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Education Corporation of America
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19 reviews

Education Corporation of America Employer Reviews

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Compensation/Benefits
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Worst Company to work for
Employee (Current Employee), Savannah, GA – April 21, 2013
Unethical, back stabbing, no job security, based of favoritism, no open door management, overall worst company to work for, employee turnover is just like a revolving door.
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Terrible place to work in academics
Academic Dean (Current Employee), Not able to say to protect my identity – April 16, 2013
Pros: the salary is okay except when you figure out how many hours you are going to work a week
Cons: too many to list - awful place to work if you are in academics
19 Deans fired or quit within a little more than 12 month time frame. Program directors have even higher turnover. There were 3 reorganizations in 2012 and hundreds of people have been let go but none of the responsibilities have changed. The last reorganization removed all registrars from the campus level, leaving deans and program directors to pick – more... up the pieces - and there were a lot. Deans are expected to be the general education program director at their campus and perform the duties of this program director in addition to the Dean position, and maintaining the registrar work. Also there is no longer an HR person on campus or an academic administrative assistant - that job has been combined into campus administrator who basically does three jobs in one and isn't going to be there to help you do yours.

There is no help at the corporate level - people do not return phone calls and are in general extremely rude. The weekly phone calls are all about corporate folks telling campus level people all about the exciting new changes and patting each other on the back while never acknowledging those actually doing the work at the campus level. You will receive emails fairly regularly about being written up if things don't change. There is an internal academic audit team and their sole purpose is to come to the campus and provide a list of findings, which may include things like not having a sign laminated in the employee lounge. You will be written up if you have more than one finding on the internal audit. There are emergency phone conferences and meetings on an almost weekly basis. You will be expected to keep your cell phone on and answer it on holidays, weekends, and Sundays. You are expected to keep up with your emails as well.

The hiring process and hiring guidelines for faculty are actually almost impossible to follow and create a constant nightmare in hiring and staffing. The high turnover among faculty and program directors also make it extremely difficult to create stability and you should expect a very large part of your job to be training and hiring. There are program binders, homework binders, syllabi binders, signed schedule binders, SAP binders, and numerous other binders to be maintained without administrative help. The systems are automated and you must scan documents but there are no desktop scanners or printers in offices. Ordering supplies, textbooks, and other essential items takes days, numerous emails to justify expenses, numerous re-ordering to match the just in time inventory model. There are numerous weekend events for admissions that the academic team is also expected to attend. The schedule is supposedly automated through ASTRA, however, ASTRA cannot think ahead and only considers whether a pre-requisite has been met before scheduling. No consideration is given to sequencing so a student graduates on time.

As for other academic positions, the librarian is also the textbook manager and the learning success "tutoring" center manager for most campuses. Therefore, the librarian is not really a librarian. The other thing that has occurred is that there are now Allied Health program directors over multiple programs, and many program director positions have been eliminated. The program directors have to teach in addition to their full time program director duties. The teaching responsibilities are extremely numerous and are unpaid for the most part. I was told that instructors should want to volunteer their time rather than be paid for training and events. Instructors have to call their students if they miss class, post attendance within 30 minutes, maintain homework binders, prep classes, grade and use the electronic grading system. Onboarding is electronic and two modules are estimated by corporate to take 27 hours each. Unpaid. In addition to the orientations that occur at the campus.

All in all it is overwhelming workload and most academic deans work well into 50 or 60 hours a week, every week (not just start weeks or end of quarter weeks). You will work weekends for each quarter at least 3 times which means 12 weekends a year or 25% of your weekends will be mandatory. Not to mention the evenings you put in at least 3 days a week. Which may be okay if the work was appreciated or acknowledged or there was some sort of feeling it would be okay later. But there isn't.

Most campuses have been in some sort of turmoil if they are new campuses because of the poor management from corporate. – less
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interactive
Student Finance Business Analyst (Current Employee), Tampa, Florida – April 1, 2013
Pros: management team
Cons: limited advancement
excellent working environment.
open communication
some late nights and weekends
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Great place to assist people with changing their lives.
Admissions Associate (Former Employee), Birmingham, AL – April 1, 2013
Pros: interaction with the public. excellent salary and benefits package.
Cons: termination after 90 days.
Starting with the Loan Management Department I was able to assist students with researching various programs to help cure Student Loan Deliquency and Default.

In Admissions a typical day at work included making outbound calls, receiving inbound calls and arranging follow-up activities with prospective students. Those activities included setting appointments, – more... interviewing the student to determine course of action, placement testing, and assisting with completing enrollment documentation.

I learned to work with people from various backgrounds, phone and face to face interaction daily and how to identify and solve problems quickly.

Great co-workers and great students to work with daily. Admissions Management changed several times making the transition sometimes difficult. – less
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Run!!!!
Program Director (Former Employee), Augusta, Georgia – March 17, 2013
Pros: my coworkers
Cons: everything else!!!!!
This was the most terribly managed company ever! The only stability is knowing there is NO stability. I was in a program director role and had absolutely no work/life balance. Deadlines were most of the time unrealistic. Students were not first, but their money was! The plan, was an epic fail. Go to a real college and get a job. This Job was a bad dream!
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Profits and Power Struggle
Financial Aid (Former Employee), Jackson, MS – February 15, 2013
After 7 1/2 years of my department was reorganized and moved to a central location. The students are not considered, only the profits of the investors. The classrooms and student supplies are a joke, while the management has up to date equipment, and lavish travel expenses.

The corporate staff appears to be willing to try anything to keep the money – more... flowing in while advancing themselves personally.

I can say I was well trained, but being laid off in a "Group Reducation" and finding work at another school that really cares for it's students was the best thing that could happen to me.

(in a final note, I agree with what the "staff accountant" posted last year - I was subject to the same shoddy treatment while under the Huntsville management umbrella) – less
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The Department of Education needs to shut this place down immediately!
Admissions Associate (Former Employee), Columbus, GA – February 12, 2013
Pros: no work on sundays
Cons: upper management, lack of stability and growth, working on saturdays, selling big dreams (lies)
Virginia College in Columbus was a horrific experience with very demanding hours. There's absolutely no room to grow. Virginia College enrolls students who can barely read in programs that cost $40,000. The motto is "Enroll anybody with a pulse".

The admissions associates were extremely ghetto and a majority of them lacked the credentials to perform – more... the job. Every day was depressing because upper management threw numbers in your face. How can they possibly care about the students? There is absolutely no job security because you will be fired immediately if you miss your start budget.

This is not a good company to work for because you mislead students everyday just so that upper management can make six figure salaries and fly around in private jets.

If you are wanting to go back to school, go to your local community college. It's cheaper and you get the HOPE scholarship. Also, these classes will NOT transfer. It's a complete waste of time. – less
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Progressive Post Secondary Proprietary Colleges
Greenfield Product Knowledge Trainer (Former Employee), Birmingham, AL – February 4, 2013
As a company that owned many proprietary colleges, "student first" was instilled in all campuses. Our students were very inmportant to us. I worked with admission associates training them on every aspect of each program offered at their campus. I provided very detailed training and received commendable evaluations from the employees. As a corporate – more... employee, I traveled 99% with my job and was able to meet and work with some amazing staff, presidents and deans. – less
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Good
Director of Academic Compliance / Operation (Former Employee), Austin, tx – January 30, 2013
loved my co-workers. Room for growth.
This is a growing company, so you can expect changes from time to time.
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"Two years up or out..."
Admissions Associate (Former Employee), SC – January 11, 2013
Pros: pay
Cons: incredible mismanagement, lack of respect for employees, very high turnover, instability and job insecurity
In admissions at least. That means that if you do not move to another position in 2 years you better be getting out. In my experience with performance results being manipulated they are more than happy to provide the foot should you need one to help you out. This company does not appreciate tenure especially since salaries in admissions are now based – more... on it. – less
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Somewhat uncomfortable environment
Admission (Former Employee), Richmond, VA – December 5, 2012
Pros: the compensation was reasonable and you don't have to have a degree even though i do.
Cons: everything else
I feel that this company does not care about students or employees. They were big on getting them in and enrolled. I believe because they are not regionally accredited that they can operate like this but I found myself very depressed and not feeling like I was really helping people do better. I felt like most students was forced and many did not even – more... get through the first set of classes let alone to graduation. They are very expensive and most people who will graduate will just pick up a trade. Not making much money. – less
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strives to be best in industry and practices philanthropy at all levels
operations (Current Employee), Birmingham, AL – August 28, 2012
Pros: free education and deep discounts for family, fast 401 vest
a person with strong personal vision of career path can do well.
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Avoid the Staff Accountant Position in Huntsville unless you are desperate for work
Staff Accountant (Former Employee), Huntsville, AL – July 6, 2012
Pros: fluorescent lighting, two bathrooms, building only floods occasionaly
Cons: long hours, demeaning treatment, not actually an accounting job
This is a job posting they've been copy/pasting back onto indeed.com for over a year whenever they fire some one, which is pretty often. They'll say its 40 hours a week but expect 50 to 60 on an average week, with occasional surprise weekend shifts where you don't leave until midnight.

The entire structure of how this branch of the company runs was – more... changed 4-5 times in less than a year. New duties were added and dropped repeatedly. Training consisted of showing you how to do something once, and then being expected to be a master on the subject. Management had no idea what they were doing, but blamed everyone but themselves.

Education Corp doesn't care about its students, all they care about is that the student receives their loan from the government so that they get paid. Watching students get thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt while on the seventh year of some worthless degree can be harmful to the soul after a while

Management behaves in a very unprofessional manner, reading emails from his/her superiors and other managers aloud for employees while commenting on how stupid they are. If mistakes are ever made on your part he/she yells at you in front of everyone, calls you an idiot, etc.

The job title is misleading. You are not an accountant, you are a glorified clerk. You are not using any of the skills you learned if you got an accounting degree. I understand it is a bad economy and people are desperate for jobs, but if you have any other option don't take this job. – less
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Lots of turnover and undervalued employee's /poor leadership at the Exec Level
Administrative Assistant (Former Employee), Jacksonville, FL – July 5, 2012
Pros: friendly staff
Cons: burnout, lack of talent management, poor compensation
This company offered great beneftis, good working relationships, there were some areas of growth opportunities, but the lack of loyalty to the employees was never overcome when I was there.

Demanded way too much for the pay. Constantly restructuring which results in one person having many, many more responsibilities delegated to them and without any – more... increase in pay. Usually the retention was horrible and someone was considered "tenured" if they had a year of service.

The academic team had several great instructors, but also several instructors who should not be teaching due to their own lack of education. Poor curiculum, poor management, constantly changing Presidents.

Overall it was a burnout situation for myself, and others that I talked to also. – less
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RUN as FAST as YOU CAN!
Receptionist (Former Employee), Baton Rouge – June 28, 2012
Pros: excellent staff parties with alcohol!
Cons: long hours, uneducated staff and higher staff, ghetto students
Working at VC Baton Rouge was a hot mess. Majority of the staff is uneducated, but yet directors. The most educated people were the receptionists and assistants. Most of the directors don't have an associate's degree, how can they become directors without the proper school credentials! If you are educated and smart there is NO ROOM FOR ADVANCEMENT! – more... They enjoy uneducated people,because they can talk down to them. Moreover, they pay these uneducated people starting at 60,000. So, if you are educated you can only make about 25,000-27,000 yearly. The BR Campus has leader(s) in charge who don't care. Its a business, and all about making money. The students are being fooled by those phony commericals. Management is POOR! If anyone is considering working at VCBR, they should re consider! – less
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Several claims/lawsuits against Virginia College in Huntsville
Admissions Associate (Former Employee), Huntsville – May 17, 2012
When I worked at Virginia College in Huntsville, in the admissions department I was harassed and discriminated against by my white manager. Be aware, many of the black employees said that they were discriminated against. The last year I was employed there it was a very hostile work environment for myself and others. You have to keep records of everything, – more... especially leads. – less
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McClain – June 21, 2012

VC is a joke and is going to fall apart at any moment. They are racist and not only that, they are holding on to their accredidation by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin. YOUR STRESS STARTS HERE.

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Great company with no job security.
Admission Advisor (Former Employee), Huntsville, Al – May 10, 2012
Pros: great schedule, general great associates, very supportive and helpful.
Cons: was lied to about salary, training, and job security.
Worked with Admissions, and although coworkers and management was friendly, was told I had 13 weeks including training to learn the job, but in reality I was let go after 7 weeks even before I got to training due to numbers that they told me not to worry about in the beginning. Was told I would get $35k a yr, but pay was closer to $32k. Completely a – more... numbers game with the company, and there isnt a grace period, even though I signed up students and did better than the other new employees. – less
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Excellent Entreprenurial Workplace
Director, HR Shared Services (Current Employee), Birmingham, AL – May 2, 2012
Pros: excellent growth potential and great culture
Education Corporation of America is a great place to learn to love your job. Not only is the management staff great to work with, but the culture fosters internal growth, new ideas and the use of technology to streamline work. You really get what you give at ECA and I really enjoy working with my excellent team!
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Glenda – May 9, 2012

VC is not a place for growth for individuals, who are sincere about education and student success. There are too many staff in positions who are not qualified; however, since they go with the mess that is presented daily, they are promoted.Furthermore, students are not graduating with jobs in their program of study rather they are graduating with an enormous bill and many cannot function beyond a ninth grade academic level. VC will have better results if they would get rid of those who are not qualified.

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Very exciting working enviroment
Academic Success Coach (Former Employee), Birmingham, AL – March 10, 2012
Pros: great benefits and you get to help students.
Cons: nosey co-workers
I really enjoyed my tenure with this company. They had great benefits.
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About Education Corporation of America

Education Corporation of America® owns and operates private accredited colleges across the United States as well as via the – Read more