anyone ever attend one, or know someone who did? which campus did you or they enroll? what was your experience like, or what have you heard about them? was it worth it, and was the job placement successful?

i had a coworker go off to the campus in houston like 5 years ago, but i haven't spoken to him since then. i considered going too, but i came to state instead. i'm now considering heading off to one of the campuses (they have a bunch all over the country).

i'd love to go to the one in mooresville, but that's nascar oriented and i'm not a fan of nascar. i'm interested in the "hot rod u", "street legal", and one of the manufacturers program (bmw, porsche, or merecedes-benz specifically). if you or the person(s) that you know were a student in one of those programs, what were they like? how difficult was the material to learn? is it mostly hands-on or book learning?

i'm not interesting in trolling or other bullshit, unhelpful information. negative comments and criticisms are fine, since that's important, but let's keep it mature, relevant, and most of all, informative. i am serious about this, afterall.

if anyone else is interested, go ahead and post your questions and comments. also, let me know if you'd be interested in rooming together. it'd be cool to have someone else out there with something in common, even if we've actually never met. if anything, we'll have nc state and north carolina in common, and that's better than a complete stranger. i think it'd make the move and transition easier.

thanks.

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 3:19 AM. Reason : ]

5/3/2006 3:16:34 AM

IllegalRegal went to one in charlotte, and now works in miami.

he was top of his class

you gotta be number fucking one out of 1000000 if you wanna work porsche or anything better.

5/3/2006 8:27:34 AM

i've heard it's $texas but worth it

edit: as far as the nascar part of the school.. only like the top 1 or 2 from each class is even eligible to move on to the nascar training.

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 8:56 AM. Reason : ..]

5/3/2006 8:55:50 AM

when i worked at saab, we had a guy come out fresh out of UTI, i beleive the one in mooresville, and that fool was completely confused. first of all, he all come rolin in with his free entry level snapon toolbox and an engine lift. everyone was like like, haha, o.k. here is a car why dont you go ahead and swap an engine for us right quick. i dont know what kind of activities they got over there at UTI, but not only didn he know anything about saab, i dont think he ever held a wrench in his hand before. he dind't even know how to double the wrench to get more leverage, simple things like that. needless to say, he didnt last a month and a half at saab before he got shipped off to chrysler then i think they fired him.

it may be just a bad apple tho, his work ethic wasnt exactly astounding. he didnt evensow up for work hal he time. if he was like that while still in UTI that explains a lot.

From the few automotive classes i took at a community college, i noticed that the people that come in there with enthusiasm and actually are willing to learn are the only ones that actually succeed. everyone else is there to bullshit around.

i actually went to UTI for a campus visit before i decided to go to college, and i was not too impressed. im not sure if thats only because the classes weer ot in session, but they had big old empty orkshops, noo lifts , no special equipment, just a couple toolboxes. they have a dyno tho.

5/3/2006 9:18:42 AM

Quote :

"you gotta be number fucking one out of 1000000 if you wanna work porsche or anything better"

go to european performance or leith m-b or something and see how many of them went to a specialized school before they got hired. usually if you are a competent tech theyll hier you then send you to factory tarining after you get a lil bit of hands on experience with the brand.

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 9:24 AM. Reason : quote]

5/3/2006 9:23:42 AM

i think there is a difference between european performance "specialist" and a porsche dealer.

now i know they work on that shit. im not doggin them. and i know good as well there are tons more better mechanics who didnt even goto school for that shit.

illegalregal was one of them, he pretty much gained nothing from that school except for an easy way to get into the dealerships. i wanna say he got dumber by going to that school. he is a genious when it comes to cars.

but like i said, i would much rather work for "porsche" than "european performance".

5/3/2006 10:10:51 AM

i thought illegalregal went back to Nigeria

5/3/2006 10:16:11 AM

hah, he wishes

5/3/2006 10:17:55 AM

igor, which campus did you visit and when? maybe they've upgraded some stuff? the online tours seems to show some really nice, and uber-clean shop areas. the bmw shop was particularly nice with m-power all over the place.

eventually, i'd like to work for a world-class race team. i think the best way to get to that would be through working at a dealership, then move on from there? i figure graduating from uti would get me connections within porsche, mercedes-benz, or bmw that would otherwise be nearly impossible to attain. the europeon performance guys are regular customers at ruckus pizza. i figure there is no way i'd get hired there simply because i have no experience working in a shop, and my actual hands-on experience is very limited since i haven't had a car to work on in 3 years.

5/3/2006 12:11:41 PM

i checked out the Mooresville campus (nascar school), it was 3 or 4 years ago i guess. it was a open doors day, so maybe they put all the stuff in the toolrooms and closets, but to my surprise i didnt see but i think a couple lifts. in one of the rooms they had a bunch of expensive cars stiitin there for people to look at, they had like a nascar sittin in another and they had another nascar on the dyno doin runs makin noise.

Quote :

"online tours seems to show some really nice, and uber-clean shop areas"

well maybe the reason they are so clean cause they dont do no fuckin hands on work there.

even in that bmw virtual tour you atre talking about they got only got 2 lifts, and thats like a graduate program for them. how much hands on time do you thing you are gonna get with all them 15 other people standing around.

Quote :

" i figure there is no way i'd get hired there simply because i have no experience working in a shop"

you probably wont get hired by european performance right away, but if you start somewherre else and you are any good you should be abe to transfer there. in fact when i was working at precision tune on hillsborough right by european performance, our lead tech got a nice job offer from EP. he is a young guy, 25-27 tops, went to a local community college gor a 2 year automotive program, nothiong fancy. he was a good tech tho. he ended up going to merchants cause they came up with an even better offer and he doesnt paticularly care whether he is working on porshes or pontiacs.

Quote :

"eventually, i'd like to work for a world-class race team"

good luck on that. i wanna be a CEO of a multibillion dollar company one day.
im not stying its impossible, but its highly unlikely unless you put 110% effort in it or unless your daddy is the team owner.
also remeber that there are various ways to get into a team. you can be a manager or a PR person, since you are gonna be (hopefully) a college graduate you have better chances doing that then the guys at the UTI.

Quote :

"and my actual hands-on experience is very limited since i haven't had a car to work on in 3 years. "

go work part time (or even full time in the summer) at a smaller shop or even at a dealership (there is a shortage of techs in many places right now) and in these three months you will get plenty of hands-on straining and probably get a whole lot better idea on how to diagnose and repair cars then you would learn in the first two semsters at a technical school

5/3/2006 12:46:10 PM

^your grammar and spelling got about 300% better since this morning's posts

5/3/2006 1:07:00 PM

true. thanks for the words.

5/3/2006 1:10:56 PM

UTI in charlotte sucks. Those kids goto school for it, but have no real world experience. Some people are born with a gift to work on cars, some arn't. I wouldn't let 95% of the kids from UTI touch my car. I have seen first hand what the kids from UTI know

5/3/2006 1:11:10 PM

i wouldnt let 95% of mechanics (UTI or otherwise) touch my car...

5/3/2006 1:38:43 PM

I got a buddy in asheboro, went to nascar tech. in mooresville for that 14 month program...started him out hourly $10/hour at Nissan right after he got out...a year later he went online at $13 an hour...now (3 years later) he's at $16/hour which is as high as they pay anybody there...they send him to DC frequently (every 3-5 months) for a week of classes on new systems, equipment, etc

obviously you have to be competent to get anything out of a place like NTI, UTI, or Wyotech (or wherever you choose)...he's a smart,fast worker, cleared between $35k and $45k last year which is damn good at his age, experience level

there's not that much to learn at a place like NTI, its more so just a piece of paper to help get you an entry level job

5/3/2006 6:01:11 PM

Ive got some buddies that went there that work at dealerships and some buddies that didnt go there and work at dealerships........they make the same amount of money. The ones that went there say its a waste of time and money

5/3/2006 6:03:16 PM

^second that

5/3/2006 6:08:21 PM

Quote :

"its a waste of time and money"

--IllegalRegal

5/3/2006 6:19:53 PM

I had a friend that went there (UTI in Charlotte). He was #1 in his class and hoping to work for porsche. Then his car broke down on the drive there and because he missed 1 day - only 1 day - he was exempt from being able to work for porsche.

He also told me that some of the teachers are retarded. One of them was teachin him that the boxer engine was created for trucks in order to mount the spare wheel ontop of the engine, and that is what they do in rally cars.

He told me that his teachers knew basically how an American car in the 1970s worked. They don't know shit about new hi-tech imported stuff, and pretty much believe that American cars are the most high-tech thing ever and that there is no replacement for displacement.

Also, he said most of the students are gung-ho nascar rednecks.

Long story short, he dropped out and went to UNCC, and he's much happier.

Personally I would say it isn't worht it.

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 6:29 PM. Reason : s]

5/3/2006 6:25:57 PM

that's what i'm hearing from other people too. someone even told me it costs $26k. i'm thinking a community college is much better.

5/3/2006 7:17:30 PM

my boyfriend went to NTI in charlotte/statesville and he liked it. he then went on to the volkswagen academy in chicago and works for leith vw in cary. it doesnt really matter if its nascar oriented because at the end everyone goes to the seperate academies anyways. his brother and roomie also went to NTI and they both work for acura. he loved working on the nascar cars and stuff like that. they are pretty strict on like tardiness and absences and stuff like that but i mean you kinda need to show up when you only go to school for a year. idk about all this 10 dollars and hour stuff but im pretty sure he made a lot more then that when he started.

5/3/2006 7:29:31 PM

A friend of mine is in Statesville right now and finishes up in September. He's 22 but he's worked at dealerships etc. since he was 16. He's gotten a whole hell of a lot out of it, such as electrical troubleshooting. In each unit or whatever he's within the top 5 usually. He's always talking about how much he's learned.

The thing is, he had already done lots of hands-on stuff like swap motor, change clutches and suspension stuff, etc. He told me that most of the guys there are 18 year olds fresh out of highschool with pretty limited knowledge under their belt. Most of the stuff he does there in the main program is with GM and Ford stuff. You have to go to the manufacturer specific training afterwards for the "high tech" stuff.

One of the strangest things about that school is the order in which they teach things. The first thing he did was build bottom-ends. Then 4 months later he was learning about rotating tires. It makes no sense to me.

[Edited on May 4, 2006 at 12:57 AM. Reason : .]

5/4/2006 12:57:08 AM

my good friend went to the one in mooresville and did the like 14 month program plus a few to be Ford certified. being fairly mechanically inclined myself the stuff he said they did seemed very worthwhile, maybe not for the price tho (well more than 2yrs at ncsu moneywise). he did get ford certified and had a job with the highway patrol for good money/benefits until he got 2 dui's in 3 months

5/4/2006 2:14:04 AM