ITT Tech ripoff dishonest overpriced Ft Lauderdale Florida
This report will confirm some earlier posts about I.T.T Tech.
If you are a student or plan on becoming a student please re-evaluate your descision.
I attended the FT. Lauderdale,FL Campus for 1 year. and paid/owe approximately 10,000. This number would be slighter higher b/c I had some grants apllied to my education. At the time, the course was called CNS (computer networking systems). At the end of my first year I realized how much I wasnt learning and resigned from the course. In the school's defense there were some students with the same opinion as I however, some were the type that didnt show up everyday and did little work. On the other hand I had a 3.8 GPA.
The "sales man" that pitched the program to me unofficially told me I would be making 80,000 per year after completion. This could be so far from the truth. Unfortunately it took me a year to figure it out. The truth is in this field what makes you worth that is your expirience. To get the expirience you must possess the "know how" and I wasnt getting that at ITT.
First of all, when I was taking there course almost everything was Windows NT based. They were teaching us N.T. technology and at the same time advising us to get an MCSE. The irony was the MSCE at the time was windows 2000 based not NT! And then we would have to take these classes that were a complete waste of time such as "User interface design". I am trying to learn networking systems so I can manage an enterprise level network based on up-to-date technology (as ITT promised) why do I have to waste my time with user interface? Compare the course discreption with other tech schools that cost alot less. We need courses such as Database managment in MS or Sysbase Sql Server not User Interface! Is that too much to ask for a 30,000$ specialized associate degree? All knowlege I have obtained came from Cert Prep school's such as P.C. professor (I learned more about windows systems there in 3 months then the whole year at ITT.)
To add fuel to the fire, I am now in Collections due to ITT giving me the impression that my loan was paid. Let me explain. After I quit their program my Grandfather offered to pay off my loan and repay him to avoid interest. So we contacted ITT. They gave me an amount and he paid it. Once the money was cleared we called ITT back to confirm I didnt owe anything more. They assured us of this. A year and 1/2 later I get a call from a collections agency saying I owe 3000$. I know what some of you may be thinking, didnt the agency that gave you loan try to contact you? The answer is yes, they tried twice. One time by phone and one time by mail. The problem was since my assurance of payoff by ITT my address and phone had changed. I am not blaming I.T.T. for this discrepancy because in the end it is my responsibility to know what I owe but you would think that an accredible institution such as I.T.T. should be able to acurately give me this information.
In conclusion, I advise anyone who plans on taking an ITT course to know what they are getting into and research other tech school's with an emphasis on the course. Really take a look at the courses you would be taking and compare them to current job discriptions. For Example: IF you are persuing a career in Network Administration and 80 percent of hiring employers want you to have expirience in Unix or SQL Server, make sure the course offers a Unix or SQL class not User Interface!
P.S. I.T.T. also lies about their hire rate. I had a friend who went to the same campus and graduated from the electronics program. I was still attending classes there after he graduated and noticed his name + picture on a bulletin board claming he was hiring as a tech. I bumped into him at my gym a year ago and he was working in retail still looking for a job as tech.
Albert
Boynton Beach, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Michael J. Latham
San Diego,California,
U.S.A.
Getting what you paid for, A prior graduate of I.T.T.
#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, April 22, 2004
Who am I? A prior graduate of I.T.T. Technical Institute. Graduated in 2000, Computer Aided Design.
Are they overpriced? Do they pressure people to join? Are they really using the latest technology? Are they a rip-off? Bear with me a second, and you can answer yourself.
I went to ITT knowing full well a couple of things:
1. They are not a charity. They are a for-profit company. (Want your degree free? Don't plan on getting a good job with a free degree.) I was charged $30.00 for a book with the price, $12.99, on the back cover. At first, I was hot. Went and complained. (They refunded not only mine, but my entire classes over-charge)
Only by putting 2 of my kids through State college did I find out my overcharge was pretty lame - I save over 60% (!!!) by shopping at a college book store off campus. And the 60% is on a new book, not used! Used, you save even more! Please, remember, somebody has to pay for the books, to store the books, hand out the books, keep an inventory of the books, etc, etc. And no, they don't do it for free. You can, however, go to a college book store off campus, on your own gas and get what you need. Since all they do is books, not education, they can sell cheap. Don't expect a good seafood dinner at a fast food restaurant. Just something as close as they can get!
2. Some instructors would suck, others would shine. (Kind of like every workplace in the world - some workers stand out as great, others not so.) Some would not even know as much as I did in some subjects.
3. I would have to go through a significant amount of training that seemed like I didn't really need - Remember your high school days? Why learn History? I'm not going to use that later in life.... Yeah, well, If you are so smart, why are you here? And nobody, once grown, still thinks what a waste of time in my school years, learning history. You get, hopefully, smarter.
4. Being For-profit, means, hopefully, The folks teaching are the best they can get, but the folks doing your ancillary stuff (Paper work, forms, etc), are where they skip to the less than stellar employees.
5. Whatever salary guidelines offered would be just that - A (rough) guideline. For the record, I graduated with a 3.9, and got a job paying the max end of the scale. Lucky? No, skilled. There is a big difference. That, plus the degree. More on that later....
6. I would only get out what I put in. And that applies to many things. A good teacher can generate stupid students just like an idiot can generate skilled ones.
The biggest irony of it all? I found two interesting groups - one, at school, planned on just sticking it out until they learned AutoCad (that cost them about 10 grand at ITT, however, it's about 300 - 1,000 for specific training in just Autocad someplace else.) They didn't need to waste time getting that little piece of paper.
The second group, was at work. They where wishing they had stuck with it. Particularly when I got a raise over those who where there longer, because I had that little piece of paper, plus was good at the job.
What about the latest technology? I learned on Autocad version 14, while the next release (Autocad 2000) was out on the streets. Perhaps they should have started us from day one again, so we could use that latest version? Please. If you are inclined to learn as much as you can, a newer version of software should be no problem. And hey, if they run the school around the release dates of newer software, count me out. What, a 5 month associate degree? Come on. Get real.
Most education is done on principles of application, not specific software. I could learn Microstation, (competes with Autocad) if I had to. The principles of drafting would still apply.
Thanks for the forum.
(And no, I don't work at or for ITT. But my degree from them is working for me.)