I just covered a question I get often: How many students at Career Step get a job quickly after graduation? Now I thought I would cover the second most common question that I receive from readers in the comment section and in the e-mails sent to me (I have actually received quite a few e-mails from readers wanting more info, and I’m always glad to answer those e-mails, so if you ever want to ask me a question, feel free to e-mail me at Hava L {at} Families dot com.) That question is: Why is there such a price difference between Career Step and the other two schools that I have covered in depth, M-TEC and Andrews?
I don’t want to quote any numbers on here (M-TEC costs this much, CS this much, and Andrews this much) because prices fluctuate and every time they change, I would have to come change them on here. I am much too lazy to do that, so I’m not even going to try. 😉 I do know that there is a big price difference between them though, with Career Step being quite a bit cheaper than the other two.
As a potential student, that is very worrisome. Is CS a diploma mill, and that’s why they charge so little – they don’t teach you very much? Thankfully, that’s not it. I have studied this question quite in-depth, and the answer I’ve come to is that M-TEC and Andrews offer a lot more hands-on instruction than Career Step does. Important: Please note that these are just my thoughts on the subject, I am not an expert, and other people may have a different opinion. This is my conclusion after studying the subject but if one of my readers wants to present a different view point, feel free to do so in the comment section. I would love to hear about it! 🙂
So what do I mean by “hands-on instruction”? Well, when you become a student at M-TEC and Andrews, you are assigned an instructor, and that instructor works with you from beginning to end. They send you an e-mail every week, they grade all of your transcripts and quizzes, they give you encouragement, and they are available for you to ask any concerns or questions you might have, at any time. For someone who wants a lot of hand holding and individual attention, this can be a real blessing. The student always talk to the same person, that person grades all assignments turned in by hand – they get all sorts of personalized feedback. The problem is, it takes a lot of money to pay all of these instructors to do this work.
Also, I had a friend who attended one of these schools and she said that her instructor would get behind often on her work and wouldn’t send back her transcripts for a week or even longer, so this held my friend up while she was waiting for the return of her work. She really liked the hands-on approach, but she did say that there was a large downside because of it.
Career Step’s approach is completely different, but it too has its downsides. Read on to Part Two where I discuss CS’s approach.
This blog is part of a series on transcription. If you haven’t read the other blogs in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all transcription blogs.