I started my doctoral program in 2009 and was initially enrolled in my final course bck a few yrs ago. I had also completed my residency and began my dissertation. I am a military spouse who had to live as a single parent of two (now three) small children because of my husband's long distant assignments. At any rate, I had major family emergencies/life altering event which put a hault in my academics. I never knew to ask for a "leave of absence until that choice was no longer an option. This resulted in me not passing the course the 1st time. Unwilling to quit, I re-enroll. I was off to a great start the second time until my grandmother (whom my children and I lived with while my hudband was stationed away) suddenly fell ill and had to undergo emergency heart surgery almost 2 modules in. Now, I had added responsibility and contacted my advisor early to ask about the leave of absence, as well as make my situation known through student support services. I was made to jump through hoops repeatedly and the advisor nvr followed through. As a result, the university withdrew me for failing the course. (The failed attempts were never due to the quality of my work, but late submissions that were not approved even with medical documentation.)

My youngest were born almost 1/2 way through the course, but had submitted all of my work with medical.documentation, even after appealing to the dean at the time who was very insensitive. I appealed a grd on a final paper (because I had never received low grades in wiring ever). The appeal was unjustifiably denied. I decided to submit the paper to the Univetsity's writing center...EXCELLENT REVIEWS. This didn't make sense. Even after going through the advisor, chair and dean, the school wouldn't except my medical documentation after it was thoroughly verified by a officer in hospital personnel. So, now here I am after years of fighting and feeling hopeless, missing out on certifications and job opportunities because I can even receive an unofficial transcript... Im in debt, no degree to show for countless nights I lost sleep writing papers and completing other assignments,etc. I recommended this school to so many people and am truly dissapointed. Financial aid paid for school and was stopped when I was withdrawn...so the school is also charging my over $9000 for my last class (which was less than 1/2 that). I had no idea so many others were having issues as well.

Hello,

I am also from Walden and want to join this class action lawsuit. I started with my PhD in Dec. 2007. The schedule was that I would graduate in 2012. But it is 2015, they murder me in the end. They downgrade, undermine, insult, humiliate, and consider and branded me as a "stupid" person. The more I reveal my academic achievement I have outside Walden, they lower me down even more. The new associate dean and the new replaced chair are ignorant, brutal, and cruel. They just murdered me at the time I should graduate. I can use the degree to take PhD from other Univ. that has a better credential. I love to have my money back so I can pay other Univ. for the same program.

I would love to be a part of the class action lawsuit!!!!!!

I have been extremely frustrated with Walden for over 8 years. Similar to "Not a happy Doctorate student" I have completed all of my doctoral classes and spent 4 years in the doctoral intensive because one of my chairs was fired, the other didn't want to be bothered, and my committee members decided to do something else. One of my committee members was willing to write a letter of support to show that the process was abusive to me as a student. No one wanted to hear it. I was told to get an Masters Specialist degree and be done. What the heck is that? I spent over $50K at your school and your recommendation is to get another Masters. Terrible!

Please let me know what I need to do to join this lawsuit. I have e-mails, names, etc...This is so sad! No one should be subjected to this type of educational experence.

I would like to join this class action suit against Walden University. I have experienced the same issues. I started the DBA program in 2012 and was told it would take 2-3 years to complete due to credits received from the MBA program. The guidelines and requirements changed so many times that I have had to start over again and again. January 2015, after my chair resigned, I had to start over yet again. Now, my student loans have maxed out and I have no more money to complete the degree. I am 100K in debt, with nothing to show for it. I feel like I have wasted 3 years. I complained to the director of our program, and her solution was for me to pay to attend ANOTHER DBA Intensive and really focus on writing. What kind of answer is that? She did not speak to or address any of the issues I raised: continuous changes, wasted tuition dollars, inability to make progress through the program, inconsistencies in expectations. We are still working on the proposal 3 years later. I should be finished by now. I was misled. I am very unhappy with the results of the DBA program.

Someone has to stop this fleecing of students that is going on. I'm in the MSN program for nurse practitioner and it's been nothing but a nightmare. I have no idea when or if I will finish, sometimes I think they are doing everything they can to throw up roadblocks. Sign me up....

After reviewing many of the posted comments I feel as though I am living a deja vu. Why and how are they (Walden) getting away with such corrupt practices? I finished in November 2014, with an excess of $227k in student loan debt. I has three committee chairs and two URR members... Many rewrites and in the end my chair sabotaged my work by removing much of the approved content and replacing it with jargon. A story you will never understand or believe. We are all writing the same script.

I am being harassed by Walden, they enrolled me before my transcripts were reviewed and my student loan was available. I kept calling the advisor who said not to worry about it my loans would pay for the class. I kept asking her why she enrolled me in the class without first reviewing my transcripts and to remove me from the class. She didn't and in fact kept enrolling me in other classes apparently to the point where I now owe them over 6000.00 dollars. I never attended the class except for the first one and withdrew within the first 2 weeks. I told this Colette woman to stop enrolling me until they reviewed my transcripts and my student loans were ready. She didn't listen so I withdrew completely and apparently I am now being called about owing them money 2 years later. I can be reached at [email protected]

I too am having an issue getting approved by the URR for my proposal. Each revision does not lead towards helping me reach completion but instead sends me in a completely different direction each time with feedback that seems as if the proposal wasn't read to begin with. At this rate, it does not seem as if completion is the goal of the URR, instead the URR has demonstrated that being a hindrance to the finish line is the goal. Please contact me with information regarding a class-action lawsuit. [email protected]

I would like to join the class action lawsuit against this university for unnecessary prolonging of doctoral degree, lack of processes being followed, change of committee chair midway through the dissertation process, unnecessary prolonging from URR regarding edits and URR request to completely revise statistical analyses and results section after it had already been approved. Please contact me at [email protected]

I am a Clinical Psychology PhD student at Walden University. After over 6 years in school, I am almost $200,000 in debt. I have an MA but not in Psychology. I was well into the program before I found out that there was actually a bridge program which would have allowed me to get my MA in Psychology on my way to getting my PhD. I also didn't find out until much later that it will be almost impossible for me to get licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. I have reached out a number of times over the years to try and get assistance with little to no success. Other than my dissertation chair, who is not even in Clinical Psychology, only one person has spent any time actually trying to help me. Even my other dissertation committee member is unable to make time for me or provide me feedback in a timely manner. I lost almost an entire corner waiting for his feedback which is supposed to be provided within two weeks. Unfortunately, the Clinical Psychology Program has changed so much since I started that my options are limited for getting out of Walden with some type of degree without increasing my debt even further. I am not currently enrolled because I owe tuition from past quarters and can't take out any more loans. I am extremely disappointed in my experience with Walden. They are definitely more concerned with getting your money than ensuring students are able to graduate with a degree.

I too am a student drowning in debt with little to no guidance. I have 2 MBA's from another institution and have tried to get the KAM's waived as they have no value. We as doctoral students have a dissertation to write ( time consuming) and time would be better served writing the dissertation to prove that we have mastered the bodies of knowledge that are needed to get published. I too have high anxiety knowing that each semester I am further in debt and no PhD. Something must be done. I am now dragging a co-signer in and I have a credit worthiness I fear will not get better till I die. Seriously, who wants to die with this much death? My blood pressure is high, I feel myself depressed because something that started out so well is turning into a nightmare. Please tell me how to join this lawsuit. WHO DO I CONTACT?

I am currently a graduate student at Walden University and I am absolutely disgusted with their administration. I have quit my job, relocated to another state, and moved in with my parents to be able to finish my Family Nurse Practitioner program (after being offered no help finding clinical placement) only to find that I am "not approved" for a leave of absence. The only reason I need a leave of absence in the first place is that I have not been able to find a field site for my last clinical rotation. Even though the school promised to help me find clinical field sites when I was a prospective student.

It has been 3 years since I first enrolled in the "18-month program" which claimed to provide assistance for finding clinical placement, but it failed miserably, and I am now up against a wall right before my final course. I don't know how or when I will be able to complete my program. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans I have racked up in the meantime.

I too have a HUGE student loan debt and no degree to show for it. I am starting fresh with the help of my employer with a local university. I would love to get some assistance through this suit. I was hoodwinked... does anyone say that anymore?

Dear Sir or Madame:

I am writing to you today to attempt to make myself available to any class action lawsuit or news story that may come about against Walden University. I am a special needs student. In 2009, I enrolled at Walden University, a for profit, on-line university in the hopes of earning my DBA. Once I began my DBA project in earnest, I was told by my "project supervisor" to consult the Walden DBA Rubric, which I did. Several years, several changes to the DBA rubric, and tens of thousands of dollars later, I still did not have my DBA.

Despite being given the project topic of how nervous disorders affected sufferers in the workplace, I was told to change because of so-called “rubric creep." They would not even "grandfather" me through the changes to the rubric. This, in effect, placed me in the position of having to hit the proverbial “moving target.”

In October of 2014, I contacted Sebastian Dawiskiba with Senator Michael Bennet's office regarding filing a complaint against Walden University. In November 2, 2014, tragedy struck, and I was forced to withdraw from the program. I became extremely ill and was only able to begin pursuing this matter in earnest again in 2015. I have filed complaints with several agencies to no avail.

The fact that I will never earn my doctorate as my late mother and father wanted so badly is one of the most difficult things I have had to deal with. It has compounded the sense of loss I feel after the death of my parents. I hope that you are able to help me secure justice in this matter. I have been given the runaround in obtaining legal help. I do not believe many I have contacted have the intestinal fortitude to take Walden on. Please believe me when I tell you that any help you could possibly be would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Respectfully,
Reed P. Wyatt

I can't believe that all alongI thought I was all alone with this problem or a member of the selected few club .....I was so wrong! I too finished my course work with a 4.0 GPA while working full time, teaching a class at a local university, tutoring after school, single mom with 2 sons in college and taking care of my sick mother. I still remember sending in my last assignment sitting next to her while she was in the ICU. That same year I lost my two dogs of 15 years and someone dear to my heart. I do know that after my mom passed and everything else happened, I was knocked off my "axis" and was not completely responsible or working as hard on my dissertation but when I finally got grounded again I gave it my all. There were times when it would take my chair up to a month to return my "corrected copy" of my dissertation. She would even return it with periods corrected. I would return it and things she did not correct the first time, she would correct on the second review. I too ran out of money and constantly fighting with the student loan people, which by the way blew my credit score out of the park. I had a good score and now it went down the drain! I too was promised a degree in less than 3 years and not that much in loans. Guess what?? I too was lied to, and taken advantage of! I really can't tell you how much I have in student loans but I do know it is over 130K....and no degree to show for it! If there is a place where I can sign my name to the list of people willing to stand up to Walden, where do I sign?? Is something being done against Walden? It breaks my heart to think that I had my hopes up high, dared to dream high, all for nothing! Unless of course you count a ton in debt and a world full of broken dreams and promises. We can't even go to another university to finish the dissertation and graduate with them.......or can we? Please if anyone finds out if there is some type of suit against them.....let me know!! God bless you all and hopefully justice will be done.

My story matches the others on this page. I completed the coursework for my Ed.D. with a 4.0 gpa. I spent approximately 7 years trying to get my dissertation completed and was simply spinning my wheels. During that time I had 3 different Committee Chairs, 2 different 2nd committee members and 2 different URR Committee members. Ever change in member brought on more and more changes in the dissertation. I finally ran out of money and had to stop. I made the comment to my last Committee Chair several times that it seemed as if Walden was simply trying to keep me in their program so they could continue collecting tuition. It is so sad to me that a institution can get away with this the way they have. Everyone's story is exactly the same. I definitely would like to be part of a class action suit against them!

I completed my MSN at Walden w/o much problem. I was inticed to get my PHD at 1/2 tuition for as long as I stayed in program. Had to leave school due to husband illness. Return to new guidelines, and the promised 1/2 tuition gone. Not only that I have been stuck at beginning of dissertation for 6 years. I owe money can't sign up. Not help and no progress. One of my bright spots has been my dissertation chair who has tried to help but I feel he is just as troubled. I want to be part of this class action lawsuit. I feel I have been misled, made false promise and false advertising.

Walden University has advisors why is unknown to me. It use to be an advisor was an advocate someone to help you navigate the process while attending school. There is one DBA advisor at Walden Tiffany who is worthless and very nasty. I am unsure why paying student have to deal with her.

I enrolled for a Msc. Marketing and also applied for a scholarship. I did not get the scholarship and that is OK. Problem is the results of the scholarship awards was made late when classes had already started. I attended only one module in full. So without the scholarship award, that meant I had to look for alternative sources of fees which I failed. I dropped out and also wrote to the international students office notifying them.
But they keep harassing me with all sorts of mails threatening to place charges on me. They claim I never withdrew from the course and as such I have to pay them. I wonder how else someone withdraws from a course apart from putting it in writing.

I entered Walden in 2009 and breezed through the course work. According to the instructors, my writing was excellent and one of the Ed. Tech directors stated that I would be a 5 quarter graduate based on my understanding and writing skills. However, I had no other choice but to withdraw from the university this summer because I have been on a non-stop merry-go-round with writing a dissertation for at least the last 3 years. As a professional educational unit, one of the instructors, professors, or advisors should have contacted me at least 2 years ago to support me if I was on the wrong track. Red flags should have popped up to one of Walden's teacher/leaders after a student with almost straight A's in course writings suddenly was struggling. This is the main point for me because no one actually pulled me aside to get a more thorough explanation of what I was not doing within the constructs of the dissertation process. But the only time anyone from the institution ever contacted me was when my money was late. I wasted over $150,000 on a promise of social change, and I have no more money.

I have been a doctoral student since 2009. I too have finished all of my coursework and only have the dissertation left to complete. I am now on the verge of exceeding the time to complete the dissertation. My dissertation chair has offered very little support or guidance. I have literally never received more than a few comments on the the proposal. I have had the first two chapters complete since April of 2012 and cannot seem to get through the methodology chapter. The entire process has been on my own and self-taught. I like to think that I am competent enough to put a good deal of this together myself, but I feel like I am walking through a dark forest with no light or clearing in sight. Each term I struggle to come up with the tuition and make ends meet, and I cannot apply for a full-time teaching job until it is completed. (Right now I only qualify for Adjunct status).

Several years ago I applied for a position at a local university. I was not even considered because my masters and PhD coursework were from a school that did not have ASVAB accreditation.

The process for my master's thesis was a nightmare, as my chair offered no help at all and would not move me along in the process. The Department head finally took over as my chair and helped me to get it completed, but they did have to refund an entire quarter of tuition because I had documented everything so well.

I am very interested in being part of this lawsuit against Walden University. I have completed all of the course work for the EdD program and ended up dealing with one person who has held up my progress and has cost me an extra 20,000 for the intensive part of the degree program. This has been a nightmare for the past year. I really do hope someone can assist all of the students that are having issues with Walden.

I am very interested in being part of this lawsuit against Walden University. I have completed all of the course work for the EdD program and ended up dealing with one person who has held up my progress and has cost me an extra 20,000 for the intensive part of the degree program. This has been a nightmare for the past year. I really do hope someone can assist all of the students that are having issues with Walden.

I have tried to call Walden and appeal denials made to tuition reimbursement requests. The dissertation and thesis processes lack institutional oversight and operate in complete disregard for Walden University’s own policies creating an endless process that drags on for quarter after quarter, year after year for students. This prolonged process causes students to spend more money on tuition than was represented to them by Walden University.

As alleged, the process for students to obtain a dissertation or thesis supervisory committee chair and member is extremely difficult. Even worse, retaining the committee chair and committee member throughout the entire process is an additional challenge.
The Complaint claims that most Walden University doctoral and master’s students experience a loss of a supervisory committee chair or member at least once – and usually many more times – during the course of their dissertation or thesis. Walden University’s failure to regulate the supervisory committee program thus unnecessarily prolongs students’ efforts to obtain their degrees, and results in students extending their enrollment in their respective dissertation or thesis course and paying additional tuition.

To this day, I am still having to work on my Prospectus without justification, and multiple reviews and corrections appearing to contradict remarks prior even though this was approved almost 3 years ago. More importantly, the entire program has been revamped by changing criteria, rubrics, and procedures in both the prospectus and proposal phases. The new handbook in October 2014 reflects a NEW timeline showing this process now take another 30 months from completion of the course work. This program has been a total misrepresentation of the Ed. D program and a process of habitual delays to stretch out tuition costs, payment, increasing tuition, and reducing services with fee-based services.

Overall, the lack of progress I have made does not appear to be directly related to my effort but to the lack of responsibility by my past chairpersons. I do hope you completely understand my reasons to appeal this further as my first attempt was denied even though I provided proper documentation and evidence to support my actions.

I am a disabled Veteran currently in my 2nd quarter of my dissertation. I busted my butt while on active duty using Tuition Assistance and attending night school even while deployed to Iraq. I attended an incredible school called National University who treated their Veterans with great respect. After completing my Masters degree I still had a year left on my GI Bill. As Walden is an online program when I transferred my living allowance was cut in half resulting in approximately$12,000 for the year. After I ran out of benefits I took out an Stafford unsubsidized Federal Loan. I was so passionate about my research (Cultural Resilience in Thai Female Survivors of Human Sex Trafficking) and I sold everything I owned and moved to Thailand. I previously wanted to study PTSD in veterans but after attending 3 residencies and begging for help during the "advising" sessions I left every time feeling like a total idiot and wanting to quit. Every professor I asked for help did the opposite. They did everything but call me stupid. I do have a learning disability and this did not help matters and asking for help did not help in any way. I checked my Nelnet account and I have racked up over $75,000 in around a year!!!! I have spent around 4 hours everyday working on my dissertation and it takes weeks to hear anything from my "committee" and I have to look in ten different places for the feedback which is completely useless. I am now back in California sleeping on my friends couch and helping her babysit her children. If it weren't for her Walden would have been the reason for another homeless Veteran. At this point I will not have enough money to finish my dissertation so I am looking into other options. It is amazing to me that I achieved a Masters Degree only owing $4,299 in student loans. I am going to start looking for an lawyer but if there is a lawsuit already in place I am more than willing to assist in any way that I can. I have attended 6 other schools including online programs prior to Walden and they are by far the absolute worst school I have ever attended. I don't know how they even call themselves a school! The professors don't even read your work, you can never get in contact with anyone, when you do they tell you to go read a 300 page document, or direct you to an online source that takes you 2 hours to find. My email address is [email protected] if anyone needs to contact me. Just reading others comments makes me sick to my stomach but makes me realize that Walden needs to pay for what they have done to us.