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university fails to follow their own academic plan

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universtudent

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? West Virginia

Hi guys,

I am a senior medical student at a university. I have passed all my classes with excellent grades. In order to be eligible to graduate I am required to complete one year internship in clinical settings, which is a part of my medical program plan originally provided by the university.

The university failed to provide me a clinical site for my internship that was supposed to be arranged about 8 month ago. This is probably due to a shortage or lack of the qualification of the respecting staff members e.g. clinical coordinators. The school admits that they have a problem arranging me a clinical site for internship, and I am not alone; there are many students in our class being in the situation when they are not able to progress and graduate because the school is not able to provide the education that is described in their academic plan.

I have taken loans to pay my tuition when attending this school and this educational journey is not leading me to a graduation and getting a job and being able to pay back my loans.

I don’t know how to legally address this issue and I don’t have any resources to pay for a lawyer. I’d appreciate any guidance how fill a lawsuit and I don’t know if I can represent myself in the court.

Please advice, what would be the steps that I need to take in order to possibly have the university return my borrowed money back to my lenders as I am not able to graduate and get employed to do it myself.

Thank you!
 


Humusluvr

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? West Virginia

Hi guys,

I am a senior medical student at a university. I have passed all my classes with excellent grades. In order to be eligible to graduate I am required to complete one year internship in clinical settings, which is a part of my medical program plan originally provided by the university.

The university failed to provide me a clinical site for my internship that was supposed to be arranged about 8 month ago. This is probably due to a shortage or lack of the qualification of the respecting staff members e.g. clinical coordinators. The school admits that they have a problem arranging me a clinical site for internship, and I am not alone; there are many students in our class being in the situation when they are not able to progress and graduate because the school is not able to provide the education that is described in their academic plan.

I have taken loans to pay my tuition when attending this school and this educational journey is not leading me to a graduation and getting a job and being able to pay back my loans.

I don’t know how to legally address this issue and I don’t have any resources to pay for a lawyer. I’d appreciate any guidance how fill a lawsuit and I don’t know if I can represent myself in the court.

Please advice, what would be the steps that I need to take in order to possibly have the university return my borrowed money back to my lenders as I am not able to graduate and get employed to do it myself.

Thank you!
Unfortunately for you, tuition does not guarantee graduation. It is for classes you took. So, there is no way the University would be required to return any money to you. A lawsuit would cost you time, money, and you would lose.

The better avenue is for you to keep pressuring them to get you that clinical internship. I would call, email, and stand in front of every person who is involved in the internship process until they get one for you. This is about your perseverance in the educational system. Make yourself the guy who won't go away. Keep going to their offices, don't let them tell you no.

If you finally get down to "No, there are no internships available." Ask them "What can I do instead? I HAVE to graduate, I HAVE to become a doctor to pay back my student loans. We HAVE to make this work." They will have to do SOMETHING, if you don't go away.

Good luck.
 

universtudent

Junior Member
Unfortunately for you, tuition does not guarantee graduation. It is for classes you took. So, there is no way the University would be required to return any money to you. A lawsuit would cost you time, money, and you would lose.

The better avenue is for you to keep pressuring them to get you that clinical internship. I would call, email, and stand in front of every person who is involved in the internship process until they get one for you. This is about your perseverance in the educational system. Make yourself the guy who won't go away. Keep going to their offices, don't let them tell you no.

If you finally get down to "No, there are no internships available." Ask them "What can I do instead? I HAVE to graduate, I HAVE to become a doctor to pay back my student loans. We HAVE to make this work." They will have to do SOMETHING, if you don't go away.

Good luck.
Ok, I understand that tuition is paying for classes and it does not guarantee the graduation.

The thing is that university is not able to follow their academic plan described in the program curriculum, so if we are not able to progress and take the rest necessary classes (eg clinical practicum classes because of lack of the clinical sites), so the whole educational journey does not make any sense.

It is correct, that the school has the right to just end our classes at any point and keep the money for the classes that we took earlier?

Would be appropriate to claim damages from wasting 2 years in school and not be able to graduate and get a job due to that?

Many of us have been diligent students and earned excellent grades, the problem is with the school to comply with what they originally promised eg by providing the education for us.

Thank you for your input!
 

Humusluvr

Senior Member
You can always transfer if you feel the University is deficient. If it is as bad as you describe, that would be what I would do (and have done).

What University is it? You can contact the accreditation board if the University cannot provide its curriculum, and the University runs the risk of losing it's state/federal funding.

In your degree plan, or on the school website, who exactly does it say is responsible for securing a clinical position? You, or the University?

There would be NO WAY to sue them. You have paid for the classes you have taken. You got what you paid for.
 

universtudent

Junior Member
You can always transfer if you feel the University is deficient. If it is as bad as you describe, that would be what I would do (and have done).

What University is it? You can contact the accreditation board if the University cannot provide its curriculum, and the University runs the risk of losing it's state/federal funding.

In your degree plan, or on the school website, who exactly does it say is responsible for securing a clinical position? You, or the University?

There would be NO WAY to sue them. You have paid for the classes you have taken. You got what you paid for.
I am talking about mountain state university.

Yes, we can contact the accreditation board and the university can lose its accreditation, but it does not help us to find a way to pay back our loans.

A transfer to another school would not be an option as we completely finished our theoretical curriculum and the only thing that is missing is the clinical practicum. Usually a transfer to another school is possible at an early point when we can transfer our prerequisites for the medical program taken in a different school as they are usually the same.

At this point it is not possible to transfer without taking all the core theoretical classes over again that are different at different school and it would mean starting the program all over again, and spending again over 2 years until the graduation, plus getting more in debt by taking more loan money to pay for tuitions.

In our degree plan is clearly stated that the school IS responsible for securing a clinical site, and we are not even allowed to make any contacts with clinical sites and if we do there are severe consequences for that.

Thank you for all the help!
 

Humusluvr

Senior Member
I am talking about mountain state university.

Yes, we can contact the accreditation board and the university can lose its accreditation, but it does not help us to find a way to pay back our loans.
I know, that's usually not an option that is helpful to the student, but if the University is that bad, it would save others some harm.

A transfer to another school would not be an option as we completely finished our theoretical curriculum and the only thing that is missing is the clinical practicum. Usually a transfer to another school is possible at an early point when we can transfer our prerequisites for the medical program taken in a different school as they are usually the same.
Are you premed? Or is this medical assisting or pre-nursing? Usually, all of those things would transfer, if you were to find an equivalent program at another school. I know that at my University, that look at each skill and tranfer that to the credits. They may even require transfer students to complete a certain module if that is what they are missing.

At this point it is not possible to transfer without taking all the core theoretical classes over again that are different at different school and it would mean starting the program all over again, and spending again over 2 years until the graduation, plus getting more in debt by taking more loan money to pay for tuitions.
How many years are you into this program? How many credit hours until completion? Getting a bit more into debt and being able to finish might be a good alternative to a load of debt with nothing to show for it?

In our degree plan is clearly stated that the school IS responsible for securing a clinical site, and we are not even allowed to make any contacts with clinical sites and if we do there are severe consequences for that.
How were you told there is no one for the clinicals? In an email? In person? By an advisor? Do you have this in writing?
 

universtudent

Junior Member
I got everything in writing via the email correspondence with my clinical coordinator.

It says that "we are still having difficulty finding a clinical site for you" and its been about 8 month per our academic curriculum since we had to be placed for our clinical practicum.

Is there any way to claim any damages for wasting our time in school and not be able to graduate?
I though the school cannot just stop providing the education at some point without any consequences.

Here is a quote from our handbook about what our school agrees to provide:

; Appropriate learning experiences and curriculum sequencing in order for students to develop the competencies necessary for graduation, including appropriate instructional materials, classroom presentations, discussions, demonstrations, and supervised clinical education. During laboratory hours, supervision shall be provided. Sufficient patient performance time for students to obtain clinical competency shall be provided.”



The school failed to comply with these of the above statements that we originally agreed with.

not appropriate curriculum sequencing and no supervised clinical education.

Thank you!
 

Humusluvr

Senior Member
I got everything in writing via the email correspondence with my clinical coordinator.

It says that "we are still having difficulty finding a clinical site for you" and its been about 8 month per our academic curriculum since we had to be placed for our clinical practicum.

Is there any way to claim any damages for wasting our time in school and not be able to graduate?
I though the school cannot just stop providing the education at some point without any consequences.

Here is a quote from our handbook about what our school agrees to provide:

; Appropriate learning experiences and curriculum sequencing in order for students to develop the competencies necessary for graduation, including appropriate instructional materials, classroom presentations, discussions, demonstrations, and supervised clinical education. During laboratory hours, supervision shall be provided. Sufficient patient performance time for students to obtain clinical competency shall be provided.”



The school failed to comply with these of the above statements that we originally agreed with.

not appropriate curriculum sequencing and no supervised clinical education.

Thank you!
How many people are they having trouble placing? Like, are you one of forty students, or one of two?

Has there been a track record of this with this program at this university? Or have they successfully placed students before, but are just botching it with you (or your class)?

It sounds like you may have a case for fraud. If the University is offering a program that they cannot complete, through no fault of your own, then you may have a case.

I would be super peeved if this happened to me. What have you been doing for the 8 months? Have you tried again? I would be in the advisor's/dean's/president's office EVERY FREAKING DAY until it was taken care of. I can see why this makes you mad.

This is not a "do it yourself" type of thing. Suing a University for fraud would be huge, and they would have a team of lawyers against you. But I think you have a case if they are offering a degree that they can't follow through with.
 

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