I attended the Blairsville PA Wyotech from 2007 until 2008. While there I took the Automotive Core program with High Performance Powertrains. From the very first day I arrived in the town of Blairsville I felt I was making a huge and costly mistake. Now, 7 years later I am still paying dearly for it.
To begin, if I remember correctly I called Wyotech to get information about the programs that they offered. Shortly thereafter I had a scheduled visit by a very nice man who was a recruiter for the school. He arrived around dinner time and even enjoyed a meal at my home. While there we discussed what is required to attend Wyotech and what the school could promise me. When he left I was left with the impression that I was making a good choice to attend a school that was so in tune with my interests, and that it would be perfect for the type of learning that I wanted to do.
As it turns out, the requirements for attending Wyotech were pretty low to say the least. I believe you had to have a GED or high school diploma. You also needed the ability to come up with a check for $30,000 or more depending on how many courses you wanted to take. Consequently, as a direct result of this my classes were filled with high school dropouts, who made it painfully obvious that they didn't really want to be there. As a direct result of that, the students enrolled at Wyotech had to be treated as if they had never left middle school. This created a stigma around the town of Blairsville of the students, which were often referred to as "tekkers".
The instructors had their work cut out for them. As I stated above, the majority of students were not interested in learning the course material. Unfortunately for students like myself who were interested, this meant most of the classes were being drowned out with noise. I purposefully sat front and center in the classrooms, only to still have to ask the instructors to repeat parts of their lessons repeatedely due to the banter of other students. This proved to be wasted effort though, as most of the time instruction was merely read word for word from a powerpoint presentation. I believe that many instructors did have experience in the field, but on the other hand some obviously did not. One of the High Performance instructors was not 25 years old, and had come to teach on more than one occasion admittedly hung-over. One particular night this instructor had to hold the class late, which made him quite upset because he apparently had a girl waiting for him, and he proceeded to discuss how we were interfering with his plans. He did so in graphic detail.
The classes which I took were automotive based, and to learn about cars you need to work on cars. The average age of a vehicle that I was able to work on there was around twelve (12) years old. On top of which, most of the cars had been handled by many previous classes of students. Nearly all of the vehicles that were made available to work on were effectively destroyed. Most of them had no potential hope of being made to run again. Located in the shop were two late model Infinity brand cars, which were kept in immaculate condition. Specifically their purpose was to look good when an open house of potential students would do a walk through of the shop. Students were allowed in no way to touch these two vehicles, nor were we allowed to converse with the onlookers. In the Drivetrains course we were allowed to disassemble and reassemble transmissions, which are obviously complex. Upon taking the oil pan off of one I was not surprised to see approximately three dozen loose pieces of transmission, which I can only assume came from the transmission I was trying to disassemble.
Attendance was something that was a requirement for Wyotech. To me, this seemed like a no-brainer. Why would you not want to go to a class that you're paying for? But as it turned out, stuff happens. In my case, I had car trouble and was late getting to a class. I was rewarded by having points deducted from my final grade. I used to be proud to say that my final grades at Wyotech were among the top of my class, even in spite of this. Unfortunately for me, that honor was something that only I found interesting. Even still my diploma from Wyotech has never helped me to gain employment.
Wyotech would proudly advertise the highest job placement ratings of any trade or technical school. To this day though, I have yet to see that claim backed up with any actual numbers. I had written up a resume with the guidance of the Career Services Department at the school. Wyotech even offered an online program to help with job placement. This program was, according to Wyotech, filled with employers who specifically hired Wyotech graduates. I did call many places in the list for the area where I intended to move to. Mostly there were car dealerships listed, most of whom had never heard of Wyotech. One business I called even told me that they were a father and son repair shop with a dirt floor and never authorized their business be added to such a list.
I have been told, though have no proof of such, that Wyotech schools had an arrangement with Temp agencies to specifically hire Wyotech graduates, only to fire them verey shortly thereafter. This would artificially inflate any job placement percentages that they could claim.
I could continue to discuss how I was personally bullied by students, or how long I was given a runaround when trying to get paid to be a peer tutor, but as this report is already running quite long I will leave it with this: I feel I was taken advantage of from the moment I walked in the door at Wyotech, and I still pay for it every month. Without question attending Wyotech was the worst mistake of my life.
Absolute lies and false statements. You qualify for nothing but changing oil and tires. You must be certified to become a mechanic. This step was TOTALLY left out of the interview process. Now my son is left with a student loan of over $34,000 and a useless certificate of completion. This "school" should be shut down and all loans released. Absolute sham!!
Wyotech is woser than the mafia liars gimmicks and false Dreams only to get ripped off and waste a year out your life graduated for nothing not to mention I am 14,000.00 thousand Dollars in a hole that I dont have and the Government kicking in my Door and taking my Income tax return how can people live with these mobsters , but they will shake your hand wile grabing your wallet for their next Victom and also for their next trip to Starbucks so drink up...Deparment of Education is next in line ..wow is the Coffie that good or are we the people that dumb ....
WyoTech Reviews
I attended the Blairsville PA Wyotech from 2007 until 2008. While there I took the Automotive Core program with High Performance Powertrains. From the very first day I arrived in the town of Blairsville I felt I was making a huge and costly mistake. Now, 7 years later I am still paying dearly for it.
To begin, if I remember correctly I called Wyotech to get information about the programs that they offered. Shortly thereafter I had a scheduled visit by a very nice man who was a recruiter for the school. He arrived around dinner time and even enjoyed a meal at my home. While there we discussed what is required to attend Wyotech and what the school could promise me. When he left I was left with the impression that I was making a good choice to attend a school that was so in tune with my interests, and that it would be perfect for the type of learning that I wanted to do.
As it turns out, the requirements for attending Wyotech were pretty low to say the least. I believe you had to have a GED or high school diploma. You also needed the ability to come up with a check for $30,000 or more depending on how many courses you wanted to take. Consequently, as a direct result of this my classes were filled with high school dropouts, who made it painfully obvious that they didn't really want to be there. As a direct result of that, the students enrolled at Wyotech had to be treated as if they had never left middle school. This created a stigma around the town of Blairsville of the students, which were often referred to as "tekkers".
The instructors had their work cut out for them. As I stated above, the majority of students were not interested in learning the course material. Unfortunately for students like myself who were interested, this meant most of the classes were being drowned out with noise. I purposefully sat front and center in the classrooms, only to still have to ask the instructors to repeat parts of their lessons repeatedely due to the banter of other students. This proved to be wasted effort though, as most of the time instruction was merely read word for word from a powerpoint presentation. I believe that many instructors did have experience in the field, but on the other hand some obviously did not. One of the High Performance instructors was not 25 years old, and had come to teach on more than one occasion admittedly hung-over. One particular night this instructor had to hold the class late, which made him quite upset because he apparently had a girl waiting for him, and he proceeded to discuss how we were interfering with his plans. He did so in graphic detail.
The classes which I took were automotive based, and to learn about cars you need to work on cars. The average age of a vehicle that I was able to work on there was around twelve (12) years old. On top of which, most of the cars had been handled by many previous classes of students. Nearly all of the vehicles that were made available to work on were effectively destroyed. Most of them had no potential hope of being made to run again. Located in the shop were two late model Infinity brand cars, which were kept in immaculate condition. Specifically their purpose was to look good when an open house of potential students would do a walk through of the shop. Students were allowed in no way to touch these two vehicles, nor were we allowed to converse with the onlookers. In the Drivetrains course we were allowed to disassemble and reassemble transmissions, which are obviously complex. Upon taking the oil pan off of one I was not surprised to see approximately three dozen loose pieces of transmission, which I can only assume came from the transmission I was trying to disassemble.
Attendance was something that was a requirement for Wyotech. To me, this seemed like a no-brainer. Why would you not want to go to a class that you're paying for? But as it turned out, stuff happens. In my case, I had car trouble and was late getting to a class. I was rewarded by having points deducted from my final grade. I used to be proud to say that my final grades at Wyotech were among the top of my class, even in spite of this. Unfortunately for me, that honor was something that only I found interesting. Even still my diploma from Wyotech has never helped me to gain employment.
Wyotech would proudly advertise the highest job placement ratings of any trade or technical school. To this day though, I have yet to see that claim backed up with any actual numbers. I had written up a resume with the guidance of the Career Services Department at the school. Wyotech even offered an online program to help with job placement. This program was, according to Wyotech, filled with employers who specifically hired Wyotech graduates. I did call many places in the list for the area where I intended to move to. Mostly there were car dealerships listed, most of whom had never heard of Wyotech. One business I called even told me that they were a father and son repair shop with a dirt floor and never authorized their business be added to such a list.
I have been told, though have no proof of such, that Wyotech schools had an arrangement with Temp agencies to specifically hire Wyotech graduates, only to fire them verey shortly thereafter. This would artificially inflate any job placement percentages that they could claim.
I could continue to discuss how I was personally bullied by students, or how long I was given a runaround when trying to get paid to be a peer tutor, but as this report is already running quite long I will leave it with this: I feel I was taken advantage of from the moment I walked in the door at Wyotech, and I still pay for it every month. Without question attending Wyotech was the worst mistake of my life.
Absolute lies and false statements. You qualify for nothing but changing oil and tires. You must be certified to become a mechanic. This step was TOTALLY left out of the interview process. Now my son is left with a student loan of over $34,000 and a useless certificate of completion. This "school" should be shut down and all loans released. Absolute sham!!
Wyotech is woser than the mafia liars gimmicks and false Dreams only to get ripped off and waste a year out your life graduated for nothing not to mention I am 14,000.00 thousand Dollars in a hole that I dont have and the Government kicking in my Door and taking my Income tax return how can people live with these mobsters , but they will shake your hand wile grabing your wallet for their next Victom and also for their next trip to Starbucks so drink up...Deparment of Education is next in line ..wow is the Coffie that good or are we the people that dumb ....
Went to Motorcycle School at Wyotech in Daytona Beach, Florida 2009-2010. Graduated.
Was promised Lifetime Job Placement. Was told after graduation that I had to go to Ohio to get job placement!
I have a a family and home down here, can't move to Ohio.