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Altierus Career College / Everest Institute
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Altierus Career College / Everest Institute

250 York Street, London, ON, N6A 6K2, CA
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Altierus Career College / Everest Institute - Awful school

Before I even decided to go to this school, I read some reviews of the school online, I saw that many of the Everest's in America had some pretty bad reviews, but I saw a few in Canada (where I'm from) that were pretty awesome. So I enrolled myself, got a loan from OSAP and here we are.

I am currently attending Everest College in Ontario, Canada, in the Personal Support Worker course. My course began on November 24, 2008. In 2 weeks, my class is supposed to, (key word "supposed to") be put into a nursing home for placement.
Unfortunately, we are not going to be going into placement at our schedualed time. The reason?

Near the end of January our class was hit hard. Our teacher, was fired, and we were given a new teacher. No one was offically told why, just that our teacher "wasn't coming back" She was a very nice woman, and was replaced by another awesome woman. Unfortunately, because of the change, we were pretty much starting fresh with our work and learning, with only a month of school left. This new teacher had to learn our learning styles, and where we were with our work and learning, it was a hard adjustment. You'd think with one month left, they would just leave us with our original teacher and let us end the course.

About a week after the teacher switch, the news was told to some of us in the class from a returning student that our original teacher, had taught the year before, and the class that she had, went into placement and was actually sent BACK to the school to relearn many things because they weren't taught enough to be in placement. There were also many words going around that our teacher had a bad way of teaching and we were very far behind in our learnings and should have known more then we did. My question, is if this school knew how she taught, and didn't like it, and if they knew what happened with the class before us, about having to return from placement, why would they let her continue teaching at the school? Why would they put us with her for 2 months and THEN decide to fire her?

I should also mention that we went to school on a Wednesday morning, and the president of the school came down to our class to tell us about our teacher and that we would be getting a new one. Then she sent us home for the rest of the week and told us that we would have a new teacher on Monday. (This information comes into play in a few more paragraphs) So we meet our new teacher, she's nice, but she also has her own way of teaching that took us awhile to get used to. Oh, and I should also mention that it took the school about 3 weeks to find all of our marks, because our old teacher had them back at her house, and they misplaced a few of them. So we had no idea how we were doing in the class. Actually, as of right now, we still don't know our most recent mark, and we should. Also, our new teacher has yet to learn the schools marking scheme, so she's as confused as we are.

Now, when it comes to OSAP, we were screwed over with that too. As of February 15, 2009, our SECOND OSAP loan papers were released to us. Unfortunately, our class did not, and still has not, received any money from our second loan. I'll explain why. Our class right now, SHOULD be 40% finished our course. And we NEED to be 40% finished our course in order to get our second OSAP loan. Because we were given a week long christmas break (normally, and other past years, it's only been 2 days for christmas break), and also because we were told not to come to class until Monday after we found out that we were getting a new teacher, we are only 32% finished our course. Another thing the school screwed us over with. Many of us in the course are mad for this very reason. OSAP loans help pay for things while we're in school. Rent and groceries, and many in the class have children, this is setting us all back and making it hard to stay in school. Some students are having to pick up extra shifts at work to make money, and because of this are not able to finish homework and projects. It really sucks. We haven't been told any date that we would be getting our second loan either, I heard "sometime in March"..but who really knows?

So, because of all the set backs that we have been given, with a new teacher and missing marks, we are not able to go into placement on time. This new teacher has been instructed to teach us for one, maybe two, extra weeks so we can take more time to learn more things and do more hands on things so we are ready for placement. Now, I agree that we do need more time for that, but, the school knew that our old teachers teaching ways were bad, and she didn't teach enough, so why would they put US through that too? It's because of that reason why we aren't going into placement on time. Our end date for the course was supposed to be May 29th, 2009 and because we are going into placement late, our end date is going to be extended. For some, they have to change they're after school plans, some people were planning on, and had already planned to move. Now, because of the schools screw-ups, everything has to change.

Also, it surprised me to see how rude some of the teachers are at my school. When I saw the commercials on TV (it was a commercial that got me to call the school) it looked like a great school, the students were happy and said they had great success with their class, and getting into the work field. Honestly, my school is less then half of what those commercials show. I am very disappointed in Everest College. They lie about everything on their commercials and their ads, it's nothing like that. I do not recommened this school for anyone. It's definitly not worth the money you are paying them.

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wannapooh
, US
Nov 15, 2016 9:20 am EST

I attend Everest Online College at this present time and I agree that it is a big scam. Every time I turn around it is a problem with financial aid. I thought that it was just me. I had a friend of mines sigh up just to see what was really going on and so to speak, Everest sells you dreams just to get you to sign up. We filled the same paper work out 6 times and only how we knew it was wrong is because we would call to check on his financial report. They waited 5 days before school to tell him it was wrong again and we knew it was right they just wanted us to make changes to stall his money. Once we got it right they tell him it would take up to 4 weeks for his money to post. To me that was wrong. When it is money we have to pay back.

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DaynaM
, CA
Jun 03, 2014 3:15 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I looked into Everest College once and the next thing I know they are mailing me constantly to enroll. They were calling my house on a regular basis until I told them to stop harassing me! They are simply desperate for students. Turned me off right away.

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sunspot
London, CA
Mar 27, 2014 7:31 am EDT

I attended Everest in London and I have to say that it's not that bad. The program I was in was a tech-based and was an individualized program it was up to the student to advance their education, with guidance from the on-site instructor. After graduation, I applied everywhere and landed lots of interview both in London and in other cities including Toronto. I had a few job offers come up, but I couldn't accept them because of my health. I believe that as hard as the school's training was to swallow for me, coming out of public school, the skills learned at the school proved to be invaluable. I ended up for a top tech-based company, in a different role than my program, and it was great for a while. I believe if I had stuck with the company I would've eventually made my way into a role related to my program; however, my health was also not the greatest. I don't blame my job prospects on my education at Everest at all because the diploma did open a lot of doors that otherwise would have been shut. In the end, to really get started in my field, I used the knowledge learned from my schooling at Everest and started my own company. It was enough to give me an extra boost of experience and build my portfolio to land other job opportunities. Employers know that I work hard, but many times I had to leave my position still because of my health. I have enjoyed my experience because it has made me into the person I am today. The school worked for me because I have a more entrepreneurial outlook, and currently I am planning the start of a new business related to field of study, but also just taking some more time to get better. To those seeking to placement judgments on the school from these reviews, I can tell you that it's easy for someone to speak about a negative experience -- it's just the way humans are conditioned. However, what I find is that a lot of students who attend the school also didn't take the initiative to fully comply with the program and complete the learning material to standard. In my area, there were students who were wasting their time playing video games during class time instead of studying and then complains that they are getting nowhere. Great observation, if only these students would commit themselves then they would see the light that the school provides.

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yacoo lamane
grandrapids, US
Mar 30, 2013 5:48 pm EDT

will everest college in grandrapids mi, deny me into the lpn program for disturbing the peace and resisting arest over 17 years ago?

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Dave Doobay
London, CA
Jan 11, 2011 2:49 am EST

Thames Valley College is even more of a scam than CDI/Everest. The director makes deals with students in attempts to take increasingly larger portions of their OSAP money. Miss a couple weeks of school and the director will inevitably propose a financial arrangement that would cause him to ignore the student's absence. Yes, instead of making up the time missed, Dave, tries to convince students to 'pay a fine' and receive the diploma anyway. This is just wrong!

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a girl from london
London, CA
Oct 25, 2010 11:07 pm EDT

I've recently completed my in class portion at this school and will be heading out into my placement shortly. I am lookng to make a formal compaint and I'm wonding if anyone has information on how to direct me that way. Anything would be helpful.
Thank You

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circumvent
Windsor, CA
Aug 02, 2010 9:32 am EDT

The only defense people have against these types of places are the internet and in-side knowledge(which most of us do not have.) I guess I was completely naive to think that these places were credible. I figured they were a step-below traditional Universities and Colleges but I did not realize just how badly they are viewed by the general public.

In fact, I truly believe that it cheapens your image in so far as employers are concerened. These private schools do not require the submission of high-school transcripts and I think most employers know this. So, even though you may have completed your high-school education, you may still get lumped into that category with those who did not, and all associations that come with it. It makes sense, you were classmates with them, learned the same material and graduated with them so you are a part of that group. Many employers probably scoff at the schools "fast-track" approach. Employers, when comparing THEIR 3-4 year+ stays at traditional schools cannot think too highly of a "diploma" recieved in a year or in many cases less time than that.

I am trying to get in the head of the people who do the hiring. I had to do so as I wanted to attempt to make sense of the constant rejection I experinced in the job market and the rejection of MOST OTHER grads of private schools. Most of that is common sense anyways but, like I said, I admit that I was not in a clear head space at the time and extremely NAIVE and GULLIBLE!

I went through the whole phase of trying to stick-up for the school I went to and of the "diploma" I recieved. I tried to stand proud of it and act as if I really did have a true, post-secondary education. But after a while, you go through the denial:realization phase and come to terms with the fact that you are no better off than you were when you enrolled in the crappy school. You realize that you lost a [censor]-load of money and a good chunk of time in the process thus putting you in a MUCH WORSE position than when you started!

Here is my little hierarchy of importance in so far as post secondary schools are concerned, employer perception, credit transferabliltiy etc.:
1.Traditional Universities
2.Community Colleges
3.Traditional Unversity certificate programs
4.Community college certificate programs
5.High-School diplomas
6.Private schools

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F**k Facebook
Atlanta, US
Jul 26, 2010 9:03 pm EDT

This site posts ads for the ripoff companies the sheeple who subscribe to this [censor] complain about? WTF?

A.Guy.From.London
A.Guy.From.London
Sudbury, CA
Jul 23, 2010 9:14 pm EDT

Ah, I see. I was a bit confused there for a bit and thought you too were in London. It seems that CDI swallowed up Toronto School of Business in other cities and just closed the one here The London "campus" was also owned by the same guy that owns a popular downtown buffet style restaurant and he was hiring 'grads' from his school. That's how he was able to say he had such high numbers for his grads having such a high employment number. As soon as you take any job at all after school, they count you as a 'success' story and close off your file.

There's currently another "college" in where Toronto School of Business used to be called Thames Valley Business College. I think they called themselves that as a way to trick people into thinking they might have something to do with the local public school board here. - It's called Thames Valley District School Board. This so-called school is in a building downtown that also houses the local office for Ontario Works (social Assistance).

I'd really like someone to take a hard look at these schools. They have no place at all and only serve to rip off the general public and the tax payer. The only private trade school I know is 100% legit is Welding At It's Best. A friend of mine went there and has never been wtihout work in the last three years. Only down side to that is the long waiting list to get in. - At least a year. By the time you wait, you might as well just go and do the same program at Fanshawe or another public college.

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circumvent
Windsor, CA
Jul 23, 2010 6:52 pm EDT

The "career services" was nothing that any of us students could not do on our own. Scour the newspapers and internet based job sites etc. They eventually hired some guy to take care of "job leads"(they LOVED talking about leads) but it made no difference. All of those promises of jobs and stuff came when they were called the Toronto School of Business. Then when they changed to CDI they simmered down a bit and didn't mention all of that stuff like "recruiters" etc. I think now, since they've changed their name to Everest they do none of that. They did get in huge trouble for all of those claims so their marketing has changed. Towrads the end of my stay they created this "job board" to show off all the grads who were hired and by what company. What stood out to me was that in most instances they did not mention WHAT the grad was doing?! They called me up about a month after I graduated asking if I found employment and where. I did not tell them as they would have had another thing to add to that job board. I was at a reputable company but working as a labourer! They would have excluded the labour part of it(the actual job!) and put up my name and the company I work for...it would have looked great for a potential student in orientation(as in...WOW, "X" company hired a CDI grad!), so I declined to give them any info. I think this is also how they used to generate those absurd
98% grads hired" percentages. Anyhow, you can have all the career services and crap you want, if the public(employers and REAL Universities and Colleges) do not recognize theses places as legit it will make no difference...and judging solely from my experiences they do not recognize them!

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