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Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,769,842 times
Reputation: 3587
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I don't know why- for the life of me- anybody would want to attend one of those trade schools that advertise on daytime TV. I have yet to see one that does not lie about everything. Let's look at the SCAMS and LIES in more detail:
1. We teach something here unique and respected. This is horse crap. Most of them do not teach anything you cannot learn on the job or in a vo-tech or community college setting. I see one school here for big truck drivers that charges like $3000 to train you to "get your license and be a big truck driver and make lots of money". Having an uncle in law in that business, he just laughs when he sees it. The fact is that the trucking companies themselves will train you for free and get you your license if you agree to work for them for a year!
2. We will test and qualify you for our program. Yes, they will give you a test. And you will pass it. Even if you intentionally miss every question on it, you will pass it. They never turn away anybody regardless of whether you can actually do the work or not. I don't doubt the truck driver school would probably enroll a blind student if they could!
3. Our placement rate is 97%! They can get away with saying this because they fudge the numbers. They count everybody who has a job after graduation as "placed". So let's say you finish a school like Electronics Trade School (ETS). Let's say that while you were attending ETS you have a part time job at Wal*Mart and you are still working at Wal*Mart after graduation because you cannot find a "fantastic electronics job". As far as ETS is concerned you are "placed" because you are working. The real placement rate is probably closer to 25% of the graduating class.
4. We have lifetime placement assistance! This leads you to believe that, should your job ever dissappear, your wonderful school will be there to help you get a brand new "fantastic electronics job" elsewhere. The reality is that they are not going to refer you to any job they can give a current graduate. So if a company like Texas Instruments calls up ETS and says "we need 6 technicians", you can bet your ass that ETS is going to refer 5 current students rather than somebody that graduated 4 years ago and is not paying any more money to ETS.
Perhaps some of you can tell us more of the LIES these places tell and how they really scam the Federal Student Loan programs out of billions of dollars every year. I really like the one on TV here that has the guy with the sexy blonde and the Corvette convertible saying how the trade school made his life so good. Not unless he took acting there!
Ok so I recently found out that the degree I am going to be getting from ITT in September is going to be pretty close to worthless. I am 6 quarters in, for the Associates program. I was also informed that I would be better off going to Mesa Community College and just starting over there since the credits from ITT are not transferable. Not to mention that the degree from MCC is going to be a tenth of the cost compared to ITT. If anyone can give me advice on this I would deeply appreciate it.
Ok so I recently found out that the degree I am going to be getting from ITT in September is going to be pretty close to worthless. I am 6 quarters in, for the Associates program. I was also informed that I would be better off going to Mesa Community College and just starting over there since the credits from ITT are not transferable. Not to mention that the degree from MCC is going to be a tenth of the cost compared to ITT. If anyone can give me advice on this I would deeply appreciate it.
Will
Well use the career placement office for all it's worth. True, your degree is expensive, but it's even worse to get this far, drop out, and come out with nothing. While looking for a job, concentrate of benefits regarding continuing education and tuition reimbursement. That will at least allow you to go to school and work towards your bachelors (if that's what you want) at someone's else's expense the second time around.
Ok so I recently found out that the degree I am going to be getting from ITT in September is going to be pretty close to worthless. I am 6 quarters in, for the Associates program. I was also informed that I would be better off going to Mesa Community College and just starting over there since the credits from ITT are not transferable. Not to mention that the degree from MCC is going to be a tenth of the cost compared to ITT. If anyone can give me advice on this I would deeply appreciate it.
Tough choice. Stay or quit. After I got my Bachelor's degree from university I really couldn't find a career oriented position so I attended a proprietary school. I dropped out after a year - there was no end in site to the program - and I still had to pay the $10k back. Ugh, but it's paid back. I went to a different proprietary school - finished in 6 months and went straight into a job. I got my money's worth with the 2nd school.
I guess you really have to weigh the chances of you getting a job with your ITT education and them make a decision.
Reading your post where is any proof validation of the "facts" or better call them opinions because i did not read one single fact that you backed up by any sort of proof. You have numbered "lies" 1-4 according to you, but to me it seems like you don't really know what you are talking about. Did you ever take a test and purposely get every answer wrong? Did you ever inquire about the "big trucks" (what is a big truck anyway) lets quote you here "I see one school here for big truck drivers that charges like $3000 to train you to "get your license and be a big truck driver and make lots of money". Having an uncle in law in that business, he just laughs when he sees it. The fact is that the trucking companies themselves will train you for free and get you your license if you agree to work for them for a year!" Yea its true many semi-truck companies will train you and give you your certificate but you can drive only 11 hours a day, and get anywhere from a fixed rate to a set rate of cents per mile; usually they go by the mile anywhere from 39 cents to 70 or 80 cents a mile. The "big truck" add gives you the option of owning your own truck and being able to drive as much as you want daily(this is not really legal but there are loop holes that you would never get working for a large trucking company) and also you can negotiate prices when you drive for yourself.
As to the job placement, most schools trade/vocational/community colleges/ivy leagues will attempt to help you find a job straight out of school: after that most schools hope you are intelligent enough to learn how to network. Hopefully by this time you have some sort of portfolio/resume that can prove to any company you are serious and you take your job seriously.
So please if you are going to make statements about certain types of schools lets see some actual facts whether it be a link to where you got the information. Lets also remember that by making the statements you made the burden of proof lays on you.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 03-19-2010 at 07:27 AM..
Reason: *edited inappropriate language
I went to a trade school when I graduated high school. It was a local votech school so it may be a little different than what the OP was talking about, but they did (and probably still do) fill prospective applicants' heads with lies.
I went to get a one-year certificate to do auto body repair and they told us about the great money that auto body repair technicians make in the field. After graduating and working two years to get up to $8 an hour, I realized that that career would get me nowhere but to an early grave from the chemicals.
It did give me the motivation to go get a real degree, and I talk to my high school students about that experience a lot.
I went to ECPI soon after High school cause I was referred by thier IT program. I hate that school and it's probably like many of the other trade schools out there. I didn't really learn much and the courses were just way to easy. One thing I didn't like about the school was that it was sooo expensive, and you had to pay alot of it up front; so it's not like a regular college/university where you pay by how ever many credits you're taking.
These trade schools do attempt to help you find a job; but for them to actually land you a decent job to help pay off more than $30K of loans is very few. It's sad because most of my friends that went there took on help desk jobs makin $7-8 an hour or maybe a low level technician job making $10 an hour. I will say that with my military background they were able to hook me up with a company making $15 an hour but I denied it to pursue a Bachelors Degree.
Luckily, I used my military service to my advantage and went back active duty and got my Bachelors Degree and when I got out I took on a Govt Job making good money.
The good think about ECPI was that they were Regionally Accredited by SACS which was my credits were transferrable to 4 year colleges/universities. But that's about the only good thing I can say about them. I mean there were few that were able to get many different IT certs which consequently got them higher paying jobs; but very few and far between.
I'd say stay away from them; they cost to much and the majority of the graduates are probably not where they thought they'd be a few years after graduation.
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