Like many others, I am fully panicked!! I am 4 classes short of graduating with my RN. I feel a teach out, if possible, is best for me because I just want to be a nurse.
I cannot even wrap my head around starting from scratch! I'm devastated and don't know where to begin. I'm at the Wichita, KS campus. Nobody is telling us anything. All my information has come directly from the U.S. Dept. of Education. Why is a teach out a bad thing?
ITT Tech is a scam school. You're actually lucky that you might have an opportunity to apply for a loan discharge. Most former ITT students won't have that opportunity...
I am an ITT alumni. ITT Tech degrees are not respected by many employers (for good reason), and they certainly will not be respected any more than they are now if the institution ceases to exist amid charges of fraud and predatory lending (see the CFPB and SEC lawsuits).
Please see the following report from the Senate HELP committee:
http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/PartII/ITT.pdf
If they close, I strongly recommend that you discharge your loans and start over. I know it s---s, but at least you will save yourself tens of thousands of dollars and have the opportunity to start again at a community college, which you can then transfer credits to a Non-Profit Public college.
Don't let any other For-Profit colleges convince you to transfer your credits and finish there. Don't take a short-cut, I assure you that a "short-cut" will be costly and you will regret it.
http://forprofitu.org/fact-sheet/
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-for-profit-college-chain-itt-for-predatory-lending/
https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-86.html
http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/Contents.pdf
The only problem with the teach out is getting faculty and staff to hang around to do it. The instructors are job hunting as we speak. I spoke with a very upset nursing student recently regarding the impending closure and I compared ITT to a patient who is on full life-support. I expect them to close within the next several weeks. Any time there is no information coming out...things are very bad. If administrators have any hope at all, they would be more forthcoming.
That's not really true regarding nursing. Indiana and Alabama (and likely more states) are about to pull accreditation from ITT's nursing programs due to their pathetic NCLEX pass rates. WELL below the 80% required, year after year.
It's not a bad thing. I'm in the nursing program too and have a year left. I want the teach out. In my state they hire Itt nursing grads. The nursing program has a way better reputation than the other programs. Notice all the negativity surrounding Itt via reviews has very little to do with the nursing program?
A teach-out may or may not happen. If a teach-out does happen then it may or may not happen at ITT's campus. So you might be at a different college anyway. ITT hasn't given the campuses any information about the future. HQ was caught with their pants down and we're clearly surprised by the DOE's actions.
A practical bit of advice. If you are able to avail yourself of a "teach out" opportunity, recognizing that time is money and you are reasonably close to achieving your objective, then by all means do it. However, I suspect that with all of the financial issues ITT Tech faces, chances are the entity will not be in a position to honor this approach relative to completing its obligation. Probably the best thing you can do is directly contact other schools/colleges/universities in the area, explain your situation, and ask if they have a potential solution that will allow you to complete your education. A good place to start may be:
http://www.free-4u.com/nursing/Kansas-Nursing-Schools.cfm
Before one of you criticizes this recommendation, author qualifications include more than twenty years as a full-time faculty member at a community college (a non-profit tax supported entity). Having seen just how devastating closures can be on the lives of students, the best approach is to follow a business approach, weighing the lost time in terms of time to achieve current career goals versus starting a new pathway that may enable a discharge of student debt.
Sorry to hear. Teach out is not bad as you would owe nothing on your loans. I know it s---s to put in all that time to school but with the scrutiny on ITT you may not be employable anyways.