Medical Prep Institute of Tampa is a BIG scam school, please don't go here. This school has no compassion at all for anyone, especially their students. All this school is after is your money, choose wisely and do your homework before choosing to attend this school. Don't be shocked by this school crappy National accrediation which means nothing at all, Regional accrediation is what matters when trying to transfer credits to another school. Once you complete this school program then they make you take all these VERY HARD exit exams which are impossible to pass because the school only send a select few individuals to take their NCLEX. The exit exams are MADE by the school which have mispelled words and the answers are all up for question. The teachers here are only nurses who have only been nurses 1-3 years only, most of which are graduates of this school and who are the owner family. The Dean of the school is nurse and a lawyer (due to so many complaints and lawsuits) but is a awesome instructor, I will say that much. Clinicals at this place are a piece of crap. If you enjoy going to a nursing home for 12 hours and helping the CNA's out all day then this school is perfect for you. All together I wished I would have did like so many other people said and chosen a better school, I regret going to this school with my heart. I am a graduate of this school who finished the program with A's and B's but been taking these made up exit exams only to not take my NCLEX. This post is from a LPN who is really smart and know their "stuff" but this school really wants you to fail.
I started attending the on-campus course in Sept 2017 and applied for financial aid. There was initially an issue on how I filled out the FAFSA application. After the correction was made (during my 1st term that ended Oct 2017), there was a discbursement made from the initial application (Sub and Unsub loans). After my 1st term, I transferred into the online classes and quit my job completely to focus on school. There was a 21 day "break" between the last day of my 1st term and the 1st day of my next term. The Pell Grant, which needed to have been applied for the 1st term, arrived during this break and was to be given to me in a check. Credit (excess funds from the grants and loans after applying all fees), are to be given to the student after a 14 day hold, per regulations. My online classes started Nov 2017. By mid Dec I still had not received my check. After contacting the school several times and talking to them in person, they insisted I wait until AFTER the holidays to receive a check that should have been disbursed to me in Nov. Their excuses:
1) The lady who signs the check, Carol, is only in on Mondays and Wednesdays and she hasn't signed the check
2) The check arrived Nov 5th - Anna, the Financial Aid Representative was sick and the school was closed for Thanksgiving (Wed-Fri).
After contacting financial aid, I mentioned I wanted to withdraw. I went to the school and they would not hand me my check. I was told to sign the withdrawal form before completing any financial aid. Their defense now is that I withdrew before receiving my check and the school is stating I owe them $250 instead of them paying me the $2,000 they owed me. Richard stated I was enrolled in a term that had a start date of 2016-2017 school year and that is an absolute LIE!!! My classes start Sept 2017 and I applied for FAFSA for a 2017-2018 school year and that is where my funds were applied to. My estimated financial aid award letter dated my term to begin July 2017, qualifying me to be enrolled in the 2017-2018 school year, NOT 16/17 as Richard stated. MPI is falsifying documents to obtain a valid reason in them keeping my money. Between Sept - Dec I accumulated $9,000 in student loan debt with them and nothing to show for it.
For my 1st clinical, I had to sit in my car for 5hrs because my instructor had taken medicine. We were not allowed to be in the nursing home without our instructor. That same clinical was doublebooked and there was already a class in the building. You will not receive any good clinical experience and they are falsifying clinical and lab hours. I had to sit in lab for 12 hours, 3 days a month, with only a true 2 hours being dedicated to any type of "education," which consisted of watching YouTube videos on basic healthcare (handwashing, making the bed, etc).
The tests are made up by the staff, we often found right answers being marked as wrong, plenty spelling errors, and questions relating to topics that were to be taught in future classes. There is no NCLEX style questions or proper preparation for the boards, which in turn sets the student up for failure. We have to pay a parking fee of $15 for a parking lot that houses homeless people that have been found sleeping at the back door. The back door is missing a handle and a makeshift one has been made of rope with tape!
I can take the unpleasant attitude from the staff, but I will not stand for them to continue raping people who aspire to be good nurses of their money!
Briefly, the LPN to RN online program is advertised as a 12 month program. In actuality it is taking three years to complete and this does not include a bachelors degree. The school does not inform you that the last course consist of 6 exit exams. The majority of the test are made up by the owner, Jenna. The problem with this is that they give no rational and the testing format is completely different from the actual boards. When people take these test they fail repeatedly. Jenna will yell at people and in one case she told a student they will never pass the nursing boards and they should give up. That student paid 8k to another school and is an RN. Actually, MANY students have transferred and paid this high fee to complete this last course. When many of us have called other online programs the school will tell us that they only administer the traditional and recognized HESI exit, not multiple tests. They made us pay for ATI testing program only to use it once during the whole program. They also made online students have to pay for proctor testing during the exit exams using ProctorU which this was never told to us during the admission process. After students repeatedly failed exams they made us pay for an additional review course of the schools choice in St Petersburg called ROPHEM NURSING EDUCATION for $500. We were unable to choose our own review course in our local area. Attendance was for 5 full days. I had to take off work for this because it was mandatory or be removed from the program. Keep in mind that we already had a supposal nursing review course at the school which was taught by the owner Jena and her sister Maggie. We have complained to the board of nursing and they state that they monitor pass rates and that there is no tracking for high transfer rates. Also the board of nursing says that there is no way to track why students all have different graduation dates. Not all the students have the same graduation date. This school is recently accredited with ABHES. Many students are now filing complaints with them. The owner Jenna would teach class to the nursing students and she is not even a nurse. So she is not allowed to educate the students. Her name is similar to her sister and we are certain she uses her sisters credentials, which is an RN. Now, that brings us to the next point. The owner has allowed several of her family to attend her school and they have obtained their RN and bachelors degrees from the school. The problem with that is that other students complained that they would not attend class when in the bachelors program. Now, many students are taking 1-3 years to complete 6 test. I completed school in 2015 and they gave me a gown and tassel for 2015 which they just recently mailed the gown and tassel back in March 2017. I just completed my testing in April 2017. They still have NOT given me my AA diploma. To date several of us keep calling and requesting this be sent to us and they refuse to do this. It took them over one month to get my name submitted to the board of nursing and now I have to pay extra fees because I didn't test within 90 days of finishing the course. If you investigate her school from when she opened her doors you will see that these same problems have been happening since day one. None of her students have ever had the same graduation date and most all of her students took years to complete exit exams. I have many students willing to attest to the information I am providing. I would like to have my diploma, cap and gown with the graduation date they gave me of May 22nd, 2017 even though I finished testing April 2017. I also want a full refund for all fees paid for their program including ATI and also for the additional nursing review course at Rophem Nursing Education. I also want a refund for fees paid for ProctorU. I would also like for them to be upfront with future nursing students regarding exit testing and that most students average exit testing 1-3 years. Also Jena should not be able to educate nursing students as she is not a nurse.
Medical Prep Institute of Tampa Bay Reviews
Medical Prep Institute of Tampa is a BIG scam school, please don't go here. This school has no compassion at all for anyone, especially their students. All this school is after is your money, choose wisely and do your homework before choosing to attend this school. Don't be shocked by this school crappy National accrediation which means nothing at all, Regional accrediation is what matters when trying to transfer credits to another school. Once you complete this school program then they make you take all these VERY HARD exit exams which are impossible to pass because the school only send a select few individuals to take their NCLEX. The exit exams are MADE by the school which have mispelled words and the answers are all up for question. The teachers here are only nurses who have only been nurses 1-3 years only, most of which are graduates of this school and who are the owner family. The Dean of the school is nurse and a lawyer (due to so many complaints and lawsuits) but is a awesome instructor, I will say that much. Clinicals at this place are a piece of crap. If you enjoy going to a nursing home for 12 hours and helping the CNA's out all day then this school is perfect for you. All together I wished I would have did like so many other people said and chosen a better school, I regret going to this school with my heart. I am a graduate of this school who finished the program with A's and B's but been taking these made up exit exams only to not take my NCLEX. This post is from a LPN who is really smart and know their "stuff" but this school really wants you to fail.
I started attending the on-campus course in Sept 2017 and applied for financial aid. There was initially an issue on how I filled out the FAFSA application. After the correction was made (during my 1st term that ended Oct 2017), there was a discbursement made from the initial application (Sub and Unsub loans). After my 1st term, I transferred into the online classes and quit my job completely to focus on school. There was a 21 day "break" between the last day of my 1st term and the 1st day of my next term. The Pell Grant, which needed to have been applied for the 1st term, arrived during this break and was to be given to me in a check. Credit (excess funds from the grants and loans after applying all fees), are to be given to the student after a 14 day hold, per regulations. My online classes started Nov 2017. By mid Dec I still had not received my check. After contacting the school several times and talking to them in person, they insisted I wait until AFTER the holidays to receive a check that should have been disbursed to me in Nov. Their excuses:
1) The lady who signs the check, Carol, is only in on Mondays and Wednesdays and she hasn't signed the check
2) The check arrived Nov 5th - Anna, the Financial Aid Representative was sick and the school was closed for Thanksgiving (Wed-Fri).
After contacting financial aid, I mentioned I wanted to withdraw. I went to the school and they would not hand me my check. I was told to sign the withdrawal form before completing any financial aid. Their defense now is that I withdrew before receiving my check and the school is stating I owe them $250 instead of them paying me the $2,000 they owed me. Richard stated I was enrolled in a term that had a start date of 2016-2017 school year and that is an absolute LIE!!! My classes start Sept 2017 and I applied for FAFSA for a 2017-2018 school year and that is where my funds were applied to. My estimated financial aid award letter dated my term to begin July 2017, qualifying me to be enrolled in the 2017-2018 school year, NOT 16/17 as Richard stated. MPI is falsifying documents to obtain a valid reason in them keeping my money. Between Sept - Dec I accumulated $9,000 in student loan debt with them and nothing to show for it.
For my 1st clinical, I had to sit in my car for 5hrs because my instructor had taken medicine. We were not allowed to be in the nursing home without our instructor. That same clinical was doublebooked and there was already a class in the building. You will not receive any good clinical experience and they are falsifying clinical and lab hours. I had to sit in lab for 12 hours, 3 days a month, with only a true 2 hours being dedicated to any type of "education," which consisted of watching YouTube videos on basic healthcare (handwashing, making the bed, etc).
The tests are made up by the staff, we often found right answers being marked as wrong, plenty spelling errors, and questions relating to topics that were to be taught in future classes. There is no NCLEX style questions or proper preparation for the boards, which in turn sets the student up for failure. We have to pay a parking fee of $15 for a parking lot that houses homeless people that have been found sleeping at the back door. The back door is missing a handle and a makeshift one has been made of rope with tape!
I can take the unpleasant attitude from the staff, but I will not stand for them to continue raping people who aspire to be good nurses of their money!
Briefly, the LPN to RN online program is advertised as a 12 month program. In actuality it is taking three years to complete and this does not include a bachelors degree. The school does not inform you that the last course consist of 6 exit exams. The majority of the test are made up by the owner, Jenna. The problem with this is that they give no rational and the testing format is completely different from the actual boards. When people take these test they fail repeatedly. Jenna will yell at people and in one case she told a student they will never pass the nursing boards and they should give up. That student paid 8k to another school and is an RN. Actually, MANY students have transferred and paid this high fee to complete this last course. When many of us have called other online programs the school will tell us that they only administer the traditional and recognized HESI exit, not multiple tests. They made us pay for ATI testing program only to use it once during the whole program. They also made online students have to pay for proctor testing during the exit exams using ProctorU which this was never told to us during the admission process. After students repeatedly failed exams they made us pay for an additional review course of the schools choice in St Petersburg called ROPHEM NURSING EDUCATION for $500. We were unable to choose our own review course in our local area. Attendance was for 5 full days. I had to take off work for this because it was mandatory or be removed from the program. Keep in mind that we already had a supposal nursing review course at the school which was taught by the owner Jena and her sister Maggie. We have complained to the board of nursing and they state that they monitor pass rates and that there is no tracking for high transfer rates. Also the board of nursing says that there is no way to track why students all have different graduation dates. Not all the students have the same graduation date. This school is recently accredited with ABHES. Many students are now filing complaints with them. The owner Jenna would teach class to the nursing students and she is not even a nurse. So she is not allowed to educate the students. Her name is similar to her sister and we are certain she uses her sisters credentials, which is an RN. Now, that brings us to the next point. The owner has allowed several of her family to attend her school and they have obtained their RN and bachelors degrees from the school. The problem with that is that other students complained that they would not attend class when in the bachelors program. Now, many students are taking 1-3 years to complete 6 test. I completed school in 2015 and they gave me a gown and tassel for 2015 which they just recently mailed the gown and tassel back in March 2017. I just completed my testing in April 2017. They still have NOT given me my AA diploma. To date several of us keep calling and requesting this be sent to us and they refuse to do this. It took them over one month to get my name submitted to the board of nursing and now I have to pay extra fees because I didn't test within 90 days of finishing the course. If you investigate her school from when she opened her doors you will see that these same problems have been happening since day one. None of her students have ever had the same graduation date and most all of her students took years to complete exit exams. I have many students willing to attest to the information I am providing. I would like to have my diploma, cap and gown with the graduation date they gave me of May 22nd, 2017 even though I finished testing April 2017. I also want a full refund for all fees paid for their program including ATI and also for the additional nursing review course at Rophem Nursing Education. I also want a refund for fees paid for ProctorU. I would also like for them to be upfront with future nursing students regarding exit testing and that most students average exit testing 1-3 years. Also Jena should not be able to educate nursing students as she is not a nurse.