Several students enrolled in Roc Nation School of music in Brooklyn, endorsed by Jay-Z, ten thousand dollars of debt despite the initial offer promised “debt-For free education. “At least 12 students say they have student debt after they joined the inaugural program by 2021 Gothamista.
Roc Nation School of Music launched its opening class in the fall of 2021. It came from a collaboration between Liu-Brooklyn and Roc Nation. The program offered the opportunity to study without musical debts through its Hope scholarship.
Roc Nation School promised students to graduate without debt
“I tried to get on the phone. Roc Nation School from Liu gives you a complete scholarship of license plates. You will receive the full enrollment and you can graduate -Bond without debt,” wrote the president of Liu Kimberly Cline in a 2021 message to the current justice of the student Stephenson.
Stephenson accepted the offer despite thinking that it must be too good to be true.
“I remember being in general in conflict with the school and finding this school made me feel a sense of security,” Gothamist told Gothamist. “It was a complete scholarship immediately. It was a music school, which is iconic and the dream. And Jay-Z is involved.”
The email did not mention the additional costs to attend the program, according to Gothamist. Registration at Liu-Brooklyn costs $ 40,000. Housing, meal plans, health insurance and full -time university fee cost additional $ 22,000 per Gothamist.
Roc Nation School students face unexpected costs
Stephenson said he was asked to pay $ 26,000 at school in 2023. He was able to negotiate costs to drop up to $ 5,000 after saying that he had promised a graduation without debt. Stephenson initially contacted Cline with questions about his scholarship, but he could never get in touch to have a conversation.
At least 12 students are in a similar situation. They owe between 5,000 and $ 39,000, according to Gothamist. After realizing that they had to cover rates and homes, some trusted the surf of sofa or even left the school or moved to another institution. In several cases, they were told to take loans for students in order to cover the cost of their education in Liu.
Student Ajaiya Thomas moved to another school after seeing $ 19,000 in unexpected posts at the University.
Another student finally hired loans to pay the $ 22,000 he owed to Liu.
“When I saw that I still had to pay money and then remove additional loans to pay my room and my board, it was very, very misleading,” said Ashley Barksdale.
Liu recently said that the scholarship only covered the enrollment, although this information seems to have not been communicated to students during its enrollment.
“Following the admission to the university, Hope scholarship recipients receive a university offer letter describing the lifelong scholarship and any students’ obligation,” said Liu’s marketing chief Jackie Nealon. “The offer letter also expressly includes that neither university expenses nor housing costs are included in the scholarship.”
The offer letters sent to the students emphasized a “full tuition scholarship” and “financial aid” that allow the student to “graduate without debt”. They did not mention that the academic expenses and the costs of housing are not included in the offer, according to Gothamist.
Roc Nation School students have criticized the general offer
Some students also said that Roc Nation School did not deliver what he promised, which included conferences invited by artists such as Rihanna, DJ Khaled and the Jonas brothers. Their names were announced, but they never appeared at school.
During the first year of the program, students said they had to build their own recording studio due to the lack of facilities on their program.
