Pima Medical Institute - Seattle — Attraction in Seattle

I entered into the dental assisting program at Pima, and it was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. In my first section where I took my pre-req classes with Jerry, it was wonderful. He was a great teacher, and taught me so much. He is the best part about this school for sure. Then we all split up into our classes for our specialties, mine being dental assisting. I was the only person going into the dental class at this time. Although there are others in the class, they have already been studying their specialty for several months with Mrs.J. When I was starting they were in the middle of a switch from one teacher, with tons of experience and a high rate of successful students, Mrs.J (who now teaches the dental hygiene students.) They switched to a teacher who had never taught before, had been a dental assistant for many years but never a teacher, Cindy. This teacher had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She was all over the place, late for classes, didn't have answers to questions, and simply didn't teach me the skills I needed. The other students already had a lot of knowledge and were able to use that to get by. Sense I was the only new student, and she was in the middle of trying to figure out how to do her job, Once the new students came in the next quarter, she at least had things a little bit more together. This being the case though, I basically lost an entire quarter of learning, leaving me without all the skills and knowledge I needed. Even still after she had some experience, she still was never a good teacher. I was a hard working student that maintained all A's in all my classes. It just was so difficult to keep up, when I felt that I wasn't being taught everything I needed to know. The management wasn't much help in the situation either, especially Susan who was in charge of Dental. When I went off to my externship, I felt like I didn't know everything I needed to, to be there. So I had to postpone my externship. This being the case I have still yet to go back and complete the course, because I dread ever returning to the school. I now owe all this money in student loans that Is due, even without me completing the course. The majority of the students from my class have either gone on to the hygiene program with Mrs.J where they will actually receive teaching they need, or aren't working in the dental field except maybe one or two. Cindy is no longer a teacher at Pima is what I have been told. Those of us who had to try and receive our education from her and just SOL I guess. Left with a crap ton of student loads to deal with. I don't really know how it is in the other programs, but I would stay away from the dental program. This school isn't accredited in the dental world, its just not required to have a degree to be a dental assistant. I'd go elsewhere...

Alumni here. Proud to be one. Especially from the dental hygiene program. With whatever challenges Pima brought me through the 2 years of schooling, of course I had negative things to say too, but the positives outweighed the negatives. Parking was tough, but manageable, especially in an overly crowded city as to be expected. I knew that as I decided to join the school. Carpooling was easy to do with my supportive classmates. All 10 instructors at the hygiene program were helpful, challenging, supportive, professional, and positively memorable. Some of my classmates didn't last long through the program because they had family businesses to run, relationships to work on, and little kids to raise, but others who had supportive families made it through with flying colors. Support is key for all of us in any situation. I remember one of my classmates always came in to class sleepy because she worked late nights on top of school hours and studying at home. But she made it through! She worked extra hard for what she wanted and she did it!!!

Success and happiness is in the eye of the beholder. I had COMPLETED NOT ONE, BUT TWO successful PROGRAMS through Pima! Did assisting in Las Vegas and Hygiene in Seattle. To come back a second time around with years to think about it in between, in spite of parking, schedule, instructors, finding your own patients, traveling for board exam reviews, tuition, uniforms, traffic, gas, doctor appointments, moving to a state I had no family support at, having no friends (before my classmates), living in a tiny bedroom, spending weekends back in the campus, putting my social life on hold, studying 2-6 hours a day, not going home for the holidays, missing alarm clocks, drinking excessive coffees, missing lunches, ending a relationship then starting a new one, etc... IS A LOT. I too survived! It's my story. Others have some amazing journeys too. But there is not a time where I wasn't proud of coming from Pima, Seattle and Vegas campus. No bullying, no unnecessary conduct from staff, no unusual events that didn't happen elsewhere.

I can say I am super proud of my accomplishment and happy to have gone through Pima. It was not easy by any means. And that's part of the growth process. I'm very thankful. Some instructors even told us it's quite a decent program compared to where they used to teach.

And now, I am happy where I stand today. I love my career. I can use it to work towards my bigger goals. Thank you,...

If I could rate a zero I would. Save your money and go to a community college. I chose to attend PIMA institute because they were top ten of the Veterinary assistant and tech schools in Washington State. The instructors aren't teachers they have only worked in the field. The middle aged core instructor Dan would hit on the students who just graduated high school. He bought one girl a water bottle and gave her a glass blown cowboy hat. After 6 weeks of the core classes we were put into our career classes. Vet students were treated less than. None of us were shown where to go for our classes. The teacher Miss Kathy Johnson is a nice lady but really isn't teacher material. She is easily distracted and her knowledge doesn't match what is in the book. PIMA supplies you with 2 books to use for Aseptic Technique and Pharmacology. We never used the books only the power points that were passed out. The answers in the book and on the power point were always different. When I asked the teacher which answer was correct she would say, "oh I like the answer you have." Students pay $13,000 to become a vet assistant that's makes maybe fifty cents above minimum wage. If you want to continue to Vet tech you would pay an addition $21,000. Had I would of known their teaching practices were so mediocre I would have gone to a community college where my credits can be transferred to other colleges if needed. It's not only the vet students that have issues with their teachers it's also the dental assistants, physical therapist assistants, and medical assistants. I scheduled a appointment to speak with Allen the director of the Seattle PIMA so I could hopefully help the students behind me so they wouldn't go through what I'm feeling and he just kept cutting me off several times and kept preaching how wonderful their program is. He also cut my significant other off and told him he didn't want to hear from him. So after being cut off over and over again I stood up and decided I am done with PIMA. So I withdrew. Of course I received a bill from PIMA yesterday and they want me to pay $2,500. After everything I've been through you still want me to pay. So I will be...