This assertion is “vigorously disputed” by the Dominican Republic, according to a statement provided by its spokesperson. The statement added that the applied computer science program was developed in full compliance with the standards of the accreditor and is certified by the Ministry of Education. The Dominican Republic also claims that before being contacted by the Hechinger Report, it was unaware of the SBPC’s allegations.
SBPC’s Kaufman says they didn’t contact Dominican, “because we didn’t think there was anything in our investigation that could have been a revelation to the school.” Ashutosh Desai, one of the co-founders of Make School, declined to comment for this story. Jeremy Rossmann, the other co-founder, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Andrea Graziosi discovered Make School at the beginning of 2020. Recently divorced, mother of two children, she badly needed a job. But with a decade of absence on her resume, she had only found employment at a local yoga studio and occasional substitute teaching jobs.
She had earned a bachelor’s degree in finance twenty years earlier and Make School had promised her it could help her land a good job. So, for an entire year, Graziosi spent 10 hours a day in front of his computer listening to instructors. She found that most failed to explain the content. To complete her homework, she spent hours each evening teaching the material herself, with the help of Coursera and YouTube tutorials.
Meanwhile, in the spring of 2021, Make School’s finances were in disarray. And on July 1, 2021, dozens of students who attended Make School before its partnership with the Dominican Republic filed a lawsuit against Make School, alleging predatory and deceptive marketing and lending practices.
Shortly after the students’ lawsuit was filed, Make School leaders learned they would not receive independent accreditation from WSCUC. A few days later, they told the Dominican Republic that they planned to close, and a few days later they emailed the news to students.
Graziosi was devastated, she said, experiencing anxiety so severe that she sought medical attention. “I was clinging to it as my way of being okay, you know, having a job and supporting myself,” she says. “And the way they did it was so wrong.”
The Dominican Republic quickly announced that it was absorbing the applied computer science program. “We really worked as hard as we could, once this transition happened, to support the transition,” Pitchford says.
About 57 percent of the 167 students enrolled at Make School at the time continued their studies in the Dominican Republic, and only 40 percent earned a Dominican degree, according to figures provided by the university.
