The shutdown left in the lurch the chain’s 8,000 employees and 40,000 students then enrolled on 130 campuses across 38 states. These students, the Indianapolis Star reported at the time, found themselves “carrying piles of student loans” and course credits “difficult to transfer.”
Students already “graduated” from ITT Tech sat in similar straits. Those young people who had left their job placement to ITT Tech often found themselves “placed” in low-paying positions that didn’t require professional training. Graduates who tried to do their own job-hunting regularly suffered through humiliating job interviews. Prospective employers simply refused to take their ITT course credits seriously.
For good reason. ITT Tech spent more on marketing than educating. A U.S. Senate investigation would later put the comparative outlays at $2,839 per student for instruction and $3,156 per student on marketing. The school’s simple marketing mantra, according to the ad agency creative director who handled the ITT Tech account: “Get Asses in Classes.”
ITT Tech marketeers aggressively targeted their pitches at young military veterans — to maximize the federal aid the college could collect — and did their best to conceal the true cost of an ITT Tech education. In its prime, the chain was charging $77,000 for an average bachelor’s degree, about $640 per credit. Most ITT Tech students went for two-year degrees. Their per-credit cost, Barron’s would…
