Unemployed tech grad blames college, sues to get tuition back
August 12, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: HR Tech, In this week's e-newsletter - Tech
The job market’s tough for everyone, including IT pros and recent graduates. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a common way of dealing with it:
Trina Thompson graduated from Monroe College in April, receiving a bachelor’s degree in IT. Since then, she’s yet to find a job.
Who or what is to blame for the three whole months of unemployment? The economy? Her lackluster 2.7 GPA?
Thompson’s blaming Monroe. She says “the Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement.” Among the office’s transgressions: finding jobs for students with good grades. “They favor more toward students that got a 4.0,” Thompson said.
As a result, she wants $70,000 worth of tuition repaid, the The New York Post reports.
Oh, and she wants an extra $2,000 for “the stress I have been going through looking for a Full Time job on my own.”
It must be stressful: Thompson was so worked up she misspelled the word “tuition” in her court documents.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I’m thinking it’s not the college’s fault she can’t get a job…perhaps it is her “you owe me” attitude…or the lack of interest in actually working. Anyone who is willing to blame others for not finding a job is going to have a tough time finding an employer willing to take the risk.
Looking for a job IS HARD WORK and it never gets easier until a job seeker is skilled, experienced and recruited by employers.
Little Miss Muffett should get off her “tuffet” and revamp her attitude and spend the time looking for work, not excuses.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Unfortunately, in today’s society, this is a common perception amongst the younger generations. They have been brought up to believe that success is obtainable by simply graduating college. I agree completely with “Can’t Believe It’s” assessment that perhaps a change in attitude is necessary. The misconception that a college degree “ENTITLES” you to anything is a quickly becoming an issue with many graduates. I guess the old adage of working your way up has been lost. An education is simply a tool, what you do with that tool determines the outcome. The best of the best in any career field didn’t get that way by simply going to college. When did it become the colleges responsibility to find graduates a job?
Times are tough and as stated, Little Miss Muffett should get off her “tuffet” because she’s going to run out of “curds and whey”. But then again, if she can’t blame the College, it must be her parents fault.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Seriously, 2.7 and she is complaining she can’t find a job. When you enter college for any degree, I would hope your aspirations and energy would be focused on working to get to the top of your class. If you are happy with mediocre then that is what you will be and employers are looking for employees with energy, ideas and attitude to grow their business. If you paid $70,000 for an education, I would think you would have put all that you had into it. If your grades don’t show $70,000 worth of education, then you are S.O.L.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Instead of suing the college, she should make better use of her time. Maybe job hunting?
August 18th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
The only way that her suit flies is if the college guaranteed placement after completion of her degree. Some tech schools have done so in the past. With her gpa, I would not even look at her as an applicant for a tech job.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I’m wondering if Mommy and Daddy were the ones who paid for the college education that she squandered and this is a way for her to get cash without having to work??? Certainly hope she doesn’t win this case – otherwise raising the cost of tuition for those who really want to benefit from an education.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I read about this case elsewhere and she did feel the school gave the impression that they will place their graduates. As we know, this type of pitch was a lot easier to comply with during flush times but now things are tight and placements go to the best of the best. 2.7 is not the worst out there but I can see how tech firms would be looking for go getters and the high achievers. Maybe she needs to find what she is really suited to do.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
AMEN Linda! You beat me too it. If you’re going to spend $70,000 on an education you better be putting forth the effort that shows you want to be there. I think Lisa may be on to the answer too. Her lackluster effort leads me to believe that someone else paid for her education. With a 2.7GPA I doubt that it was scholarship money.
I wonder if the chip on her shoulder is keeping her from getting a job. Do you think that she goes into an interview with the same “expect the world to be handed to her” attitude?
August 18th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I read about this online several weeks ago in one of our local news website. My thoughts and comments were very similiar to those shown on this site. I don’t know where this girl thinks that she should be refunded her tuition because of her own failure. Further, I believe (within the news article) her mother was supportive of her daughter filing the suit. As we all seem to agree, it’s totally ridiculous & hope she loses!!!
August 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
1. I wonder how much time she spent in the career placement office. Most career placement professional recommend that students start visiting in their freshman year and get acquainted. Those are probably the students who get the most help.
2. The time she spent preparing a court document was time she could have used to look for a job. If she had time to do that, then she certainly should have time to look for a job. She probably also blew her chances with several employers who might read this and realize that she has no sense of maturity or of the economy.
3. This young lady needs to grow up and take some responsibility for her own action, inactions, or both.
4. With her GPA and lack of spelling skills, it’s no wonder she can’t find a job.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
She may end up working for her attorney to pay her debt to the law firm when she loses! Wouldn’t that be righteous!!
August 18th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I like Lisa’s way of thinking!!!
August 18th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
The bane of our society is quickly becoming (or is it too late and it already has become) the ENTITLEMENT ATTITUDE!! Not only is work ethic gone, but so is the morality that says “I’m responsible for what I do as well as, what I DON’T do”. I’m a Mom of 3; none of my kids would ever pull something like this…. how many of us think that? After all, this girl had a Mom (obviously with the same entitlement attitude).
Thanks to all of you for your thoughts; yet another frivolous law suit….
August 18th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
ON THE ONE HAND: There is a liberal slant toward college education being a differentiator, and the reality is that some of the wealthiest individuals in the country do not have college educations. So in essence, college is what you make of it. It MIGHT be an illusion, and it MIGHT be real. It is DEFINITELY a pre-qualifier, and therefore a differentiator for most salaried positions.
ON THE OTHER HAND, here is one more “trophy” kid, who grew up never knowing what it means to lose because the liberal gen-x-ers eliminated “losing”, because it’s “too traumatic” for the child. So what happened to sportsmanship? Therefore, these kids grow up ALWAYS being told “YES you CAN” and failures are “NOT your FAULT”.
The college should sue this kid’s parents for creating an anti-social monster.
August 19th, 2009 at 11:09 am
One thing for sure she never learned anywhere in her life was ACCOUNTABILITY! The entire generation has had mommy running off to school for them everythime they hit a bump in the road. I have to get back to work. How else can I help pay for the 47 million who want free health care.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
One person skirted my first thought. As an employer, would you want to hire someone who’s first response to not getting her way is to sue? I sure wouldn’t want to take on that potential liability.