Le Cordon Bleu Closes in Pittsburgh: Is Pasadena Lawsuit Connected? School Says No

I attended PCI, 2007 grad, company where I did my externship kept me on staff 1yr then laidme off W/O call back.Long story short, 20+ years in industry" We'll make you a Chef" Stillworking at same venue as a BUFFET ATTENDANT Have Trained all of my Supervisors to do their job. Sallie Mae still F@#KING with me I'm way too old to go searching USA for a career.

. The same with me in Ca Pasadena. It was in one of my classes that my Chef/teacher told us then "when we graduate we are not consider chef " They not did tell us it takes about five years in the filed in the filed that if you can get a job. I majored in Baking and pastry.

I too attended this "Institute" the only thing instituted was alot of debt and me working two jobs just to keep my head above water. Many say "well its because you didnt try hard enough" The fact is I was to underqualified to get a good Chef job, and too overqualified to stamp out cookies in a bakery or park cars, which is what my options boiled down to because of not being able to find a job for six months. I too would like to find out information on how to join this lawsuit. I should have known something was up when my admissions rep out nowhere just quit and I was transferred to another rep and didnt even know it, or how the school owned only 1 building and only 1 building, and the other buildings were leased. In so many words when I called for help and wanted to the where they got the number of 97% job placement, I was basically told to kick rocks. My whole thing is im not a money hungry individual, I just want back what I paid for believing in this School and what they said they had to offer. Just pay off my loans, I dont need a dime extra. The Loans have eaten up my credit and I cant even rent a car because they run credit checks now. It's painful, hurtful and depressing that I cant even remember half of what I learned because there is no market for pastry, everything is bought. Le Cordon Bleu, Just pay my loans off and I will kindly give back my diploma..... Hasn't done anything for me 7 years later so take it back. If I can find an attorney that will help me and many of my friends that graduated that I can keep in cotact with, I'll go all the way.....

Ccox82 i feel your pain i also attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh back in 06' and was basically told the same thing :-( I attended the college with confidence thinking that as soon as i get out of school i was going to be a Chef b/c that was the guarantee that i got from PCI. i was also told the same thing about the federally backed low-interest loan that was one of the reasons i applied b/c i had attended a University prior to PCI and i knew what private loans can do to you. I also remember that i got called out of class to go to the admissions office and was told that the federal loans that were approved by the school was canceled when i asked why she told me that money the received ran out and if i wanted to stay in school i would have to apply for another loan that they got approved for and was told by her that it was basically the same type of loan(federal) So me being the naive person that i was at the time trusted this school advisory b/c i felt she knew more then i did and i wanted to stay in school b/c i was almost done with the graduation cycle. i didn't know what else to do but sign my name on the dotted line but didn't know i would be selling my soul for a career.

When i got out of school i went on my internship thinking i was gonna be a real chef making BIG money b/c that is what was promised to me but when i got there i was making $7.50. i thought to myself well that's OK i just gotta climb up the ladder. So when i ask the other kids that stayed after there internship (2yrs before me) was over they told me that they were making on $9.50??? So after my internship was over i came back home to look for a culinary job called PCI to see if they could help me out and got nothing from them all i was told was by then was that maybe i should move b/c a resort in Boca Raton FL had a opening making $7.50hr and i don't know if you know about Boca Raton but that's where rich people stay how the heck was i going be able to live there off of $9.50???

So i ended up going back to school doing something that i didn't want to do which was in the health care industry but i knew it was in demand and knew that it was a guarantee that i will get a job. It's sad that now a days you cant have a job that you are passionate about you have to do what in demand.

After finding a job in the health care industry it pays good but my PCI loans are kicking my butt so im struggling everyday to pay my loans so Sallie Mae can stay off my back so they wont garnish my check b/c i have had many of threats.

CCox82 please keep posted if you or anyone else find a class action lawsuits b/c i would love to sign my name on the dotted line. Hey i done it before but this time it will be a good thing!

Thanks

kearseeagles93@yahoo.com

Ccox82 i feel your pain i also attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh back in 06' and was basically told the same thing :-( I attended the college with confidence thinking that as soon as i get out of school i was going to be a Chef b/c that was the guarantee that i got from PCI. i was also told the same thing about the federally backed low-interest loan that was one of the reasons i applied b/c i had attended a University prior to PCI and i knew what private loans can do to you. I also remember that i got called out of class to go to the admissions office and was told that the federal loans that were approved by the school was canceled when i asked why she told me that money the received ran out and if i wanted to stay in school i would have to apply for another loan that they got approved for and was told by her that it was basically the same type of loan(federal) So me being the naive person that i was at the time trusted this school advisory b/c i felt she knew more then i did and i wanted to stay in school b/c i was almost done with the graduation cycle. i didn't know what else to do but sign my name on the dotted line but didn't know i would be selling my soul for a career.

When i got out of school i went on my internship thinking i was gonna be a real chef making BIG money b/c that is what was promised to me but when i got there i was making $7.50. i thought to myself well that's OK i just gotta climb up the ladder. So when i ask the other kids that stayed after there internship (2yrs before me) was over they told me that they were making on $9.50??? So after my internship was over i came back home to look for a culinary job called PCI to see if they could help me out and got nothing from them all i was told was by then was that maybe i should move b/c a resort in Boca Raton FL had a opening making $7.50hr and i don't know if you know about Boca Raton but that's where rich people stay how the heck was i going be able to live there off of $9.50???

So i ended up going back to school doing something that i didn't want to do which was in the health care industry but i knew it was in demand and knew that it was a guarantee that i will get a job. It's sad that now a days you cant have a job that you are passionate about you have to do what in demand.

After finding a job in the health care industry it pays good but my PCI loans are kicking my butt so im struggling everyday to pay my loans so Sallie Mae can stay off my back so they wont garnish my check b/c i have had many of threats.

CCox82 please keep posted if you or anyone else find a class action lawsuits b/c i would love to sign my name on the dotted line. Hey i done it before but this time it will be a good thing!

Thanks

kearseeagles93@yahoo.com

Same story with "Pennsylvania Culinary Institute" The Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh.

All CEC schools are diploma mills.They are in the BUSINESS of "for-profit education."

Preparing students for "the field" is not their main concern, it is making ludicrous amounts of money off of interest, fees, and kickbacks from Loan Corporations.

I attended PCI and graduated in 2005. I, like everyone else was told 98% of students graduate and are placed in chef jobs. Then they give you the document that shows chef's salaries... all well over the 70k a year range. NO one I attended with graduated as a chef. All the internships they offered paid a range of $6.50/hr up to $9.50/hr.

I went to school purely on loans. My parents did not make enough money to help me with tuition. I was told in admissions that my funds would come from Federally Backed low-interest loans and a "small remainder" would come from Private Loans. No one ever explained what private loans were, or told me I had options to find financing elsewhere. If I wanted to attend, I had to sign on the line.

I got less than $6000 in federally backed loans. The rest of the$44,000 of tuition and room and board fees came from Private sources, two loans from Sallie Mae with interest rates of 12% and 15%.

Upon graduation my monthly payments were over $500 a month. My internship paid me $12/hr.... and I was 1 of 4 students who got into that company...the highest paid internship that was offered through PCI at the time. Do the math... that's 25% of my monthly income.

A far cry from the "low payments" on "low interest federal loans" they promised me during the admissions process.

6 years later I'm still working in the industry full time, still waiting on my $70k a year chef job. Now I'm a lead line cook and make a mere $15/hr... have since consolidated my private loans...I've paid over $12,000 of my hard earned money of which less than $1500 has been applied to the principal amount. These high interest rates have crippled me financially. I'm 28 now and still living like a broke college student.

I have all the documentation that proves my story. If anyone can help me join one of these class action lawsuits, or has any information about PCI in Pittsburgh (which is closing in Jan. 2012 due to its inability to get financed by the dept. of Education because of its high debt-to-income ratio of graduates.... go figure) it would be greatly appreciated.

Chris Coxccox82@gmail.com

tinyurl.com/2bk3gkl