Alumna sues college because she hasn\'t found a job

[NickNels]

Pretty funny

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 -- the full cost of her tuition and then some -- because she cannot find a job.


Trina Thompson has sued her alma mater, Monroe College of New York.

 Trina Thompson, 27, of the Bronx, graduated from New York\'s Monroe College in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.

On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe\'s "Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through."

The college responded that it offers job-search support to all its students.

In her complaint, Thompson says she seeks $70,000 in reimbursement for her tuition and $2,000 to compensate for the stress of her three-month job search.

As Thompson sees it, any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record. But Monroe\'s career-services department has put forth insufficient effort to help her secure employment, she claims.

"They\'re supposed to say, \'I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right -- can you interview this person?\' They\'re not doing that," she said.

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Thompson said she has fulfilled her end of the job-search bargain, peppering companies listed on Monroe\'s e-recruiting site with cover letters, résumés and phone calls. But no more than two employers have responded to her outreach, and those leads have borne no fruit.

Her complaint adds, "The office of career advancement information technology counselor did not make sure their Monroe e-recruiting clients call their graduates that recently finished college for an interview to get a job placement. They have not tried hard enough to help me."

She suggested that Monroe\'s Office of Career Advancement shows preferential treatment to students with excellent grades. "They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement," she said. iReport.com: "Don\'t sue your alma mater"

Monroe College released a statement saying that "while it is clear that no college, especially in this economy, can guarantee employment, Monroe College remains committed to working with all its students, including Ms. Thompson, who graduated only three months ago, to prepare them for careers and to support them during their job search."

Thompson says she has not hired an attorney to represent her because she cannot afford one. When she filed her complaint, she also filed a "poor person order," which exempts her from filing fees associated with the lawsuit.

Asked whether she would advise other college graduates facing job woes to sue their alma maters, Thompson said yes.

"It doesn\'t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald\'s and Payless. That\'s not what they planned."

[Yoda]

Someone needs to smack this girl back to reality.  No college owes you a job placement.  You work your ass on an hope that someone notices you.  Besides, a 2.7 equates to a high "C", not even a "C+"...  She exactly the person that I\'d hire; someone that went to class and slid by; show a little effort...

[NickNels]

Grad school + 2.7 GPA + 80% attendance?

I would be less likely to hire this person vs. someone just out of college.

First Question:  "why did you waste 4 more years in school paying absurd tuition just to put enough work in to slide by?"

If you are going to grad school, you better be committed and kill it.  Seems like a waste of time and money not to.

[Mamalakabubadaya]

what a jackass.

no one who went to college in the last few years planned to graduate in this shit economy. we all went away to college based on the assumption that this is what we\'re supposed to do (according to our parents) to eventually be independent and have a career. i just graduated and of the friends of mine who graduated, only a select few of us have actually landed decent full time jobs.

i applied to companies like a crazy bitch in may because i knew that the last thing i wanted to have happen after college was to move back in with my parents (not that i don\'t love them). i spent hours and hours on the phone and looking around multiple sites online. in the end it was the uconn career website that led me to the position i\'m in now. never thought that would happen heh.

[skalnbyc]

Search for her Facebook/Myspace page.  I\'m sure the Bronx bitch looks just as hag as her actions.

[jking]

i dunno, three months is an awful long time for someone with a 2.7gpa to have to look for a job... luckily, if you hire her, you know she\'s not very likely to be capriciously litigious!

[Yoda]

Some quick calculations:

72000/4 years of school = 18000/year
18000/26 pays per year = $692.31 Gross per pay check
692.31*.75 rough estimate of net pay after tax withholdings (s0 claim on w4) 519.23
519.23/80 hours per pay check (40 hours*2 weeks) =$6.49/hour

She is suing for slightly more than she could have made at minimum wage over the same time period. Maybe she shouldn\'t have wasted her time in college.

[snwckgtr]

this is a hilarious story.  i didnt realize that a "solid attendance record" counts for anything in college.  i also hope that as a recent graduate at age 27 it didnt take her 9 years to complete an undergrad program.  a quick look at the monroe college website shows that tuition is about $11,000 a year which means 6 and a half years...

for someone with a degree in IT one would think she can find more than one website to help herself find a job.  i graduated with a 2.9 last year and still havent found a job

dont people know "office of career advancement" = college internship?  theyre not gonna help you when youre not a student anymore!

[skalnbyc]

I\'ver never heard of the school - probably a junky, overpriced school that will let in anyone with a heartbeat and financial aid.

[kindm's]

I agree with most of the above statements. However an interesting counter argument was made on some other message boards.

Basically that many / most of colleges and universities today sell themselves on the job placement / finding a good job. They sell this to kids and have been for a long time. So as frivolous as this suit seems to many of us it might have some merit.

If anything it may make colleges / universities curb their ever increasing BS bill of goods they sell kids on today.

When I went to college it was seen as a gateway to a POTENTIALLY better job. A lot of that has been ramped up to be definite and other terminology used.

Sure smart people realize that college deals with the theoretical and is not really a vocational existence. It deals with the abstract not the hands on problem solving that most businesses are looking for.

The biggest difference is companies no longer invest time / effort in to their workforce and just expect young people to be able to hit the ground running.

this person has a lot going against her. Her name is trina for fucks sake, she has a "bachelor of business administration degree in information technology" Whatever the hell that is and is trying to get in to a sector that has been hit by outsourcing and job cuts. There are guys with 10 - 20 years in the business that cannot find good paying jobs.

The entitlement complex of todays youth is staggering

[Drew_Kingsley]

There\'s nothing wrong with a 2.7 GPA and a "solid attendance record", but if those are the highlights of your academic career, you\'re probably not going to be wooed by a Fortune 500 company any time soon.

Folks these days are taking jobs that they are vastly overqualified for, just for the steady paycheck. And some folks already in the work force (and I\'m not naming names) are getting (hypothetical) $4,000 pay cuts from their (theoretical) employers and can\'t find another (speculative) job so they just have to take the pay cut up the (metaphorical) pooper. The job market sucks, and people with no relevant experience in their fields are getting the worst of it, but a lawsuit isn\'t the way to get anything done.

Monroe College should threaten a counter-suit for defamation. I think the woman who already can\'t afford a lawyer may have to back off at that point.

[FrankZappa]

Now the next step of this operation: The evil corrupter of youth is going to take him from Step One, Which is a mere high-school diploma stuffed with a gym sock, To Step Two, Which is a college-degree stuffed with absolutely nothing at all. Smoke that and it\'ll really get you out there!...

[NickNels]

so i guess this is a statement she submitted:

I am seeking a REINBURSMENT of $70,000 for my TUTISION because the office of career advancement Information of Technology COUSELOR did not make sure their monroe e-recruiting clients call the graduates that recently finishing college for an interview to get a job placement.

I mean...wow!  proofread much?

[zuke583]

nick that was her final draft. the original was a little more like this:

they didna povide me wif a adekat learnimication