I have a call scheduled with the Attorney General's office on Feb 1st to discuss my experience as an Enrollment Services Advisor and enrolling students that were nowhere near capable of making it past the 3rd class (I had one that did). How about the "call your current students that haven't posted until they answer the phone". I feel gross just typing it. Ashford is going down. Can't wait to see them declare bankruptcy! :)
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we as ESA's at ashford university are paid to enroll, and get them past their first class, we are not paid to care if they are college worthy. We enroll everyone and anyone and baby them through their first class at which point the student makes it into the books, they either pay for the class or financial aid does, the point is that it is written as revenue for the university in accounting. That is why passing that first class is so important.
As a seven-year employee of Ashford/Bridgepoint and a graduate of the program, I can tell you there is blame on both sides. Ashford’s problem has always been their insistence on quantity and not quality. The admissions standards are too lenient. If a student has hopped from university to university and barely has 30 credits, they are not a good candidate for enrollment. If a student doesn’t have access to a computer 24/7, they are also not a good candidate for enrollment. Ashford University would overlook these critical success factors in pursuit of a higher student body count. I have spoken to students who could barely get onto the internet to complete their FAFSA. It is not uncommon for a student to be unable to navigate the internet or open their email without large amounts of assistance from university employees. How is a person with no knowledge of basic computer operations going to successfully complete online courses?
@Rn9OtnY, Mike Vasquez (Chronicle of Higher Education) also wrote an expose on Bridgepoint last year. If you have a good story, I can pitch it to him.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/556718b2e4b02e470eb1b186/t/5a14810e085229cc999792bd/1511293199970/Inside+the+Scramble+to+Save+Ashford+U.+-+The+Chronicle+of+Higher+Education.pdf
Why is it that the college gets blamed when students don't bother to do the work in class? These are adults who enrolled and their decision to skip classes is also an adult decision. There are definitely consequences, but that is how things work in the world.
I know that I also worked in core agg as an esa yes I know it is not our responsibility to get them to even class two if you NEVER had any of your starts get to even class 5 you were doing a bad job with your students in exp
@Camden, I cannot comment on enrolling Veterans as I was not in that department. I do they are very good at getting referral leads (very heavily pushed by enrollment managers). Basically asking the students "who else do you know that is looking to get into school, or maybe looking for a career change, or wants to share in your success, or someone to be your study buddy". Referrals were annoying to ask for. They wanted us to ask EVERY time we spoke with the student. The reason being, these are FREE leads.
I was in what is called "core aggregate", these are bottom of the barrel leads that were typically looking for free money, some sort of certificate, already enrolled in another college. You know those pop-ups that occasionally come up to sign up for free money for school? That's where those leads came from. Ashford and every other for-profit are calling these leads.
@other Anonymous...Nope, my job was to enroll students and get them through them first class. These are called "starts". That's what enrollment advisors are evaluated on. Get them enrolled and hold their hand through their first class so we can process financial aid. From their second class on they get passed onto another advisor that is supposed to support them.
@Rn9OtnY, I'd like to know more about your experience. Your name will be kept confidential. You can also contact Veterans Education Success.
It is not hard to get students past their third class. If you only got one past the it, that means you were bad at your job