George Brown Polytechnic — Local services in Toronto

please read this review if you are thinking about the technology programs at this college

I am writing this review to expose the technology department and their misconduct of monitoring the teachers. I had a bad experience at the school and the issue has been avoided and my complain was not treated as serious as it should be. next you will be reading exactly word for word about the issue. and the issue at hand is monitoring the teachers and their conduct. also my hard earned 400 dollars that is going to waste and they (people I have been in contact with) are not answering my question regarding the refund.

#! I am currently enrolled in this class mentioned above and this is a formal complaint;

To whom this may concern;

My name is Saad Wadi, student ID is 100902934 I am complaining in regards to the teacher's conduct and method of carrying the class outline. this Saturday of March 23, 2013. Mr. Eduard Loiczli had given us an assignment that was beyond many of the students knowledge and capabilities and he was not even in class to further explain himself. He was attending other personal matters in a different class with 2 gentlemen whom he identified as other students who needed help in other matter. I personally told him that the assignment is beyond my understanding and that other student total of 2..are the only ones doing it right. and these 2 students were approaching the problem with PLC background. He came to the class room around 3:25 pm walked around and left again to attend to the matter mentioned above. then I became very frustrated and left at exactly 3:45 pm, He was not back in class yet. He was in the same location with 2 other gentlemen. I feel insulted and very unsatisfied with this matter. this defently changed my outlook on Geogre Brown college. I am not happy to even complain. because I still want to attend the class. But serously dont feel like Im going to learn much due to this experience. I would like my full amount refunded and I need confirmation please. I can't continue with this class. do NOT drop me out of the course until you tell me your decision of refunding me the full amount. I look forward to hearing from you

Thanks

her respons I am sorry to hear that the instructor was not available to you when you needed him to be.

Working with Relay logic in the practical lab is quite daunting and lengthy for anyone. As the course is already half complete I would like to encourage you to continue with the course. The instructor is aware of the diversity of learning levels in the class and will be paying special attention to those who find this aspect of the course challenging. He will be providing one on one instruction and tutoring during class. It is our intention to make sure that every student has a positive experience and successful outcome.

Please feel free to email me again or speak with me in person in my office should this arrangement not be to your satisfaction.

All the best,

Jill

Jill Mulholland CE Coordinator Manufacturing, HVAC & ICT

email#2 I am determined to move forward with my initial decision and would like full refund please..I have given the instructor the benefit of a doubt but last Saturday was an indication of his negligence and I refuse to put myself through it again. My decision is final. Please let me know weather I'm getting full refund or not‚ so I can take further action and drop out of the course. Thank you

Hello Saad,

As the course is now half complete, you are eligible to withdraw from the course without academic penalty. In the email below the offer for additional tutoring has been made should you wish to remain in the course.

I have notified the manager, Joseph Sirianni, about your complaint. He is copied in this email. Please feel free to email Mr. Sirianni.

Kind regards,

Jill

and the Gentleman Joseph Sirianni didnt even bother to email or anything, so I called and left a message. then he called and I missed the call, but he left no message, so I called again and left another message but...

I started engaging with George Brown via email from April 2021 onwards. In the beginning they were great with emails. I got replies and everything. Once, I decided to apply, but couldn't as the application portal and the website was down on May and June 2021. So I decided to wait. Finally on July the application portal and website was functioning, so I applied on 8th July. Paid the $95 and all that. After this I emailed them couple of times in August and now in September. Absolutely no replies from the international admissions office. I have went ahead and emailed other departments of George Brown, whosever's email id I could find on the internet. Only reply you will get from them is "Contact International Office". So all in all, I am stuck in a loop.

This review won't change anything. Cause there are maybe 100 colleges in Canada. And we have millions of people from Asian countries who want to enter Canada for various reasons. For these sort of colleges, It's all business, at the end of the day.

So my suggestion is, at least give the 95$ to someone who wont make you wait for 2 months. Apply to colleges, who will be worth the 95 dollars. People who are competent or have the basic courtesy. I have been an international student all my life. This is just absolutely ridiculous. And being a business student, I get super annoyed, when my money goes to waste. I wish I had spent that 95$ on another college or a decent meal or at least give it for charity. Guys there are many Universities and colleges who are hungry for students, and they don't even charge a application fee, cause during this pandemic, all they care is for students to apply and pay the fees later. Anyways, I am going off topic. All in all, I would not recommend George Brown College. Why? The international admission office is incompetent and inadequate.

Here is the 1st update, after this review: Ashley, the manager of international enrolment, contacted me and assured me to get my application sorted by the end of next week (approx. 1 week). Now just imagine, if everyone was as efficient as Ashley, what a lovely world we would be in. Thank you Ashley. But even before getting any application update from them, I have decided not to pursue this college, why to spend time and money on a place where the admission process, the first process or association has been so awful.

Last Update on 4th September: I got the offer letter. As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't accept it, even if God appears and tells me to accept it. I just regret spending the amount of time and money spent behind...

While my program was generally very well run (T312), with the majority of professors 80% being superb (The amount of self learning and scrambling required to figure out what the remaining ones wanted however soured it somewhat. But thats higher ed in general so cant complain), good luck if you ever have to deal with some of the incompetent admins running this place.

Might be because higher ed in Ontario is in a dreadful state thanks to all the defunding from the govt in general. But compared to BC I was shocked at how much worse dealing with them here was.

For instance, if/when you need to get support from IT, it takes forever to go through via phone and get issues resolved. No idea what GBC was thinking migrating to Brightspace from blackboard, and their ever changing security policy does not seem to be well thought out. If you have to access Revit/MS Project thru Apps anywhere, good luck as well.

Not to mention most administrative offices/departments just plainly don't physically exist on campus, so you can't even pop in to resolve issues. Get used to emails back and forth over weeks when a live chat could solve it in 10mins.

Two: Global Exchange folks are well-meaning but seemingly overrun with either incompetence/ignorance/dgaf. The amount of following up needed to make them register for a simple exchange made me feel like i was doing their jobs for them.

If you even are selected for exchange, pray that they renewed their agreements (happened to me, ended up losing an amazing opportunity). If they don't, the ability to get a letter of permission here does not exist vs other colleges in Ontario. Put simply, its not a priority for the school.

If you disagree, compare GBC's outbound exchange opportunities with any other competing college in the GTA, the list of institutions and opportunities available pales greatly in comparison.

If anyone from GBC is reading this, if you really want have more people going on exchange, renew your agreements properly, give students a proper timeframe (and not have us follow up for months/years), and TALK to students about these opportunities in person during class/in the cafeteria etc. I spent 4 years here and saw zero of it.

Exchange is something students in other institutions fight to get to go to, and here to see only 2 to 3 people max in any of the global learning info sessions is sad to see.

All in all come here if your program is one of the handful that has a great, specialized reputation. If not, you can do much better elsewhere with...