A class action lawsuit alleges that Walden University intentionally misrepresents the length of time it takes students to get doctoral degrees.
While Walden marketing materials say it takes three years and $60,000 to $70,000 in tuition costs to earn a doctorate, the complaint asserts that in actuality most programs take much longer and cost students $100,000 to $200,000.
“[H]ad Walden not misrepresented the timelines, costs and realities of its dissertation process, Plaintiff and the other members of the Class would not have paid for the educational services offered by Walden,” according to the complaint.
Walden University is a for-profit, online university owned and operated by Laureate International Universities, doing business as Laureate Education, Inc.
The class action states that Walden has spent a lot of resources on building doctorate programs (of which it has at least 18) and spent even more money on advertising.
In fact, the complaint claims that Walden spends around $1,500 per student on instruction and teaching costs, but spends over $2,200 per student on advertising.
From this, Walden has grown from having 2,082 students in 2001 to having 47,456 enrolled students in 2010.
The complaint contends that Walden gets most of its funding from federal student loans that pay its tuition costs, and that Walden students “carry some of the highest student loan debts in the country.”
According to the class action, Walden awarded roughly 1,000 doctorates per year in 2014 and 2015. With approximately 12,000 doctoral students at Walden, the class action argues that means less than 10 percent of those students graduate in any given year.
Even worse, the class action alleges that Walden University creates “an endless routine of hurdles” that stretches the dissertation process into years of extra tuition payments.
The Walden University doctoral program false advertising class action asserts that “universities exist to educate and grant degrees.”
Given the low graduation rate and misleading advertising Walden engages in, the complaint argues that “Walden does not act like a university (for-profit or otherwise).” The class action continues, “Rather, Walden acts like a for-profit corporation.”
Plaintiff LaTonya Thornhill states that she enrolled at Walden University in its Doctor of Management program in 2011. Thornhill claims that she was told her program would take three years.
In 2012, the Walden website advertised that her program had an “on-time completion rate” of 68.5 percent, and that students had control over how much time the program took to complete.
However, the class action alleges that in 2014, the Laureate website admitted that the management program was designed to take 66 months, which would cost more than $116,000 to complete.
In addition, the Laureate website stated that only 33 percent of students who finished the program did it in that 66 month time frame.
Thornhill seeks to represent a Class of “all current or former students of Walden University who enrolled in and paid for a doctoral degree dissertation course at Walden University.”
The class action requests restitution and other damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting the false advertisements.
Thornhill is represented by Alan L. Rosca and Paul Lesko of Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane, and Marnie C. Lambert of Lambert Law Firm, LLC.
The Walden University Doctoral Degree Class Action Lawsuit is LaTonya Thornhill v. Walden University LLC, et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-00962, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.
UPDATE: The Walden University Doctoral Degree Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed on August 26, 2019.
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83 thoughts onWalden University Class Action Alleges Bait & Switch Tactics
I am still devastated, the horror of the program and being a student that managed two children both under three, I attended my field practice pregnant in Florida. I had my second child during the program and moved with determination. I completed two Action Research Satisfactory until I began more formal inquire about the length of the program, and my particular chair. The backlash was furious, which resulted in an unsatisfactory that semester. I was shocked, I had a second and third chair look a the dissertation and they shared in their feedback it was stellar. I was never late, assignments, discussion, etc… I look at my official transcript from time to time. A, B, A, B… I was on top of it with prayer and dedication. Over 100K. I didn’t go back I was becoming physically ill and started seeking medical for my skin which was responding to the internal stress. The salt to injury, there are not DSW programs that will allow me to do research only to complete the program. 76 credits completed and no degree. Walden doesn’t take NYC student any longer, well President Biden I need these loans wiped away like my dream of finishing and earning my doctorate! I did the work, I still can’t believe this happened.
I too would like to speak with someone on the Walden Bait and Switch tactics and excessive length of completing my degree. Kind of buried in student loans but thankfully some relief from NHSC. From what I gathered from Walden, I’d be done in about a year and half or two years tops for masters. I went for four years and considered full time.
It’s time for another class action suit Now that Biden is in the Forgiving mood! Walden could have been an optimal program. I fought tooth & nail & I hope I got a few people fired. I didn’t stop & got my degree. However, they need to reimburse for all of the mental anguish that it has & still is causing.
I am in a similar situation with Walden. Very frustrating. My PhD coursework was bachelor level at best. I am to be considered to be an expert in the field and I feel embarrassed that I don’t have the answers my colleagues are asking.
I also know of another student being drug along for 13 years. Ridiculous! I now have a new Chair and it appears things are moving along well, but I think of all the time and money plus physical and mental exhaustion that was lost and can’t be recovered.
If you file another class action, I am begging you to include me. What they have done to so many of us is criminal. I came close to ending my life over the mountain of debt and the extreme shame I feel for working so hard for almost ten years and getting nothing in return. It’s heartbreaking. I can’t look my kids or my siblings in the eye. I feel like an idiot. My siblings are all retiring and I will die with this huge debt and nothing to show for it. I deserved and earned my Phd. I finished my classes with a 4.0 and did mountains of research and wrote a great paper. They didn’t have the committed committee that they promised me, so the study is incomplete and has now been repeated by someone else. Instead of a promised degree, I now owe well over $300 K with all the interest. And I have made a lot of payments. I feel hopeless …. for what????
First, you need to remember that you are a Ph.D. You pushed & went through all the drama and proved that you could reach for the impossible & get it. You are a huge role model for your kids! Show them that you are not going to buckle under this ridiculous unnecessary disgraceful situation I All of us on this thread are here with you. I wasn’t even going to go to graduation I was so drained. But my husband say these same words to me & I understood that that obtaining that degree was bigger than me. Keep fighting you are not alone!
Hello, my name is Christian Williams Smoke and I have been enrolled at Walden University since May 2017; it is now May 2022. I finished my coursework in February 2019, then the dragging began. I began completing my prospectus in November 2018 and it was finally accepted in May 2019, although I have cohort peers of caucasian descent who ironically breezed right through theirs. I am now on my second chair (still going in circles) because I filed complaint regarding my first one due to her misleading me with feedback on my dissertation and telling me to do one thing, then switching what she says and then telling me to do another. Almost like she had amnesia, but these are just tactics these employees of this university use to slow down black, female students. I am now with a second chair and I swear new students who joined his cohort are surpassing me in dissertation steps in less than half the time that it has taken me. This is NOT a coincidence and I am far too intelligent to believe that these professors are not qualified enough to have guided to me success in completing my dissertation. I have accumulated $218,343 of debt from this one school. I will never be able to repay that.
In May of 2020, I submitted a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges Application with the U.S. Department of Education for a Walden lawsuit and student loan forgiveness program and I never heard anything back. At this point, I have accumulated more student loan debt at 29 than the average person will in a lifetime. It is so unfortunate because it does fall on your credit.
Please add me to this class action lawsuit.
Hi Christian,
My name is Tanya. I began in 2012. I finished my classes pretty close to on-time with a 4.0, although the last couple of quarters was when the problems kicked in. That was when I was getting close to starting my dissertation and quickly found out that they lied about everything related to the dissertation process. There are very few of the professors who WANT to do the mentoring, so finding a committee chair is almost impossible. And, that whole thing was an absolute joke. They said they would provide a committee, but not so much!! They required me to find my own chair from the staff of professors they have. Apparently it is all in the wording. They “provide” a committee by providing staff that are forced to be on committees and YOU have to try to convince one of them to be your chair. I sent out approximately 122 PERSONAL letters begging people to be my chair. I changed my dissertation topic THREE times because I was told my topic was the problem. It truly was not the problem – in fact I had a very simple topic using secondary data! After six years working with a chair who traveled out of the country half of the year and was unavailable, I finally convinced the THIRD department director in that same amount of time to get me a new chair. I was told at the beginning of 2022 that it has now been too long and I have to retake classes!! $250 in the hole and still no PhD!! What a scam!!!! Run before you want to end your life like I almost did.
I am so sorry for your experience. I am a Caucasian female and I too have and am currently experiencing the exact same situation. I almost quit many times because of it. I’m sick by the amount that I will have to pay back. My dissertation has become THE most expensive paper ever written. And my PhD coursework was bachelor level at best. I am hoping to just finish at this point and move forward. I wish you the best!
I want to join the class action suit. I have been strung along by Walden, overcharged and never could get passed the 1st step in my Capstone Project. Please send information.
Im with you, I caught sick and my chair actually passed me for a whole year with not one single paper turned in… Of course they kept charging me. If anyone files let me know!
I was told by a Walden rep in my school’s teacher’s lounge that it would take three years to earn my Ed.D. I finally ABD’d it — but now have close to $150k in Fed student loans. Walden definitely bait & switches.
I was never part of the lawsuit but my PhD took 9 years to complete and a lot of it had to do with whole quarters where my chair made no contact with me and things were extended.
Well Walden is at it again. Had I know they were sharks I would have NEVER enrolled. I changed program December 2020 but I never completed any other course work. Instead of withdrawing me from the other program they kept automatically enrolling me in course and when the dust settled I owed them 1428 because they said the financial aid had been sent back and I received a refund. Why am I paying this back? They threatened to send me to collections. In October, I made two payments, two weeks apart in the portal and they accepted the payment. Why in the world on November 10th did they post-38.93 in my account saying I owe $1037.93 instead of $999. I am so angry and frustrated. I am doing all I can and they do not want to work with me.
I had a meeting with Walden today and was dismissed from school due to having unsatisfactory in a class due to extenuating circumstances. Many hurdles were place in my way with incompetent staff. Now I’m without a degree and a mountain full of debt.