“I asked the representatives if getting a degree from ITT Tech would be the same as getting a bachelor’s degree from a traditional college or university,” Babcock says. “They said it’s the exact same thing: ‘A bachelor’s degree is a bachelor’s degree.’”
What Babcock did not realize was that not all bachelor’s degrees are created equal. A bachelor’s degree that is not recognized by employers has little value, even if it is technically accredited, as Babcock found, to his and his family’s detriment.
“I argued that, in order for them to have a school, they had to be accredited by the government. I didn’t realize that there was a difference in the accreditation bodies,” he explains.
When Babcock and his wife discovered that ITT Tech course credits are not recognized by the police departments where he sought employment, he was already three years into the program—and tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Deceptive practices
ITT Tech is one of several for-profit schools across the country that offer dubious degrees for exorbitant prices. Such schools rely on aggressive and arguably predatory practices to “sell” the school to prospective students.
