I started with Grand Canyon with the hopes of attending a good Christian online school. My start date was for 10/04/2010 and I was very excited and had no issues with my enrollment counselor. Well while attending for the first week of class, the instructor was very disrespectful to me and others. I then brought this matter to my enrollment counselor and asked her what was the process of changing classes, everything went fine, her supervisor took care of things and I was able to change my start date and my instructor under the condition that I would be charged $500 for dropping the class. I agreed, I had no problem paying that. Well, today is 10/22/2010 and my account balance looked a little funny, after my loans posted today which no one called to inform me on that, I was told by another finance counselor that because I dropped the first class on 10/04/2010 another one had to be added on, hello! when was I going to find this out and why? So now I am responsible for a balance of $1.188.00 for a class that I knew nothing about. You have to be kidding me right! After reading all the complaints against this school, I thought I would give it a try anyway and now I am paying for it. I do not recommend this online school to anyone. This is not how real Christians act! If my situation is not dealt with I will be another Grand Canyon student filing a suit.

My name is gail yvonne christie, I was a student at GCU from 05-05-2008 through 04-30-2010 when I graduated.  GCU reported me as a half time student to Federal Government lenders, when in fact I was full-time according to GCU's very own student handbook.  This has caused me numerous troubles as it made my loans go into default.  GCU has mis-represented itself, I have spent two years trying to resolve this issue.  I need resolution immediately.  I will be call the National Omsbudman regarding this issue as well as filing an official complaint with the BBB.  I will continue making as much noise as possible and going very public with this error on the part of GCU.

There is no excuse for this. It is against the law to tell the students one enrollment status and then file a half-time status with the Federal lenders.  That is fraud and a blatant LIE.

Someone needs to step forward and handle this situation.  I will give you two hours to contact me, then I will take it to a higher authority. 


I appreciate your timely response to this matter.
yvonne christie

10-14-2010

I have posted the start of my video on youtube, please check it out and feel free to post your story in the response area or upload your own video response.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3TLmKbCJQ0

I have filed a formal complaint with the BBB. Here is their information for anyone wanting to do the same:

BBB of Central, Northern & Western Arizona
(Phoenix, AZ)
4428 N. 12th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85014-4585
Phone: (602)264-1721
Fax: (602)263-0997
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://arizonabbb.org

Here is a section of the letter from GCU financial : I wanted to inform you that I have checked with our office of financial aid and confirmed that there are two types of definitions when it comes to a student’s full or part time status. The first is our internal academics definition which is the part in which you quoted the 09-10 GCU policy handbook. Therefore, internally – we defined you as full time for taking 5+ credit hours a semester. However, through the clearing house, we follow the standard Department of Education guidelines and define a graduate student as follows: Full time - 9 credit hours+; Three-Quarter Time – 7-8 credit hours; Half time – 5-7 credit hours; less than half time – 4 or less credit hours.

I have been a student with the university for about 6 months now. The communication is terrible! I have been placed in classes that I didnt choose every semester. No one ever calls to keep me updated on anything, from the financial counselor to academic. I was supposed to receive my second financial aid check, which shows posted on the website, but it never came. When I contacted the financial aid dept, they told me to contact them within 21 days. This university has no sympathy or empathy for their students issues. If it wasnt for wanting a degree so badly, I would just quit all together! I want something done about it. After all, Its my money!

GCUs response to any type of customer service is absolutely horrid. It is enough to make you scream. They seemed to be trained to misdirect you in everyway possible, then drop your call!

It is impossible to get these idoits to resolve anything. I would not be surprised if criminal activity is occuring. It ought, at least, be criminal for them to take our money, and we never get our problems addressed, or phone calls returned.

I urge you not to do business with these idiots!

I turned in all of my paperwork for financial aid in March of 2010. I was told that 3-6 weeks into the term I would receive a refund check for the remainder of my student loans. May 28, 2010 I finally decided to call and find out what was going on. I was told by Ericka Rodriquez that they had recently upgraded some software programs and a glitch was found. They say that is why my Pell Grant and Student Loans hadn't "posted" to my account yet. They told me to call back a week later. I called back a week later, same song and dance. Long story short, finally in mid July I was told that there was an error in my Verification Worksheets that needed to be resolved before my financial aid could be dispersed. I got the discrepancies fixed, I was told that it would take a couple more days to get dispersed to my account and then I could expect a refund check of $2500 within about 2 weeks from that. I called them today, 8/13/2010, and Ericka Rodriquez told me that only the Pell Grant could be dispersed because they could not post funds for a term that was already over! This is completely unacceptable! I will be contacting Legal Aid on Monday morning and I will be filing a complaint with The Better Business Bureau. Ericka Rodriquez obviously did not do her job, and I refuse to be the one to pay the consequences for her actions, or lack of!