I left Everest almost two years ago, and now I'm in a hiring position that gets a LOT of Everest graduate resumes. I thought I'd share my perspective on them since I've been in your position, and now I'm on the outside looking in. First of all, I hire allied health grads and must say I never expect a problem in terms of the quality of education they received. Allied health instructors are a very committed lot. My problem with your grads is that I remember working with them, and am aware of all the coddling they got from Admissions on through the process. Many were lazy, unmotivated, rude, and coarse. So if I'm going to consider an Everest grad, there is always going to be extra time interviewing so that I have a comfort level that the candidate was "one of the good ones." Everest in general has a poor reputation amongst employers (that won't change with the new name), but it's primarily because CCi made such a commitment to marketing to the most unmotivated, disgruntled characters. Most of the students you enroll are not going to end up employable no matter what you do. And the ones who should be won't be because their potential employer decided that he/she had seen one too many idiots show up with Everest on their resumes. Unless you raise your admissions standards and change your target market, Zenith will not do any better than Everest. The "butts in seats" "anything with a pulse" mentality was what ruined Everest for everybody. It's why I left.
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Anonymous 460 shows what (what's left of) the public relations department and the ELT are up to these days: monitoring this website and snarkily responding the commenters here, that is, the whistleblowers and people of conscience who left that house of cards in the dust. I guess I can't blame them. With just a few sham schools in a couple states left, and that nobody will take off their hands even if paid to, they can't have much to do these days. But it is telling how fragile their egos are that they spend so much time to defend them. They call anyone who criticizes them a loser. Well, what do you call those who waste their time insulting "losers" on a blog?
@460..." Raising standards will likely reduce enrollement, something this school can ill-afford right now." Short-term thinking which has proven to be a long-term end for Everest, Zenith, CCI.
Good for you now keep moving: You sound like one of the "rude and course" grads described by the OP. OP: your input makes a lot of sense and confirms what we in CS face on a regular basis. While I am exasperated by the "quality" of grads I need to place, I am sympatehetic to admissions. Raising standards will likely reduce enrollement, something this school can ill-afford right now. The market is saturated with (failing) schools, and the improving economy means fewer potential students are seeking career schools as a means to change. Its a vicious cyle, but one that will probably end soon (and not well) for ECMC/CCI/Zenith......
As an instructor for 25 plus years, I nearly retired from teaching after only two terms with an Everest school. While I had some great, great students, the majority had no interest in college, and no willingness to do any work. And when that fool Kenneth whatever-the-losers-name-was blamed the instructors, I got out. I had to. Because it was NOT my fault the students weren't attending or participating. A year later, I am back in the non-profit game and couldn't be happier. Students come to class. They participate. They pass!! It's awesome. I'm sorry that some of my very best students were stuck in such a crap situation. And they knew it.
Like CCi stock - your two cents aren't worth two cents!