Southern Technical College Reviews

"I completed 3 degrees at STC best college i have ever seen. They care about the students and they care about your future also. I loved it so much i came back 3 times! I know work in the HVAC field and make 75k a year, i choose to take the medical degrees also as they will help me later on when i decide to slow down. This college is great dont listen to the Bull shit written those people are the ones who would not be happy with any college. Its all about what you do with what you have and all you have to do is ask and they will give you what you need. ((:"

"A Wolf in sheep's clothing...This school pretends to have the students best interest in mind but all they really care about are the numbers. Unprofessional at times, students are treated like juveniles in the attempt to keep the schools attendance at its highest. The degree is less useful than a roll of toilet paper. Do extensive research before settling for any of their programs."

"Seriously. This school is a joke. Teachers dating teachers, drama between students, being able to pass based on attendance? I can't find a job to pay back the amount of debt i received from going here, and I can't finish nursing with this degree anywhere that won't be the amount of a small mortgage. I can honestly say i wasted my time there and my degree is garbage! Good luck in the degree mill!!!!"

"Worst school ever. Had 3 different program directors during my time there and sometimes didn't even have a teacher at all. All this school did for me was make me look like an incompetent fool when I went to clinicals and now I'm stuck with over $20,000 in student loans for NOTHING!"

"Look into other institutions first!!! The financial aid office is amazing, but i made the mistake of walking in with questions and leaving with student loans and a class itinerary, this place being my first stop. Thats how they get their student populace. The worst part about this place is they demand to be put above all (god, family, and definitely work). The programs directors will be little you, and talk down to you, then tell you what you ARE going to do. And what you ARE going to do is risk your job and of course your home and whatever little else you may have well because they are priority. If yoy dont show up to class you obviously lose points or fail (and you should, thats not the point) but to be treated as sub human because things happen, stuff comes up, and work is essential to life is mind blowing. DO NOT LET THEM ROPE YOU WITH THE SUPER QUICK ENROLLMENT PROCESS. If you insist on this school make TRIPLE sure you wont have any interfereances in your life for the next two yearals (and its a continous school so account for that as well.) If you need to take a semester off for any reason (the classes are year round continous) it takes an act of god to make happen, then you have to complete an exit interview and come back and reapply which they then have the option to "pass" on you depending on your previous standing. In otherwords if you have children, and a full time job id heacily recommend you look into other places (summer vaction while the kids are oyt of county schools, you will still be required to attend class, please please think about every nook and cranny of you life) dont let them blow all that smoke about how great, easy, understanding, and willing to work with you they are, and still treat you with some form of decency anyway."

"So to start off, when I started in the ultrasound program there was 16 students in my graduating class. Now that I have left, there are 4 left. When I started at the school the program director was a PODIATRIST, not a registered sonographer. Since I left about a month ago they have gone through 3 program directors. They can not hold on to students nor staff. They told me 4 semesters in a row that I was unable to take the ONE class I needed (applied sonography) due to the fact they did not have enough people who needed that class. ....that class is a pre-requisite to the other hands on ultrasound classes...so they expect me to be okay with them pushing my graduation date back 3 semesters? ?? They must be out of their mind...on top of all this, when I signed up for the program , the advisor told me it was accredited. ..I guess he forgot to tell me that the SCHOOL is accredited, not the ultrasound program itself. Then when I decided to leave the Tampa campus, a fellow student told me that the head of the program through a fit in the middle of class because another student decided to leave, and that the school gets ratings and accredidations based on graduation rates. ...so basically in a nutshell the school is only concerned about taking your money and not about you graduating or succeeding! BEWARE."

"IGood and bad it's all what you make of it. Best thing I ever did was going back to school. I plan on going on to get my RN and this school was a good stepping stone."

"I attended Southwest Florida college back in 05-06. I asked for the instructors credentials at the time I attended those courses. I was told that they could not give out that information and the current dean is very rude and unprofessional along with the staff. I am postings this review so others don't waste their time or their money."

"Do not waste your time unless you want to waste your money. You will spend about 20,000 on just an associates degree and that is with financial aid. Oh and dont think about starting and transferring to another school they arent the same number of credits for the classes so when you transfer you will be left with having to take almost another year of classes to make it equal in the states eyes with local colleges such as manatee scf or edison or usf etc.. I had to pay the hard way :("

"DONT GO TO THIS SCHOOL WAY TO CROWDED HVAC professor is lazy just sit on his ass, i would never ever recommend this school to anybody and i graduated with a 3.0 ITS COST YOU ALMOST 30K WHEN YOU CAN GO TO VALENCIA OR SCC AND DO IT FOR 15K. WASTE WASTE WASTE OF TIME."

"I attended Southern Technical College, Mt. Dora campus. My advice to anyone attending any school like STC is to do your research, and ask yourself what you want to achieve in your career. I have read some reviews of this school that suggest that only students who had a bad attitude or didn't want to work hard are giving negative reviews. That is far from the case; I worked very hard at this school, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade average. I personally feel that this school was not a good choice for me. I have been disappointed to discover that my credits will transfer to only one school; not in my immedite area. I have also had to retake the first aide and CPR classes at cost to me because the ones taught at STC are not accepted by many of the health care facilities in my area. The school's externship is very important in helping one either find a job or get training to put on a resume. I was sent to do my externship in a totally unacceptable facility. When I complained to the placement office about how inappropriate the place was, I was basically told I had to put up with it because there was no other places available. It has hurt me when applying for jobs, because that is the first question I get asked; where did I do my externship. I get a very negative reaction from prospective employers when I tell them. I ended up going back to the job I had before I started attending STC. Make sure that you find out about what kind of salaries to expect to make. The STC staff told me they are not allowed to discuss salaries with students; yet they invited a former student to visit and tell all of us how he was making $25.00 an hr. I have since learned that this is an unusually high salary for an MA in my area. I do know students who have been helped by attending STC. Most of them are students who had minimun wage jobs to begin with or no jobs at all. So attending this school really depends on your career goals. Just do your research, because you may find that there are other more appropriate choices for you."

"This school is crooked and will lie to to until you reach the point that leaving would cost you a lot of money and hurt you significantly. They are liars and all of their marketing sounds real good. SOUNDS good. Dont Do It. Go to Edison or some other college that is actually recognized by state universities. This school is a joke. Waste of time and money."

"This school is strictly out for money!!!! I attended the Tampa campus and I found the admissions staff and director to be quite rude. They put you through a ton of loop holes to get an answer for something and it seems that everybody has a different answer for the same question. I havent been there a year and I've seen at least five teachers leave. I wouldn't recommend this school to.anyone youre better off going to a junior college bc swfc is wayyyyy overpriced"

"The ones that are writing bad reviews are the ones that don't show up to class and when they do they leave early. Just do your self a favor and stay home. Your wasting your time and you money or your parents money.I'm from the brandon campus and I see alot of young jerks that dont really belong in school. They expect to pass a class by showing up just 3 days out of the entire course. Professos diaz is a really great instructor in the hvac department, he's also very educated in the electrical field.The front front office are very helpful. The new dean is pushing for uninforms. Thats good, im tired of seeing these young punks tripping over there pants."

"All you people writing thumbs up reviews for this school are full of it. Almost evryone in the hvac program at the Brandon location feel taken advantage of. This school charged me for a class i did not even take. I had a very high grade point average and when I started raising my concerns, almost failed me on my last class. I went there to get knowlege not a degree, some of the so called instructers were off the street level with NO technical background let alone a teaching degree. They started a program and had to find instructors( if you want to call them that. I was lied too,cheated out of an education and then billed up the wazoo. FRAUD. Try to get a lwayer HA HA someone let me know. Billed for a class I did not have a teacher for. Since starting this course everyone of my instructors were fired,quit or ? not one original teacher was left when I so called graduated. I owe them 300 to this day and they hold my cert hostage, not even worth paying to get it after spending 9mnths of showing up THEY ARE the worst shool to go for hvac i chose because 5 minutes from my home BIG MISTAKE"

"I'm enrolled in the Health Information Management (HIM), two year Associate's degree program at SWFC. I am current into my second year. I have had a very positive college experience at SWFC, meeting great students and learning from helpful and focused instructors. The Port Charlotte campus is small and allows for a nice size of class to teacher ratio. All classes taken so far have been relevant to my major, and thoroughly interesting and enjoyable. The program manager for the HIM department is also an excellent instructor and mentor. She is willing to help students with their resume, and actively seeks to place both current and graduated students in jobs within the HIM field.Teachers are always willing to help out students. The workload is pretty substantial, so be prepared to work hard. I feel confident that I will pass the RHIT and CCA exams! Overall, SWFC is a great college that I highly recommend!"

"This is my review now that I have completed my degree: I wish I had located all of the bad reviews I can now locate when I started a year ago. When you sign up everyone is more than helpful. But once you start class, you are no different than anyone else and I can say I felt invisible and ignored. Any time I had an issue everyone acted like they were going to help and were concerned but no resolutions were EVER reached. I received books for class AFTER midterms on two occasions (only in a diploma program) one of my classes cut out an entire part of the syllabus (because the teacher was not qualified to teach it) Twice books were removed from the syllabus because "you don't need them" the program manager has changed three times in the last four years, the director of education three times in the last three years. Teachers frequently "didn't have time" to write a test, find what they said they would, grade your papers, etc. There were standards set and when they were not reached, they were thrown out the window. Their career services department copies postings online and sends out a mass e-mail so if your in any kind of medical program you get all of the medical postings, not just ones for you. I am still waiting on answers on assignments from FOUR weeks ago. She cant answer my questions but she will grade my work?"

"Since I have been at Swfc I have heard so many different versions of the truth. When I ask for advice academically I would get different answers every time. The admissions tell you that they have flexible schedules, which they don't the classes you need aren't always available to take when you need them. They told me that my financial aid wouldn't allow me to take fewer classes only to find out I had taken too many for financial aid to cover leaving me with a balance owed of thousands of dollars, which if you haven't paid before graduation, they withhold your diploma and your transcripts. Testing out of general education classes are tricky too, if you test out of a class in the beginning, you have to pay a $300 fee to opt out of that class or you still have to take it. I have been an advanced reader throughout school but I am required to take a reading and English class because I couldn't afford to pay the opt out fee for them. They set up payment arrangements to pay off the pile of money you owe ( because of their employees lack of experience and no fault of your own) they will block you from attending classes. Overdue balances of as little as $34 will earn you a kick out of class and no return until its paid. The professors change in the middle of terms due to being fired without warning. And not to mention having to wait for books crucial to your education not being received until after the midterm. This has been a total nightmare for me and there is no way out of this school because the credits earned here are not accepted at any other school in the county. ( not any reputable ones anyway. Save yourself the trouble when considering going to this school. It will not be a pleasant experience."

"I graduated in February and still do not have a job. I was promised a position at my externship when I graduated, and when I did they did not hire me. I ranked top of the class with a 4.0, and have searched high and low for employment. Employers want experience, and how do you get experience without being hired. I am so fed up with this that I would like to take my degree and Certification and burn them. Looks like I wasted 31,000.00 which I will probably be dead be for I finish paying that off. I was told that there would be placement HA HA that was a joke. Once they get you in they forget about you. Wish I knew a good attorney!"

"Let's see I graduated in February ,, Still can't find a job. I have gone on so many interviews and competing along with others for a measly $10.00 an hour job... Made more money as a receptionist with a staring pay of $14.00 an hour.I could work as a Certified Nurse Assistant and make the same amount of money as a Certified Medical Assistant.On my externships, I was under the impression I would have a job. Not so, I seems as if the doctors and clinics want free labor and use students to fill the gap. The Career Advisor trys to help. I should have went on to LPN and not MA."