I am having numerous problems with Southeastern College. I feel there was misrepresentation of their surgical technology program and they keep committing fraud.
The thing that drew us to Southeastern was the small class sizes, and the promise of more individual attention. The expense was greater, but we felt the education received would be worth it. When we initially approached the admissions personnel at Southeastern, we were told that the surgical technology program would soon be offering evening classes, so I could remain working and attend class at the same time. I have been working with animals since I was 16, and being a veterinary technician is all I know. My husband and I decided it would be best for me to quit my job and be a full time student. It would be rough living on one income for a year, but we felt the investment in my education was worth it.
We were told that there would be small classes with more attention given to students. The core program consisted of eight classes that were four weeks each, followed by four “classes” at a clinical externship site where I would be getting hands on experience in the surgical field so I could graduate and seek a job in this profession with the confidence of knowing what I was doing because of my 16 weeks of experience in field.
I am supposed to complete the program in the middle of August. I was a very diligent student and maintained straight A’s, and the highest grades in my class throughout all of the core classes. Finishing on time and with honors was important to me.
The Misrepresentation
However, the school cannot find an externship site for me. As we approached our externship, the school kept stringing us along making us think we would have a proper site. I was due to start externship as soon as our week long spring break ended, and I was not even told the location I would be at until the Friday before spring break started. I had to interview at a plastic surgery center to see if I was “worthy” of doing externship there. I was told it would only be for 4 weeks, and then they would have a better site for us.
The plastic surgeon’s office was terrible. They had deplorable sterile technique, and we were not allowed to do anything. I spoke to the Dean the second day of Externship I. I told him how bad it was there. We were told to just sit in the reception area and do nothing. He promised me he would get us out of there as soon as possible, but we ended up staying the entire 4 weeks. Not only that, I was told to go there for an additional 2 weeks.
After 6 weeks at the plastic surgeon’s office, I refused to go back. I witnessed many questionable things, and they put me in a very bad situation by trying to get me to drive a sedated patient home in my personal car after she had a surgical procedure. Luckily the woman decided to reschedule. I was so uncomfortable with that. That place was very shady and I would not go back there after that.
The Fraudulent Practices
Even though I told the Dean and the Director of the Surgical Technology Program, that we were not getting the 9 hours a day on site we needed, and we were only allowed to watch, and rarely got to scrub in for procedures, I was still forced to stay. I feel like what the director of the program told me to do is fraudulent and should lead to Southeastern losing their accreditation. The Director told me and the other student to just put that we were there 9 hours a day on our time card and he will sign off on it even though we were not there at those times. He also told us to mark that we were first scrub on cases in which we just watched the procedure being performed.
During the 16 week externship, we are supposed to get 120 surgical cases where we are scrubbed in as first assistant to the surgeon. I have just completed week 10, and I only scrubbed in for maybe a total of 5 cases, and I was never the first assistant. The Director is having me mark down that I am getting the proper experience, when I am not.
The Misrepresentation & Fraud Again
For 2 weeks I had no site to go to. The Dean kept telling me they were working on getting a site. They were working on getting a preceptor that was coming next week. Well, next week came and went, and so did the next week. Finally I was very upset, so I asked if animal surgery could count towards my case load. The Director said I could, so for 2 weeks I have been at the veterinarian’s office assisting with “animal” surgery. I am paying ridiculous tuition to drive 40 miles to do what I used to get paid to do. This will not help me in a human hospital. This is not the experience I need. They are marking it down as getting “human” surgical experience.
The Director told me several times that he informed the school that when my class reached externship time, we would not have a site to go to because all of the sites around required a preceptor from the school to accompany students. Instead of our instructor going with us to an extern site, they gave him a new class with 12 students starting the program and we were left hanging in the wind. The school cares more about money than students, because it was making more money off of 12 new students than it was off of the two left in my class.
I was also informed that they finally hired a new preceptor who was supposed to start this week, but now all of the externship sites that would have once allowed us to go there are saying no. There has been too much of a lapse of time, so they no longer want students from Southeastern.
I am very frustrated. I worked hard and now I feel like I have just wasted the last year of my life. I quit a good job to be a fulltime student at Southeastern, but they are not giving me what I am paying for. I am pretty sure I could make the program lose accreditation, but all that does is hurt me. I am afraid of not only wasting a year of my life, but also losing out on all of that tuition for a useless degree.
Southeastern College Reviews
I am having numerous problems with Southeastern College. I feel there was misrepresentation of their surgical technology program and they keep committing fraud.
The thing that drew us to Southeastern was the small class sizes, and the promise of more individual attention. The expense was greater, but we felt the education received would be worth it. When we initially approached the admissions personnel at Southeastern, we were told that the surgical technology program would soon be offering evening classes, so I could remain working and attend class at the same time. I have been working with animals since I was 16, and being a veterinary technician is all I know. My husband and I decided it would be best for me to quit my job and be a full time student. It would be rough living on one income for a year, but we felt the investment in my education was worth it.
We were told that there would be small classes with more attention given to students. The core program consisted of eight classes that were four weeks each, followed by four “classes” at a clinical externship site where I would be getting hands on experience in the surgical field so I could graduate and seek a job in this profession with the confidence of knowing what I was doing because of my 16 weeks of experience in field.
I am supposed to complete the program in the middle of August. I was a very diligent student and maintained straight A’s, and the highest grades in my class throughout all of the core classes. Finishing on time and with honors was important to me.
The Misrepresentation
However, the school cannot find an externship site for me. As we approached our externship, the school kept stringing us along making us think we would have a proper site. I was due to start externship as soon as our week long spring break ended, and I was not even told the location I would be at until the Friday before spring break started. I had to interview at a plastic surgery center to see if I was “worthy” of doing externship there. I was told it would only be for 4 weeks, and then they would have a better site for us.
The plastic surgeon’s office was terrible. They had deplorable sterile technique, and we were not allowed to do anything. I spoke to the Dean the second day of Externship I. I told him how bad it was there. We were told to just sit in the reception area and do nothing. He promised me he would get us out of there as soon as possible, but we ended up staying the entire 4 weeks. Not only that, I was told to go there for an additional 2 weeks.
After 6 weeks at the plastic surgeon’s office, I refused to go back. I witnessed many questionable things, and they put me in a very bad situation by trying to get me to drive a sedated patient home in my personal car after she had a surgical procedure. Luckily the woman decided to reschedule. I was so uncomfortable with that. That place was very shady and I would not go back there after that.
The Fraudulent Practices
Even though I told the Dean and the Director of the Surgical Technology Program, that we were not getting the 9 hours a day on site we needed, and we were only allowed to watch, and rarely got to scrub in for procedures, I was still forced to stay. I feel like what the director of the program told me to do is fraudulent and should lead to Southeastern losing their accreditation. The Director told me and the other student to just put that we were there 9 hours a day on our time card and he will sign off on it even though we were not there at those times. He also told us to mark that we were first scrub on cases in which we just watched the procedure being performed.
During the 16 week externship, we are supposed to get 120 surgical cases where we are scrubbed in as first assistant to the surgeon. I have just completed week 10, and I only scrubbed in for maybe a total of 5 cases, and I was never the first assistant. The Director is having me mark down that I am getting the proper experience, when I am not.
The Misrepresentation & Fraud Again
For 2 weeks I had no site to go to. The Dean kept telling me they were working on getting a site. They were working on getting a preceptor that was coming next week. Well, next week came and went, and so did the next week. Finally I was very upset, so I asked if animal surgery could count towards my case load. The Director said I could, so for 2 weeks I have been at the veterinarian’s office assisting with “animal” surgery. I am paying ridiculous tuition to drive 40 miles to do what I used to get paid to do. This will not help me in a human hospital. This is not the experience I need. They are marking it down as getting “human” surgical experience.
The Director told me several times that he informed the school that when my class reached externship time, we would not have a site to go to because all of the sites around required a preceptor from the school to accompany students. Instead of our instructor going with us to an extern site, they gave him a new class with 12 students starting the program and we were left hanging in the wind. The school cares more about money than students, because it was making more money off of 12 new students than it was off of the two left in my class.
I was also informed that they finally hired a new preceptor who was supposed to start this week, but now all of the externship sites that would have once allowed us to go there are saying no. There has been too much of a lapse of time, so they no longer want students from Southeastern.
I am very frustrated. I worked hard and now I feel like I have just wasted the last year of my life. I quit a good job to be a fulltime student at Southeastern, but they are not giving me what I am paying for. I am pretty sure I could make the program lose accreditation, but all that does is hurt me. I am afraid of not only wasting a year of my life, but also losing out on all of that tuition for a useless degree.