ASA College
ASA College is a 2 year, associate degree college located in New York, New York and North Miami Beach, Florida. The college, which has three campuses; Downtown Brooklyn, midtown Manhattan, and Miami, offers associate degrees and professional certificates in divisions of business administration, health disciplines, criminal justice, and computer technology.
History
ASA's modest roots began in 1985 with a professor and 12 students in a small Brooklyn classroom. Known then as 'Advanced Software Analysis', the College focused on computer programming.
Growth and Expansion
In addition to computer technology, ASA provides programs focusing on the rapidly growing industries such as healthcare, business and criminal justice. The college currently boasts more than 5,000 students, 16 programs of study, and 3 large campuses ; Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, and Miami, Florida.
Accreditations and approvals
ASA College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and authorized by the New York State Board of Regents to confer Associate of Occupational Studies and Associate in Applied Science degrees.
ASA’s Associate Degree program in Medical Assisting is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs upon the recommendation of the Curriculum Review Board of the American Association of Medical Assistants Endowment.
ASA is also approved by the New York State Education Department for the training of veterans and is authorized under Federal law to enroll non-immigrant alien students.
ASA College in New York City received top rankings in multiple categories of student engagement, placing it among the best performing two-year colleges in country, according to the recently released 2014 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE).[1]
Academic programs
The college offers ten degree programs in Healthcare Office Administration, Health Information Technology, Medical Assisting, Pharmacy Technology, Business Administration - Accounting, Office Administration and Technology, Computer Programming and Information technology, Network Administration and Security, Criminal Justice and Nursing.
ASA also offers six professional certification programs in Office Technology and Administration, Executive Legal Assistant, Computer Support Specialist, Internet Client-Server Application Development, PC Client-Server Programming and Medical Office Assisting with Medical Billing and a language division specializing in teaching ESL.
In 2014 survey, ASA scored better than the average of the Top-Performing colleges in the 2014 CCSSE Cohort (in three of the five benchmark categories: “Student Effort,” “Academic Challenge,” and “Support for Learners.” In addition, ASA scored above the national average in the remaining two categories: “Active and Collaborative Learning” and “Student-Faculty Interaction.” For New York City area participating colleges (with a total of more than 10,000 students) the survey showed ASA was a top performer with significantly higher scores than the average in all five categories. [2]
According to National Center for Education Statistics - ASA College ranks No. 8 out of 52 two-year colleges in New York State with 500+ student population who graduate on time or within 100% of their start time and No. 14 out of 52 two-year colleges in the State with 500+ student population who graduate within 150% of their start time. [3] – better than 73% of the listed two year institutions statewide.
Athletics programs
In 2008, ASA College launched their Athletics Division, [1] known as the ASA Avengers. Starting with a small basketball team, the program has expanded to include 13 sports programs playing under the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) Division 1[2].
Notably, the ASA Avengers Football program, the only junior college football program in New York City, was ranked #5 nationally for the 2012-2013 season, playing against Snow College in their first Carrier Bowl appearance.
Both the ASA College women's and men's tennis teams were ranked #1 nationally in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association junior college preseason poll released Friday. The Avenger programs both to enter the 2014-15 season as the reigning NJCAA Division I National Champions.[3]
2014 lawsuit
![]() | This section's factual accuracy is disputed. (May 2015) |
A 2014 class action lawsuit against ASA claims, "employers look at an ASA diploma as essentially worthless--and even a negative indication of a graduate's ability."[4]
The New York Legal Assistance Group states that "ASA students have been victimized by a large-scale scheme... to obtain federal and state financial aid by misrepresenting ASA’s certificate and degree programs to prospective and enrolled students, the U.S. Secretary of Education, the N.Y. State Department of Education, the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, and ASA’s accrediting agencies, in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and New York General Business Law §349."
According to former ASA Instructor Stephen Hirst "ASA is an overpriced, predatory, and disingenuous institution suckling at the government teat, and enrolling/tricking students who often don't understand the difference between an AA and a BA, or of a for-profit college and a state school or private university. In many cases the student-customers seem to have only a rudimentary understanding of the loan papers they've signed, or the exact nature of the debts they've accrued."[5]
The most recent officially published federal student loan default rate according to U.S. Department of Education for ASA College is 5.6% for the Fiscal Year 2011 2-Year analysis.[6]
References
- ^ Simpson, David (August 29, 2014). "High Marks for ASA College in National Survey" (Press release). New York: ASA College. Business Wire. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
- ^ http://www.ccsse.org
- ^ http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
- ^ "CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT AND JURY DEMAND" (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
- ^ Hirst, Steven (27 August 2014). "The Potemkin College in Herald Square: An Inside Look at ASA, the For-Profit College Fighting Off a RICO Lawsuit". Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
- ^ http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/defaultmanagement/cdr2yr.html[dead link]