Sanford Brown Institute This school is a fake & expensive, fake gpas & lots of students feel unqualified for their externship RIPOFF Iselin New Jersey

Sandford Brown is a FAKE SCHOOL. The only people they can graduate are Nursing Assistants and I promise you to spend 20,000 + to become a 9.00 an hour nurse assistant that basically wipes a patients butt, is a RIP OFF COMPLETELY!!

The community colleges here in the Houston area offer a such course for about a grand plus books and supplies and I promise you that with our high tech Texas Medical Center, they are not going to hire students from a for profit junk Tech School. Only the community colleges where you get actual clenical experience do you even have a chance to get at least a 10.00 an hour job in a real hospital. With Sanford Brown you only going to end up in a Nursing Home doing potty patrol!!
So please think before you Leap. Sanford Brown is a joke, and so is the name!!!

I graduated from SBI in Illinois with my RMA. We were fortunate in that we did have awesome teachers whom I keep in contact with annually. I am currently a License Practical Nurse and going thru the worthless RMA classes did help me d/t the teachers. I was a bit surprised with much of what you spoke of however you could not have been more correct with the deceit of the pay and placement. They don't help at all with job placement and SBI is WAY TOO expensive. I am currently looking into obtaining my RN. They CANNOT screw that up however, the classes are 30,000 where other places Like Lutheran School of Nursing is 11,000.

I would really like to say that what you put into any class you will receive something back but that is so not the case at SBI. I think our experience with SBI will teach us not to be in a hurry for a degree and even if SBI caters to other needs we may have to demand in class while we are there and not allow them to cheat us out of our money and our education.

God Bless,

mrsjohn

In response to the defender of SBC, I would like to remind this person and the school that these academic classes are essential to successful careers.

The general ed courses (such as ENGLISH-reading and writing and speaking well is not essential???? MATH-learning how to be logical, memorize, recognize patterns, figuring out accounting and basic finance issues? NOT IMPORTANT?)

If SBC wants to be considered a legitimate college, SBC should very well spend more time on these academic courses and less on their mandatory electives such as how to think positively. Nothing wrong with this class as an ELECTIVE, but forcing it to be a student's first class is a bit cheesy and transparent.
Do you really expect people in life to take you seriously if you cannot spell, speak, read, or write well?

I personally hate it if my nurse, medical assistant, or legal assistant cannot communicate beyond basics.

Sarah, St. Louis

Here is a solution for Sanford-Brown: Get your proper accreditation and stop lying to and misleading students.

Doing these things will not only help the students, it will also make the school more, not less, profitable. Right now Sanford-Brown is depending on a never-ending supply of willing students who are desperate, down and out, gullible,naive,or just wanting and needing a fast paced program for a career.

The commercials and ads make it all sound so quick, easy and convenient.

The promises do not match the reality. Already two programs have been stopped at my local campus. Too many drop outs and questionable practices.
The school staff kept boasting about being "Nationally accredited".
Actually, the accreditation is listed as "N/A" on the North central acrreditation website and any business can find generic "national" accreditation for a price.

Students are told they are earning a degree, Associates', Bacehelors', and even a "Masters". These are not actual academic degrees and will not be recognized by real colleges or Universities.

The professional field of employers will not recognize a Sanford Brown education as a degree from a college or university but may assume you had some practical application training such as typing pr data entry.
The school forces students to take the classses the school wants them to take "Professional Development"? "Investment to Success"?
These will not transfer even if this was an accredited college.
Bogus, non academic classes are supposed to be electives chosen by a student.

I did research the school before I went, and as a lay person, I believed "National accreditation" meant exactly that, it was accredited across the nation and would be transferrable to other colleges and universitities in the country.

As someone who is not a professional in education or the law, I signed things I did not completely understand even after I asked them to explain it to me. Most of us cannot afford an attorney be present with us at every signing or we would not be going to school for more education.
I am far from being an idiot. I am a card carrying Mensa member.
I do not appreciate being mislead and told that my "associates" degree would be transferrable to the next university so I could continue accruing my credentials.

Mariam A.
St. Louis, MO

As the article states, most things will not happen unless students ban together on their complaints. I guess CBS 60 minutes just puts stories out on a "few" dissattisfied studetns, or did they recieve enough for a story?

Sanford Brown is owned by CEC. Part of an artcile from Courier post below with link to follow.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and other states are reviewing business practices at vocational schools owned by Career Education Corp., including the Sanford Brown Institute in Iselin, Middlesex County.
Story continues below

In April, a CBS 60 Minutes report claimed Career Education schools routinely pressured unqualified students to enroll and grossly overstated its graduation and job placement rates.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development said it is closely reviewing Sanford Brown's application for renewal.

Still, it is rare for the state to go beyond looking over the paperwork when schools renew operating licenses each year as required, a spokesman said.

Usually, it takes complaints from several students or school staff to initiate an investigation of business practices.

Oversight must be tightened.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has tried for 15 years to get Congress to impose more stringent regulation. Waters told 60 Minutes some congressional members protect the schools.

As a group, private vocational schools have contributed more than $1 million in campaign contributions to federal officials during the past two years, 60 Minutes found.

Half of that money was given to House Education Committee Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Howard P. McKeon, R-Calif.

Taxpayers and vocational students need leaders who will protect them.

Our elected federal and state officials must hold these schools more accountable for educating students and complying with federal loan regulations.

That will happen if voters start holding elected officials accountable for how well vocational schools operate.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050829/OPINION/508290301/1006

As the article states, most things will not happen unless students ban together on their complaints. I guess CBS 60 minutes just puts stories out on a "few" dissattisfied studetns, or did they recieve enough for a story?

Sanford Brown is owned by CEC. Part of an artcile from Courier post below with link to follow.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and other states are reviewing business practices at vocational schools owned by Career Education Corp., including the Sanford Brown Institute in Iselin, Middlesex County.
Story continues below

In April, a CBS 60 Minutes report claimed Career Education schools routinely pressured unqualified students to enroll and grossly overstated its graduation and job placement rates.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development said it is closely reviewing Sanford Brown's application for renewal.

Still, it is rare for the state to go beyond looking over the paperwork when schools renew operating licenses each year as required, a spokesman said.

Usually, it takes complaints from several students or school staff to initiate an investigation of business practices.

Oversight must be tightened.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has tried for 15 years to get Congress to impose more stringent regulation. Waters told 60 Minutes some congressional members protect the schools.

As a group, private vocational schools have contributed more than $1 million in campaign contributions to federal officials during the past two years, 60 Minutes found.

Half of that money was given to House Education Committee Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Howard P. McKeon, R-Calif.

Taxpayers and vocational students need leaders who will protect them.

Our elected federal and state officials must hold these schools more accountable for educating students and complying with federal loan regulations.

That will happen if voters start holding elected officials accountable for how well vocational schools operate.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050829/OPINION/508290301/1006

As the article states, most things will not happen unless students ban together on their complaints. I guess CBS 60 minutes just puts stories out on a "few" dissattisfied studetns, or did they recieve enough for a story?

Sanford Brown is owned by CEC. Part of an artcile from Courier post below with link to follow.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and other states are reviewing business practices at vocational schools owned by Career Education Corp., including the Sanford Brown Institute in Iselin, Middlesex County.
Story continues below

In April, a CBS 60 Minutes report claimed Career Education schools routinely pressured unqualified students to enroll and grossly overstated its graduation and job placement rates.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development said it is closely reviewing Sanford Brown's application for renewal.

Still, it is rare for the state to go beyond looking over the paperwork when schools renew operating licenses each year as required, a spokesman said.

Usually, it takes complaints from several students or school staff to initiate an investigation of business practices.

Oversight must be tightened.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has tried for 15 years to get Congress to impose more stringent regulation. Waters told 60 Minutes some congressional members protect the schools.

As a group, private vocational schools have contributed more than $1 million in campaign contributions to federal officials during the past two years, 60 Minutes found.

Half of that money was given to House Education Committee Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Howard P. McKeon, R-Calif.

Taxpayers and vocational students need leaders who will protect them.

Our elected federal and state officials must hold these schools more accountable for educating students and complying with federal loan regulations.

That will happen if voters start holding elected officials accountable for how well vocational schools operate.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050829/OPINION/508290301/1006

2 year community colleges spend a lot of time teaching English, Math, and other classes that in many cases have absolutely nothing to do with the major. Also, you would only attend a specific class once or twice a week, spending only 6 hours a week in the class, where as at Sanford Brown you take 3 classes at a time, 4 times a week, and spend 2 hours a week more in classes at Sanford Brown than you would at a community college like Brookdale or Ocean County.

I was in the Audio Communications program at Brookdale, in which I didn't need a math class, wasn't part of the requirements, whether or not I passed the schools basic skills test, but because my original major was business, the school was forcing me to take a remedial math class that didn't count towards my grades, AND was 4 credits with each per credit tuition being $100, so while the normal 3 credit math class would cost $300, the remedial class cost $400 and counted for nothing. Not to mention that when I switched my major from Business to Communications, Brookdale considered that to be a dropped class, and they equate a dropped class to a failed class, which means they gave me a failing grade, messing up my GPA, and endangering my Pell Grant status.

Speaking of Pell Grant, they cost me another grade. Brookdale took too long to process my financial aid, by the time they let me into a communications class they did allow me to enroll in, just not attend, the semester was 2 weeks old, and the teacher wouldn't allow me in the class, and I received yet ANOTHER failing grade, and THAT cost me my financial aid.

Furthermore, my girlfriend went to a "Legit" nursing school for only 12 months. So Sanford Brown is not spending less time than needed on classes.

I also asked my doctor just a couple of months ago if she thought Sanford Brown was a legit school, she said YES.

Sanford Brown, like community colleges, has an open admissions policy.

I am currently a Sanford Brown student, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that the claims being made about the school are completely without any merit.

I will be quoting 1 report, posted on 10/10/2005, as this is the one that I read.

1."This is very unfortunate and terribly sad. At first I was told by my admissions representative that this school will benefit me to get into medical school. Yes, I know what a joke? Who knew that it was too good to be true?!?! No offense to anyone who works for this school or a similar school but "faculty", you aren't helping us students to learn; you just want our money so that you can get paid or get a bonus. That is wrong-thinking. If you are here to help, then help us find a clinic or actually teach us. We aren't asking you to place us into a clinic but you can help, right? Also, if SBI cares so much about us, how? By making sure, we are paying our funds for non-educational classes.

The classes are pathetic. The representatives, the teachers, and the career advisors said that going to SBI would have adequate hands-on classes. How do you expect us to be a phlebotomist, EKG tech, or a pharmacist tech if we can only understand these courses within 5 weeks? We can't because it isn't enough. We need to take more classes and more time. Well it definitely isn't enough time to be a med asst either."

It should be known that Sanford Brown is so money hungry that if a student fails a class and has to repeat it, that student DOES NOT have to pay to take the class again, unlike in every "Legit" college. I went to Brookdale Community College in Lincroft NJ, and had to pay for a class that I had to take over.

The classes go above and beyond what an MA needs to know in the field. Anyone who is living in Staten Island NY, that is attending Sanford Brown in NJ is learning how to do injections and draw blood, something that medical assistants in New York state are NOT even permitted to do, and the same holds true for the Sanford Brown in Manhattan!

For the record, the MA students at my school who I volunteered my veins to for them to practice drawing blood, were better than the many of the NURSES I've been stuck by. They obviously had no problems with learning it in 5 weeks!

2."Also, some teachers aren't qualified to teach these courses and that's a shame. Human Relations & Medical Office Applications are easy classes. You don't need to waste our time and your time to teach those classes for 5 weeks. All you need is one test and call it a day. The tests are either open-book or "take home handouts". From home, I have to bring in extra material to keep myself busy. Well if I would have known ahead that this school is based on an independent study - I would have never sacrifice 13,000 for a B.S. school and moved up to Jersey for this school."

This is another lie! Yes they are easy classes, but relating to another human being is the toughest part of any job that is customer service oriented, which patients are. And neither of these classes had open book tests or take home handouts. The reason this person hates having to spend 5 weeks in these classes is because they are BORING, no other reason.

Also, it is not Sanford Brown that dictates what classes to teach or how long to teach them... It is all the accrediting bodies that dictates that students spend 5 weeks in these boring classes. Maybe if this woman paid attention in her Medical Law & Ethics class she'd know this!!!


3."Also, teachers emphasize "no plagiarizing" or else they will fail you or give you an F on the test. That's funny. I am a very good student at SBI and I see students cheat all the time in front of me."

More lies. I've yet to see anyone cheating. Measures are taken to keep cheating from happening, such as handing out 3 different tests to the class.

4."I was also told that I was going to get paid $17-25 per hr. Ha! Most med assts that graduated; couldn't get a med asst job b/c of no experience or the pay is lower than their previous jobs like $9/10 per hr. Why would you lure students to enter this school? What kind of a school is this?"

Lies, Lies, Filthy Lies! Me and everyone else in my class have been told that while we can make $17 per hour, even $20, it is all based on where you work, and that most of the salaries start at at around $12-$14 per hour, and can be as low as $8-$9. I looked online, before attending the school, at sites like Salary.com, and they all said that in my area MA/RMA/CMA's have a median salary of between $25 grand to $30 grand per year depending on what credentials the MA has.

The MA students are encouraged to to do volunteer work, as it looks good on a resume. Also, I know several students that were hired by the sites they did their externship at, one of them is in fact making $18 per hour and started only 2 months ago.

Also, my girlfriend is an LPN, and has also backed up the fact that doctor's offices like to hire people fresh from school, as they are easier to train in the way that particular office is run.

5."Everytime the night classes get combined at night. There is always animosity and hatred towards the classes. If you know that the classes won't like each other, why do you wait till the middle of the year to combine them? My class had this problem. There are actual fights at this school, too. Scary! A lot of students are still immature, gossiping, and have their own crowds. How old are we? Does this school just invite anyone in? Seriously at least have some class."

I for one have NEVER seen any fights. The school is not a babysitter, especially not for adults. The school is not to blame if students act like morons. But then again, this is the night classes this woman is speaking of, and some people of questionable character are forced to attend the classes as a rule for collecting welfare, and don't wanna be there. This is also not the schools fault, it's the governments fault, they force the schools, all schools, to take in these people in order for the school to get some government funding.

6."New students start every 5 weeks, not every 3 months."

They used to start every 3 months. But since LPN's have begun getting phased out, the demand for MA's has risen.

7."I also got pulled into an incidence. Unbelieveable, without knowing the whole story, everyone just pointed the finger at my friend and I. A professional president/dean/principal would have listened to both sides and realize what's exactly going on before pointing the finger."

An ADULT wouldn't put themselves in a position to be pulled into anything, in the first place. I've not had any incidents. My classmates haven't had any incidents.

8."Do you know how many times I went to the teachers and the faculty staff asking for more work to keep myself busy? Did anything change? No. Do you know how many times people in my class think this school is B.S. and doesn't care about the students? More than the states & each of their capitals in the US."

Previously she said that there was too much stuff to be learned in 5 weeks and that it was hard... But then she says she needed more work to keep busy?

9."Oh, one last thing, night classes you don't finish in 11 months. You finish in 12 months and sometimes 1 yr & 1 month. Don't believe everything that they say."

Oh, one last thing. The school says in AS LITTLE as 11 months. That doesn't include failing classes, or taking 2-3 months to complete a 30 day externship, which does happen since externships are unpaid and many people can't afford to work 40 hours a week for free.

Do not listen to these complaints, they are bogus in many cases. The school is not for everyone, no school is, but these complaints are from people that just like to complain, I've had them in my class. 2 students recently got dropped from the classes for excessive absenses, they felt that because they got high test scores and studied they didn't need to actually attend class, and had real poor attitudes... I fear that Catherine may very well be one of these kinds of students.