The final exam will count for 30% of your entire grade. It will likely be graded incorrectly by the "grading department" and then the course will be closed out before you have a chance to go over the questions that were marked wrong.
Your final grade will be wrong and FINAL.
Good luck getting them to change it or even talking to anyone who understands what you are talking about due to the language barriers created by most of National High School's employees being ESL people with a poor grasp of English.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Speaking of Scams
National High School is listed as having 13 complaints in the last 12 months by their local BBB.
However, after I logged a complaint with the BBB, National High School's score improved from a B+ to an A-.
Did they make a tax-deductible payment to the BBB for this grade?
At least 8 of these complaints were not satisfactorily resolved and yet the BBB closed them out.
Pretty hard to understand? Not really when you realize the BBB is not exactly what it seems.
However, after I logged a complaint with the BBB, National High School's score improved from a B+ to an A-.
Did they make a tax-deductible payment to the BBB for this grade?
At least 8 of these complaints were not satisfactorily resolved and yet the BBB closed them out.
Pretty hard to understand? Not really when you realize the BBB is not exactly what it seems.
Do the teachers actually exist?
This one is a hard question to answer.
You will never actually speak to a teacher on the phone or be allowed to receive or send an email to him or her.
The teacher of your specific course will have no involvement whatsoever in the grading of your assignments.
There will come a time when the "grading department" misgrades several of your assignments. That you answered the questions correctly would be obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of the subject at hand and probably obvious to anyone with a decent grasp of the English language, but this will not matter.
You will be directed to fill out a grade dispute form. They will tell you it takes 30 business days to investigate and regrade your assignment. However, the regrade will not be done after 30 business days. You will have to call and email and kick and scream to get them to actually complete this regrading. Even then, they still might not get it right. Then they will tell you that the regrade is final and you will be out of options with a lower course grade than you deserve.
Your contact with the mystery teacher will be limited to a once a week online chat session where the teacher is available for about an hour to answer questions for several different subjects during this time.
Unfortunately, for some subjects, the teacher will not ever actually show up for these online chat sessions, so you will never know for sure if the alleged teacher of your course actually exists or not.
You will never actually speak to a teacher on the phone or be allowed to receive or send an email to him or her.
The teacher of your specific course will have no involvement whatsoever in the grading of your assignments.
There will come a time when the "grading department" misgrades several of your assignments. That you answered the questions correctly would be obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of the subject at hand and probably obvious to anyone with a decent grasp of the English language, but this will not matter.
You will be directed to fill out a grade dispute form. They will tell you it takes 30 business days to investigate and regrade your assignment. However, the regrade will not be done after 30 business days. You will have to call and email and kick and scream to get them to actually complete this regrading. Even then, they still might not get it right. Then they will tell you that the regrade is final and you will be out of options with a lower course grade than you deserve.
Your contact with the mystery teacher will be limited to a once a week online chat session where the teacher is available for about an hour to answer questions for several different subjects during this time.
Unfortunately, for some subjects, the teacher will not ever actually show up for these online chat sessions, so you will never know for sure if the alleged teacher of your course actually exists or not.
Soon to be shut down and reappear under a different name
These posts are regarding the following online school:
Please do not waste your money at this school. It is a complete and total scam.
The first trick they play is to hire all-American-type sales people to lure you in promising that you will pay less to finish accredited high school classes by paying on a per month basis.
Once you are signed up for the school you will realize that almost the entire staff are English as a Second Language folks who you will have a very difficult time communicating with (Virgin Mobile type customer service) and who will go through great lengths to not help you any time you have an issue, and you WILL have many issues with this school.
1. It will take about 3 weeks from the day you sign up until you have access to your classes. This delay consists of 2 weeks of them "building your classes" and then a week or 2 of scheduling you for an "orientation session." This means that by the time you start your classes, it will be almost time for payment for month #2.
2. If the teachers actually exist, which I am still not certain of, they have nothing to do with grading the assignments. The assignments are graded by the "grading department," which most likely exists overseas in India. If you have the misfortune of having to communicate with the grading department, it will be clear that English and logic are not their strong qualities. The will frequently misgrade your assignments and then claim to have 30 business days to make the corrections. Yes, 30 BUSINESS DAYS! Unfortunately, after those 30 business days, you will have paid payment #3 and halfway to payment #4. And still they will not have regraded your assignments. Several emails and calls later, you may have success in getting them to actual regrade these items, but by this time payment #4 will definitely be due.
3. They will not tell you how your grade is calculated. They are very confused about this themselves. For example, they reported a grade of 74% for my child's class where an A was the actual grade. It took many calls and emails to get this straightened out.
4. So by this time you have already paid for 4 months of schooling and paid much more for the class than if you would have simply taken it at one of the more established online schools.
5. The nightmare is not over. When final exam time rolls around, they will take the full 10 business days to grade your exam and they will likely misgrade this as well. So get ready for payment #5 trying to get that corrected.
6. By this time, you will refuse to pay as you finished the last class well before payment #5 was due. They will refuse to give you a transcript until you do pay. If you are like many of their other customers, you will pay and you MAY get a transcript or they will find some way to bill you for one additional month (payment #6)before the nightmare is over. You will realize by this time that you spent twice as much as if you signed up at a legitimate school.
SOME FACTS:
Stay far away!
National High School
(678) 436-8749
6685 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30360-2116
http://www.nationalhighschool.com
Please do not waste your money at this school. It is a complete and total scam.
The first trick they play is to hire all-American-type sales people to lure you in promising that you will pay less to finish accredited high school classes by paying on a per month basis.
Once you are signed up for the school you will realize that almost the entire staff are English as a Second Language folks who you will have a very difficult time communicating with (Virgin Mobile type customer service) and who will go through great lengths to not help you any time you have an issue, and you WILL have many issues with this school.
1. It will take about 3 weeks from the day you sign up until you have access to your classes. This delay consists of 2 weeks of them "building your classes" and then a week or 2 of scheduling you for an "orientation session." This means that by the time you start your classes, it will be almost time for payment for month #2.
2. If the teachers actually exist, which I am still not certain of, they have nothing to do with grading the assignments. The assignments are graded by the "grading department," which most likely exists overseas in India. If you have the misfortune of having to communicate with the grading department, it will be clear that English and logic are not their strong qualities. The will frequently misgrade your assignments and then claim to have 30 business days to make the corrections. Yes, 30 BUSINESS DAYS! Unfortunately, after those 30 business days, you will have paid payment #3 and halfway to payment #4. And still they will not have regraded your assignments. Several emails and calls later, you may have success in getting them to actual regrade these items, but by this time payment #4 will definitely be due.
3. They will not tell you how your grade is calculated. They are very confused about this themselves. For example, they reported a grade of 74% for my child's class where an A was the actual grade. It took many calls and emails to get this straightened out.
4. So by this time you have already paid for 4 months of schooling and paid much more for the class than if you would have simply taken it at one of the more established online schools.
5. The nightmare is not over. When final exam time rolls around, they will take the full 10 business days to grade your exam and they will likely misgrade this as well. So get ready for payment #5 trying to get that corrected.
6. By this time, you will refuse to pay as you finished the last class well before payment #5 was due. They will refuse to give you a transcript until you do pay. If you are like many of their other customers, you will pay and you MAY get a transcript or they will find some way to bill you for one additional month (payment #6)before the nightmare is over. You will realize by this time that you spent twice as much as if you signed up at a legitimate school.
SOME FACTS:
- National High School has received 13 BBB complaints in the last 12 months, 8 of which were unsatisfactorily addressed.
- National High School is owned by Indian business man Akber Mithani and his brother. They are also the owners of the University of Atlanta - a now defunct school which lost its accreditation due to fraudulent activities. National High School will no doubt follow the same path and reemerge with yet another name.
Stay far away!
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