San Juan Community College

Hello,

I am interested in taking the Career Step program, but trying to decide whether to go through San Juan Comm College.  I would like to know if anyone has taken the CS course through the college and if they felt prepared.

Thanks!

• San Juan Community College - Erica

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I appreciate the honesty from each of you.

My Career Step training will be done via San Juan College, in Farmington, New Mexico, and I will have live chat and e-mail support, so I am praying this will be adequate.  Also, I have some experience in the MT field; I was trained on the job some years ago.  However, I want to formalize my training, because I realize how much I don't know.

Thank you to everyone who replied.

Career Step via San Juan College is not triple the cost.  It is slightly more than enrolling directly through Career Step; you might want to check it out.

If you have federal funding such as Veteran's, Pell grant, worker retraining, disability retraining, FAFSA, displaced homemaker, etc. - this is the way to go. Get by far the most for your $. Much better price than Everett Community College for the same program.

SJCC is self paced, just have semester deadlines, whereas EvCC has deadlines for every assignment (too demanding for my busy schedule - but some people like those deadlines because they need the push).

San Juan Comm. College in NM has the Career Step program. It's just a direct login link to the Career Step program thru the school, the school has no addditional classes required, etc. Costs about the same as Career Step gold so it might even be cheaper if you get all the features of platinum, etc., I don't know. Runs on semesters, only starts in January and August. Takes 2 semesters about 9 mos. You graduate Career Step and also get a certificate in HIT (health information technology) from SJCC. They said if you finish early you can get your Career Step graduation and then later your HIT certificate from SJCC. There is no limit of # of students who can register per each semester.

I have been researching schools a LOT for awhile and just found this one. It is not well advertised but it sounds like an awesome deal. This is the one I am going to use, it will stretch my monthly veteran's educational benefit cheque a lot further.

passed on for your benefit . . .

3 terms, September to June, got a certificate in medical transcription. I then went an additional term and picked up a medical office specialist certificate and also took some coding classes and passed the coding test that same year. Within 2 months I had an in-house transcription job (the first and only transcription job I applied for) worked there 3 years, did every type of report and all radiology reports, and have been at home for 2 years now. My current employer (which is a very good national) hired me without even having me take a test of any kind, just did the phone interview, so my community college certificate has not hurt me in the least. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Hi Julie, I am a student in the medical transcription program at Everett Community College. I am in my second semester and have been able to get financial aid (that I don't have to pay back) for my first 2 semesters. They also offer Federal Student Loans that anyone can get. The program is great but definitly not easy! The instructors are also awesome. Let me know if you have any questions!!

http://www.everettcc.edu/programs/bat/medtrans/index.cfm?id=300&linkFrom=Search

I completed their 2-year program, and it was excellent.  The person in charge of the program is a CMT and she had another CMT working with her.

Chickadee

This insistence on Andrews or M-Tec makes me very uneasy.  I've been responsible for hiring and training thousands of MTs and even I don't know these two schools that well and I rarely see graduates from there.  I know they have good student support.  I do see lots of graduates from Career Step.  BTW, the Career Step grads are not well prepared for employment- not at all.  Not like you'd think from reading current posts.  Most of my past hires from Career Step failed to stick with it.  Only a small percentage could hold up- bad typing skills- but good on terminology.

Most of our employees (MTs) are either graduates of community colleges or staffing schools that we contract with.  If Andrews and M-Tec were as dominant as you read here, I'd expect the only good MTs to have come from those schools and I don't.  I didn't go there.  I've done fine.  I've never had a problem being hired in my early days as an MT.  I went to a community college and they used HPI publications.

I think this insistence on a "big three" is very misleading.  As a person who hires and trains, I know you don't need to attend one of these 3 schools to get a job.  Attitude has far more to do with it than book training anyway.  We'd much rather have a graduate with a poorer education who has a great attitude than the reverse.  The education can be improved quickly while the attitude is impossible to change.

I will just take your word for it that these 2 schools have great classes, but why all this drum beating when there are untold numbers of excellent community college programs and also staffing schools.  How about Mentoring Internships too?  There are lots of resources that my MTs have used to become well educated.

However, there are "schools" that are nothing but internet marketing machines.  It is obvious who they are.  They are the ones who sell diplomas for almost anything.  New students should definitely beware of those.  Medical Transcription is too difficult to learn from a mail order house.  You can't sit in isolation at home and learn medical transcription very easily and that is the big trap, IMO.  This is not like getting your real estate license and only needing to pass 1 test to get a job.

That's my view from my corner of the world.

I would like to know how many Selkirk College grads of the AMT program actually find work working online upon completion of their studies.

I simply cannot find a job.  Am I the only Selkirk grad that cannot find work?  Unfortunately, I have to work online, as there are no jobs in my community.  It is very disappointing to spend a lot of money and still be unemployed!