Newbie (about to be) Student

Mine was alittle over $2.5k. 320 hours, and I ended up with close to 850-900 miles.

I think I've retyped this 3 times so far because I'm struggling on putting into words on how critical the choose is pertaining to schools. I am a recent graduate, passed last week. I took months researching this, understanding it. My options were Road Master, National Training, or Community College (FSCJ(FCCT)). After reading so many threads on how much better Community colleges are, I took the chance.

The school I went to was the best school I've ever gone to. My instructor during the skills pad / road training didn't put us on interstate, he put us on backwood roads where the lanes were smaller then the truck. He taught us lane management, speed management, everything. He told us this (and I find it true) that you won't learn by just driving the interstate, if anything it hurts you more then helps you in training. Out of the 4 weeks in road training, I drove the interstate 2 times and that was to get to the T/A for fuel.

Point is, you pay for the training you deserve what you pay for. They aren't giving you challenges then your not getting what you paid for. My instructor challenged us every moment on decision making.. I just can't stress how important the school you go to is.

3 weeks fly by night
(or)
8 weeks constant training.

8 weeks was my choice. Well worth it. Good luck with whatever decision you make, and I hope to see you on the road along side me one day.

 

Idaho seems to be very happy to get you signed up for WIA money. At least that was my experience.

I talked to Job Service on Thursday, turned in my application on monday and was approved for funding on Wednesday. The lady I worked with even went out of her way to squeeze me out a little extra money for the Motel I wanted to stay at (within walking distance of school) and massaged the paperwork to smooth out the fact that I had worked for three weeks in July/August for the employer that had laid me off last winter. That could have disqualified me.

I just realized that I owe her a lot of gratitude.

 

Congrats on the WIA.

 

I couldn't agree more, and these were the factors in my deciding on the community college as well......

the instructors were old hands, all over 50 years old with more miles backing up than I'll have in several years of driving forward.

We did mountians. we did small towns, we did in town in cities. we did 2 lane. we did 4 lane. we did interstates. we did mountian towns in and out of turns that at the time i thought i'd never see on the road in the real world but guess what? I've been places that were even tighter now that I'm out on my own.

the training and intolerance for stupidity those old farts had gave us all the tools and foundation we needed for those small towns in Pa, NJ, Deleware and the like and the mountain runs at night with 45k in the box in the rain and fog.

I can't say enough about the need to do your homework and research the school, the instructors, and the types of companies that hire from them. You can get your money's worth, as latern and I did, or you can be a conpany sponsored slave for a year and take your chance on what you get, or you can get horribly ripped off, like one guy in my orientation did when he took his road test and failed.

out of the 5 students in my orientation with my company, I was the only one who made it past the first day.

good luck to you. I hope the choice you make turns out to be the right one.

 

You're lucky. In Cali, there is no money left in the OC area. The lady told me that they ran out of money for the whole year in 2 weeks.

 

good luck