Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Automotive Mechanics
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Pasadena City College, East Los Angeles College, Rio Hondo College, and Riverside Community College.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Rio Hondo College.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Palo Verde College, Mendocino College, Lassen Community College, and Monterey Peninsula College.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of Santa Barbara City College, College of Alameda, City College, and Taft College.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of Lassen Community College, Taft College, College of the Redwoods, and Reedley College.
Excellence
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at City College.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
Sort Reviews By:Sorting by: • Show All Details • Hide All Details
Sequoia Institute • Fremont, CA
Studying Automotive Engineering (completion in 2003)
• 9/18/2011
"If not for this school, I would not be a successful technician. The program gave me everything I needed to become Tech II certified."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would recommend this school to others with a note about the students. I have heard that my complaints in regards to the student body have improved over that last ten years. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | Many technicians in the Bay area have either graduated or have heard about the school. Their reputation is known throughout northern California. |
| Program Quality | 8 | The school had a good program but the problem was with housing and students. Most seemed to be delinquents trying to find a way out. |
| Instruction | 9 | The overall instruction was great. And we were hands-on early in the program. The equipment was top notch and served for the entire semester. The school also provided their own books. |
| How Difficult | 6 | For someone who knows nothing about cars the program can be intimidating. There is a lot of math to learn along with physical engineering. This was the hardest part for me. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The program is about 30% reading and 70% hands-on. In the second year you are assigned a final project that is almost 100% hands on. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 8 | The classes were mid-afternoon and night. One could easily work and go to school. I chose to go full-time and only take the day classes. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | This is a very well-equipped school with a reference library for every car made in the USA. They have 20 hydraulic lifts, tools, and every piece of equipment any modern garage has today. |
| Social Life | 4 | I did not like the students there. They commonly had very different lifestyles as compared to my respectable upbringing. I mostly kept to myself. |
| Placement Services | 9 | Sequoia found my internship and then referred me to my present employer. As soon as you graduated you are guaranteed a paid internship at one of their listings posted in their placement center. |
| Alumni Network | 9 | After I worked in the garage, I went back to the school to see if they could help me. They referred me to another Sequoia graduate who ended up employing me to this day. I probably would have been still at my old job if it wasn't for his help. |
Wyotech • Freemont, CA
Studying Motorcycle Technology (completion in 2014)
• 10/11/2011
"I believe that I received adequate instruction. The school's "for profit" mentality made dealing with administration a nightmare and generally hurt the school's reputation."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | If you already know how to work on vehicles, most of the instruction you get will be redundant. If you are starting from scratch, you will learn everything you need to know. It's a bit expensive, and if you take a loan you may have a hard time making your payments on a "skilled laborer's" wages. |
| Program Reputation | 1 | I have actually been turned away from jobs because I went through this program. They run the school for profit so they pass everybody. |
| Program Quality | 5 | I received decent instruction. I felt that the school's reputation was poor because they would pass anybody. |
| Instruction | 8 | I had many qualified instructors. I had one instructor who was practically illiterate and one who was verbally abusive. |
| How Difficult | 1 | The subject matter was easy to absorb. The work load was light. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Shop day was every other day. I was very satisfied with this. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 1 | I was forced to switch back and forth between morning and evening classes 3 times because of a lack of class availability. This did not go well with my employer. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | There was a large shop. They had plenty of up to date tools. They had a large amount of relevant manuals. |
| Social Life | 1 | There was no structured, school sponsored social events. I think I got a free hot dog once. |
| Placement Services | 2 | They were relatively unable to find me a job in the area that I live. I had to do this myself. |
| Alumni Network | 1 | If it existed, I was unaware of it. I never utilized it. |
Universal Technical Institute • Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Studying Automotive Technician (completion in 2006)
• 10/23/2011
"I was very satisfied with UTI. It was easy to pick up a job at a BMW specialty shop in Los Angeles."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would highly recommend the school. They provided a great learning environment and had intelligent and knowledgeable staffing. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | UTI has a good reputation. Many companies have heard of it and it markets themselves very well. A lot of shop owners accept a UTI certificate as a four year degree. |
| Program Quality | 9 | My school provided me with basic and advance knowledge of cars. They also gave me support within the first two years after graduation. |
| Instruction | 9 | The quality of instructors was good. All of them worked in the field and had experience, but some of them were injured and resorted to teaching because of it. |
| How Difficult | 2 | The workload wasn't challenging at all - it was mostly memorizing and light critical thinking. As long as you read the material you shouldn't have had a problem. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | It was very mixed. We would spend an even amount of time in the lab and also in the classroom. We had to alternate with the other class so it worked out fine. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | It was extremely flexible but I didn't really have any time constraints. I even double phased my last two courses. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | The school had labs in all the classes and a main garage for hands on experience. They didn't really have a tutoring program or any after school help, but most of the information was pretty direct anyways. |
| Social Life | 7 | My personal social experience was great. The school's social wasn't that good. They were all about just passing on the information to the students. |
| Placement Services | 8 | Job placement was good. They referred me to some large companies. After two years they stop giving you a call and checking in on your progress. |
| Alumni Network | 3 | The schools alumni program is poor. They should send out a newsletter or hold annual events. Since the school is a private institute they don't really need alumni funding anyways. |
USC • Los Angeles, CA
Studying Mechanical Engineering (completion in 2010)
• 10/28/2011
"I am very satisfied and proud to be an alum of USC I think my education there was instrumental in making me a success in my career. I am very happy with my decision to go to USC."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Yes, I would definitely recommend my school to anyone looking to get into automotive repair or any field of mechanical engineering as it will give you a great backbone of knowledge and a degree from a very well known and respected school. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | USC is a very good school with a very good reputation. You will most likely easily find a job with a degree from them. |
| Program Quality | 10 | USC taught me everything I needed to know to be a professional in this field. I learned almost everything I needed to know about Mechanical Engineering from them. |
| Instruction | 8 | My school was very thorough about teaching me everything I needed to be successful as an automotive repair specialist. I highly recommend them to anyone looking to go into this field. |
| How Difficult | 8 | The work load was very heavy and the material very difficult, but it really got me ready to work in this field and I think it is very important to work hard to be successful. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | USC offers a good mix of both hands on and text book studies. I would have liked more hands on based classes though as I think they are the most important part of learning this craft. But overall, it was a good mix of both | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | USC has many classes that will work if you need a flexible schedule, but the work load is heavy and you will need to dedicate a lot of your time to be successful at this school. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | USC is a big school with all the facilities you will need to learn. I would like to see more actual automotive style labs built though, mostly pertaining to real world auto repair shop style set ups. |
| Social Life | 10 | USC is a big school with many social outlets to attend, but my main reason to go to the school was to learn my craft and get a degree. |
| Placement Services | 7 | Again, there is good job placement help for alumni, but I did not use it much and found my job on my own. |
| Alumni Network | 7 | USC is a very good alumni network for people wanting it. I am not involved with the network as much as I would like to be, but anything you would want or expect is there for you. |
American River College • Sacramento, CA
Studying Automotive Technology (completion in 2010)
• 10/27/2011
"I didn't get to go to the four-year school that I wanted, so I chose ARC to get an associates in a skill that would get me a steady job. It was a good experience, and I would recommend going there. It's a good education for the price, most definitely."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | As mentioned before, community college is a good education for a lower cost. If one can handle the people, then they're fine. It's all about getting through the work and the classes and past the financial difficulties that come up so often. ARC is a very good school, though, and it can only get better. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | ARC has great teachers and small class sizes, but the location gives it a bad reputation. It has a very diverse demographic, so all kinds of people come and go, some worse than others. |
| Program Quality | 6 | ARC has many programs and it's a great community college. I had a difficult time paying for some classes though, and that took away from the experience. |
| Instruction | 8 | My teachers were always intelligent and knowledgeable about the subjects that they teach. When I didn't understand something, they took the time to help me. I always felt like they cared. |
| How Difficult | 7 | This was not my original plan, so I had some trouble adjusting. I got a degree because I figured that people are always going to need cars. I guess if you work in the right place then you have better luck. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Because of the program I was in, I had a bit more hands-on experience with the cars. We usually had some to work on. When I started we could work on student cars but not anymore for some reason, so that's disappointing. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | Classes were being removed because of budget cuts, so it was sometimes hard to find one that was open. I was in school a little longer than I liked because of this, but it's to be expected in these times. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | We usually had someone to help us if we didn't understand how to do something, be it a teacher or a student who had taken the class before. It always works out. There is always someone to help, though sometimes they do more damage, especially in this field, when they're wrong. |
| Social Life | 7 | I met a lot of new people while I was at ARC. They're all very nice people and I do see them sometimes. I still talk to some, because often we would have multiple classes together. |
| Placement Services | 6 | They helped me find a job. It's not ideal, as I mentioned previously. |
Rio Hondo Community College • Whittier, CA
Studying Automotive (completion in 2009)
• 11/4/2011
"I would say even though there could have been some things that could have been better, I still love Rio Hondo because they're the reason I have a career today."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would recommend this school. They will definitely learn the trade here. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | I heard it was a great school, and that's why I went there. Still, up to this day, it is considered a great place to go to learn the automotive trade. |
| Program Quality | 9 | It was great in the lab, which was brand new and state of the art. The classrooms, however, had too many students. |
| Instruction | 8 | It could have been better. I think I could have learned more if there were fewer students in the classrooms. |
| How Difficult | 4 | It wasn't too hard to learn. I grew up learning how to work on cars, so I caught on to things pretty easily. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | There was more hands on training than book work. I would say about 75% of the time we were in the lab (shop). | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | I was able to attend at nights. It worked very well for me considering I had day job at the time. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | The resources were pretty good. The lab was brand new and we had the newest tools. The library was always open late which was good for me to use for other things. |
| Social Life | 6 | I never heard too much about parties or social events. They did, of course, have athletics as well as clubs. |
| Placement Services | 1 | I got no help from them in finding a job. I was never offered any assistance for job placement. |
Chabot College • Hayward, CA
Studying Automotive Technology (completion in 2010)
• 12/22/2011
"I was very happy during my time at Chabot. I was confident in my abilities after taking my classes, and I came away from the experience feeling better about myself."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would definitely recommend my school to others. I got my degree while working around my schedule. The classes are really affordable; I think they were around twenty-something per credit when I went. I have already recommended it to one of my friends. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | I think their reputation is really good, because I had heard about them from a lot of people before attending myself. I knew several people who had attended previously. |
| Program Quality | 7 | I really enjoyed my time at Chabot, and the teachers were really nice and helpful. I thought I left knowing a lot more than I did coming into it. I felt confident in my abilities. |
| Instruction | 7 | I thought the quality was pretty good, but I don't really have anything to compare it to. It was good enough for me, at least. |
| How Difficult | 3 | I thought it was pretty easy, but I grew up working on cars, so I already knew a lot. However, there were a lot of people there who were new to it, and they all seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The automotive classes I took were all very hands on. We always had cars and parts available to us. We were shown how to do things and then given the opportunity to do it ourselves. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | The courses offered were very flexible. I was able to work completely around my schedule, with night and weekend classes. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | I thought they were really good. We had a lot available for hands-on learning. |
| Social Life | 2 | I never really encountered much in the way of school spirit. I know there were sports teams, but I never heard much about them and I did not attend any games. The only social events I attended were two free shows at the planetarium. I never saw much going on socially. |
| Placement Services | 5 | The career services they offered were okay, but I had to do most of the work on my own. I was lucky enough to come across a female-friendly shop near my home that was willing to take me on. |
| Alumni Network | I have never really been involved with their alumni network, so I don't know anything about it. |
US Navy • San Diego, CA
Studying Basic Mechanics And AC&R (completion in 2004)
• 1/15/2012
"It was free and I got paid to go to school. The training was excellent."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | The skills you will learn are the same as a civilian school, but you will not be in debt from it. You will also immediately get hands-on training in your field. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | It is a military training course, so it is still active and up to date. It is paid school, so the reputation is still good. |
| Program Quality | 10 | Very in-depth and technically free. It was solely mechanical, so no extra courses were needed. |
| Instruction | 10 | All were retired military and retired from civilian careers in the civilian world as well. The curriculum was very in-depth and relevant to today's equipment. |
| How Difficult | 5 | It wasn't all that difficult. The subject matter was not dry and had a lot of hands-on learning. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Good mix; there was text time and computer modules, as well as hands-on mechanical training. You would cover something in class through books/computer and then go over it in the shop/lab. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 1 | Your schooling is mandated, so you're there unless there is an emergency. Upon completion of school, you are granted leave. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | It was on a naval installation, so the buildings were all in good shape, as well as the tools and equipment. They have everything you need for labs and diagnostics. |
| Social Life | 10 | You have a sense of brotherhood with your classmates that you will get from no other place. You will also have a very extensive fitness program. |
| Placement Services | During and after school, you are active duty and are working in your field after school. After the military, there are plenty of federal and local veteran employment services. | |
| Alumni Network | It was a US military school, so there are no real alumni. |
NCTC Mechanics School • Port Hueneme, CA
Studying Construction Mechanic "A" School (completion in 2007)
• 1/16/2012
"Being a mechanic in the military has all the rewards of being a mechanic in the civilian world, except you get to wear the uniform of a service member. The school prepared me to be a team member with a foundation to better build my understanding of modern mechanics and diesel engines upon."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would definitely recommend Construction Mechanic School to anyone who wanted to pursue a career in automotive mechanics. In order to go to that particular school, you have to enlist in the United States Navy. The school is the only one I know of that pays the student to attend. Not to mention that job placement after the school is and always will be 100%. |
| Program Reputation | As the only Navy course of instruction to be a construction mechanic, it would not be fair for me to rate this school against only itself. When I separate from the military, I plan on attending a civilian course to better advance my knowledge of mechanics. | |
| Program Quality | 5 | The Construction Mechanic "A" School is a pipeline certification course. We learn in 89 days what most certificate programs teach in a year. I believe that at that fast of a rate, some of the quality training is sacrificed. |
| Instruction | 5 | The quality of the course of instruction varies. Due to limited resources in the actual vocational labs, a lot of the hands-on experience was not available. |
| How Difficult | 10 | The construction mechanic course of study was extremely difficult, as our classes were time-compressed, and we still had to deal with the day-to-day military requirements, as well as our academic requirements. Learning the basics of mechanics in 89 days is quite a challenge. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The school was broken down into two-week blocks per topic. The first week was classroom instruction, followed by three days of lab work. After lab work, we would review the course material for the fourth day of the second week, and test out of that block on the following day. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 1 | As a military occupational school, there is a near-zero option for flexibility. Our weekend and after-class times were consumed by the day-to-day military requirements that still had to be completed. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | We have limited resources for the Construction Mechanic "A" School course of instruction. It is a barebones, basic familiarization course for the novice mechanic to get a grasp on the fundamentals of modern mechanics. Further course of instruction is available through follow-up certification courses offered by the military. |
| Social Life | The course of instruction at a military occupational school does not offer any type of collegiate-level extracurricular activities. The only social gathering of students for this school was the physical training required by all students to attend. | |
| Placement Services | It is a military course of instruction that has to be completed before an individual can receive orders to a battalion or support group. While our job placement is 100%, it is not fair to rate this school against other civilian vocational establishments. | |
| Alumni Network | Being a military occupational specialty school, we do not have alumni associations. We also only receive certificates of completion. |
UCSC • Santa Cruz, CA
Studying Molecular, Cellular, And Developmental Biology (completion in 2006)
• 1/29/2012
"At the time, annual fees were 25% less than they are now. Also, class sizes have increased dramatically, while staff has concurrently been scaled down. I believe the direct effect can be seen in a slight decrease in educational quality. It is for this reason that I am grateful for having gone to school at the time that I did. I believe I was given a better opportunity then, and I graduated on time with honors because of it."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | It's much more competitive finding work after graduation now, due to the influx of students studying science. It's also much more expensive and a lot less flexible as far as classes offered is concerned. Since I am not actually employed in my field of study, I'd recommend people looking for careers in the automotive industry forgo the expense of a 4-year degree and seek specific certificate programs in automotive repair, rather than incurring the cost of an $80,000 bill. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | UC Santa Cruz is a leader in bioscience research. Just completed was a multi-million dollar research facility that is dedicated to the life and physical sciences. This alone displays UC Santa Cruz's commitment to education and research, and has garnered much attention to attest to this fact. UC Santa Cruz is a leader amongst research and educational facilities and is widely regarded as a leader in its field. |
| Program Quality | 10 | Excelled in school, whether it was science, engineering, or math. The program I was a part of encouraged an autonomous approach to experimental design and execution. As such, working in a molecular biology lab requires the same kind of intuitive thinking as in automotive diagnostics and repair. It is a natural fit. |
| Instruction | 10 | California higher educational institutions lean heavily on practical work experience and preparation. As such, people completing degree programs, whether the sciences or arts, are required to either conduct autonomous research and prepare a thesis paper in order to complete the degree program, or actually find work-study programs in a chosen area of study for graduation credits. I chose a Costa Rica biology research program. |
| How Difficult | 10 | Concentrations in particular areas of Biology become increasingly complex, so if one chooses to select a particular area of concentration, the degree material becomes very intense. For example, choosing a General Biology B.A. degree would have a much easier time reaching program completion vs. one who would choose Biochemistry and Molecular Biology B.S. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Autonomous research experience is highly recommended and actually required for completion of a degree program. Every lecture class taken towards the degree program required a corresponding lab class. For example, genetics lecture and lab, biochemistry lecture and lab, organic chemistry lecture and lab, and so forth. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | Large universities like UCSC, which is to say 10,000+ students, offer flexible morning, afternoon, and night classes. It was never an issue getting into classes, because they were offered at multiple times per day. I graduated on time because of this flexibility. One hears horror stories of people having to wait an entire year to graduate because a single class is only offered every other year. UCSC never presented this situation to me. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | UCSC is a leader as an educational institution. There is a huge library with access to extensive online journal databases, and there are state-of-the-art research facilities offering endless resources to conduct scientific research. Academic advisors are mandated to work one on one with every student prior to graduation. This ensures that every student has a clear path defined by their third year and will always be progressing towards successful completion of their chosen area of study. |
| Social Life | 5 | UCSC is in a dense redwood forest. There is no centralized "quad" area like most other colleges. The campus is made up of 10 residential sub-colleges separated by miles of forest. This, to me, made it much more difficult to socialize as a school. Also, as far as NCAA sports, UCSC did not participate in most traditional college sports like football, basketball, or baseball. We had water polo, tennis, and volleyball. |
| Placement Services | 5 | They have a great staff dedicated to the individuals who need assistance with finding work. However, there are thousands and thousands of students and graduates looking for work, and only a finite amount of jobs available to place those looking. It's for this reason that the career center at UCSC is overworked, understaffed, and therefore underwhelming. I personally chose to seek opportunities for potential employment assistance, such as Randstad staffing recruiters off campus. |
| Alumni Network | 10 | UCSC and the Greater California higher education network encourage one to stay connected with their alma mater. One has the opportunity to contribute as little as $10 annually in order to keep an email account with their college and can stay connected via invitations to alumni events. |
Chabot Community College • Hayward, CA
Studying Automotive Repair (completion in 2009)
• 2/13/2012
"I still have connections with my professors to this day. And without my degree I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I have today."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Of course I would recommend my school. They prepared me for any type of problem I could encounter. I feel like my education was well worth the money spent. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | In my area, Chabot has one of the most in-depth programs with many classes in many different classifications. For example, I've taken classes on ECU logic and programming, as well as SMOG and EGR systems. |
| Program Quality | 8 | My professors knew a lot, and gave me many connections when leaving the student environment and going out into the professional world. |
| Instruction | 9 | Teachers and professors had in depth knowledge of every aspect of automotive repair. Many times, questions would give way to much greater detailed instruction and understanding of cars. |
| How Difficult | 6 | I'm a mechanically inclined person, and working on cars has been in my blood. I've always had an easy time working with engines and understanding certain systems and how they work. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Our automotive program's motto was "learn by doing." It was more hands on but there was still a lot of book work to go through. You can't understand everything through doing. You need to read up and invest some brain power to the other side of being a mechanic, which is expanding your knowledge of vehicles and automotive systems. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 3 | Although many of the classes I took were during the daytime, there were many times when classes were to be taken in successive order and, by missing one semester, you are put off track for an extra year/semester. Other than that classes were offered pretty timely, throughout the day. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | I'm sure our school is somewhere in the middle in regards to their ability to help students out. I went to college during the middle of the recession so I believe that contributed to the schools holding on to, and budgeting their money tightly rather than using the funds on programs to help students. |
| Social Life | I usually showed up for classes and left afterwards. I didn't really stick around to participate in school events etc. | |
| Placement Services | I didn't go through my school's career placement. My professors gave me the connections that I needed to find a job. | |
| Alumni Network | 7 | My school didn't have much of an alumni network. That said, my professors had connections to shops that were looking for mechanics, which got me a job a lot faster than I would've on my own. |
Universal Technical Institute • Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Studying Automotive Technology Training (completion in 2006)
• 3/27/2012
"Without the schooling I received, I would not be as successful in my career. There isn't a lot of options for automotive schooling, but this school did a great job in covering everything I needed to know to have a great start in a challenging career."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | This school is for those who are serious about choosing this as a career. They put you to the test and offer very comprehensive material. Great instructors and access to tools and equipment. I received a great education and I use what I learned everyday at work. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | I do maintenance and repair for a utility company, and my employer prefers to hire employees from UTI because of the knowledge they have; we work on everything from gas and diesel to propane and electric vehicles, and UTI offered a little theory on everything, which makes students from there malleable to learn new vehicles and engines. Only drawback is a lot of the students come out the program a little arrogant and with an attitude of being invincible. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I received proper basic and introductory training about the automotive industry, which was very thorough and detailed. However, it was compressed into 17 phased courses that lasted 3 weeks each. Everyday for 6-7 hours a day, plus I still had to work and make a living, and if you missed more than 16 hours of a course or failed the final test, you had to retake the course. The instructors are great and offer a lot of personal field experience, which cannot be learned in a book, so by the end of the course, I had 2-3 different ways to do one task, which came out to be very useful now that I have been doing this for a few years. |
| Instruction | 8 | For as long as the program was, looking back at it, I don't understand why they did not get more into hands on repairs. They offered a lot of detailed theory and how it works, but actual diagnostics and troubleshooting was not really a strong point. Most of that I had to learn the hard way in shops. |
| How Difficult | 5 | Everyone knew that most students worked while enrolled in the program. So the entire time I was there, I cannot recall a single time I was assigned any homework. All our studying and learning was done in class. It was a great program because it did not add any more stress to my life as I was going to school 45 minutes away from home, and working full time. But, being in class, that was tough in itself, as trying to stay awake at 6:00 AM for 6-7 straight hours listening to a guy talk about reprograming a computer isn't my cup of tea. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | UTI has a strong belief on hands on AND theory. The first half of class was theory and the second half was putting the theory to the test using hands on approaches. We were encouraged to work on the vehicles to gain a better understanding of how things work. It's different to get shocked by a capacitor than to read about stored energy in a book. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | They offered 3 different schedules - morning hours, afternoon hours, and evening hours. The evening classes only lasted 4 hours, as opposed to the 6 hour regular classes, but they were extended to 4 weeks per course. So they offered a little availability for most people's work schedules. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | The school had a great program with Snap-On tools and were fully equipped with everything you could imagine. Many car manufactures donated or assisted in demo cars for students to work on. They had cars cut in half, chassis, engines broken down. A huge computer library with access to AllData and Mitchell on demand, as well as vintage repair manuals and work assist materials. |
| Social Life | 5 | It was a tech school, so it wasn't like we had dances, or games, or competitions. instead we had DRAG DAY. All the students would meet at a drag strip a little north of us and we would race our personal cars and watch some pros do it too. It was fun to see everyone outside of school having a good time. Also, Monster Jam came out and brought us a few trucks to check out, so we got to see Grave Digger run around our parking lot. |
| Placement Services | 10 | Before I even started my first day a representative came to my home and offered assistance in finding a job and discussed the different housing options they offered. I ended using them for the job offer and worked for a dealership as a lube tech for the time I was in school. |
| Alumni Network | The school offered different programs students can get involved with such as internships, in-house work experience, and post work education for specific car manufacturers they worked with. I, however, never got involved with any of those programs, so I cannot give a personal opinion on it. |
Online Course Finder
Find the path to your
education in 3 easy steps.