We had some very good instructors but keep losing them because of Concorde's horrible ways! This horrible school charges way too much. They try and say that the room and board on our financial aid are for classrooms! I'm almost done with the school. I had two clinical absences (which is the limit). My children were very sick then I got it. The day I got kicked out, I was 30 minutes late to clinical. I called my instructor with no response. She was nowhere on site to report to. Now they don't want to let me reenter because I have attitude. I was just being honest with them and have a way nicer attitude than they have been giving me! I would not recommend going there unless you want to be treated like a low grade person.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
I had just started the school and had personal issue at home and had to stop but I went back just the same. Then this person Lissette from the Miramar campus came at me very disrespectful for something no one explained to me when I was coming back. So now am taking my business elsewhere and I would not recommend this school to anyone.
I had a 84% this morning this morning. I have been on time everyday. Yet my instructor takes me aside asking about my ablity to complete the program repeatedly. I have severe narcolepsy to which I havent requested any specail treatment. I could just sit back and cash a disability check each month but I know I can do more. So I bust my but and get a B+ in my class so far I havent missed a class and studied non-stop. To be just dragged into the Deans office and Called a cheater??? I am still in shock.
As a current straight A perfect attendance student at Concorde career dalla tx! 5 months into the program. As I approached administration in reference to externship I was completely disrespected and discriminated against due to my gender and race! As administation pulled me aside personally and advised me not to speak of my personal issues with other students, at first I was unsure of the nature of the comment, as I thought back it was probably in reference to a previous externship information conversation that all students should have right and privialge to know.....I was told to be quiet and not to discuss personal business with fellow students.
As I stated back to administration that we talk about all issues as students.....and did you address all students of this policy? I was instructed to leave the campus immediately! My tone and demenor was pleasant and non confrientational! I asked why am I being asked to leave???? Administration stated due to disrespect! I said wow how? She stated call security! I then stated why??? I didn't do or say anything? I left the campus and advised her that I felt she was being racisit!
I am a respiratory therapy student at the San Bernardino campus; and on Tuesday, I had to take my final exam that was only 15 questions on one disease we learned during our ten week course. I have an 82% in the class, been a good student, worked hard at my clinical sites; and since I got a 67% on my final exam, they have now pushed me out of the program. Neither have they even taken in consideration the clinical sites, thoughts and responses on my performance, nor have they taken in consideration my 82% that I have in the class. They just told me that since I did not pass the final exam, I do not pass the class!
So now, they said I have to repeat RT 230; and it gets better. There, oddly enough, is no room for me to retake the RT 230 class that is starting this Monday. I have been attempting to work with the school to get them to move me to RT 240, where I belong, but I have been given the brush off. I cannot even get a return phone call from my campus, and have yet to get one from corporate either. What gives them the right to treat a student who has worked this hard, never been in trouble, and has always been willing to go above and beyond, this sort of treatment? I am seeking the advice of an attorney today due to this school's treatment and their so-called polices! Do not attend Concorde Career College! You will regret it.
Raised her voice at me, as I questioned about my account, had no explanation as to why I was being charged for late days. She raised her voice while repeating " you need to pay" 5 x while I then continued to repeat myself" why am I being charged 51 days late for something I was never informed of" ALL I WANTED TO KNOW WAS WHY she continued to accuse me ifveing 51 days late.
I just wanted an explanation. It ended with me asking to speak to her supervisor, Which seemed to not give no corrective action towards her. Concorde is highly unprofessional in all of their depts.every students has the right to ask and Concorde has the responsibility to answer! I never said i wouldnt pay, the issue was she didnt want to answer my Q and instead raised her voice and had an unproffessional and tachy attitude.I will never recommend Concorde,Highly unprofessional and only treat students as a number.
I went to the school and graduated as a Medical Assistant. My major complaint is the cost of the program. The school charged me monthly (can't remember how much) they got $2900 from a pell grant, $6500 in government money from loans. Why so much? Medical Assistants don't make that much money and work their butts off. I am just went to a real college today to try to go back to school for Registered Nurse, That program is actually cheaper or around the same cost.
I was a nursing student at Concorde. I had an instructor for one of my courses that I had a conflict with. She had called me princess in front of patients and staff and I had asked her not to. She became angry and from that point on, made a series of well documented attempts to try and fail me. I had spoken with this college about this and even asked for a different location ( which they had done for other students). I was told it would be fine and I should just wait it out.
The instructor ended up failing me under false pretenses and I left the school.
I found out later that the instructor received a teaching job at the school right after this point and my being there was a point of discussion. The school had other students tell them she was falsely accusing me as well as calling me princess in public. They had previous instructors tell them that I was a phenomenal student and very capable. They chose to ignore all of this so that they could fill a difficult teaching position at their school. I am paying student loans and am still working on my degree.
I read all the reviews, but proceeded with caution. You are required to take an exam to be qualified as most colleges. The ad representatives do not tell you where to get your study materials from. They have a guide that they are supposed to give out. I was told to take the exam without studying. That set me up to fail, but they did not care. If you do not go by everything they say, they are rude to you. Arrogant is another term to use! This school is all about the money and that's it. They rush you into making a decision even if you are considering another school. If you are late, they will get very angry. They told me to arrive at a certain time and they were over one-and-a-half hours late to talk with me. They do not have a clue. The school needs to be shut down!
It is so interesting to read about the problems in KC with Concorde. I had an experience with them. No matter what they tell you, it all comes back to the money. I have it in writing that clinicals were to be on Saturdays, then they switched it to include during the week. When I questioned this, I was basically told to deal with it or not. We had poor instructors who came to class unprepared, then criticized students if he/she didn't feel they had read or comprehended assigned chapters. The skills lab was a complete joke. With no decent equipment, 'pretend you have the equipment' was the norm. There were frequent schedule changes and exams that did not match what was instructed in class.
We later found out the instructor is not necessarily the one who prepares the exams (so tell me, how can one who did not teach be qualified to prepare a final exam, not knowing what was actually covered in class?). They hide behind the 'subject to change', yet they do that in order to stay out of legal trouble, in my opinion. But my research shows they can't hide behind the 'subject to change'. they told us that the state board of nursing requires a certain amount of hours. Yet my research shows the state requires there to be a mix of theory/skills and clinical with no set amount of clinical time. As long as students continue to accept what Concorde says, they will get away with it. But all it is going to take is one person to challenge them legally and that will be the beginning of the end.
I have been at Concorde for going on 2 years now in the Respiratory Therapy program which is a big joke. Ever since I entered the actual RT program I have had nothing but problems. They have refused to let us take or retake tests that we needed to pass the course. The teachers there do not care whether the students pass or not and definately do not try to help in any way form or fashion...Particulary 2 teachers which both are fairly new to Concorde and teaching itself...They have horrible attitudes towards students and answer our questions with questions. We never get a straight answer and the program director always takes their side even when he knows they are in the wrong. They caused the whole class to fail the last time. The WHOLE class...and corporate is no better
you cant depend on them to do anything about these teachers because they let them know when they are gonna show up to observe their teaching methods and of course for that week they are very helpful and answer the questions asked of them. You know all for show. Now today even though i had turned in my homework when asked to Ms.V. is refusing to let me take my neonates and peds test and I need that grade to pass the course. Is this legal? Can they really just pick and chose who to let pass and not pass? Without this I am done for real...
I read with interest, the complaint regarding the exit exam at Concorde.
The sad part is, Concorde makes students take a nationalized test and expects students to meet or exceed the national average. They tell you that the grade does not count toward your grade, but they fail to tell you the rest of the story. It is now my understanding that if you do not pass the exam (the one that doesn't count) you don't graduate until you do. I am grateful I found this out a head of time and got into a school that cares about student success.
I had a horrible experience at Concord. I thought I was going to get an education and thereby get a great job to provide for myself and my children. The school is smoke and mirrors.I was told I would be placed in the course I wanted immediately after taking the placement exam, before anyone even looked at my exam! I wasnt actually taught anything that I didn't teach myself from the school books. Often our instructors were late or didn't even show up at all.
They replaced our instructors several times. One actually attacked me during our dinner break!I was sitting with other students and she grabbed me from behind, yanking me from my chair, screaming at me! The school had her apologize to me and she was replaced. I was told she was bipolar and wasnt taking her medication. Our transcriptions class was a joke. We were given transcriptions that were already typed out and told to copy them. That was it.In our ICD9 coding class, our instructor didn't speak English very well (she was Hispanic) and many of us complained that we couldn't understand her. She worked at a high profile insurance agency and hired one of our classmates (also Hispanic)the first week of class.We found out they were best friends and rode to school and work together, so none of us actually had a chance at the job they told us we were competing for.
I had a 4.0 every mod. I had Dean's list every mod. I was awarded the lamplighter award for being a shining light to my fellow students. I had organized a study group and gave rides to fellow classmates to help us all be successful. Many of the students said they wish I had been the instructor. Sounds great, right? I couldn't get a job! Because I wasn't trained properly! Time and time again I was told, No one uses that system anymore. No one uses Pegboard for accounting. It's all done on computers and we weren't taught that! In our sorry excuse for computer class, we learned to make banners and invitations,changing font and nothing else! Save your money and go to a real school! My time at this school has been a nightmare! I wish I could go back and tell myself to pick another school. I hope this keeps someone else from making my mistake. Run! Run fast!
My son attended Concorde and recently graduated as a Respiratory Therapist. He has been diligently going to interviews and submitting his resume thru out Riverside and Orange County areas. I am deeply concerned as he has been telling me that there are no jobs for Respiratory Therapists as when he goes for interviews there are sometimes over 40 applicants at each site to compete with. I know that this is a difficult job market but I think the potential graduates of the Respiratory Therapy program should be informed that the job market is saturated with RT's and the school, Concorde keeps cranking out RT's at a ridiculous rate. In fact, my son was just informed that another class of 25 just graduated about a couple of months after he did.
The school tells students how prevalent jobs are to entice students but in the real world there isn't. To top it off his credits don't transfer to another school. He is now graduated with over $28,0000 in loans to pay, no job, cannot transfer his credits. And the topping on the cake is that Concorde has not even helped him find employment!! Only two job referrals and they send him to the same referrals over and over again with over 40 + graduates applying to the same job. I am very concerned and will be reporting this school to as many bureaus as I can. Tuition of over $28000. No job, no help of finding a job, school did not inform potential students/graduates of the difficulty of finding employment.
SCheduled for a clinical in the LPN program on a Saturday. Clinical Instructor failed to show up. (Found out later she may have went to the wrong facility)-we waited for 1.5 hours, followed Concordes written policy-unable to get a hold of anyone by phone to direct us as to what we should do. After 1.5 hours our entire clinical group went home. Around 10 that morning the clinical instructor called a couple of us trying to tell us we skipped clinicals because she was at the facility. This was a LIE.
We searched the facility 2x and had facility staff keeping a look out for her. She was a new clinical instructor and had not been to this facility. According to policy if a student is more than 30 minutes late to a clinical they are sent home, yet this instructor waits 3 hours to make any attempt at finding out what is going on. That alone, should be enough to cast suspicion on her, but no. The students were blamed. Ms S., who is supposedly our 'go to person' was on vacation and had not put anyone that we know of on call to cover for her. Other administration we tried to contact according to policy were no where to be found. The next class day we talked to Ms S., who told us we had planned this. The DON, ADON , Mr K all blamed the students for this. Students followed policy. Concorde didn't. Concorde failed in their responsibilty.
To make it worse, we now have one month (to the end of the term) to make up this clinical. We were told by Ms S. the school would work to make it as convenient to students as possible. Again another lie. We were given a few options, remain at a clinical site an hour longer for 3 clinicals and they would count the 1.5 hours we wasted, write a case study on a patient (we have never been taught anything about case studies), or complete an 8 hour clinical set up on a Monday or Friday. They are making a big deal about clinical hours saying we need a set amount of hours per class to go along with what we are studying yet don't think twice about caneling our clinical so we can attend a health fair to promote Concorde.
Ms S. has LIED so many times to many people, I suggest everyone by pass her. Students were treated badly regarding the clinical the instructor failed to show up to. Yet this is the same clinical instructor who came into a skills lab smelling like alcohol and slurring her words...yes it was reported but again nothing happened.
I had dropped out due to problems with financial aid. A few months later, I returned to re-enter. They explained to me that it was going to be a process because re-entry individuals are put on a waiting list. I followed their process and was told that more than likely I would have a spot in the next class starting. I followed suit and fulfilled all the things asked of me to re-enter. On the other hand, I had to make sure that they handled their part. One day, when I entered the school to assure that all paperwork was done, I was asked to talk to the dean. Upon entering the dean's office, he said "Why are you trying to get back in school so bad?". My jaw dropped. He explained to me that a few of the people who work in the office said that I was getting on their nerves. I then just walked out stating to him that I would never be coming back to Concorde. I still have to pay for the time that I did complete even though I was unable to return and complete. Now I am having to pay for it all over at another school.
I had a 4.0 average through the program and when I went to externship I was placed with a company that I wasn't allowed to do anything with. I was told how I would get them in trouble and I was passed on things that I didn't performed and failed on things I did. I was told that I would have to repeat the externship at my cost. I had previous experience in a Dr's office and as an ER Tech. My evaluations were high. I also was not allowed to mix the sterilzation water because it was either too blue or not too blue. I should have been moved to a new site.
I entered a career college in July 2009, there were many problems, so I checked into the community colleges for the LPN program but found they had a waiting list. So, being an older student,I decided to go to another career college. Concorde Career College ended up being my second choice. I first entered a program with another career college, but cut my losses and transferred to Concorde.
When I first went in, I was assured by the admission rep that my student loans would transfer...no problems. I met with financial aid and was told that I may have a balance due since the previous college had all ready taken some student loan money for the classes I had there. I was unable to get another loan so I was offered a Concorde Loan Option, which I took since it wasn't very much. I was told everything was fine from that point on. I got my books, the third class (most received books day one)-a few days later I get a call from financial aid telling me that she was able to lower my amount due by half and all I needed to do is come in and resign some papers. I did this and was told that now everything is fine, no problems.
the day after I signed the papers, the financial aid officer called again telling me there was a problem-this time she said that my previous school had returned over 3k to unused student loans, which would cover my balance due for Concorde...but there is a 90 day wait to get the money to them. It is now up to the Director of Financial Aid to say it is ok, and the financial aid person told me she wasn't sure it would be ok'd. So I will find out, after attending classes since the 15th, whether I can continue.
Now, if I attend classes, I have to pay for them even if they refuse to wait 90 days. If I don't attend classes I run the risk of being dropped for attendance and they get the money unless I officially drop the program. They led me to believe everything was ok three times then changed it at what seems to be their whim. Dropping the program isn't an option because I would have to wait months for any other program to start. I was told everything they thought I wanted to hear. I feel like I have been baited to stay regardless of what the truth is regarding the financial aid.
Due to the continued changes in the financial aid status I have lost sleep wondering whether or not I am in a program or not. I have lost virtually all the trust for career colleges since the problems in financial aid...these are problems that really don't exist since the money was returned to the lender and will be available to the school. The admission rep sucked me in telling me what I wanted to hear as did the financial aid office. Now I am basically stuck until a decision is made. I will NEVER recommend a career college to anyone.
I went to get info dental assisting. As I have a criminal backround I was very skeptical about getting a job even with added education. He said this would not interfere. And then preceded to tell me I was to fat and to old for the job.
I was in shock and just sat their while he told me medical billing was where I needed to be. That my backround would not affect that either.
I went thru all the classes. And did not find full time work for about a year. And even then the main reason I got it was someone I went to school with worked there. It was a very diverse non profit. And when layoffs started I was out.
And have not worked in a medical office since. I have had a couple pt cashier jobs. In the last 3 years. No one will hire me because of my backround. And now I have debt for schooling I cannot use.
I have been checking into taking courses at mt hood comm college and all of their medical office, coding, reception, transription, ect. Require a full criminal backround check. So I cannot even get current or further my education in this field.
I should have walked out when he first insulted me, but I was at a point in my life where I had to do something and at the time 9 months sounded really good compared to 2 years.
I would not reccomend this school to anyone.
I am in the LVN program at Concorde and on 9/29/09 my classmates and myself entered class and found out that we had a new instructor. We were told by the assistant Dean and the Director of Nursing that they decided to swap our instructor and another classes instructor. They did this 9 days before our final! Our class was outraged and asked for and explanation, we were told that we were not privy to the information due to confidentiality reasons. However they went on to say that our new instructor was competent and that they have the utmost confidence in her. We told them this was unacceptable to make a change so drastic as this right before our final. I went to the academic dean to get answers and to make a complaint. He tried to bully me into accepting the change, my classmates and myself filed a written grievance. The instructor we were given to replace our instructor has had a formal grievance filed against her, I have a copy of the letter they filed. That other class explained in depth how she was not organized, the lectures lacked structure and were vague and it is evidenced by the fact that the class is severely behind. The class began demanding their money back. Theirs is a class of 30, my class is a class of 6.
I have come to find out, by calling the corporate office that they were aware of the grievance against this instructor and they were aware of the switching of the teachers. I have spoken with so many faculty members of the school and corp. office and asked them why would they allow this to happen. This has impacted our class in such a negative way, all of us our suffering from the stress of this situation.I truly feel like our class was disrupted for the sake of the larger class. The tuition they pay is $28,000 times 30 of them compared to $28,000 times 6 of us. The director of nursing needs to be held accountable for the decision she has made to take our instructor from us. We have only had the new instructor for a few days and we are already falling behind, she is unable to meet the objectives for the class time as scheduled. As of now we are awaiting the decision of the grieveance committee. However i feel regardless of the outcome, the administrators responsible for implementing this change and causing so much undue stress upon our class, which has manifested itself as symptoms such as nausea, hives, headaches, lack of focus, insomnia and stomach aches. Needs to be held accountable for their blatent lack of consideration for our class.
Concorde advertises that you can graduate with an Associates Degree in Respiratory Therapy for $32k and you can continue your education any where. They further indicate that they supply you with everything you will need for the price for your tutition. What they don't explain to you is ALL of the gray area. Like the likely-hood of you working as a CRT is rare, that Concorde's AS Degree doesn't transfer to a normal 4 yr college and most medical establishments don't recognize it. They mislead and lie about the very things they state they do. They don't tell you that they are not concerned with the student's success. They explain to you that they are a professional Institution that has a dress code and a code of conduct. They don't tell you that it is only inforced as "they" see fit, everyone is not treated the same. In order to even think of getting a job as an RT, you will have to take the advanced RT class. Which they offer, yet don't offer. The price is 9k...opps now it is 11k. Everyone in my class is very unhappy about the stories we were told. If you are looking to go to school, I would keep looking.
Good~Luck with your Future
28 RN sudents finished and passed all course work for degree, An exit exam was given after course work only 14 passed, it was given again only 5 passed, remaining must withdraw from program, pay a $100 fee and wont be able to take again until Feb next year. The information on the exam is designed for a practicing RN not a new grad RN. Now we have no degree and cant get one, cant transfer credits to another program, this has been emotionally and physically stressful, the school has taken 25-35,000 dollars from each of us and we have no degree and cant sit for NCLEX. Many of us have no jobs and now extreme debt.Is there any actions we can do legally?
I was quoted the total cost of training as 16,665 for an LVN certificate program. I further have this in writing to the Work Force Investment Act who was funding me for 10,000 of this tuition. After nearly a month of testing and numerous drives to and from the school. They changed this fee to 18,389. They state it is the total cost of tuition, but the document they signed to WIA states this is the total cost for books, intitution ect. They will not honor this document as proof to what I had been originally quoted. I feel like they have gotten me emotionally involved and then hoped they could spring this additional expense and that I would just sign for the additional amount.
