Entering the automotive program was a big deal for me, as i didn't know pretty much anything about vehicles when i started. a few months in while i did very well at the program i realized this wasn't the place for me to be at. The main instructor was in my eyes a very big " bully " between threatening me with expulsion countless times for things other students where saying, and constantly talking down to me in a rude manner. Constantly being told this was not a " Safe Place " for " Little Fairy's ". I decided to leave PCI for greener pastors and save my money for a place that cares about its students instead of protect someone who should not be in the teaching field. When reporting this teacher multiple times to the office, i was told " This isn't High school and i should get over it " The other instructor who was abit older was very much like-able and was willing to teach you anything you wanted to know. while the main teacher would sit and watch for 2 - 3 hours an then just do it himself with out teaching a thing. I do not recommend this trade at this school, save your money an go somewhere where you are respected and valued. read more

I signed up for the electrician program with the promise that career services would actually help me find a job after I graduated. Instead, this place has been a complete waste of money. During the school year, we have gone through 5, that's five, instructors. I can see why there is such a large turnover, there is never enough material for lab, and nearly all the equipment and devices are completely smoked. For the hefty price tag of 33k a year one would expect some a. continuity of learning b. a lab space that is conducive to actually learning, which it is not. The tool boxes that they have for use during the labs are gutted, and the tools that go missing or break, are simply not replaced. Many students end up bringing in their own tools, just to get through the labs. On top of all of this, the material that they "teach" the students is outdated, hailing from the 2020 code book, when we are a year into the 2023 code book. Now mind you, why are we learning old material? Well the director has said, hey you've got a new code book and the old stuff, you can just reference your new code book for the actual answers, whereas all the testing is done through the old material. I'm telling you right now, do not waste your money on this school. It is a waste of time and effort for an education with no help to gain employment and to where you will learn old material. I would recommend trying to get into the local electrical union or try Wayne Griffen for your education. At least there you are given a job right off the bat and an up to date education that will help you in your journey to becoming an journeyman electrician. Good luck and if you do end up coming to this school, you will certainly regret it within a few weeks. read more

Terrible place. Should lose its accreditation for the price tags they charge for the programs that are offered. Avoid this school... the cost is as much as going for your Bachelors degree at a state university for Christ sake. The cost of the education you are getting is not worth it if you compare it to other smaller trade schools that offer the same programs and then some... don't get duped and take my advice this place will put you in the same debt you see many people who went to 4 year colleges. Its insane they are allowed to get away with it and criminal. 27,000 dollars for an HVAC program is criminal and insane. You can go to the Peterson School for Trades for literally 1/3rd of the cost and they have the same labs and same exact education (if not more). These people should be audited by the IRS. read more

I graduated from the HVAC program in 2012. They did not get me a single interview even during times of unemployment. I've recently been working in the field again for 2 years prior to this I was not in the field for a 4 year period. Graduates from this school are not respected. It is known in the actual field this school is an overpriced scam. Save yourself the $20,000+ and go to Peterson school. You will get the same education and employment opportunities. I'm very happy working in this field. Going to Porter and Chester was just by far the biggest mistake I've made with regards to this career. read more

If you're in CNT, and you're NOT the teacher's favorite, then say goodbye to the $30,000 that it'll cost you to attend and welcome the poor education you are about to receive. When the teacher said that he hated computers and anything related to it, that should have been my queue to get up and leave the institute. Optimistic me was hoping he was just kidding. This is supposed to be a hands on project, but I ended up getting left behind on a lot of projects because the "Top 4" didn't want anything to do with me because I wasn't up to their skill level. Any project that I was in charge of, either no one wanted to do them, or the "Top 4" ended up taking them over, because they felt as if they could get it done faster instead of letting me learn at my pace and figure out to assignments and projects correctly. This circles back to the teacher because he did nothing about it. He actually humiliated me in front of the whole classroom when I brought to his attention that one of the students wasn't letting us do projects, and said that I was instead complaining about the "teamwork" aspect of the class. It got to the point where when I was done with all my assignments that I would just sit there for the rest of the semester and FB because I knew that I wasn't going to be allowed to do anything by both the teacher AND the students, and that what they would ask me to do was stuff that I already knew and the newer students needed to go and learn. Speaking of assignments, the program that they use for assignments, Moodle, is a joke. PCI never updated the assignments, or the books that they gave to us. The material that was given to us was outdated and was for everything up to Windows 7, when it needed to be 8.1. The client that we needed to submit our assignments in was hot garbage because half the time you couldn't submit your work due to it bugging out. Towards the end of the year, the school actually tried to demand more money from us, saying that money that they gave us because we didn't owe them as much anymore was actually money to use for a bill they wanted to give us (I couldn't explain it better if I tried, it was a really convoluted situation). I love working with computers, but please stay away from PCI. They're a huge scam that has a facility that couldn't care less about your education. read more

The only reason I give this school 1 star is because I had a great instructor, but he should have been teaching somewhere else because I found out the hard way that Porter and Chester Institute was a scam, otherwise, I would give them 0 stars if possible. I graduated in 1997 with a degree in Architectural Drafting, and there was no Yelp.com then to voice my online complaint, so here I am hoping to save someone else the BS that I went through. I was told that they have a job placement program (which I later found out that if they land you a job flipping burgers at McDonalds, they found you a job) and the first job they landed me was a shop labor job. Mind you, I'm not intimidated by shop labor, but the reason I went to school to broaden my education was to get a better job, in other words, I was sick of shop labor/factory/warehouse jobs. I quit that job after about 4 months when I had done a grand total of 75 minutes of drafting during that time. Then, they landed me a job at Home Depot as a kitchen designer, which used the Home Depot system of kitchen design known at the time as the 20/20 system, a system I was trained on within Home Depot which I needed no schooling for as the people I worked with either came in from other kitchen places, or were trained off the street. Once Home Depot realized they had a guy who was well over 6' tall and over 200 lbs, guess which guy they plucked from the kitchen department to work in the back as often as possible downstocking merchandise...Again, I don't have a problem doing that kind of labor, but make it worth it to me (and don't get me going on the overnites I worked helping get it ready for Xmas only to have to punch out before midnite and punch back in at 12:01 so they could get around paying proper overtime amounts, which I found out later on), so after 2 years of that, I tried many times to get in touch with Porter and Chester to touch up and refresh my skills so I could start looking for an actual drafting job, and coincidentally, even though I was told I could come back anytime to refresh my skills and bring them up to date, there was always an issue- classroom was full that night, Instructor was not available, class is out on a site inspection, you name it, the excuse was there. So with a job placement promise that should have an asterik next to it, and an equal refresher course policy, in addition to being grossly overpriced as I found out that comparable courses at STCC and other community colleges with similar degrees cost FAR less, I give Porter and Chester Institute 1 star, and my degree is somewhere collecting dust because I've changed careers after much frustration with that process. read more

I would not recommend using Porter & Chester financial services because it will cost you more than what they disclose. I feel that they told me whatever I wanted to hear to get me to sign for the loans. I feel the school misrepresented the actual cost/price, who owned the responsibility to pay the bills, and when I went to follow up with them on this, they basically ignored it leaving me to deal with the department of education. You are much better off getting financial aid from a 3rd party and then negotiating the cost of the school and what your willing to pay versus giving them open access to student loans that they pull from as needed. read more

Terrible school with outrageous tuition costs. Lazy staff. Even after the toll of $23,000 for an HVAC/R course it did nothing to help me find a job. I did not learn anything and the teachers don't care. Please don't go to this school it will just put you in debt. This place is basically is a bunch of salesmen that will rope you into buying crappy low grade expensive education that will do nothing to help you in your career endures. Never was able to get a job as HVAC/R tech and the school was no help. Now I am in debt along with all my graduating classmates. Once you sign up forget about the office staff helping you with anything they don't care about you they are just like typical salesmen. They even charged me $1,500 for about $250 worth of tools. Total bullshit course. read more