Vatterott College told to pay woman $13 million

[Sherman A1]

KANSAS CITY • A woman who sued Vatterott College over its enrollment practices has won a $13 million judgment against the college.

Jennifer Kerr, 42, of Belton, Mo., said the enrollment procedures caused her to spend thousands of dollars and extra time earning a certificate that proved to be useless in the job market.

A finding by a Jackson County jury for Kerr is likely to be appealed and the punitive amount the jury awarded far exceeds the maximum allowed under Missouri law, The Kansas City Star reported.

In her lawsuit, Kerr said she went to the school in 2009 with plans to become a nurse. Vatterott doesn’t offer a nursing program, but a representative told her she could enroll in a medical assistant’s degree, which would help her eventually become a nurse, according to the lawsuit.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/vatterott-college-told-to-pay-woman-million/article_bb1677a4-d703-512c-ac5f-f469354b94b1.html

[Warpy]

1. The award will be reduced on appeal

because that's how the system works. She will still win since very little of a medical assistant's program can be transferred and used as nursing school credits.

Maybe it will even net her enough to get through nursing school.

[liberal N proud]

6. She will probably end up with her education paid and that is all.

IF she gets that.

The corporate lawyers will either get Vatterott off or eat up the winnings.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Great advising at the college.

This is the problem that arises when advisers do not put the welfare and interests of the student ahead of the need to recruit warm bodies into programs.

[mike_c]

3. as an academic advisor I agree, with the caveat that students have the primary responsibility...

...for making responsible and informed decisions about their degree programs. We call it "adult education" for a reason.

Someone in admissions clearly gave this young woman some bad advice. I'm not sure how I feel about $13 million judgements for accepting and acting upon bad advice, however. A quick call to some nursing programs-- or simply looking at their catalogs-- would have revealed that the medical assistant program does not cover many of the requirements for a nursing degree. It's public information, easily obtainable by anyone who inquires.

[Buzz Clik]

4. The bad advising would be an excuse for maybe two years.

By the time she started looking into nursing programs, the light should have gone on.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Proprietary schools use these misleading tactics.

The Art Institutes do this. They imply that you will be able to get a job when you graduate and that by going to that school, you will have connections.

The Houston school was sued by about 200 former students because of this BS. The plaintiffs settled for a few hundred dollars. Nobody got anywhere near their original tuition money back. As far as the video production business, the job market was not open. People with advanced physics/electrical engineering degrees were not hired, in favor of non-college graduates with an 18 month certificate that would not transfer to a four year college, because they were "young" and "hip". They knew nothing about proper recording.