Its been 6 years since I left Cittone Institute. Not becuase I passed but because I chose to walk out on them near the end. I first signed up with the Cittone Institute on Feb. 18 I registered to start April 1. No joke, what a coincidence that it was April Fool's day and I turned out to be the fool.
I registered for Computer Programming, the 7 1/2 month crash course. The woman who interviewed me, Cittone's "Admissions Representative" Shelley Gill really sold the place well. After hearing her speak to me, I felt all the woes in my life were about to straightened out.
She went on and explained how professional they were and how well the intructors were educated and easy the whole thing really was. The even tested me to see how smart I was. Unfortunately I don't have the test on hand or even remember what it was about but, I passed it. She even commented on my unusually high score, which now I see was all part of the bigger plan. Of course, the wow factor set in on me who at that point was already sold on her prior talk with me.
Despite the $12,200 price tag, I didn't flinch when she forwarded me to their financial office to meet with their "Financial Aid Advisor", Jodi Strohecker. She too complimented my high test score resulting in me being even more sold about the school. We talked for less than 10 minutes when she pulled out all the forms I needed to sign, which would eventually haunt me to this day.
She even got me a couple grants which at the end, didn't even count towards my $12K student loan, where those grants went, I have no idea. Of course I didn't know this, we're not supposed to know this, thats why their scheme works so well.
April 1 came quickly and I started my new computer programming course. Seven and a half months to learn these things, books 200-300 pages long in which we only reviewed less than 20 pages. Each month represented a differant class/programming language. They are as follows:
Month 1: Computers & Software Applications as Productivity Tools (30 Days)
Month 2: Visual Basic (30 Days)
Month 3: Object Oriented Programming w / Java (30 Days)
Month 4: Java Programming I (30 Days)
Month 5: Java Programming II (30 Days)
Month 6: Web Page Development (30 Days)
Month 7: SQL Database (30 Days)
Month 8: Web Animation & E-Commerce Site Development (15 Days)
Anybody who knows anything about computers, 8 out of 10 people simply CANNOT learn half of those in 5 months let alone 1. I turned out to be 2 of those people who couldn't. I passed everything except Java Programming I & II.
It was during the final month (November) that I found out I wasn't going to get that certificate saying I'm a computer programmer and the job I was told I could easily get. I failed those Java classes miserably, I did horrible in them, horrible enough that marking the tests on a curve couldn't even save me.
I remember going to the career office or whatever it was called and I spoke to a gentlemen who's name escapes me, the office might have been the "Director of Financial Aid", who in turn would have been one William Leach. Regardless of who it was, I went in because he wanted to speak to me, I was called out of class.
While I don't remember the conversation word for word it went something like he noticed my grades dropped and I have the opportunity to retake those aforementioned classes I failed. Still sold on the school, completely blinded by the surroundings, I agreed.
He then pulled out more forms for me to sign and I asked him why I needed to sign them. He said that was all part of the process. As I was about to sign them he said; "Once you sign them we can process your paper work for financial aid."
I stopped instantly. I said; "Excuse me?" He said; "Yes... You need financial aid for retaking the classes." I put the pen down and I don't know what it was but something hit me like a ton of bricks. I said; "How much financial aid?" He said; "Each class will only cost you $5,000 if you register to take them now."
I was shocked and I didn't know what to say other than; "What the #$%& is that?" He asked if I was interested and told him; "Forgive my language but no &^%$ing way, I'm already in debt $12K." His following remarks still haunt me. He said something along the lines of 'what are you going to do with your life then?'
I remember standing up and grabbing my school bag, which Im glad because it had all my information pertaining to Cittone in it. I grabbed and said something like "Maybe I'll be an artist." He said "you can try... Good luck with that." As I left I said a few more choice words and never returned to the place.
My financial aid was through Sallie Mae a place I or my parents hadn't heard of. My student loan still hasn't been paid off. Through several harrassing phone calls to their telephone people who tell you to "pay this amount and you'll be up to date" when in fact they're lying and you get hit with tremendous penalties. That is my story of the Cittone Institute located in Plymouth Mall. I learned afterward that Cittone was originallt Computer Learning Center and I just learned that they're now Lincoln Tech.
There MUST be a paper trail and I don't have the means to uncover it. There has to be some illegal activity going on with their revolving funds through SLM (Sallie Mae) and I still have every piece of information that was given to me, from tests to grading to financial aid paper work. I'm still trying to recover from bad credit due to this place.
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