Stratford Career Institute

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by medgal, Sep 19, 2004.

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  1. medgal

    medgal New Member

    Does anyone have any recent feedback regarding this school? The postings I've read thus far were dated back in 2003.
     
  2. philosophy

    philosophy New Member

    reply

    Stratford Career Institute is not an accredited program. I would strongly encourage you to check out Education Direct. There web site is www.educationdirect.com. They would be a better alternative for you. Education Direct is accredited, and depending upon what program you are seeking whether a certificate or degree, it would definately be more advantageous for you. Stratford, until it is recognized, is not going to help you in the long run if you are going to be using this credential for a career. That is at least my opinion. Otherwise, don't have any information about the school.
     
  3. Kit

    Kit New Member

    Unaccredited. They should at least be accredited by DETC (Distance Education Training Council), but they are not. This tells you two things:
    a.) Either they didn't apply for accreditation with DETC, which seems strange since it should be natural for them to seek this accreditation. Or...
    b.) They did apply and were rejected, which would be a very bad thing.

    Maybe the last postings here were in 2003, but Stratford's site is still lacking. They list their available programs but no curriculum outlines, no faculty information, no tuition quotes for programs. Everything leads to forms where name, address, phone, etc., are required to get any specific information on their programs. A sorely lacking site compared to Education Direct or PCDI/Ashworth College. I wonder why Stratford doesn't want to show you their program details upfront on their site, instead of requiring your address and phone first?

    You were asking about associate degrees in another thread; unlike Education Direct or Ashworth, Stratford offers only program completion certificates ("career diplomas") but no associate degrees.

    Kit
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 21, 2004
  4. medgal

    medgal New Member

    Kit,

    I was pretty curious about Stratford in terms of the classes/diplomas which I'm also interested in obtaining - not necessarily from Stratford but in general. Case in point, I'm in the process of completing the Accounting and Medical Billing and Medical Transcription program via PCDI. However, being that I noticed Stratford had not one, but TWO Psychology diploma programs initiated the inquiry about the school.

    I must say, I did call Stratford after running them through the BBB and was offered the mailing of brochure which outlines the course descriptions. I recieved this information 3 weeks after the call - go figure. But upon reading the material, I found the coursework/outline to be pretty interesting, if not challenging but I still decided not to go that route. The main reason is because finding feedback about this school isn't and hasn't been easy and what feedback I did come across was negative - all negative. Not only from the threads posted here but online as well.

    I was just interested in knowing if anyone (who replies on these threads) had actually gone to the school to obtain a diploma of some sort. Wanted to know how it was, what they thought of the school, is it as bad as what I've read, etc.

    It's not a good thing that they r not accredited and want to charge u about the same amount of money PCDI and/or Ed Direct charges for their diploma programs. At least be accredited if your going to charge more than a few dollars for the programs, is what I say.

    Oh, I forgot to mention, when I spoke with a "rep" from SCI, and questioned why the school got such negative feedback, she grew very silent. I thought we lost the connection for a minute. I guess once she caught her breath, she decided it was best just to ask, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Not once did she try to defend the school, question where I got my information from, nothing. Perhaps she knows the deal.

    I will NOT be going the Stratford Career Institute route at all, trust. :) Thanks for your input.
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Stratford is a heavy advertiser in the Washington, DC, area. They have a "4-wall" show on a local radio station every weekend. (They buy all the advertising, like an infomercial.) The show--about computers and other technologies--is entertaining, and it doesn't pimp the school very much. I never paid any attention to the school, but I question the value of it all. Their certificates don't have any particular meaning, and it is unclear whether or not the education one receives is of value. I agree that some form of accreditation would help that.
     
  6. Horatio

    Horatio New Member

    The Stratford Career Institute in Canada is a private vocational school. In the U.S. Stratford programs provide decent training and the knowledge gained from the program could be used for prior learning recognition in obtaining full or partial course credit from an accredited institution.

    Even though Stratford lacks accreditation...its programs can still provide students with real hands on knowledge of certain topics. At least Stratford is not a diploma mill.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 21, 2004
  7. drwetsch

    drwetsch New Member

    I took a Stratford course just to learn something in a structured format rather than running to the library and digging around. I found the course materials and books provided to be OK. I gained good topical insight into the subject matter. It was totally not related to my job but was interesting. So I guess I am a satisfied Straford alum and in this instance whether or not the program was accredited didn't matter.

    John
     
  8. medgal

    medgal New Member

    drwetsch,

    How long ago did u take a course at SCI and what course was it? Also, how long did it take to receive your course materials between subjects?
     
  9. BriDaub2015

    BriDaub2015 New Member

    I also went to SCI back in 2005 for the high school diploma. I was 2 essays away from graduating the course with a high honors diploma but my mother had lost her job so she was not able to finish paying for it at the time. Even tho it was an unaccredited school I still felt that everything I was doing in the class work for the high school diploma course was almost the same thing I had to study in order to get my GED just last year. I personally feel that they are a good start if you need a refresher course or something before you were to start college or something like that. But since they are not accredited you may have a hard time finding a higher learning institute that is willing to take your diploma from them so it may be a waste of money. At the time I did not know anything about accreditation and stuff because I was only 17 pregnant with my first child and was more worried about getting my diploma before my son arrived. But As far as what I was learning through them I can not honestly say anything bad because I was happy with the books and everything I had to do. And I felt that it was a little challenging at times . Would I recommend them to a friend or family member but that is only because they are not accredited, but that is the only reason.
     
  10. SEVEN year old thread brought back from the dead. Once again, a person that is brand new to Degreeinfo and that recommends the program...even though it's clearly not accredited. Hmmm...I wonder what will be the verdict on this one. :twak:
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Recommends, perhaps, but with serious reservations. Not everyone is a shill just for saying something nice about a school that's not universally loved around here.
     
  12. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    If a school is just determined to never seek accreditation, I don't see why they don't at least make an effort to get their courses ACE evaluated. While I don't dismiss all unaccredited programs or degrees, it would be a mistake not to mention what kind of positive service these programs would be doing for students by having the courses attached to some kind of credit-earning that can be used in a more legitimzed setting.
     
  13. NMTTD

    NMTTD Active Member

    Agreed. Seems people on here like to jump on the "shill" boat awfully quick. Sit back and see what the new person is all about before assuming the worst.
     
  14. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Holy thread necromancy, Batman! An eight year old thread!
     
  15. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Different students have different needs. ACE evaluation isn't free, and some students might prefer lower fees to ACE evaluations that might lead to transfer credit that they don't plan to use.
     
  16. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    I can't disagree with students having varying needs, but most of these unaccredited schools don't make it known what the utility of their programs actually is, and the average person is not versed in this and that's where problems like the ones brought up by BriDaub2015 occur. So the student goes through all of that work only to find out later it doesn't count towards anything, and they're back to square one.

    Also, I'm well aware that ACE evaluation is not free. But it's not exactly a bank-breaker either. It's well worth it for what it will offer students, and what it will do for the reputation of the program. Personally, I think students would be willing to pay more for a program that will actually count for something once they move on... but that said, I can agree with your position on the grounds of Stratford's single course programs. Where I disagree strongly is with their High School Diploma program since without it being legitmized, students are going to run into all kinds of problems with that, and at the high school level that's the last place you want to run into issues with lack of utility.
     
  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Over the years, I've taken three courses from Stratford, just on a hobby and interest basis. I knew the courses weren't accredited and for me, they didn't need to be. When I needed courses with accreditation, I went to University and/or College for them. Lots of 'em.

    There's good - and bad - to be said about Stratford.

    On the "good" side, I never had an undue wait for course materials. The school was very prompt in sending books and assignments for the next course segment. I believe shipments were mostly tied to completion of the second-last lesson. That is, if you had a six-lesson segment, they'd ship the next batch of materials when they received your completed "lesson 5."

    I had very few problems with the material itself. Once, when I did, (missing diagram on test) it was promptly attended to by mail. Service was generally good and payments were properly accounted for. Once, I had an argument with someone on the 'phone re: a $100 discount. It was supposed to be applied before calculation of interest and a clerk wanted to apply it after but it was quickly straightened it out with a supervisor. All in all, they're not bad; I liked the admin. people better than the enrolment people...but it's all good.

    This is NOT College or University level work - or anywhere near it. In fact, you'll find much more rigor in high school courses.

    The material (in all 3 courses) was not difficult. If you can read - you succeed. Period. If your reading comprehension skills are any good, then you'll fly through - whether you retain anything after the test or not. The tests are all an indication of your ability to read - nothing else. All the oh - probably about 60 tests I took, over 3 courses - were 100% multiple choice. You didn't really need a deep understanding -as long as you could pick the right answer - A,B,C or D. out of the text.

    I think the "Internet Specialist" course, which I took around 2002, had serious defects. What kind of "Internet Specialist" graduates without learning how to write any HTML? Fortunately, I knew enough to realize what knowledge was missing (a LOT) and go after it elsewhere.

    The "C++ Programming" course I took around 2004 was uh...OK. The basics are the basics -- and this course sure didn't get beyond the basics. They included the already-dated Borland C++ Dos compiler (freeware) but truthfully, one could have completed the course by reading alone - without ever firing it up or writing a single line of code. Again, I was able to supplement the course with other materials, internet research and a more modern (still free) Windows-compatible C++ compiler.

    I enjoyed my recent experience with Gardening and Landscaping far more. Stratford sent me a "blurb" with a good offer, just as I was looking for such a course.The texts were several orders of magnitude better than with previous Stratford courses. I had years of practical experience -- so no manual skill development was necessary, just knowledge development. I picked up a lot from this one -- I had lots of enthusiasm and acquired a pile of extra non-Stratford books, videos etc. along the way.

    I think I'm about done with Stratford now. I have plenty of other interests and academic areas that I'll take courses for - but it's time to move on from that school. Once caveat: from my experience with them, most of their vocationally-oriented courses won't qualify you for a job in the field. They're well...mostly up-front about that. I think the best you can expect, if you really immerse yourself in the material, is to have some idea of what happens on the job. You'll still have to go get traditional Qualifications if you actually want work in the field.

    The worst thing about the school? As far as I know, they are still selling high school courses that have no kind of accreditation, here in Canada or in the US. I don't like that at all.

    Johann
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 28, 2012
  18. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    Thanks for sharing that, Johann.

    After reading that info, perhaps Steven's position on schools like these seeking ACE evaluation is worth revisiting, to the effect that the school's standards may not be up to satisfying ACE requirements anyway.
     
  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    My guess - they're not. The evaluation criteria are certainly VERY weak. Find the answer - ABCD - in the book.

    Here are all the ACE members. Some are pretty impressive. Yes, there are Jiffy Lube and McDonald's - remember their Hamburger U? But those companies do teach real skills - particularly in the realm of customer service - and those skills are no stranger to college credit.

    ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training | Evaluated Organizations

    Johann
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 29, 2012
  20. Gmcgrew1

    Gmcgrew1 New Member

    Hello, well... I hate to do it because they've found a little nitch, but I don't quite believe in its integrity. As for Stratford career institute I signed up for the auto mechanics class.. I received some student handouts etc along with a book. As I found out, they basically just take books that are publicly available on amazon etc and revolve their syllabus around it. Why would I pay $750 for a paper diploma from a non accredited school, and some tests revolving around the book?? When I could just purchase the book and study on my own for $50-150? That's it on Stratford god bless... It may benefit some out there but I'd rather save the money. It's not like these books are secret or "Stratford criteria/property"
     

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