Excelsior College Class Action Says School Defrauded Nursing Students

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Last week, Excelsior College was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it misrepresents its Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program.

Thirteen plaintiffs from across the country filed the Excelsior class action lawsuit against the Albany, N.Y.-based distance-learning institution on Oct. 26 in New York federal court.  They accuse Excelsior of depicting the institution as an “altruistic educational organization, when, in fact, it is a company whose sole purpose and motivation is profit.”

The Excelsior College class action lawsuit points to representations by the institution that its nursing degree program allows students to work with “nationally recognized faculty” and that the program improves “job security, and your earning power.”

The plaintiffs say Excelsior has an easy admissions policy, but they allege the institution intentionally makes it difficult to graduate from the ADN program. Of the nearly 10,500 students attending the ADN program, only 718 reportedly graduated from the program in 2017, according to the Excelsior class action lawsuit.

“Excelsior benefits from keeping consumers enrolled for longer periods of time,” the Excelsior College class action lawsuit says. “Enrolled consumers pay annual fees and pay for every time they fail a test known as the Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination (‘CPNE’), which costs nearly $2,300 each time a consumer takes it.”

Nursing students cannot graduate without passing the CPNE, according to the Excelsior class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege Excelsior schedules and administers the CPNE in an unfair and deceptive manner intended to keep students enrolled in the program for a longer period of time than is necessary.

According to the Excelsior class action lawsuit, Excelsior withholds material information about the CPNE until students are “irreversibly committed to completing the program.” The plaintiffs claim that the college forced them to wait 12 to 18 months to take the CPNE even though it had previously informed students that they would be able to take the exam within three to six months from the time of registration.

Excelsior allegedly suggests it has buildings in many locations throughout the United States, the institution runs the entire ADN program from New York and conducts the CPNE from sites that are not necessarily where its enrolled students reside.

“The test centers are not permanent in nature,” the Excelsior class action lawsuit asserts. In August, for example, Excelsior reportedly informed test-takers that the CPNE scheduling was “suspended” at four different locations in Georgia.

Many students who wanted to take the CPNE were required to travel to inconvenient locations to prepare for the exam and pay for their own travel and lodging expenses. To make matters worse, the students were allegedly failed for subjective reasons or because of errors made by the examiners.

Proposed Class Members of the proposed Excelsior College class action lawsuit include anyone who was enrolled with Excelsior at any time since Oct. 30, 2011 and who was subjected to Excelsior testing.

The Excelsior class action lawsuit seeks reimbursement for Class Members’ actual losses and seeks to compel Excelsior to take steps to be more transparent, including posting its pass/fail and graduation rates conspicuously, disclosing all fees students will be expected to pay, and informing students that their Excelsior credits may not transfer.

The plaintiffs are represented by John Hermina of Hermina Law Group and by Gregory Allen of Law Office of Gregory Allen.

The Excelsior College Class Action Lawsuit is Shewanda Williams, et al. v. Excelsior College, Case No. 1:17-cv-06263-WFK-RLM, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.