University of Southern California social work students just sued the school, accusing it of ‘intentionally’ misleading people of color about the program and forcing them into ‘massive’ student debt

University of Southern California social work students just sued the school, accusing it of ‘intentionally’ misleading people of color about the program and forcing them into ‘massive’ student debt

The University of Southern California just got hit with a lawsuit accusing it of misrepresenting its online social work program. Last week, the Project on Predatory Student Lending filed a on behalf of three graduates of USC's online Master of Social Work program, accusing the school of falsely advertising the online program and claiming it had the same offerings as USC's in-person program on campus, charging the same $100,000 tuition for both of the programs. The lawsuit claimed that the online program offered curriculum that was outdated and left those students with far worse career prospects than the students who attended the on-campus program, leaving the online graduates with a "massive" amount of student debt and job placements that were insufficient to pay off that debt. Additionally, the program was run by an online program management company called 2U, and the plaintiffs said that USC did not disclose that the employees contacting them were actually 2U employees — and not USC's. That arrangement turned the program into an "enormous degree mill," the lawsuit said. "As a direct result of USC's misrepresentations, false advertising, and unfair business practices, Plaintiffs and their fellow online students did not get what they applied, enrolled,