When a college shuts down, students need proof of their grades and coursework. That proof comes in the form of their official college transcripts.
And so former students at Argosy University and the Art Institutes — for-profit colleges operated by the Dream Center chain that shut down last month — have been requesting official transcripts en masse. More than 40,000 students have submitted requests.
Yet the transcripts coming in the mail haven’t always looked official, some students complain. Instead of being printed on special watermarked paper, some transcripts have arrived on standard white printer paper. In at least some instances, no stamped seal appears on the envelope — another missing symbol of authenticity.
“They’re not even making sure they’re correct,” complained Brittany Donner, 29, a former Argosy student. “They’re just sending them out to get them out.”
I can’t call anybody because there’s nobody to talk to.
Donner said her official transcript has her withdrawal date wrong by more than a year — she was enrolled in Argosy’s online psychology bachelor’s-degree program until the shutdown last month. But her transcript says she left in 2017.
The transcript also has an incorrect, and much lower, grade-point average, Donner said. She had a 3.83 GPA at Argosy, she said, but her transcript lists her GPA as 3.18.
“I was extremely frustrated,” said Donner, who lives in Hot Springs, Ark., and was only three classes shy of her bachelor’s degree when Argosy University closed. “I mean, I can’t call anybody because there’s nobody to talk to. I guess at this point I have to take what I got, and suck it up, and move on.”
Donner said the inaccuracies on her transcript have complicated her attempts to transfer to another college. She is trying to persuade her transfer institution to accept an unofficial transcript instead of the official one, as the unofficial document has the correct information. The transfer college has not yet agreed.
The way official transcripts work is you’re not supposed to open them — you submit the sealed envelope to the college or employer that requires it. So if there is a problem with an official transcript, students might not realize it until months, or even years, from now, when they try to use it.
In response to written questions from The Chronicle, Dream Center’s leadership insisted that there is nothing wrong with its transcript process. The company acknowledged that some of the transcripts had been mailed out on standard white paper, but Anne Dean, a Dream Center spokeswoman, said they are still valid.
Yet internal discussion among Dream Center officials, in an email chain that appeared to be inadvertently attached to its response to this newspaper’s questions, hinted at possible concerns.
“Should we be using the proper paper?” wrote Dream Center’s court-appointed receiver, Mark Dottore, to Dean and another company official on April 16, after flagging a question about the transcripts’ paper from The Chronicle. Dottore is managing the failed company’s assets as it winds down operations.
Dean told The Chronicle that Dottore’s question did not mean anything improper was happening. Students who previously received a transcript on plain paper can request a free replacement on special paper, Dean wrote in an email. Dean said that this offer, which is posted on an Argosy University closed-school information website, had been extended to students before The Chronicle asked about the issue.
Dottore said in a statement emailed to The Chronicle: “All students who requested official transcripts are receiving official transcripts.”
The complaints over botched transcripts highlight the uncertainty and unpredictability that students frequently encounter after their college closes. A college that shuts down might offer transfer agreements with other institutions, or it might not. It might forgive the debts that students owe on institutional loans — or it might not.
The sudden closure of the for-profit ITT Technical Institute, in 2016, left some students unable to obtain their transcripts, which were locked up in storage as the shuttered company went through bankruptcy proceedings. Some state attorneys general sued ITT over the issue, which led to a legal settlement in which the company agreed to create digitized versions of transcripts for those campuses that had still been using paper copies. The State of Nebraska responded by changing state law to provide students with better access to their transcripts.
College closures are affecting more and more students — a recent Chronicle analysis found that more 500,000 students have been displaced by college closures in the past five years. The vast majority of the campuses that closed — 88 percent — were at for-profit colleges. Low-income and minority students have been disproportionately affected: Nearly 70 percent of undergraduates at closed campuses received need-based Pell Grants, and about 57 percent of displaced students are racial minorities.
The Dream Center closures displaced more than 10,000 students. But it’s not just former students who need transcripts — alumni, too, have been asking for them.
Carmen M. Castro is an international-business professor who graduated in 2006 from the University of Sarasota, which was owned by Argosy University. After Argosy closed its doors recently, Castro requested official transcripts, which are essential if she ever changes employers.
What she received, she said, was “not a real transcript.”
“If we lose our jobs today, we can’t apply anywhere, because we don’t have a real transcript,” Castro said. “They’re receiving a paper copy. Which means nothing. It’s not going to be accepted anywhere in the world.”
Michael Vasquez is a senior investigative reporter. Follow him on Twitter @MrMikeVasquez, or email him at michael.vasquez@chronicle.com.