Westwood College – Chicago Loop

Westwood College is not accredited by a real accrediting agency. After attending from 2005 – 2008 I was unable to get a job with any law enforcement agency.
Staff at Westwood lied on numerous occasions in order to defraud students and prospective students out off tens of thousands of dollars through financial aid, high interest loans, and Department of Education loans.
The attorney general of Illinois (Lisa Madigan) brought suit against them and they’ve agreed to pay ¹⁄₃ of what former students owe.
Close to $ 70,000!!! For a degree that’s not real???
If you’re interested sign up.

Westwood Chicago Loop location
NOTE: Westwood is a «Nationally» accredited college, most jobs that require degree’s only recognize «Regionally» accredited degree’s. YOU ARE PAYING FOR AN OVER PRICED DEGREE THAT FEW RECOGNIZE. their Criminal Justice program is not recognized by the the city of chicago.

SCAM ALERT!!! LISA MADIGAN IS SUING WESTWOOD!!!
I usually research everything and when my son took an interest in web design we went to the loop location for a visit, it all seemed legit, people were nice very informative and willing to help especially with the FASFA process. but since we are from joliet, commuting to the loop could get expensive. GABE MONTOYA admissions representative at the loop location assured me several times that a «metra» pass was included in the cost of tuition. i had no problems at all getting a return call from him until after the student loans were approved and they mailed us a pass for the «cta» instead. voice mails, emails for almost a week nothing.
Finally a guy that calls himself «Gus» answers Gabes phone, i asked «who am i speaking» he tells me «just call me gus» i asked «does gus have a last name?» he responds «it’s one of those long complicated greek name’s thats hard to pronounce. just call me gus, im the only person here by that name and they’ll know who your talking about» i told «Gus» that we have to withdraw our application to the school because the transportation i was told was part of the tuition and it doesnt appear to be the case. No he tells me, Gabes new here and was confused about what the tuition covers. (ill dig up an email conversation i had with gabe where he tells me that he’s been with that location for over 11 years since he graduated from it and post it) it only covers the cta. the train station is 4 blocks from the school how is that supposed to help? the transportation blew the deal and we want out.
By now they have already sent us the school book’s and i asked Gus if it were possible to just return them to their Dupage location since it is closer to me and was told that it shouldnt be a problem.
— — — — — — — - Westwood Dupage Campus — — — — — — — — —
I spoke with the campus president of this location and explained the situation and that i was told that «sure, you can bring the books in, just ask for me ‘. so i go in and explain to the lady at the front desk that you see as soon as you open their front door (who by the way has the personality of a prison guard) takes me to see another lady who seemed even less friendly and barely said a word who walked me over to yet again another lady by the name of PERTRINA BRIGGS Director of Student Finance.
Again i had to re-​explain the situation, why i was there and that the campus president had asked me to come in. she went to look in to what i told her, leaving me waiting for several minutes, then says „the campus president is new and was confused about the process of book returns“ instead said she could help, disappears for several minutes resurfacing with a print out of their school website illustrating step by step how to log in, go to the „My Book store“ link and print a return shipping label» she take’s my book’s then tells me” when you print the label, bring it in and well ship it off for you” so i told her «thats fine, but your not taking these book’s, i have no proof that i even brought them in, ill print the label and ill ship them back». there was only 2 steps according to the info she gave me– step 1. go to
— step
on the «My Bookstore» link in the left hand margin, yet she keeps repeating and repeating these to step’s like im mentally retarded (for almost 10 minutes straight) finaly i had to stop her and tell her «im going to be late for work, i gotta go.
i get home, have my son log in and guess what? the screen shots in the walkthru Ms. Briggs gave me is IDENTICAL to my sons minus ANY contact links or «My Bookstore» link. i have 30 days to return 3 book’s or im on the hook for $ 444.00 and NO ONE IS ANY HELP.
it should have been a HUGE red flag when during orientation they were sharing success stories and had a campus chairman step up, all sophisticated and tell everybody «how great dey li-​berry be» really?!
go ahead and take their «Placement test» ill tell you how it will go down, they will make it appear as though you have to meet a certain criteria to get in, make you sweat a little, then break the good news that that you scored highest in the class and print out a nice shiny certificate of completion to hang on the fridge. now, while your all warm and fuzzy with accomplishment they pounce and saddle you with student debt that you will never be able to pay off with those bunk degrees the sell.
FOR MORE INFO ON THE LISA MADIGAN /​WESTWOOD LAWSUIT follow this link:

This school is a joke and is backed by thieves! Thank you Westwood for putting me in so much debt. I will be paying Sallie Mae back for the rest of my life. I would also like to thank you for the career I did NOT get. My criminal justice degree is USELESS. I was denied by many federal agencies… which my goal was to go into federal law enforcement. I chose the medical field as a back up and wanted to become a nurse and no school would take any of my credits. Many nursing programs now require a bachelors degree. Because no school would take Westwood credits, I would have to start from scratch… no thank you! I spoke to and admissions rep and he was trying to convince me to work for the school… WTF!!! They say it is accredited and it still isn’t! This school is a F!@$?*^ joke!!!

Worst choice I ever made! I went here for a week. They screwed ALL my financial aid up and said I would have to make monthly payments of $ 2800 because my parents refused to sign a loan for me. A woman in the financial department from the Colorado campus (wish I remembered her name) talked down on my family when she called me to try to convince me not to leave. This school is extremely unprofessional. They also ordered my books from their bookstore without my consent. I was going to see if I could rent my books but oh well.
I called the school to see if I could return my books because I decided I wanted to leave. After finally talking to an actual person they were rude and didn’t know if I should mail them back or bring them to the building. I brought them to the office and they said I wasn’t supposed to but they took them anyway to get me to leave.
They said I had to talk to the dean of students to leave and when I said I wanted to leave and didn’t qualify for loans and he replied «Well you could if you become a parent or sign up for the army…» EXTREMELY disgusting that he would even say that knowing it was a few days after my 18^th birthday.
And now their criminal justice program is getting heavily sued and they are supposedly not advertising it anymore. Police departments don’t recognize this school. (Of course, they don’t tell you this.)
A teacher also asked a student next to me if she could share her book with me for the first day and she shoved it at me and called me racist and derogatory names very loudly and my teacher ignored it.
Please don’t go to this school. Community college is so much cheaper. Their «Westwood Pledge» has so many terms and conditions so don’t think it’s so great. The only thing they’re good at is selling their school (which they make it seem like a dream). One thing I can say that is GOOD about this school is a corrections teacher I had. I wish I still could of had that teacher at another school. You could tell he really cared about the students and is very smart and knowledgeable. Also, the campus is very nice.
So happy I left. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This was the worst experience I have ever had.
If you don’t believe me then look at all of the open cases with the Better Business Bureau.

One of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made, take this from someone that went here. I should of written this review a long time ago, so that no one will experience what I’ve been through with this school. I left here 5 years ago and till this day every time their stupid commercial comes on, I want to throw whatever is in my hand through the TV screen. Look first your going to get in, they make it seem like it’s hard and that thier selective, it’s not, then your going to get approved for loans, because that’s what this place does they except everyone, charge you for an education that no one is going to recognize, I don’t tell people any more that went here. Do to the fact that I’m tired of being laughed at. All this place wants is your money, if you want to go somewhere else after, forget about that, no one excepts their credits and if they tell you different ask them for a list of schools, watch the reaction on their faces, then they’ll proceed to tell you they don’t know, you have to look it up yourself. I just applied at a real school and requested my transcripts, this is the only school that still after calling for months hasn’t sent them even after I get off the phone with them and they tell me they’ll send them right over. This so called college is GARBAGE, oh and one more thing when you bring up concerns about their reputation, they’ll tell you that was before and now they have changed, trust me they haven’t, was bad then and is bad now. I’d give them a –5 if I could.

This is a very small college, but still a very good place to get a good education. The campus is small, but very accomodating. They have many good facilities. The profesors here are very educated and professional. They offer classes at various timings — including evening, weekend, and online classes — making it a convenient option for people who also have full time jobs.