St. Petersburg College

This school is completely disorganized, They hold up a lot of processes for students. Their online platform is not disciplined with any consistency with instructors. And they withhold financial aid refunds extensively longer than most institutions which greatly impact the students ability to survive during school. I will be withdrawing from this school after this semester. Most institutions release funds the same week they are awarded, This school makes up their own timelines and gives you different... Read More award time frames that suit their own business structure. This school does not forward, face the students in anyway.

This 1 star rating is not for the Vet Tech program, but about how the SPC college president and board of directors has decided to treat my program. I feel like there was a bait and switch with what I signed up for and what I found out (along with all the instructors) was going to change in this hands-on program. I'm calling out politics and self-interests on the part of the decision makers. I was shocked to find out 3 weeks into my first semester fall of 2022 that this award winning program was going... Read More to lose it's campus, that the college was going to sell our building and make us work out of the Seminole campus, or only online. I felt lied to and considered legal action as I had completely up ended my life to participate in this unique on campus program. I'm an adult that already had an advanced degree and was going to add on this AS program. I am not alone, as many students in my fall program moved here and/or left jobs to be in the on campus program. Very little thought or consideration was given to how this would affect the over 400 students in the program. We are no longer allowed to have animals on our campus. Now, I'm finding out that I need approx. $1200 worth or rabies vaccinations because we will be working with unknowns from shelters. In the end, the college could not sell the land or building because it was donated to the program. So, they are giving the building and land to county animal control which is partially allowing us to stay for now. However, we are being required to attend all lecture classes on the Seminole campus, and then have to rush to our Largo Vet Tech building. This is a huge burden on students, as not all drive. Our instructors will have offices in the Seminole building, so they and us will not have access to them easily as before. I am a fiscally conservative person, and grew up around family businesses, I can tell you that this makes no financial sense in the long run, and will reflect poorly on the decision makers.

Do not go here. The professors Do not care nor teach the students. They frequently have issues with website used to access coursework making it impossible to turn assignments in on time due to not being able to access website. The advisors are very rude and put you into courses you don’t need to do just get more money out of you. Advisors do a poor job of explaining education paths for certain degrees and just hand you a laminated sheet so u can do their job for them. Your assigned advisor is almost... Read More never reachable. Everything is highly disorganized most professors don’t give due dates until day before assignments are due. If you have a question for an online class it takes professors weeks to get back to you. This school is all about money and not about education. The financial aid through this school says they give out grants but it’s mostly small loans with big interest that’s handed out. The financial aid barely covers 2 semesters. Everything you do in these courses have another platform that u have to pay 100-200 dollars to access. SPC puts out a pretty façade but it’s rather the complete opposite of what any of the staff tell you about the school. Save your time and money and apply to an institution that cares about education and has educators that are not lazy and rude.

I have considered switching schools and programs many times, but the cost of tuition elsewhere has held me back. It’s sad to say, but I have hardly learned anything new in the HSA program. Sure, if you’re not that great at writing or you know absolutely nothing about healthcare, there is plenty for you to learn in the HSA program. The issue is, it seems like this only accounts for less than 10% of my classmates. The other 90% have many years (sometimes decades) experience in the field (just read... Read More their discussion posts), and we aren’t really acquiring any technical skills that you would expect a 4 year degree would give you for a highly technical and regulated industry. I’m pretty sure there’s more to strategic planning than just doing a SWOT analysis. I’d love to get some actual practice with some data collection, charting, and preparing accreditation reports. I took a whole class that had epidemiology in the title, but the only thing about epidemiology we really learned was the definition. There is a ton of busy work, sometimes 2 discussion posts and 1 paper per week in each class. At this point, I’m just continuing to get my diploma so I can look better on paper. My actual training is coming from my supervisor, who is excellent and who I wish would teach for a program like HSA that desperately needs to keep up with the times.

The sentiment across the entire Nursing program from students is that it is very, very disorganized. Nursing school is tough enough, but the unprofessional attitude and constant telling you will fail and/or encouraging you to withdrawal, not answering questions and say it’s in the reading. No open door policy or support. You basically teach yourself. A couple professors were ok, but if you get ones that target you. Yelling at you in clinical in front of staff, peers, and clients projected poorly... Read More on SPC. Professor failed a student within first hour, first day for formative evaluation w/o understanding and pre-judging the circumstances. Another professor set-up a student for summative evaluation w/o giving them pertinent information on purpose so they could not have the time and information needed so they could fail them within 5 mins. It’s true that you can do all the work and have A and B’s until final semester the test are suddenly all over the place. They fail nearly 40% or more. When questioned what publisher because the test were crazy they seemed so different from the main Lewis Med Surg or practice Evolve, or ATI that they fill you with that take hours …was told you need to look at “all kinds” of outside sources etc. What the heck, not the source given??? Multiple PowerPoints and hours of pre-recorded lectures videos or the Lewis book barely prepared you for the 5-8 chapters assigned to past the tests properly. At one or most tests, the whole level nearly failed and they revised some questions and points. You never get tests back, review them for barely 5 mins on THEIR system to even know what you missed. No outline for Final Exam just topic such as Cardio, Renal, etc. The modules gave a better outline, but still never focused or honed in on what needed for the tests. So essentially there are hundreds if not a thousand of details but you did not know what specifically to focus on for a 55 question exam. You were told it was open season for anything. The PowerPoints were poorly organized filled with tons of color, unnecessary animations as if you have $$ to spend on ink to print. As with other traditional courses such as Pharm, Mental Health… the lectures and PP’s focused on what you needed along with specific readings and exercises, you studied, understood, took the exam and produced a good test result. Theory for level IV is designed poorly leaving you so spread out that even if you could read and understand hundreds of pages and 40 hours of studying - you barely can pass their test unless you have miraculous memory. If you have professors for whatever reason don’t like you (and there are 2 specifically who will screw you). From day one, one would be dismissive, roll their eyes, not answer questions, make comments about your make-up or looking pretty, not encouraging you or for god forbid you must remind them of someone from high school they hated, they will trip you up (slyly) so you don’t pass. How is it that you have 4.0 on sciences, pass all levels with A & B’s and then they get you in the end semester to fail? Hmm. No support and you’re stuck with 2 years down the toilet and student loans. Oh, you can apply for re-admission. But it will take you 9 months to get back in and that’s IF you get back in. It’s a lottery system we are told, because so many students need re-admission they have a computer generated system that picks who can get back in randomly because there is only so many slots!! Wow. So no guarantee and they constantly tell you this through out all levels. The stress they crush you with this school is unbelievable. Believe all the reviews. The 40% or more they fail are students who have BEEN in the healthcare field, EMT’s etc that already work at local hospitals trying to get their nursing degrees. They are awesome and would make excellent nurses. They just weren’t taught well or supported at this “pie hole” program. And don’t even try to appeal, you’ll be a target. It’s a shame they are throwing away sooooo many excellent future nurses. I met several nurses at clinical sites that somehow made it through previous years and they all talked negatively about SPC program and how they saw the same stuff and had to teach themselves, were totally stressed, terrified, and kept quiet to somehow get through. I have never heard a positive review of the program. Some have friends at Galen or other local schools that said SPC is crazy, mean. Just recently a nurse in ICU at another area hospital said she’s been hearing terrible things about what SPC program is doing to these nursing students. There is no reason to teach as a hard ass, verbally abusive, unprofessional, non-uplifting, negative, lets see if we can trip you up on purpose to fail ways. Florence Nightingale was like that? Some of these nursing professors lost their way, can’t teach, or are just arrogant egoistical jerks and/or this program is a racket for $ and just don’t care. Also, if you supposedly get re-admission you have to repeat ALL levels of ATI you already passed, repeat Med calculation exam you passed, and more! And here’s the real kicker!!!! Next semester they are dropping the pass rate supposedly to 75% like some other schools, so if you failed this last semester by less than a point/percentage….too bad! What a game! Do yourself a favor, pay to go to a better program in the first place! Ask previous students or nurses, none have good thins to say about SPC!

Very poorly organized program. Level 2 was a mess and rollercoaster. You feel they are crushing your neck under their shoes because of the constant exams and lots lots lots of homework that nobody looks at. It's basically self-learning, don't wait for someone to teach you anything. Some instructors were rude and had an attitude. Not sure about other programs. The only good thing is the price which is lower than most programs in the area but you get zero learning . Exam materials are vague and you've... Read More to hunt every information. Please find somewhere else.

First I would like to say I am an older person who decided to go back to school later in life and with that being said I probably had more questions about how everything worked. I would of preferred to go to a brick and mortar school but I could not find one near me that had my area of study. I researched online schools and decided on SPC and I have never regretted my decision. I found everyone at this school to be very responsive, which actually suprised me alittle. I almost attended another school... Read More but they would not return calls or emails so I decided against that school. I found my professors to be very informative and they answered my questions every single time even when I am sure they were probably thinking " not her again ". My advisor met with me multiple times to make sure I understood my classes, choices and career path. The financial aid person returned my calls to go over everything and when I dropped a class and had computer issues the office was very responsive as well. I can't say enough about this school and I would definitely recommend them to others.

Worst. Place. Ever. My experience was OK 7 years ago. I’ve received a Masters degree since that time, from USF where I had an entirely different and much better experience. My husbands current experience at SPC is horrible. The staff are unreliable and the lack of knowledge and ability should be embarrassing to SPC leadership. When my husband calls the financial aide office, it’s almost as if a high school level educated child is on the other end, if that. They will intentionally set you up for failure.... Read More Or, maybe they are just that unaware of how to do their jobs, that they don’t even know they are ruining your entire academic career.

What they dont tell you is last 6 months of their program they fail 40-60% of their students. Please ask them. The teachers refuse to teach, they treat students like dirt with a lot of racial type discrimination. The students arent stupid. Please look for other reviews. We had one girl talking about killing herself no one cared. The President of the School (Tonjua Williams) and the Board of Trustee's (Katherine E. Cole) even know whats going on. They dont care. Its really sad. There is a waiting... Read More list and you need a high GPA the cost is 1/4 of other programs in the area, trust me pay the extra money go anywhere else.

The accessibility services at this college (most experience with the accessibility services at the Gibbs Campus) doesn't help or even care if you are disabled. This college only cares if it can barely pass ADA regulations. The financial aid office communicates poorly and does not word anything well. The foundation scholarship due date for the next semester is always in the middle of your current one, which can cause you to miss the due date. The college sets how much pell grant you get, and this... Read More amount is often less than your tuition. The cost more than triples if you are considered out of state, which means that you have not lived in Florida for one full year yet (if the point at which you have lived in Flordia for 1 year is in the middle of the semester, then you will be considered out of state for that semester) or do not currently live in Florida. If you end up with any college financial difficulties whatsoever (sometimes because the college decided to accept less of your pell grant or because the price of classes increased), then this college recommends you take put loans. This college does anything it can to get you stuck in debt. While I have had many decent professors, others were less good. However, I have heard of others having had a teacher grade tests "weirdly" (which I have experienced) or putting questions on the tests about material which is not covered, not in the online study guides, and not in the textbook, causing most people in the class to get a lower grade. Many of these professors have terrible communication, leaving a student not knowing what is expected of him or her or even when the next homework assignment is due. I have seen and heard many terrible things about the academic advisors. If you want to, just hang around where people go in to see them, especially around the beginning or ending of a semester. My own experience is that the quality of advisor can range from cry-inducing to decent. A lot of the staff at this college is so bad at communication that it can take one of them a half hour and several information packets to explain something that can be said in a couple of sentences while still not being helpful. As someone else who attends this college said, the mentality is very "sink or swim", as in they don't help, but expect you to understand everything on your own. They do not help you with anything from financial aid to disability accomodations (even with extended time testing for example, you usually have to set an appointment at the testing center for every exam you take). The motto for this college should be "Go help yourself," as this best describes the help they give you.