Motorcycle Mechanics Institute Reviews

"horrible school structure. you pay 30k and they barely teach you anything in person, they give you hours and hours of videos to watch every day after school, then if you missed a video or forgot something the instructors just tell you its in the video. the tools are very limited and most are damaged or broken. they also claim to help you find a job but when you ask they just hand you a 5 year old packet with job listings on it (most of which dont even hire students anymore). this school is a frickin joke and i cant believe i spent my money on this."

"I have mixed emotions about MMI. It was great when I attended. I learned a lot about motorcycles, jet skis, atv's, and engines in general. Going through the basic courses, I witnesses students that had never used a wrench and a hammer get pulled through the system by their lab partners. As time went by, dedicated students learned to stay away from the slugs. I think the school is only concerned about getting students to a certain point before letting them fall on their face. Financial aid is a joke; they'll track you down if you owe them money, but yet, they will not help students get scholarships and grants. Only a few instructors really care about their student's success; the old guys that have been out of the industry for 15+ years don't know modern bike models or how a dealership is operated. As imagined, the training aids are outdated and worn out. The school has put so much money into hybrid training, you'll feel like you're a Certified YouTube mechanic before you have 6 months in classes. Housing is horrible. They'll pack 4 people into a 2 bedroom apartment, and you're not supposed to ask if your roommate identifies as a Bobby or a Barbie. Times are changing! Everyone says COVID started all of the education facilities online, but that's not the way a Hands-on technical school needs to be. Several people in classes with undiagnoses learning disabilities. The school is happy to take anyone's money, as long as it's american green backs."

"I stumbled across this site so figured I'd add my thoughts on MMI. I went here while in my mid 30's after graduating from college and getting sick of a working a desk job. I loved going to school here. Didn't miss a day and aced almost every class. Deans list, every certificate possible etc... But after working in a few aftermarket shops for around 4 years I realized this was a financial suicide maneuver. I knew bikes before going to school and thought I'd come out, get my feet wet then open my own shop. I found it's much harder than that. If I had to do it again, I would save my money, everything about moving to Orlando and going to this school was $$$. I graduated in 2003 and I'm still paying on my loan. I think you would be better to find a shop and work for free for as long as it takes to figure out if this field is for you. That's what I would do if I had to do it over again. 3/4 of what they teach you, you actually won't be doing when you start at an entry level in a shop. I don't hate on what they teach you. Like I said, going here was the first time I ever couldn't wait to get to school. Loved it. I just think it's too expensive for what they are preparing you for. And I don't care how much you love doing something, when you're take home is so weak you struggle to pay your bills... You get over it fast."

"The best decision I made in my life was to attend MMI .I GRADUATED AT AGE 60 VERY PROFESSIONAL AND WELL ROUNDED STAFF.i thought it was kind of pricey ,but was able to get SOME help with the tuition .after graduation I went straight to work and have not stopped working yet ..TIME FOR A BREAK LOL"

"$30,000 + housing and misc expenses to get a job making $5/hour less than a new Amazon warehouse worker with no debt...... All this is free on Youtube if you are motivated. You are 100% better going to a great shop and offering to pay them $5,000 to learn the trade. They will most likely be so impressed they will just hire you and you will get the education while making money and relationships in the industry. If 30k means nothing to you, by all means, enjoy yourself. If this school were under $10,000 a year it would be worth it."

"After retiring from the Army and crashing my bike and no longer being able to be a law enforcement officer, while healing, I decided to go to MMI so I can learn to fix my bike. The instructors are great (99% are outstanding...some rely on the "did you watch the video" learning method) CHS (student housing) is crap and would not use them if I had to do over...no accommodations for disabled (I am a disabled vet and asked to be with other vets on a ground floor apt...they put my on a 3rd floor apt) apparently they do NO background checks either...CHS reps and student workers will enter the apartment WITH NO ANNOUNCEMENT and lied about it several times. Pathetic group of people in the housing section. The course of instruction is good and spaced out at an appropriate level. Student services is a good section as well as the financial aid section..always answers questions quickly and accurately. Vetetans are getting screwed, the school takes 100% of your GI Bill and only gives you 80% instruction (prior to COVID it eas 5hrs of labs/lecture, now its 4 hrs..even AFTER talking to the MMI/UTI president and giving my objection to this,, i was told..well you could always wait until we go back to 5 hr classes..so he basically blew me off...very arrogant) Overall I give the school instruction an A-, student assistance an A and administration a C-...as there are a couple in Education service members who try to look out for students and finally, Housing a D-."

"I went through mmi to hopefully start a career in something I loved. I went through core, Yamaha, Suzuki, harley and early harley. I did very well at the school because I was older, had most of my stuff together. I did very well there, you get what you put in. I was on the Dean's list for the first time in my life, loved the culture. Unfortunately they dont tell you how much money you can make after graduating. I know it's a bad thing to compare something you love to how much money they you make, but you have to live doing it. I spent in the upwards of 50k I cant say I got my money's worth. I graduated in 2012 and I'm still paying for my student loans. I recently lost my job because of the pandemic and decided I'd try one more time getting a job doing what I love. I'm very confident in my abilities, I feel I learned everything I could take from the school. The truth is it doesnt pay well at all, I was offered 10 dollars an hour to run an entire parts department including doing the books, ordering, receiving etc. No shop I have found will pay a decent amount for a tech, even an experienced tech. Unless you work flat rate or own your own business, it is a career of passion. The market is absolutely flooded with techs no matter what state you live in. Unfortunately I make more money with other ventures, and probably would never work in a shop again. I feel bad for the vets that pissed away their gi bill for this school. I know this sounds like a bad review but I think it's important for people to know that when going to a school like mmi, you have to be focused and ask yourself what you want out of this school. I learned I spent 50k on the confidence of working on my own bikes for fun. Mmi is a great place for a young kid out of highschool because out of school you wouldn't make that much regardless of what you do. Another piece of advice is dont go and buy all your tools right out of school. Remember unless the military or mommy and daddy are paying for school, those loans can add up quick. I hope this reaches people that need to see what they're getting into, but my advise is if you're not planning on a college, you can make way more money in the trades."

"I was at MMI student for 3 years and yes you have to find your own employment and yes you have to take it seriously... Which I did and it got me nothing... Whoever wrote that's your own fault is a self righteous idiot... The instructions are disrespectful and rude... And there on a power trip trust me I had it for over 3 years. So before some of you review cats start chiming in catch the facts . If your successful in the kind of business that's awesome, but don't go around tooting your horn all day expecting people to think it's just amazing... Why? Because we haven't got there yet and instead of pressure cooking students into getting labs done how about TEACHING us something we can take away from the class... I'm not saying all of the instructors are that way because there not. But respect goes both ways.... I don't wish bad on people but some of these instructions need to swallow there pride... I WOULD ADVISE GOING ELSEWHERE...."

"the industry itself is a joke. doing big jobs is the worst thing you can do. lets put this into the real world....you make $20hr flat rate. You can do a scheduled service (a glorified oil change) in about an hour. its pays you 2hrs. you can do a front and rear tire change in 30-45 minutes and it pays 2hrs. Or you can do an I4 engine rebuild with 1/3 of the shop equipment truly needed to do it right, as a warranty job on a 1 year old shiny new bike that you must not scratch, blemish, or have a body line crooked, and every one of the thousand bolts back exactly perfect. It, in the real world, takes you 3, 4, 5+ days to do and you got a whopping 10hrs. You will not so much as get an "atta boy" for doing double to triple everyone else, in fact they will suspect you're on crack. The industry is sleezy, greedy, soulless and cares about nothing except if you get a complaint. These schools are a giant part of the problem. They're a joke and everyone I know that went there either says the same or is a giant toolbag trying to work his way up the grease monkey ladder these joke schools have conjured up."

"This program is designed for someone who has a mature personality with the interests to take responsibility for there own learning. MMI will provide all the education you need to graduate as a entry level Technician. Just like any career it takes time to achieve a comfort level to be proficient in a career. You will graduate with everything you need to start a career but the school can't do everything for you."

"I was reading some more recent testimonials and thought I would throw my two cents in. When I went down to Orlando I was a young kids fresh out of high school and for the most part I was surrounded by older, retired, or ex military guys and there really wasn't many younger guys in the program. From what I gather that seems to have changed and the students now are all much younger as a whole. I think if you are really looking to learn about this trade overall its a good school. You are certainly no expert upon graduation but you will have a strong foundation to build a career on. But like anything you have to take it seriously, this is not a college this is a trade school. I graduated with guys that didnt know an oil filter from an air filter but yes MMI was happy to pass them along and take their money. When I graduated I found work immediately in an aftermarket shop and then i ventured into a dealership. MMI certainly didnt get me a job but the certificate did hold enough weight to get me an interview and in todays world that's really the best you could hope for. I would say overall it was an amazing experience, I learned a lot and continue to learn more everyday."

"Funny they warn you about the people who hate MMI because they didn't do what they where told to do. They tell you in your first class even in the first meeting while they give you the tour. We place job adds and show you where the jobs are. You will be required to have tools a tool box and a good attendance rate to get a job. You set up your own interviews. No one wants a lazy tech that didn't pay attention and can't figure it out because they saw a commercial and decided that looks cool. I am currently here and learning a lot. If you can't get a job it's your own damn fault!"

"It's not bad. I guess the worst thing is all the younger generation being disrespectful or not paying attention, therefore causing havoc. Not be being in class and then ask a million questions because not being in class. My instructors done the best they could do. It's just hard to train 25 to 30 people in a class."

"I went to MMI with the intentions to take Honda, Kawasaki and Harley, I had spent a good amount of time around bikes and had a very good understanding of how they worked but wanted to farther my knowledge as well as have the school backing to find job placement with the dream of being on a race team as a mechanic. Well let me tell you this the whole program to me was a waste of time and money for normal middle class students such as myself I had to work all day at a regular job in order to pay for my living expenses and then take classes at night, it made it a very tiring year they tell you they help place you in a job while you are in school which they did not and after you graduate which they also did not, As far as the facility is concerned it wasn't the greatest and the equipment that you worked on was worn out and used. I honestly would not suggest anyone go to that tech school no real world knowledge can be found at a school it is found by working on things yourself I learned way more after MMI than I ever did in MMI, not in a shop either I ended up desperately needing a job after graduating because they most certainly didn't help and I was broke so I took a job back home in a factory like I'm sure many MMI graduates do. It wasn't until years later while working on a friends motorcycle I actually got offered a job in a Harley dealership because they knew I worked on bikes and seen the potential, showing that MMI had nothing to do with my career in the industry. I worked for a few different Harleys for quite a few years until I realized it wasn't something I could make a career out of because unfortunately everyone in the motorcycle industry is just as money hungry and greedy as the so called tech school MMI, Therefor good pay, health benefits and retirement are virtually and thing of the past. I wish I would have saved my money (because I still owe 20,000 plus due to not being able to afford to pay it) and went to a real college got a degree that is good paying and would set me up financially for life and wrenched and rode motorcycles on the side. The only people working in dealerships without financial hardships you will find are the owners or general managers and managers everyone else well they are very easily replaced and find no value in them regardless of work ethic or reliability. And btw I don't even work in the motorcycle industry anymore. SO AGAIN I STRESS LOOK ELSEWHERE DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY"

"I am still in the core part of my 60 week program, so this can be considered a "first impression" of the school. The facilities are clean, the training aids are in good shape considering that they are continually beat up by students who don't know what they are doing. The instructors (I've experienced six so far) all seem devoted to helping the students gain knowledge. They are, for the most part, regular people from the industry with a wealth of knowledge and experience. I laugh when I hear fellow students call this "college". Having experienced both, MMI is not a college. It is a very, very expensive ($30k/year) technical school. The curriculum is written and presented at what I'd estimate to be a 5th or 6th grade reading and math level. Students are treated like high schoolers and therefore a lot of them act as such. The grading scale is weighted heavily on attendance rate, with professionalism, lab work, and classwork factored in. For this reason, if a student shows up every day and acts professional, they will most likely pass. A word of advice for recruiters and employers: If you are comparing two candidates, both with a 100% attendance rate, one holding a 3.0 and one holding a 4.0, there is most likely a VAST difference in knowledge. The grading scale is too lightly weighted on academic success. If you are a returning student or have experience in the industry already, you may talk to an Education Manager about testing out of certain courses. I had largely no such luck, only being approved to test out of one course. I suspect that they do not approve very many of these requests because it would hurt revenue. Since then, I've completed three courses with near 100% scores. The GPA boost is nice, I guess, but not at the cost of their tuition. Conversely, they will gladly let you double up on 10 hours of courses per day and collect the tuition twice as fast. At the end of the day, any continuing education facility is a business, and these types of practices should be expected. With all this said, I still am inclined to believe that MMI is the best in the country at what they do. I think they are caught in a balancing act of churning students through the program to generate revenue, and raising their expectations of students and graduates to produce top technicians. If you pay attention, ask questions, and seek help when needed, even the experienced technician will learn a lot. It's up to you as a student to prove your worth as a technician and secure your own employment, but MMI has a wealth of resources at their disposal to help you along."

"I had a lot of fun during the program and mostly living in Orlando, Made many new friends and partied a lot ( this was my college experience ) I graduated in 2007 and learned a good amount about electrical diag. After graduation i got job for $10 hourly with 20k worth of loans just the same as any other type of trade school. After 2 years I moved up to $26 hr flat rate. my shop had a tech that made $40hr flat rate and he was darn good. Finally 2011 the dealer I worked at in Oxford went belly up. I would do it all over again , the school, the people, the experience. You are not going to make big money working on something that is a toy , maybe if you own your own business but not working for someone. 50k year no benefits , no vacation , no 401k, definitley no pension."

"I am a 2010 MMI Graduate and at that time I was in my 50's. MMI did not help me obtain any employment in the field of my choice. Its been 6 years now and still no JOB. The Student Graduate Advisors and the EM's did not lend any helping hands or referral's to secure my employment. It was I who had to call anyone at any H.D. Dealership to interview and set my enjoyment with Harley. I enrolled for the full education with Harley but I had to only take early model H.D as I grew sick and tired of the instructors not giving me any slowed down version and explain fully what to study and learn. Therefore I will not refer anyone to attend any MMI course of study."

"CHS housing is a joke I've been living with them for 9 months now and it has been nothing but a headache, I live in the over-21 program but still I get treated like I'm a kid and I get my room inspected house inspected and told what I can and can't have and who I can't have in my room I pay $700 a month for a room and have 3 other roommates that live in the same apartment , I would advise any of my Military brothers and sisters to stay away from CHS it is a waste of money and a added stressor , I would also like to say watch what the school does with your money the government gives you for school, they like to just give you whatever amount after you were told a certain amount and date."

"DONT SIGN THE CAMPUS HOUSING CONTRACT UNTIL YOU SEE THE HOUSING!! "Campus housing" is 30 minutes away from the campus, and theres 2 tolls between housing and school which is $4.50 a day there and back! I loved the school, some of the teachers had a great sense of humor and made the knowledge more attractive learn. But good God almighty don't get campus housing. I REPEAT DON'T GET CAMPUS HOUSING!!!! They constantly do inspections and you're paying $500 a month to live in a 2 bed 1 bath apartment.... with 4 ppl total!! 2 ppl per room. I wanna scream just thinking about it! Aaaahhhhhhhh!! Again, great school, but get an apartment anywhere but campus housing"

"I graduated and got 5 job offers before I left the Orlando campus! I took one of the job starting out at 14 an hour. I guess if you come to the school and ****off you get just that when you graduate. Oh and job placement is you filling out apps and calling around not waiting on the school to do it for you!"