The International Academy of Design and Technology, Orlando, Fl, is by far the biggest scam I have ever been sucked into. I am writing this report because I want to help who ever I can and I hope everyone will avoid going to this school. When I was first looking at attending IADT Orlando, I even looked at the reports on usacomplaints.com, I told my parents, its a great school, those people probably just had bad experiences. My biggest regret so far in life... Was not listening to all of those reports.
I was born and raised in Michigan, and I made a decision to leave my family, my home, my friends and move 1300 miles away to a school that I thought was going to change my life. It did... I am not currently not in college because after a year at IADT I withdrew, and I am now 23,000 dollars in debt.
They are liars and they are scam artists.
IADT was a joke. I was there for an entire year before I couldn't handle it any more. The teachers were the biggest upset of all. They didn't know what they were teaching. I had so many problems with teachers and the biggest problem was I wanted to learn so bad, and they didn't care to teach. We would just watch movies, or leave 3 hours early... They didn't care. I lost so much ambition and a good school should make you more motivated to do what you love. I would email the department chair, or the gen ed department, I even emailed the president of the school... It didn't get me anywhere. I was at IADT from Jan. 08 until Dec. 08, then I withdrew. I found out during that process that absolutely none of my credits are going to transfer to a university... They just want to trap you so they can keep your money. They told me I couldn't withdraw until the end of the term... That wasn't true... But waiting until the end of the term, means you can't be refunded. I recently found out they are in a scam with Sallie Mae... Please go to www.forbes.com and type in college fraud there is a whole article about schools like IADT and IADT itself.
I want to share with everyone a letter I wrote Mr. Al Smith, in student services. Even after writing this letter, nothing changed, I never heard back from anyone... They don't care. A real school cares about there students. And there future! Please!!! Don't make the same mistake I did in choosing IADT Orlando... Or any IADT...!!! If anyone would like to contact me about IADT, if you were looking into IADT and now don't know what to do... PLEASE contact me, I will tell you everything about IADT and I will help the best I can. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did with IADT...
Mr. Al Smith
IADT Student Services,
I wanted an opportunity to express my opinion, fully, about the International Academy of Design and Technology. Whether you choose to listen to my opinion or not is entirely up to you. I am pulling out of IADT as soon as I possible can. I do not want to waste any more money than I already have. I have had issues with this school from the very start. I started here in January of expecting that IADT was going to change my life. Well, it has, but not the way I wanted it too. I am currently in this situation, I am now located 1,300 miles away from home, I lost $20,000, I haven't learned what I paid for, I have been taken advantage of. I will not allow IADT to take advantage of me anymore. I have had bad teachers each term... And maybe that is because they are not certified as teachers. I understand they are designers, but they don't know how to teach. For example, Mr. Morrison was my first teacher at IADT. He wasted $1,500 of my money and 11 weeks of my time. He would cancel field trips, because he wasn't up to taking them. He would assign assignments without explaining. He would criticize our final project with a rubric he didn't discuss with us prior to our presentation. He even used the first student who volunteered to go first, as an example what not to do. That student no longer goes to this school.
I and four other students from that class, Intro to Interior Design, went to Ms. Kimberly Love to express how we felt. She had the nerve to tell us, "He has been having a rough term." That to me and the four other students was unacceptable. She did nothing about the situation. I have talked to numerous amounts of other students who felt the same way about Mr. Morrison. I understand Mr. Morrison is no longer at IADT, but the issue should still be recognized. Another "teacher" would Joyce Greco. I have had more than a few encounters with this woman that make me so upset. She not only wasted $1,500 of my money, but $3,000 because I had her for two classes, Fundamentals of Design and Humanities. She doesn't know how to teach!!! She was very rude to me personally, on a couple different occasions.
For Example, we went on a field trip to a church, while we were there she told the class you have questions to do before you leave, then turn them into her. Okay, not to big of a deal. I went looking for her because I did not understand on of the questions. When I finally found her, I told her I don't understand the wording in these questions. She very rudely turned to me and said, "THEN READ IT AGAIN!" She yelled that at me in front of the other students. Joyce at the time was going to look at one of the art galleries; I guess I was disturbing her with one of my school related questions. Another incident, we had a field trip to a cemetery in Gotha, FL. Some people in the class didn't want to participate because of religious beliefs; she said they would not get any credit then for the day. So, we go to Gotha, FL which took about 30mins, because I avoided highways because they make me nervous. The class is there, including me, and we wait around for Joyce for 15mins. When she arrives, she walks up to the group and says, "Okay you guys can go ahead and look around if you want, or you can just get your binders and go home." We drove all the way there, when gas prices were crazy, for her to give us our binders. Everyone left because none of us wanted to view the gravestones. Because nothing was being done about Joyce I went to Samantha Eddy. She was no help. I explained everything to her in a meeting we had.
That meeting took place about week 8 of the third quarter. She told me that the projects Joyce had us doing were ridiculous. But once again, nothing was done. She told me to wait for a couple more weeks and she would talk to Joyce and see if anything changed. The only thing that changed was Joyce got even ruder towards me. And if I had to wait a couple weeks, by that time the class would be over! Another incident that I will never forget is when we had just received our midterms back. She handed them out and said lets go over the answers. When I looked around the room I noticed there were students in there who had not taken the midterm. We didn't get a review when we had to take it, even though the night before she said we would review before the test she then changed her mind the day of. I stood up and said, "that isn't fair, we didn't get a review before our midterm, so we shouldn't go over it while they are all still in here." She looked right and me and said, "Oh, does anyone agree with Courtney? Should we not go over it?" She singled me out in front of the entire class. Everyone looked at me because they could tell I was upset. And a few students said they agreed with me because it wasn't fair. And Joyce said oh well, I guess we aren't going over the answers at all then. She was furious! All she had to do was ask the students who hadn't taken then midterm to step in the hall. She flipped out and was in a bad mood the rest of the class.
I contacted interior designers in Chicago, IL and Orlando, FL. They told me my degree would not be recognizable. They said it was way too expensive of a school and they would not recommend it for Interior Design. I have the names and phone numbers of the designers if you would like to contact them as well. I also contacted the University of Florida and Florida State and both schools said they would not accept any credits from IADT. Mr. Al Smith, you said you had helped a student transfer to a University in Florida and her credits transferred. I would like her name and contact information to see how she went about the process, since you told me it could be done, and the schools said it couldn't. I would also like to hear from you about how IADT could possibly benefit anyone who attends it. I have been at IADT for an entire year. I have not benefited from IADT at all and it's only a three year school.
I don't think the information you learn at school should be based on what teacher you get. At good schools, you learn everything from everyone because they care about you and your education. IADT is not a good school. They don't know the first thing about making students happy and making sure they are in the best learning environment. This school has taken a lot from me. It's taken me away from my family; it's taken a year out of my life, and its taken $20,000 of my money. It ends now! I will do what ever it takes to better myself in my education and in life. I am a great student, with a good head on my shoulders. The only thing I have gained from IADT is the knowledge of what a bad school consists of. And it is a place I never want to have to step foot in again. I will look back on IADT not as a great experience, but as an experience that changed my life, and I become a great person because of it.
I have just shared with you my opinion about the International Academy of Design and Technology. I would appreciate if you would send this email to the President of IADT and who ever else you can think of that might want to hear the opinion of one of the students at IADT. I understand the search might be a little difficult, it was for me too! I would also like to inform you, that I would like my money back, all $20,000 that I have wasted on this school. If you're not sure how that can happen, let me know and I will find an alternative way. If you want to contact me you have my information. If not, you will be hearing from me soon. I will also send copies of this letter to the Better Business Bureau and post it online. I want other people to be aware of this school and not have to go through the heartache I went through. I hope I can help as many people as possible in NOT choosing IADT.
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