Computer Networking: College vs Trade School?

If the trade school is actually accredited then you probably wont have an issue beside lower pay and losing out openings to those who are college educated.

If its not accredited, such as ITT Tech, then good luck finding a job period. I have 4 acquaintances now that have graduated from ITT and none of them can find jobs in the field. One now works at Walmart, another at Jiffy Lube, one lives at home and sponges off his parents...

acics is usually worthless imo.

It is really hard to find a trade school that is really worth the money when you are talking IT type of jobs. If a 4yr college degree is not required then they pretty much want certifications from cisco or microsoft. A employer seldom cares if you have some diploma from a trade school unless they happen to know the trade school produces good candidates. Even a 4yr degree you have to be careful about. A degree from a online thing like university of phoenix does not hold the value of a degree from any state college.

The way it really works is the HR department want the 4yr degree. The hiring manager want actual knowledge in the field which can be demonstrated by the certifications and actual work experience. A college degree is actually pretty worthless when it comes to doing the real work. Most the real value is if there was a internship in the degree. to get real work experience. The reason people with technical degrees are highly sought is that it shows they have good background knowledge and can quickly learn the actual knowledge needed for the job.

What you may be best served by is looking at the local community college. Many offer IT type courses. Some even lead to the certifications. Your goal is to be sure the community college is related to a state university so that you can transfer all the credit hours if you would decide to pursue a 4yr degree. Now a community college degree even in their IT areas will not really help a lot to get a job. You still need the certification and most these are going to be obtained by self study or taking special classes that give you the training.

It all comes down to how hard the knowledge is to obtain. The harder it is the more value it has. Things like college degrees and certifications just show you have this knowledge but you have to be selective. Easy certifications that everyone has are pretty much worthless just like easy to obtain college degrees in general studies.

The key thing with IT is all they care about is the ability to do the job. You really need to get ANY job in the field and they try to leverage it. IT changes constantly so you will always be studying stuff so what is valuable today is not always tomorrow.

I have a masters degree in engineering and CCIE certifications in R&S and security along with 20+yrs experience in IT. One of the highest in demand jobs in the networking area is VoIP. I do this on a daily basis but I have no certifications in the field. So unless someone happened to know me at a company I applied to my application would join the rest that were filtered by HR.

The main thing is to get the education in a way that meets your budget and not to take on excessive debt. Excessive being an amount that will require some sizable hypothesized payday after completing the education in order to repay the debt. Community colleges offer some of the best bang for the buck in education and can lead into a university degree if you take the general ed classes in conjunction with a technology course.

I have an associates degree in information technology and after college I when and got my A+ (comptia) and I could not get a job in IT. employers only started taking notice to my resume after I received my CCNA. anything with a + on it is useless. My advice is to take the certification route. start off with CCNA and MCSA and you should be able to get your foot in the door. try and get some experience then work your way up

One thing you should do is interview various employers in your area. Get an appointment with HR and ask what they are looking for. Or look up a professional organization in your area and go to a local meeting. Those types of groups frequently have some recruiting activities going on or at least have some fresh grads that can give you anecdotes from their own experience.

Brandford Hall is part of Peg, pretty worthless. They are being sued by the United States on behalf of NY, MA, DE, & NJ... I dont recall all the details but they scammed these states out of grant & student loan monies by educating ficticious students, students who had left/dropped were still getting aide, not maintaining its state licensing. I doubt its been settled you so some googling should find it.

You know its bad when the schools board of directors are also the ones for the accrediting agengy. LoL
Its even in the acics wiki.

I dont know accsc but the also accreit massage & helicopter schools... they might be nationwide but it sounds like they would accredit my mudpie making college if I paid them enough.

basically call a well known 4yr school and if they dont accept the tech schools credits then its worthless. You might as well study on your own and just take the certificates exam as already suggested. Which is not a bad suggestion at all. An A+ should get you a help desk type job; more will move you up the chain obviously, but at least you can start making $ and get some experience to keep going. http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/help-desk-certifications,2-675.html

Do you know where in IT you want to go/what you want to do?


edit - found the suit
http://studentdebtandeducationjustice.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/third-amended-complaint-nj-dc.pdf

Take a look at the College Times Porter & Chester review web page. https://collegetimes.co/porter-and-chester-institute-stratford/

Then you may want to check your community colleges. Chances are you can find one in your state that offers automotive, CADD, computer networking, electrical / electronics, HVACR, admin health, dental assisting, medical assisting, practical nursing…all of the things that expensive trade schools like Porter & Chester Institute specialize in.


List of Community Colleges

USA directory: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/commusa.html
Connecticut: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/connecticut.html
Massachusetts: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/massachusetts.html
Rhode Island: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/rhodeisland.html
New Hampshire: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/newhampshire.html
Vermont: http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Comm/vermont.html
Maine: http://www.mccs.me.edu/our-programs/

Trying to take a program in network support at Manatee Tech in Bradenton Florida , was wondering if this school credited ?