Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Knoxville in Knoxville

I would give it less than one star if possible. The Industrial Electric Program is a sham. The instructors don't teach. They mostly just sit at their desk. I would estimate we received roughly 5 minutes of instruction for each 6 hours there. They were committing clock hour fraud with some students and there was no discipline or structure. This program should not be receiving taxpayer money which it is through the state and federal grants. It needs to be audited. The administrative staff are also weak. They don't respond to emails or voicemail. It is difficult to get textbooks at times because staff attendance is so poor.

If I could rate lower than 1 star I would! I began in the Surgical Technology program in September 2018. The syllabus guarantees 6 month lecture time and 6 month clinical time. The program director we had at the time dragged her feet and was consistently late for class time so instead of my group receiving the 6 month allotted time we got 52 days. In this 52 days we were required to complete a rotation and participate in 120 cases, this is nearly impossible. 20 days before graduation, I was dismissed from the program for having anxiety disorder for which I am medicated. Apparently there is no such thing as an extenuating circumstance. This dismissal was a ploy by the current program director (the program director changed earlier this summer) to assert her dominance since no one took her seriously. I filed a grievance, but by the time I was able to meet with someone there wasn’t a way for me to catch up and finish the program anyway, so I declined to fight for my position. Needless to say this was the most undesirable experience I have ever been through in my 30 years of life. I was constantly humiliated in front of class mates, called out, and at one point was told to use tea tree oil on my scalp because that’s what they used for their dog. I was exposed to a persons bodily fluids when an instructor placed a soiled safety shield on my face in the middle of a surgical procedure (the shield being soiled is why I didn’t have them on to begin with).After being dismissed from the program, I was told by the program director that I might try cosmetology as that might be a better fit because not everyone is meant for the medical field. I gave up almost a year of my life for this nightmare of an experience that included being mistreated and discriminated against for being overweight during my clinical time! If I could go back in time, I would save myself the hurt and tears that have been shed and just pursued my BA like I plan to do now. Prospective students beware!

I was a student at TCAT Knoxville in Automotive Technology in the fall of 2018. Going into the class, it was presented as everything I had hoped for in college. I have a passion for automotive and thought that the class would teach me and help me get a good job as a future auto tech. I met Mr. Smith before starting the class and he assured me that the class would be very beneficial and he seemed to be a knowledgeable and pleasant teacher to have. Sadly, I found that to be completely false. Going into the second week of school, I had no desire to be there. Mr. Smith was simply a pain to be around. He was completely different than I remember him being during orientation and when I personally met him before beginning the class. He seemed like a totally different person. He was not friendly or sympathetic to students problems. Also, I was very disappointed to see that I was not being taught the information that I needed to learn. It was rare that we would have lectures covering the information presented in our books. I spent many countless hours working at my computer, teaching myself the information that I thought I had paid a school to teach me. I was also aggravated when I realized how little shop time I was able to receive. I was told that there was plenty of work to be done, and many live jobs to be seen every day. This is technically true but it is very difficult to keep everyone busy on a live job when there are only 3 bays to work in (one being off limits to day class). While covering the brakes course, I personally was only given 3 live jobs to work on. I am a visual learner and it is very difficult for me to be able to learn everything by reading a book. Lastly, i would like to advise the fact that Mr. Smith does not treat students equally. There were many times I saw him get very aggravated at good students who made a simple mistake while other students could make that same mistake and it would be as if Mr Smith did not mind at all. There were even times that students, who had been there well over a year, would drop out or were even failed over a very small mistake. I understand we all make mistakes and that those who do should be treated equally, not judged differently. For anyone looking to take the automotive program, I encourage you to strongly reconsider. Coming from a student who has been there under Mr Smith, I can promise you, it will not be a fun experience. I would not recommend the class to anyone.

Graduated Dental Assisting school this past August. Very thankful for this school, I’m making the money I have always wanted to make per hour. I had an overall good experience. My instructor was a bit rude (nice way of putting it) to the class almost everyday, but she was 75. That’s the only thing I would change about the program- is maybe getting an instructor who treats people with respect and maybe updating the program. A lot of our supplies were donated and it’s hard when you get out into the real world to use things that you’ve never used before because your school has stuff that is so old. I kept my head down, did my work, and I graduated. Thanks TCAT

The people posting 1 star reviews I don't think are bright enough to attend. As for myself I graduated from the HVAC program in Dec of 2016. I had a wonderful time here. I found the classes very instructive and interesting but that could also be I was interested in learning and applied myself. The support staff was always very helpful and pleasure to be around.The waiting list can be long so don't put it off. If you go to school apply yourself you can pretty much guarantee yourself a good job after graduation.I also recommend being a part of SkillsUSA while you are there. I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed a free trip to our state competition. To bad I only got silver, as I would have really liked a week long trip to nationals.