Virginia College At Huntsville

Good: the pivot point learning material. Bad: I have attended this school for 3 months and have had a horrible experience here. All of the students are afraid to talk about certain things due to staff. However; I will not be returning to this school next quarter! They preach professionalism yet are not very professional themselves. the teachers are petty, obnoxious, rude, and do not care about teaching you what you have paid a lot of money to learn... the finance and admin office will manage to lose what ever paperwork you hand them, the teachers have. Improvements: Doesn't matter. I will not be attending anymore and I sincerely hope others do not waste their time with this mess of a school!!!. more

Big Waste of time and money! more

After searching for a College that was geared towards my learning style since the "regular" type of colleges that herd you into an auditorium for lectures just didn't work for me, I made a decision to attend Virginia College. They were up front with me about the differences between "Career" colleges and a community college that offers courses in the Gen Ed arena in preparation for a 4 year degree and this is not what I was seeking. I discovered that the Network Engineering Associates program was right up my alley. This program was tough, thorough, and taught by highly skilled and experienced instructors who took the time to work with me through the hard parts and gave me enough time to figure things out on my own too, developing the skills I needed to be able to think for myself. The key component to being successful was obtaining the certifications that parallel the courses, such as the Comp-Tia A+, Net+, Security+ and the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). Pretty much immediately after I achieved my Associates degree I was employed in the field, then started my own business and gained enough additional experience to become an MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer). I was so impressed with Virginia College, when they started offering a Bachelors in Network Management, I signed up and completed that program as well and today am quite happy with where I am and what I got for my money. Virginia College has helped pave the way for huge advancements that would not have been possible without their help. more

I attended VCH some time ago and have continued my association through the years. I received my associates, then my bachelors from them. This school is not for everybody, it's hard! If you want to learn via the hands-on method, this is the place to go. Don't get me wrong, the book work is there as well. But this is the best place to learn network engineering that I know of. They are accredited by the ACICS, a national accreditation body. They have strict attendance and curriculum rules. The SAC (Southern Alliance of Colleges) accreditation people, ie... State schools, don't take their credits, but many national schools do. One of my classmates has a MIS degree from MTSU and said he came to VC because he wanted to "Learn how to do the job, not just get a degree." If your goal is to get a job in the field and make more money, this is the place for you. If you are more interested in "getting a degree", choose another school. Their job placement people found me a job in the field within 2 months of graduating. Last time I looked, they had a 94% job placement rate. Now I get 140 dollars an hour when consulting (That's not full time). Of course that's not where I started. I did start in the upper 40's and didn't stay there long. One thing that's important is to get your certifications. You have to work your tail off to get a degree and your certs. I'm in contact with several former students, ALL of them making good to great money, ALL of them happy with what they got out of the school. OK, I take that back, I ran into one of them playing a video game at WalMart at ten in the morning. His quote; "That schools sucks, I can't find a job." But remembering him back in school, he never went to the study groups, he never asked for the free tutoring, he only got his A+ certification. Don't believe me, call SAIC, JACOBS, ADVOCENT, TEKSYSTEMS, BARON SERVICES, or SANMINA, and ask to speak to anyone in IT. When you get them on the phone ask them about VC. They might be biased like me as each of those companies hires from the school and have, or have had up to 80% grads working their IT department. more

If you want to know more about computers, and want more money in your wallet, go to Calhoun. Or UAH. Or Athens. Anywhere but VC. My husband has an Associate's in Network Engineering from VC, $25k in student loans, and no transferable college credits. Yes, that's right, if you want to continue on with your post-secondary education, unless you pony up another $25k to VC, your credits aren't going anywhere. No public institution in this state will accept them as transfer credit. My husband had to start over from scratch at Calhoun, after wasting 2 long years at VC. This was obviously before he met me! All joking aside, please think seriously about your future before attending a trade school, especially one this expensive. VC has nothing "special" to offer that you can't get at a community college, unless you consider a huge loan debt "special". more