I enrolled at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Va Beach, Va. I had seen the commercials and listened to the promises of making $18.00 an hour with the airlines. I was given a flyer of all the benefits of going to AIM.
I met with the financial aid person, Tracy Asper. She told me that I could get loans and grants to attend the school. She did all the paperwork. I wasn't working at the time, so going to school should have been easy. Not if you are trying to go to school for the required 28 hours a week and trying to raise a family.
When I asked about the daycare assistance that was printed on their flyer, I was told that the school did not offer any daycare assistance. Well why even put that on the flyer? So I enrolled my daughter into a daycare program. I had to take time off school when she was sick and the daycare center was not open on the weekends. Paying almost $200.00 a week to attend school and then trying to find a job that would work around daycare and school does not happen. Here's the deal with AIM, the classes are Mon-Thurs 7:30am-2pm or 5pm-11:30pm. You can only miss 18 hours (3 days) per semester (avg of 5 weeks) and all makeup hours must be made up within a certain amount of time. Fridays and every other Saturday the hours can be made up and M-T from 2-5pm. Unless you enroll in the degree program which is held on Fridays 8am-1pm. If you miss the 18 hours you will be recycled and billed again to take that class.
The interesting part is about the billing. I did not graduate from AIM. The credits I did get are NON-transferrable. If I want to complete my education, I must start over at another school or RE-enroll with AIM and be charged for another tuition. I am in debt to AIM for a little over $23,000.00 with nothing to show for it. I have student loans and a nice collection account. I never knew how much I was being charged in loans because the financial aid person filed all the paperwork. Everywhere else, you are billed per credit hour for the classes you take. I was billed for the classes I took and the ones I might end up taking. What did I get for the 23k? Nothing. Oh, the airlines are not hiring at 18.00 an hour. It's more like 9.00 an hour and the training at AIM is not the training you see then advertise in the commercials. The school does not even own any airworthy aircraft nor do they offer any avionics classes. The tools are the equivalent of ones you can find at a flea market. The drop out rate is about 97%. When I asked questions concerning my debt, I was hung up on and my phone calls were never returned. Beware of aim!!
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