

Girl wowed by representative at Westwood College.

Girl really wowed when told she’d be making $65k in fashion career upon graduation.

Girl signs on.

Girl takes out loans.

Girl graduates. In debt.

Girl makes $12 an hour as a bank teller.

Girl not happy.

Actually, girl pissed.

Ahh, the joys of the college go-see. The pre-admissions promises made. The distinguished alumni stories told. The bullshit, quite frankly. Not that you don’t leave most colleges with an education and a diploma in the end—and let’s face it, try getting a higher paying job without that little slip of paper. But my heart goes out to this girl—who happens to be Krystle Bernal and who now finds herself acting as one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Westwood College, according to a bit over at npr.com (you can read the official complaint here).

Before I continue, let me say this whole “sell the college” to prospective students is far from new. I can remember the lofty speech hurled at my little tour group on many a college visit—but perhaps growing up just outside of NYC ensured I had a jaded sensibility and that I looked askance at anyone trying to sell me anything. I can see, though, where an entering freshman could be swept up by it all.

And apparently heavy-sell recruiting tactics employed to promote schools have drawn enough attention (ire one wonders?) that NPR reports the Career College Association is developing a new code of conduct for its members—one with a zero-tolerance policy for such sales tactics.

So Krystle wanted a career in fashion. Well, here are some stats on a career in fashion:

The median salary for fashion designers in all industries is about $62,000. The median for retail buyers was lower—hovering just under $49k. That’s right off the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) site. Here’s a bit more…a quote from BLS:

Earnings in fashion design can vary widely based on the employer and years of experience. Starting salaries in fashion design tend to be very low until designers are established in this occupation.

Keywords: “tend to be very low”.

And here’s more: The states with the highest concentration of fashion design workers are New York, California, New Jersey, Vermont and Maine; the states with the highest pay for fashion design are New Hampshire, Maine, California, Connecticut and New York.

Funny, I don’t see Colorado listed anywhere.

Perhaps Krystle didn’t do her own research on jobs in fashion. Or maybe she did. But if you’re an 18-year old kid looking at the world as your oyster, who are you going to listen to more? A bunch of numbers on a government website or that nice, upbeat and encouraging person sitting in front of you at the College Admissions office?

Seems to me like the aforementioned rep from Westwood College pulled the median pay stat, spit it out to Krystle, and the rest is history. Of course, I don’t know what type of fashion career Krystle wanted—my guess, looking at the Westwood College program offerings for both their Denver-North and Denver-South campuses, is that perhaps she was looking for a degree in fashion merchandising—which may get you a buyer’s gig.

One thing I do know, however, is one too many fashion career wannabees who found themselves working for minimum wage at the local Belk, Beall’s or Boscov’s post-graduation. It is a damn difficult field to break into, particularly if you’re not based in one of the hubs for fashion design, buying, marketing and merchandising.

Side note #1—the one “Success Story” posted on the Westwood Denver-North website for a degree in Fashion Merchandising quotes Sharyce Sanchez who says: “There are great people that really care about you here, and it is very meaningful to know you have a support system standing behind you, rooting you on. They are a part of my family now!” Thanks Sharyce! That gave me so much information about your success!

Side note #2–apparently you can only get the Fashion Merchandising degree at Denver-North, but when you look at the faculty bios for the degree, the teachers are all either based online or at the Denver-South campus. Huh?

So the Westwood College rep allegedly tells Krystle she can achieve her dream—right there in Colorado!

Here’s another little interesting thing about Westwood College—go ahead and Google it—it’s moments like these when I love Google. Funny thing happens…note the convenient drop-down that Google provides when you’re typing in the letters for W-e-s-t-w-o-o-d – C-o-l-l…whoa! there it is—listed third in the list of possible results you could be searching for!—”Westwood College Scam”. Well, there’s about 17,000 Google results for that, and I’m not about to cull through them all right now.

To be fair, Westwood College has posted a defense on its website and basically claims to be on the receiving end of a predatory law firm—one, by the way, that claims to have heard from almost 800 former Westwood students who say the school cheated them.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this one–in part for Krystle’s plight, but bigger picture, it’ll be interesting to see what it means for for-profit colleges across the board…stay tuned…

Tags: Class Action, College Recruiting, Consumer Fraud, Krystle Bernal, Westwood College

This was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 4:54 am and is filed under Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.