Quote Originally Posted by Jbauer
Charlette..it's the newest campus, very clean, in a quiet neighborhood and it was near a very auto. tech related town.. lots of shops etc. near it.

I know you've got your heart set on this, living alone, meeting new people...but take my word for it bud, Your making one of the biggest mistakes of your life. UTI is nothing but scam..except they actually back it up with a decent education..decent meaning its no greater then what you get at a community college. I've heard of kids that graduate from there and are useless automotive technicians.. just flat out useless at it. This is a job your either good at or not, and you only go to school for the paper..nothing else. Your not going to be some sort of engine building reputable among every car enthusiast technician just because you graduated from UTI and because the recruiter told you that.

pretty much what will happen is this: you'll go to UTI. you'll work your butt off to pay your tuition.. your going to graduate..if you do real well you may have a manufacturer that will recruit you for 14 bucks an hour..or you'll work lube tech for 9 dollars an hour at world toyota.. Then they'll give you your Certificate...if your lucky, maybe a diploma..so you'll have no status in life (If that matters to you)..and you spent 25 grand for a POS certificate when you could of spent 4,000 and got a Degree in Applied Sciences for taking automotive tech. at your nearest community college.
your going to work your butt off while you try to manage a home and a family, and then your going to be paying back 30k in student loans. all the while, the glamour of being an automotive technician will be lost..you may grow to hate the job, or just lose the interest you once had in it..you'll pay off your debts and then you may consider a REAL piece of paper (degree) and you may decide to do something else technical..with much more money, less stress on your body, more work and less tools in it (HVAC, etc.) when you figure out that the auto. industry is looking really grim and that many so called ''in demand'' techs are losing their jobs and these dealers really don't want to hire any techs. The future, from what i've heard infact is moving away from this whole 'educated tech' thing.. eventually there may be just a direct link between engineer and very few qualified high tech quick working 'part swappers'.. we'll just have to see how the next generation of OBD will work.. Cars in 10 years are going to be quite diffrent then what they are..it's an exciting time. Engines are getting more powerful, build quality is getting better.. the automobile has had a pretty short life..it's still growing and I believe it's about to hit a revolution.
Very good post. This is infact, why I didn't go to UTI. I opted to work at a Chevy dealer as a lube tech and work my way up. After being there a year and 5 months I am a line tech doing just about everything, and making fairly good money for a 21 year old. I have worked my butt off, and learned just about everything I can. So far, I haven't been labled as a lube tech for about 6 months now. Also I am now ASE Certified.