Career Institute Abruptly Closes; Can't Get Credit To Stay Open

The American Career Institute abruptly closed all of its locations across Massachusetts and the United States yesterday, including the State Street Woburn building, citing it was unable to get credit to continue operating.

"Regrettably, American Career Institute is being forced to close on Jan. 9, 2013. The owners had to make the difficult decision to close the school due to its recent and unanticipated inability to access additional credit from the school's lenders. Without access to this credit, ACI is not able to continue operating," stated the Framingham business in a letter to students.

Student Haley Dutchka wrote on the Framingham Patch Facebook page "I sat in class today taking a final. My second month in school at ACI. I stayed after to take a makeup quiz and do extra credit... I left and received an email from school stating they just closed. No warning. I am in complete shock. The students from the framingham campus are in an uproar!"

Dutchka later wrote "The school website is shut down (we can not access our credits or grades) and phones are off. They have no employees so how they plan to "help students" find other schools is beyond me. People that paid 10,000+ just this December lost all of it, only one month into school. Students with a week to go, or ready to graduate now can not. No one has answers, and I dont think we ever will."

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In a letter to students, ACI emailed: "As of January 9, 2013, all ACI campuses will close. Despite, the necessity of a sudden closure, ACI remains committed to its student body. ACI is working diligently with schools in Massachusetts to develop teach-out agreements. Generally, a teach-out agreement would allow current ACI students to complete their programs at another school which offers a similar educational program. ACI encourages students to complete their program as teach outs become available, otherwise please be aware that there is a federal student loan discharge process that you may be eligible to apply for ..."

American Career Institute had locations in Massachusetts in Framingham, Cambridge, Springfield, Woburn and Braintree. It also operated three locations in Maryland in Baltimore, Columbia and Wheaton.