Northcentral University Class Action: Doctoral Program Misrepresented

A class action lawsuit alleges that Northcentral University misrepresents its doctoral program, leading students to believe the program takes between three and a half and five years to complete, when really, it takes nearly seven years.

Allegedly, the for-profit university does this to maximize the profits it can gain from students trying to complete a doctorate.

Plaintiff Christina Torres says that she was enrolled in a doctoral program through Northcentral University from 2010 to 2017, aiming to get a doctorate in education.

Allegedly, she chose the program in part because it was advertised as taking an average of 40 months to complete. However, she says she discovered later, during her enrollment, that the program was designed to take much longer.

The Northcentral University class action lawsuit says other communication from the school sent a year later stated the program took an average of 47 moths, and the length of “47” months was articulated in a range of disclosure documents from the school.

This timeline was allegedly stated by the school multiple times, both in writing, and verbally by school representatives, between 2010 and 2013.

However, on Jan. 29, 2015, the Northcentral University class action alleges that the school admitted that the Ed.D. program was “designed to take 81 months,” or almost seven years, and would cost $49,058 in tuition, as opposed to $30,600, which was advertised to Torres.

Additionally, Torres says that she saw on the website that only 63 percent of students who graduated did so in 81 months, and did not address how many students enrolled but did not graduate.

Allegedly, in 2016, the numbers changed again. Torres claims that in 2016, NCU stated that the program was designed to take 81 – 83 months, cost $50,958 in tuition.

The Northcentral University class action claims the school stated that only 41 percent of students who graduated did so in 83 months, meaning that the average time for students to complete the program was longer than seven years.

The NCU doctoral program says that NCU intentionally misrepresents the length of time needed to complete its doctoral programs, and misrepresents the tuition a student will incur when completing the program.

Torres claims that the program is not designed to help students succeed and graduate, but is set up with numerous roadblocks in place to cause students to take a long time to graduate, thereby paying more tuition and giving more profits to the for-profit university.

Allegedly, many students are forced to drop out to pay off their ever-mounting student debt, and never earn a degree after years of work in the doctoral program.

Torres says that the fact that the program is completed online isolates students from one another, so that they cannot share experiences and see if the difficulties and misrepresentations they are experiencing are consistent among students or unique to their experience.

The plaintiff is represented by Adam B. Wolf and Tracey B. Cowan of Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane A Professional Law Corporation, and by Paul Lesko.

The Northcentral University Doctoral Program Class Action Lawsuit is Christina Torres v. Northcentral University Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-02069-BEN-WVG, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego Division.