Institute of Culinary Education — Attraction in Pasadena

I enrolled in a 9-course, asynchronous, online Restaurant & Culinary Management program offered through ICE’s CA location. The application process was bumpy so I knew I did not want to commit to giving this establishment all of my money up front and opted to make 13 payments. The 1st course Concept Development & Menu Design was great. The material was relevant and informative, and the teacher seemed to be present and involved. As the courses went on and I began to e-mail the teacher for support with exam and project questions, she became unresponsive. I work a full time job where I have to travel in addition to this program and there were times I had to rush to get assignments completed because she would not respond for days or weeks. A couple of times I had to get the counselor involved, Gabriela Arzate and email her to email to the teacher to finally get the teacher to respond. I honestly think the teacher was being overworked and overwhelmed so I don’t hold it against her. Personal thank you to Gabriela because she seemed to be the only one in that whole place who was actually checking her e-mails, doing her job, and responding. Another example, there was a fast track course that was condensed into 4 weeks and they didn’t supply me with a book until we were into week 2 and going into week 3. Again, I had e-mailed the teacher, no response. Followed up, no response. Finally reached out to Gabriela and she got people involved to help me. This was a very stressful time for me to try to catch up while working my job. In addition to me not really having a teacher and avoiding asking further questions because I knew it would be a hassle, the courses became irrelevant and didn’t correspond with current texts we were reading. The material and discussion questions were not engaging. I was reaching out to the teacher again for support in a course, and I kept getting ignored and I finally got so tired of it that I said I would not pay another penny until I received some assistance and my issues were resolved. Only then did I finally get the attention of multiple people including the National Director of Career Services. Funny how that works; when they’re not getting their money, now all of a sudden they’re concerned. I spoke with multiple people and re-told my story over and over again (so frustrating) and provided all of my e-mail proof and receipts of the lack of service and how some of the courses were poor quality and misaligned and requested a discount on my tuition. They refused to compromise with me. I notified the school and stopped taking the program after course 6, and did not partake in 7,8, or 9. I paid 78% of my tuition and only completed 66% of my course work. I refused to pay the remainder of my tuition because what I signed up for and paid for was an online course that was supposed to have a responsive and supportive teacher and relevant coursework, and I did not get that. They sent me to collections even though I did not attend the last 3 courses. Why should I have to pay for something that A. I did not fully complete because of B. poor service and poor quality. Seems very unfair from ICE, and I would not recommend attending this...

I would be VERY clear about how you plan to pay your tuition, because we were basically tricked into taking a loan somehow? Even though we explicitly stated we wanted to pay off the cost ourselves in two payments + help from the grant that I was eligible for. I even said "okay, i'm not signing anything that involves taking out a loan right?" and was told no- The bursar was in agreement that we could pay with two checks and get the amount of money off the total from the grant paying for the rest. We also had an issue with the total coming out to be different than what was initially given to us on paper, so they made us overpay the 2nd half of the tuition payment AND then after I graduated they claimed I owed them money still... It just isn't a good look when you're lying to your students and preying on them when their family is putting forward no paltry amount of money to even enroll.

Be wary of instructors who don't notice in-class bullying between students, also. You pretty much have to handle stuff on your own. Don't be afraid to switch classes if people are ignoring you and refuse to...

I applied to this school. When I received a call from my advisor, Tammy Polanco, I was very excited. I had tried reaching out to her several times, but she was busy with other students, which is understandable. Due to my zeal to attend the school, I called the main office in hopes of getting some answers. I ended up speaking with Jeff Haines, who was able to answer all my questions.

After my talk with Jeff, I received an email by mistake that was a conversation between Jeff and Tammy discussing me. Jeff had emailed Tammy that I tried calling her "50 times lol," and Tammy replied, "So he was too busy to be transferred? Lol."

I felt that the whole application process was unprofessional. My excitement to attend ICE was significantly diminished.

However, after I emailed the main Director of Admissions, Gabriela Arzate, she was very helpful and apologized for their behavior. She personally handled most of my questions and sent me all the information I...