What you'd expect from an inner city school, Only reason its getting two stars is their lectures and videos are of high quality.
Pro's
The newer attc lab is great. I spent two years here.
The instructors are great depending on who you get. Some bad apples but overall they are good.
If your just focusing on mig, tig, stick steel your good to go.
They use the Lincoln Welding school's platform to do the lectures which is a blessing. I had an instructor that wasn't from LE and we honestly didn't learn anything.
Safety is taught, retaught, and reretaught. In that respect its awesome.
Con's
The instructors forget they are in a professional learning environment teaching adults and end up swearing like sailors. An example of this was on the first day of class. "I marked you down as being here. Now get the f*** out".
My biggest complaint is one of the instructors telling me I didn't get one of my certifications that I was lying to him. When I showed him my cert he told me I doctored it. Then when I showed him the operators cert he told me, they "gave" it to me. Completely unprofessional
The registration process is a NIGHTMARE, they don't know from one day to the next what's going on. The registration staff is on a totally different planet than the program director.
Fin aid is a complete joke. They drop and add classes without telling you, they don't adjust your aid. You get overbilled, Get refunded money even if you owe them money. They only have 6 mig/stick and 4 tig welders ( in the new lab) but when you go to add the class it shows 12 spots for each process leading to over booking and very pissed off students.
The instructors don't tell the guys, and gals in class to put down their curtains so passerby's get flashed.
The equipment comes in late. One week you'll get a jacket, one week a helmet, the next your gloves.
The parts for the guns and torches are never there on time and your at the mercy of the last semester. That is what didn't get stolen. It can take up to three additional weeks to really start.
If you want to do aluminum or stainless on mig your out of luck. They don't allow students to bring in their own guns/torches to use.
Most of the machine parts are treated like shit. Especially the tig foot pedals. They are kicked, stepped on and chewed up by the stools and rendered useless. They are 400$ a pedal. Most of the guys are respectful of the property but like most. You have bad apples.
If you want to do pipe or out of position welds they don't offer it. I'm not talking a 4F, or 4G I'm taking 6G/GR.
Even though there are exotic materials in the tool crib to weld you can't because they don't allow you to use them.
Conclusion if you have a VERY high tolerance for nightmare situations, poor communication, theft, car break ins, blind eye to ignorant management, no ability to learn different alloys then its great. They have the lowest tuition but this is the MOST expensive program they offer. It will run you 1,200$ 375 in extra fees that's not covered by fafsa. Keep in mind if you are a prospective welder, or if your company is making you take classes. You need to learn more than mig 3/8 steel and tig 1/8 mild steel in order to make it in the field.
This is so much more of a helpful review than, " Their vending machine selection is great". You don't choose a school for what junk food they have in the building. You pick it on the quality of schooling.