Saint Elizabeth University — Attraction in Florham Park

I graduated High School in 2012 and was preparing myself to go to CSE. I thought it would be an awesome school and I thought it was really cool it being girls only. At the time I experienced very helping staff who helped me settle and try and get things done before the semester. I filed for FAFSA and I thought i was all set since i did not hear back about any pending financial status ( I should have known something was wrong). As the end of the Fall semester was approaching I then received an email that I had to go to the financial aid office.

I speak with a financial advisor and he assures me that as long as my dad calls the IRS and sorts things out with them and get a record of his taxes and signed some papers i should be fine. I go home that weekend and beg my dad to please sign the papers and to please call IRS. Weeks pass and i still haven’t received any papers from dad. My dad and i dont have a great relationship at all and i went back to the financial advisor and i tell him my issue and how my dad is very unfair and he does not care about my education and if there is any way the school may be able to help me. And he rudely said “No, you’re just not trying hard enough”. Plain and simple. That winter I couldn’t apply until a tuition of $15,000 was paid.

I went home got two jobs months later i start to feel very weak, tired and with really bad anxiety to just be told by my doctor that two jobs was causing me too much stress and i had to quit one, to then find out weeks later that my dad was kicking me out. He changed the locks and left me out, the next day i begged him to get my stuff and a co worker was nice enough to allow me to rent out her room. The school then sends a letter to my parents house that if i dont pay the balance within the month it would be going to a collection agency. I called the school and the person at the time who answered was so rude and told me “ if you didnt have the money how were you planning to pay for this”(she said this with an attitude). I had a plan obviously i thought my dad would help me but he didnt .

A couple of months passed and the collection agency and i made payment arrangements which caused me to be late on rent a month because i had to put a down payment of 300. Which obviously isn’t much but I lived in NYC paying rent, metrocard, food, plus my woman necessities. I was making 50$ monthly payments to the collection agency, And might i add the collection agency added a fee of 3,000. So now it was 18,000. As i started paying i wanted to go to school at least part time but CSE said until the amount was paid in full I couldn’t request my transcript. That was my situation for the next 5 years. Something so simple could’ve been avoided if they would’ve asked for financial aid papers to be handed in before classes start. Other universities and colleges do it, i honestly feel like this school messed me over. But now that i have paid them off i am back in school and going for something that i love and i am much more happier.

I hope that this review helps anyone who wants to attend this school in the future. The professors are amazing but when it comes to the school advisors and financial assistance is just a scam, obviously like most schools but these guys honestly dont care in helping you or your children and won’t hide it. It’s a waste of time. Look at me 5 years of paying them to finally attend another 4 year university for my degree. This school is a disappointment. It failed me, its advisors tricked me into going there, its financial advisors did nothing to help me neither guided me in who I should talk to in order to continue my studies. Do yourself a favor and...

Be ware of the financial aid dept. If you are promised loans and grants you will not receive them. My son attended the entire semester 2016 and had to stop because our free school offer with grants ended up being $13,000! They promised to correct and have my son attend the school in Fall 2017. Now that I don’t trust them I asked for the entire cost upfront to attend 2017. Financial aid will not give us the cost upfront to attend the fall. James Calloway is a non compassionate person. They don’t care to help students! It is all about money here. I was told many small schools hustle students like this and promise grants just to get them to attend the school. AND then stick you with a bill. The school was all girls school. This is how they treated a new male student. I spoke to everyone in this school even the VP. No one cares to resolve the problem they caused. I’m fightimg with them over a year now! I would not want any other family to go through what mine is. Choose...

This school was once a vibrant, empowering space for women under Dr. Streubert's leadership. Since becoming co-ed and rebranding as SEU, it has lost its heart. Some extracurricular activities are gone, arts programs cut, and meaningful traditions erased. Female students lost the chance to grow in sisterhood. Leadership shows little care for student well-being or alumni. Career support is nonexistent, and alumni engagement is minimal. The new mission feels performative -- more about funding than student success. A heartbreaking decline for what was once a truly...