I was contacted by a Westwood representative by the name of Ben who told me nothing but lies and mislead me during the application process. Yes, at the time, they were seeking Regional Accreditation. They had their ACICS accreditation but I was told by the recruiter that they were way past the point of candidacy and it would be only a short time before they were Regionally accredited. False promises, lies about their accreditation and several years later, I graduated. Took my degree to my current employer and after HR review, they explained to me since they do not have Regional accreditation, I was out of luck and could not be considered for management. My employer would not even allow me to apply for educationally assistance or reimbursement because this “college” was not a valid institution.
So I tried taking my transcript to 3 local community colleges and was told the credits are non transferable. Went to 2 local “for-profit” schools with ACICS accreditation as well and was also denied. Tried using this fake degree to apply for several positions with SCE, IBM, Oracle, Wells Fargo, and a hand full of respectable and known IT companies. Received nice thank you letters but was told that I did not meet the minimum educational requirements by two potential employers because this ‘college’ did not meet their criteria as an educational institution. Yet, I did meet the experience portion of several but because of my lack of an actual degree, was denied an interview.
So now, several years down the road I see that Westwood has voluntarily dropped from Regional Candidacy. As I work a second job (nights and weekends) trying to pay for this $50,000+ education that is worthless, trying to stay afloat of this financial hell that this college create, my anger grows. Shoot yourself in the foot, it will hurt less....
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