The Chubb Institute - Anthem College I am at fault for not complaining enough. Parsippany New Jersey
I started at the Chubb Institute in July 2007. It all began with the A+ Hardware course. The class started with well over 20 students. By the end of the first class we had at least 15 remaining. The teacher of that class read a chapter a night to us every single class. The reviews for tests were simply page numbers and sentences to remember verbatim for the tests. We broke more hardware during labs than we actually fixed. After the first class my classmates had complained so much that during the middle of the second class this teacher was fired. After a fully wasted class there was no compensation to the students. There was a measly attempt at offering some extra classes but made little to no difference in general. Night students simply do not have the flexibility.
The Linux classes were plagued with 'quirks'. The linux flavor the book went over could not be installed on our machines because the disc the book contained was a DVD. All the computers at Chubb contained only CD drives. The teacher had nothing in the ways of resources for us to use. We had to use different Linux operating systems and had to do our best to figure out where the parts of the book matched up. There was a lot of print outs and a lot of figuring out to be done on our own. The teacher was at a loss given the schools poor computer resources.
That's primarily what this school was... very miss and little hit. When it finally hit something home it was well though out; as in the Network+ class. All other classes were spent installing, reinstalling, re-reinstalling, and waiting for operating systems to get setup. Class would start at 6pm... we'd install an operating system... during that time the teacher could have done something smart and teach us, but that time was spent chatting, doing nothing, drinking coffee... other students who didn't care would fire up the computer next to them and play around on the internet.
When 7PM rolled around then it was dinner time. The previous hour was spent installing an OS, then there was dinner for 30 minutes. We'd get back at 7:30 and more dilly-dally. Class finally got moving at 8PM. Then when 10PM hit, there were certain students who would whine and complain or just plain leave at 10PM. Class would officially end moments after that. Class is supposed to end at 11PM.
I felt I was a diligent student: 4.0 Average, I worked during class, I helped those who asked, I had fun doing so. I came to the realization I don't need to be paying for this. I was going to this school to teach others what I knew. I wasn't learning anything new. My goal was to attain professional certifications, but what I'm paying this play to do for me, I can do at home on my own and achieve the same if not better results.
The final nail in the coffin was the teacher who had 15+ years, or something like that, in software programming and he tried to teach us Microsoft Server. One class started with "we're going to try something" and 3 hours later he couldn't figure out how to connect a client PC to a server. Everyone else in class was putzing around and not taking part in the exercise because the teacher worked with ONE student.
I then walked out of class and submitted my resignation letter finally after almost one year of pushing forward; I wanted to see the classes I was really interested in only to be let down. I want to try, but this was it. I wanted to cut my losses. This was the beginning of even bigger headaches.
I was then contacted by their collections group asking for the remaining amount of money for the academic year. This amount of money is for the 7th class of the 'academic year'. I would have found this out if the school had contacted me for the required exit interviews. Now they want to enforce their Enrollment Agreement so they can get their money. If I had these exit interviews I would have known about the remaining money owed. I would have then completed the course.
I then inquired about returning to the school after I found out the teacher for the course I left was actually replaced. If they wanted my remaining money I wanted my remaining course. The campus president then said I had to send her a letter asking to be reinstated... and then she had to tell me there was a $100 reinstatement fee. I had absolutely -no- knowledge of this fee. Perhaps I would have known this if someone from the school contacted me for the -required- exit interviews.
I felt I was not obligated to pay this fee, and let it be known, the campus president felt she needed to charge me this fee. It was made out to be my fault that I did not give the school enough time to 'fix' the problems. In the end she would not let me come back to the school. And now I have to essentially give this school free money and get nothing in return for it. I wanted to take the last class of the first academic year and they refused. They could have made it up to me, and maybe I would have finished out the course and they could have the rest of the course tuition, but they refused me.
I feel I've been pushed into a corner and now I'm forced to pay money for an education that was unsatisfactory.
Anonymous
Randolph, New Jersey
U.S.A.
7 Updates & Rebuttals
Jd
Seward,Nebraska,
U.S.A.
Ex-Employee agrees
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, January 23, 2009
The business model employed by the new parent company of the Chubb Institute/Anthem (HTI http://www.hightechinstitute.edu/about/) is designed to be a clearing house for federal student loans. What this means is that they are only concerned with meeting the minimum requirements for ACCSCT educational institutions while collecting student loan money.
What this means for the consumer is that you are required to pay $$$$ but they are not required to make sure you learn anything! The quality or level of education provided is not monitored. Pay close attention to the pressure sales techniques and how quickly they want you to commit to your "financial aid" package. The financial aid package is just student loans... They give you no scholarships. This whole process is legal so you are responsible by contract to pay Anthem and your loans.
Stay away - go to junior college instead.
Jd
Seward,Nebraska,
U.S.A.
Ex-Employee agrees
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, January 23, 2009
The business model employed by the new parent company of the Chubb Institute/Anthem (HTI http://www.hightechinstitute.edu/about/) is designed to be a clearing house for federal student loans. What this means is that they are only concerned with meeting the minimum requirements for ACCSCT educational institutions while collecting student loan money.
What this means for the consumer is that you are required to pay $$$$ but they are not required to make sure you learn anything! The quality or level of education provided is not monitored. Pay close attention to the pressure sales techniques and how quickly they want you to commit to your "financial aid" package. The financial aid package is just student loans... They give you no scholarships. This whole process is legal so you are responsible by contract to pay Anthem and your loans.
Stay away - go to junior college instead.
Jd
Seward,Nebraska,
U.S.A.
Ex-Employee agrees
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, January 23, 2009
The business model employed by the new parent company of the Chubb Institute/Anthem (HTI http://www.hightechinstitute.edu/about/) is designed to be a clearing house for federal student loans. What this means is that they are only concerned with meeting the minimum requirements for ACCSCT educational institutions while collecting student loan money.
What this means for the consumer is that you are required to pay $$$$ but they are not required to make sure you learn anything! The quality or level of education provided is not monitored. Pay close attention to the pressure sales techniques and how quickly they want you to commit to your "financial aid" package. The financial aid package is just student loans... They give you no scholarships. This whole process is legal so you are responsible by contract to pay Anthem and your loans.
Stay away - go to junior college instead.
Jd
Seward,Nebraska,
U.S.A.
Ex-Employee agrees
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, January 23, 2009
The business model employed by the new parent company of the Chubb Institute/Anthem (HTI http://www.hightechinstitute.edu/about/) is designed to be a clearing house for federal student loans. What this means is that they are only concerned with meeting the minimum requirements for ACCSCT educational institutions while collecting student loan money.
What this means for the consumer is that you are required to pay $$$$ but they are not required to make sure you learn anything! The quality or level of education provided is not monitored. Pay close attention to the pressure sales techniques and how quickly they want you to commit to your "financial aid" package. The financial aid package is just student loans... They give you no scholarships. This whole process is legal so you are responsible by contract to pay Anthem and your loans.
Stay away - go to junior college instead.
Cw
Dover,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Former student agrees
#8Consumer Comment
Sat, December 06, 2008
I attended the Parsippany campus in 2004. I still feel as though I am paying Sallie Mae for getting nothing in the way of an education there. Our instructors had no idea what they were doing half the time, one even left in the middle of a session so we got a temp replacement until "they could find someone for us". Our instructors would yell all the time and mess up our laptops when we were on frequent breaks, the other students in our class got into fights all the time and the staff did nothing about it. One day we were without an instructor so someone on the staff told us to just go home for the day. What's worse is that when it came time to build our resumes and have the employment staff send them out, maybe 2 or 3 in my class of 16 got jobs. Everyone else including me, had to fight with the staff to even get our resumes pushed out to their clients, or told "oh since you don't have a car, we don't want to help you" was the answer myself and other people in my class got who didn't have cars.
Mark
East Brunswick,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Ex-Employee Agrees
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, November 22, 2008
I was an important employee at the Chubb organization from 1996 - 2003 working as an instructor and curriculum developer. I can say in all honesty that the management at Chubb, those at the Parsippany head office, had the best of intentions and worked very hard to make sure there was a solid, updated course of study and that the students had the best opportunity to learn from the courses as they were written. We tried to make Chubb an authorized testing location so that certification exams could be taken at the school where you learned the material. We worked very closely with a HUGE educational corporation (also book publisher) to develop excellent course materials including books, labs, tests and quizzes.
When the tech wreck came along, Chubb's enrollement declined severly. I saw oversized classes turn into classes of as few as 5 students. The curriculum was in process of being overhauled and repositioned as a technical/business curriculum. I personally developed many of the courses like the Business Ethics course, the course on Logic, The writing and grammar courses as well as several of the networking courses. And I thought the work was going great.
Where Chubb went wrong was to toss out the company we were working so hard with and bring in a company from India to write books from scratch. This was an attempt to save money, but it turned out to be a disaster.
Now for full disclosure, I should say that a talented team of Chubb development people (of which I was one) worked for months with our Indian couterparts to outline books and labs, negotiate content and finalize exams. The day the work was done, I mean the VERY SAME afternoon, as the Indians departed for JFK airport bound back to India, I was told that the Indian company would finish the work and that my job was eliminated. I was totally blindsided and shocked with this news. I truly believe that my departure caused a lack of quality control in the next and last steps on the develpoment process given my wide exposure in the process.
Prior to my elevation as a curriculum developer, I was an instructor of computer networking in New York, Jersey City and Parsippany. I hold my MCSE, CCNA and an MBA in Finance with a concentration in Economics. My students enjoyed my classes and often told me I was the best instructor they ever had. I walked into classes on the first day to standing ovations as students hoped that I would be their instructor. Sadly, I was one of the very few who gained that respect. The quality of instructors I saw at Chubb was, for the most part, abysmal. I blame this completely on the individual administrations of the campuses, the bulk of whom were unqualified themselves. Education directors with no degrees in education (I know of one particular ED who only had a GED). I had students put in my class in NY that didn't speak English. I remember another guy in the class translating for me, telling me the student only spoke Urdu, thankfully he didn't show up the second day. Or the class I had with a blind student, he was a really great guy, but he couldn't keep up with the lectures because he couldn't see the whiteboard and we didn't have braille books or other appropriate learning materials. In short, we were not set up to handle students with this disability, but we took his money anyway.
I could really go on for hours. In total, I was employed at Chubb for 7 years. I was the insider's insider. I was liked and trusted by the administration, the staff and the students. I was sent into problem classes (where the students were petitioning and threatening lawsuits) many times to "straighten things out". While there were really quality people there, finding them was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
There is plenty of blame to go around though. I encountered MANY students who thought that since they paid their money, they didn't have to work hard to learn the material and that Chubb would "get them a job". I could never convince some students that learning was their responsibility and Chubb, for whatever it was, provided a haven for the leanring to occur. Sometimes, the students and the instructors deserved each other.
Like everything else in consumerism, let the buyer beware. Do your homework before you buy. Work hard, and you will reap your own rewards. I have former students from Chubb that are very successful, I even have one as a current employee.
Opportunities often disguise themselves as hard work so most people don't recognize them.
Chubb/anthemsucks
North Brunswick,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Chubb Institute/ Anthem Ready to Drop out TODAY North Bruns. NJ
#8Consumer Comment
Wed, October 08, 2008
I am currently enrolled in the Scam too...
I go to Anthem Institute in North Brunswick formerly known as Chubbs. I have read pretty much about 50 percent of the 20 something reports on Chubbs and I have to say for the most part it is pretty correct. I am very young and when I left High School I got a pretty good job( which I am currently still working at) getting paid fairly good. I delve in other fields self taught, Music, and am leaving this place to pursue my career and keep working for the Business Owner I work for.
When I left HighSchool, no one in my family really bothered me with going to school too much except for my mom but every now and then she would ask if I was going to enroll. Her comments like most of todays programmed society, made me feel like going to school was an absolute do or die must to lead a happy life. Well I dunno about you but almost 18,000 for a Computer Networking Security Course and being years in debt is not happiness. A friend of mine was taking a different course and I had seen the school and at first glance was not so bad. So I came for an interview, the person didn't really know the first thing about the school, the admissions reps kind of sit in the squared away section and I never saw the guy again, I believe he was fired. I took a joke entrance exam, they told me do not worry about the exam too much as no one really gets through the whole thing. I almost finished and they told me I passed with flying colors, the test was so easy I think a fairly competent 7th grader could get most of the questions right.
The test was a red flag along with the pushy admin reps and different "agreements" they were flashing me, however I thought this was apart of the college life other kids were going through. Let me cut to the chase, the only good part about this school is the books they give you which state the Certification Test number and the title of it they are for and come with software with demo tests that are perfect for getting Certifications. I should have went to Barnes and Nobles and got these books and studied myself.
The teachers I had meant well but they are not good teachers by any means. The first one I had was probably the most qualified to actually teach and present material. I felt so contradicted because I found these reports and I was comparing to my experiences so far that the teachers were horrible, when this guy was awesome, he cared for the students, stayed late with people who needed help and has been teaching there for god knows how long.
Every statement that has been made in any of these reports turned out to be pretty close to what I have experienced but the only one I can say has been 100 percent god honest true were the Comments about Forensics. That was the biggest joke along with the teacher, Paul, who taught it. We played rom games he brought in all day, left class about 3 to 4 hours early pretty much everyday and that room had no kind of temperature control. He also taught our networking class, which was again, a joke, as he gave us the answers to the tests. All we had to do was memorize the sequence, and still some of the students were having a hard time. Another true factor was the class started kind of large, and dwindled.
It would be unfair to me to say the teachers did not care, but they werent very good. As said before this report is pretty much true as I have seen stories like this happen in front of my eyes.
Also, THE COMPUTERS SUCK!! We all bring in our own laptops to do the "Labs".
Bottom Line this school is not worth 17,000. If any of you have any advice on the process of leaving the school please respond to this report. I actually only got loans and grants for the first semester of the Night courses in CNS, which is about 9 to 10 grand. I hope they dont expect the rest because there not.
Chubbs sucks, and I'm sure all schools suck but it is not what I wanna do or learn anymore. Pick a school, preferably a real college, and make sure it is a subject you truly desire...It's gonna suck, you'll be in debt,(not 17,000) but better to start on the path to where you want to go then a path you thought you were supposed to go.