Complaint Review: VIRGINIA CELLEGE AT BIRMINGHAM-RESPIRATORY THERAPY--RIP-OFF--SCAM--WASTE OF TIME AND $$$$$$$

All I can say is WOW and I wish I NEVER enrolled and wasted my time and money with this school!!

I enrolled in VC in 2007 in the Respiratory Therapy Program with promises that they were so much better than all the other RT programs in Alabama. Boy were they wrong!! I started at Jeff State in Nursing, but I then decided that it really wasn't what I wanted to do, so I looked into the RT programs in AL. UAB was a 4 year program and had a waiting list that would have taken me over a year to get on. So when I heard that VC had a RT program I got excited and went and checked it out. The admissions lady was very nice and "sold" me the program. I met with program director (at the time it was Mrs. Hamburger) she was a very competent, knowledgeable women and she actually worked in the field of Respiratory. So I decided that it was something that I was interested in and enrolled.

First and second quarter went by just fine. The third quarter when I started my RT classes all hell broke loose. Mrs. Hamburger quit and the whole program fell apart. They ensured us that they were on top of it and everything would be fine stupidly I fell for it. We got a new program director who was just one the teachers (Mrs.  Angelica Jefferson). She did not know up from down. She had no clue how to run the program let alone how to schedule classes. She was the program director for about 2 months I think. Then she quit being the director because she could not handle the stress. We had another director for a couple of weeks until the new director came in. once he (Mr. Jackson) was hired on things started looking up. So I and other students felt better about the RT program. Things went by ok. The first day of one of my classes the "teacher" (if u could even call her that) quit because she too did not know what she was doing. The next "teacher" that was hired to teach that class was a fresh grad and barley new more than we did. Her teaching style was to read word for word from the book and test us on it. She did not explain anything when we asked her questions, she told us "look it up that's what the book is for". That was her last class to ever teach there. The next couple of quarters went by and things were ok.

When I started my clinical at the hospitals, I told the program director and Mrs. Jefferson (she was now helping with clinical arrangements) that I could not go to Princeton Hospital, because I had 2 family members past away there over the past year and I could not even walk in the door without crying. Mr. Jackson told me that he understood and they would not send me there at all. So when clinicals started I went to Trinity Hospital (excellent) and everything was great. Well in the middle of the quarter they sent me to Princeton (the place where I was promised that I would not have to go) when I confronted Mrs. Jefferson about it she told me "to get over it and that she never told me that I did not have to go there" LIAR!! So I had to sit through 6 weeks of hell talking to the doctor that killed my grandmother.

The 2nd clinical quarter I was sent right back to Princeton hospital. Well I was there for about 3 days when an "incident" that didn't even evolve me what so ever got me banned from Princeton hospital. (The "incident"-- another student and one of the therapist exchanged a few words when he made very rude remarks to the student. the only reason I was "involved" is because I witnessed it. I never not once opened my mouth. Of course the infamous Dr. Mel C. Glenn (not really a dr. at all just likes us to call him that) believed every lie that came out of the therapist mouth and I got kicked out of Princeton, dropped from class and held back 2 quarters). The only person that had my side of the situation was Mr. Jackson. He fought for us the entire time but Dr. Glenn (clinical coordinator) acted as if we brought shame to the whole entire school. He made examples of me in front of other student saying how rude I was and that no one should ever act the way I did (even though I did NOTHIG). Myself and the other student had meeting after meeting with the Deans and even the President of the school. They wanted to kick us out of school for good, until we threatened to contact a lawyer. So they just dropped us from the clinical and held us back 2 quarters.

At this point was ready to quit the school altogether, but I was so deep in already that I just decided to stay and finish out the program. What a mistake that was.

So I have been going through all the RT classes with straight As and was even told that I would be the valedictorian. Little did I and the other students know that we werent being taught not even 1/10^th of what we should have been taught. Our hands on lab was a joke, nothing worked. The dummy that was supposed to run through code scenarios with us, didnt even work and was falling apart.  You think with all the billions of dollars that they scam off of students they would have equipment that worked. But sadly that was not the case.  When I finally was getting done with this crappy school and was getting ready to graduate and take my Certification Exam for my Respiratory License, I realized that they had not prepared us at all for it. I took the exam and sadly failed although I was supposedly the best in the program. Its been 6 months since completing the program and I have not passed the exam and I have had to buy several review books to help me study for it on my own. All my other class mates have had very similar problems to mine and all of our lives have been ruined by this joke of a school.

I believe out of the 50 something that I graduated with only about 10 of them have taken and passed the exam and only 6 of them have a job. (All of them that took it and passed, took it more than once)

That was the education part of my rant and now this is the finical aide part. The people that work in the finical aide office are incompetent and make promises that they can no way deliver. I was told that my finical aide was messed up when I dropped below half-time. But I was promised by Prudence and several others that I would be receiving a check that was to cover the balance on my account. I even received a call from them confirming my address so they could send me the checkNEVER received the money and they havent the slightest clue as to what I was talking about when they told me about the check. It took me going to the office several times and making about 25 phone calls to get things straightened out and yet I still have to pay out of pocket for what I was promised was going to be covered by the grants and aide. 6 months after graduating I still receive threatening phone calls and emails about giving them their money!

So in conclusion if you read this and are still thinking about attending VC you are crazy!!!! VC has ruined my life and I am in debt up to my eye balls with no way of repaying it. I wish I had made better decisions with my education! What a f**king rip-off, scam school!!