I'm a past graduate of Porter & Chester Watertown. It is unfortunate that I did not receive the proper skills/training required to acquire a position within the architectural & civil drafting industry. After going threw numerous interviews, phone conversations with potential employers, and internship, it had been brought to my attention that I had not been taught the skills that are required to obtain a position in the field. Either one or all of the following are mandatory to entering into a drafting position, AutoCAD Civil Design, Autodesk Land Desktop, Civil 3D, AutoCAD Building Systems, AutoCAD Architectural Desktop, also AutoCAD 3D just name a few. It is not the responsibility of the employer as it was conveyed to me by the instructor to be trained in the design software mentioned above; it is the responsibility of the institute to properly train the student in the disciplines. A professional approach in an education institute is usually one of assisting and helping students grow. I feel it is unfortunate that your institution did not adequately understand the needs of the student, or potential employers, your interested is directed to the bottom line dollar.
I spent a year+ at P&C having great expectation in finding a new career goal and a new outlook on life, and I come to realize that I wasted a year of my life, and a considerable amount of my cash, and State of Connecticut rehabilitation grant money on a program which is inadequate. In meetings and conversations with the State of Connecticut they seem to agree. I’m not the first student that with this grievance about Porter and Chester and probably will not be the last. It is unfortunate that Institution has to run a dog and pony show and sit behind smoke and mirrors to sell there product and misinform the public. Porter and Chester is a enormous disappointment. If I would have known then what I know now, I would not have participated in the program. I would not recommend Porter and Chester to any one!
The worst tech school in the area. I attended Porter & Chester for autocad training. What a joke. You could learn more for the tutorials and help files included with the software. This is a funnel for govt. money. They want to get old people who are on workers comp. and drop outs to attend their school for the easy money they receive from the govt. in the form of grants. Then their financial aid (haha) dept. will drag their feet getting the rest of the financial aid and coerce you into their plan of last resort private financial aid @ 20% interest or no graduation. CRIMINAL!!!
There were old people in the class that had never turned on a computer or been exposed to drafting in any way. I thought I was in elementary school again having to endure basic PC instruction. Guys in the class on Workers Comp. telling me they were sent there by the state for re training for free . They also stated that they had no intention of getting a job in the field. They will get a workers comp. check as long as they get their FREE training and it gives them something to do.
This is about the AutoCAD course only. I attended Porter and Chester in Chicopee Ma. from 4/2011 to 4/2012 for Architectural Computer Aided Drafting and earned the certificate. This was to be a career shift from over 11 years as a web/multimedia designer/developer.
Term Grades: April: 94.61, July: 95.03, Nov: 94.56 and Jan: 93.84. Attendance was good, projects were completed on time and all were signed off on, not just the few required to pass the course.
Six months after graduating I have no job prospects. Poor job placement assistance is definitely a problem. I had hoped P&C had useful connections with businesses that consider hiring entry level graduates. I guess not. Sorry Charlie, temp agency bots don’t qualify as connections.
In the real world a two year engineering or architectural degree trumps a one year Porter & Chester AutoCAD certificate, contrary to what is preached. Some “graduates” decide to pursue a college degree after dumping 20k on a certificate when their initial job hunt fails. That makes no sense unless you’re gaming the system or have mommy and daddy footing the bill for a reliving of the old high school days. Maybe adult classes are needed to help separate the grown-ups from the kiddies.
I went to Porter & Chester hoping to catch a break but it looks like I caught nothing more than a 20k loan deferment, a bad credit rating and a headache. Bear in mind that some employers do a credit check and will make hiring decisions based upon a bad credit report, the lack of a formal education or degree.
By the way, I never did get that job interview at the Dennis Group that I was specifically told I would get. Just passing it along.
Don’t waste your time or your money. I graduated from the CAD program in 2009. The software we used was 3 years outdated and the curriculum was 20-30 years outdated. The instructor was a looser who lived in his car in the parking lot and was fired 2 months into my 1st semester.
The 3rd instructor new CAD but had no idea how to teach and was full of sh%!. It was a waste of $25K, a lot of money… I’ll be paying that off for the next 30 years with high interest. No job placement, no opportunity offered to continue learning after I graduated. They just wanted their money and that was it.
I’m writing this complaint because the school called me today, 3 years later and asked me what I was doing. When I told them I was working, they wanted to use my name to promote the school (saying a graduate had a job). I would rather starve to death before I gave them an ounce of credit for what I do. I had to erase everything they taught me and reeducate myself (spending more money) to get a job.
This school is a joke and a scam. They are using your credit and social security number to take education dollars from the government. You will not benefit from attending this “school”. Pass my message on, Porter and Chester is a scam in every way, don’t fall for it.
I was a CADD student in Chicopee. When I went for a tour of the school, I wasn’t all that impressed with the classroom (folding tables with a computer on it), but I was looking for a change in career and the CPS told me that they had an 85 – 100% placement rate, so I signed on. I was also told that they would be starting to teach 3d drafting as part of the curicullum, I was almost done with the course when they started teaching it to the new starts. I had to start learning it on my own (my instructor did help some to get me started, but couldn’t spend much time with me on it). While the instructors were good, I soon found that the placement numbers were far from true. The numbers quoted were from 2 years prior. While students were going out the backdoor without jobs, they continued to bring more in the front door, fully aware that they were struggling to find jobs for previous graduates.
The other issue I had was the equipment, some of the local trade schools (high schools) had better computers than we did. And there were constant issues with them, while the IT students did their best, it seemed they were in the class every day, mostly patching them up. Computers are cheap today and for 25,000 dollars for the course, there were probably 25 to 30 of us using them between the day and the evening course that they could upgrade and replace them every 18 months so that the students were working on the latest equipment.
Also the director would come in and have us do surveys, which by your 3rd term most of us felt were a joke. I understand that they are a business and they can’t do everything that is suggested by the students, but come on how many months do you have to complain about adding more RAM to the computers, so that it would minimize crashes (it’s not that expensive).
Any way I could go on and on as to how I feel I was sold short, in all areas from start to finish, so I’ll just stop here.
Though I know there are people out there who have had great outcomes with this college, I wish them all the best.However, I did not have a great outcome.
I graduated in 2011 in the CAD program. I thought I was doing the right thing putting myself through college with no job to better my life considering I've received the short end of the stick in high school, and 2 at home courses I took. During my 18 month program, I was taught architectural AutoCad. I went back 1 year after to get my resume revamped, which the career specialist gladly assisted me with.
HOWEVER at that time I have not found any positions. Why? Everybody is only hiring for Solidworks, Catia, and Sketchup, in mechanical environments and they only want people with experience. Now going back to my first week, I was told that upon graduation, if i needed to come back to use extra resources, I was more than welcome because the school is open to me for life after I graduate.
Well while I was there (Watertown location, where I attended) I asked if I can get a crash course on Solidworks because low and behold, the class is learning Solidworks now that I've graduated. What was I told? "You don't need a crash course. It's easy, free, and you can download it and do it from home." But the file is so huge, it will not fit on my computer.
"Well I can't just fit you randomly in my class." So NOW, I am stuck with a certificate I have not used, a student loan that I've only made 3 payments on because I am now working at BJ's stocking shelves since I was in school (3 years ago.) Total waste of money, time, mileage, and everything.
Beware, it's not what it seems on the commercials. Total actors and I'm sick of seeing the commercial because it's deceiving.
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