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 โ47โ 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 โdesigned to take 81 months,โ 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 โ 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 misrepresentationsย 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.
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105 thoughts onNorthcentral University Class Action: Doctoral Program Misrepresented
I got to the end of the PhD program and had my dissertation thesis approved. Then when they set up the dissertation committee I was told that my dissertation thesis was not rigorous enough and I had to start over again. Ultimately I did not finish the program after several years and thousands of dollars.
How do I join this class action lawsuit?
I was also in a Ph D education program at Northcentral University between 2010 and 2013. I completed 53 credits and working on my Dissertation. The University said I ran out of time after just 5 years. I am still currently paying for a degree that was never rewarded to me.
I too were fooled by this school. I was in a Doctoral Program for Marriage and Family. This was during the Covid pandemic.. I wanted to pursue my doctoral, since my company closed down during the pandemic, but I got the run around and owe lots of money to school for classes I didnโt take yet, but had to withdraw from the school. This school is very misleading .
Had to switch from Doctoral program to MBA as advisor died and school provided me a new advisor who instructed me to start my doctoral dissertation all over again with a whole new subject. This would have put me back another two years. In order to not loose all the time and effort I already put into the program (and money), I moved it to a MBA but many more credits then necessary as I was two min. from getting my dissertation approved. Total for-profit institution with no integrity milking itโs student body for every dollar for as long as possible.
Request to be included, in the class actions lawsuit. My advisor was not engaged with me at all, making it very difficult to completed a Doctorate in Education in Organizational Leadership. I completed all the course requirement and when doing the dissertation, they made impossible to complete. I had military obligation that hinder me and the re-admission was basically a restart to โa weird type of gameโ to ensure maximum time towards completion. The advisors were totally doing everything to prevent a successful outcome; milking away at funds and holding transcripts hostage when I desire to just transfer. They made a lot of guarantees with providing credits for completing a military academy curriculum. I request they refund all the tuition money or grant the degree. The timeline, increase and the finish line was moved continuously.
โNot a true representation of a good business encounter.
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I too would like to be included. My advisor was not engaged with me at all, my time ran out and I ended up requesting to be admitted to an MBA program to get at least something out of my experience with North Central. For a few extra required courses I could earn an MBA and did however my total amount of tuition for being in the DBA program and then the MBA program was very high. ( > $100 K). Something just isnโt setting right.
I too have been scammed by NCU and their doctoral programs, and now have to pay them thousands out of pocket months after withdrawing! They are destroying my life with their predatory practices, constant charge backs and re-doing of student loans, incompetence, i donโt know how they are allowed to still receive federal aid! If this class action of over there are so many of us, perhaps we need to start a new one, their financial aid is predatory and entraps students, if a student changes majors they will be saddled with thousands due regardless of completion of classes. If you can print off all your contacts with them, make sure to file a borrower defense with the federal system with your information too, so they really get onto their radar for their predatory practices. I have nearly 1,000 pages of documentation of what they have done to me, every name, email, text, you name it!
I am in the same situation now. In the dissertation process and half way through, they changed the Chair, and then the new chair took me back to Chapter 1 and will not approve it. I have already passed the chapter 1-3 courses but new chair keeps finding a small reason to not accept Chapter 1. 17 revisions now.
I, too, took 7 years to graduate.