Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College — Local services in Asheville

First, I would like to say Ab-tech is a great place to complete your prerequisites. The teachers are great, it's affordable, and convenient. The nursing program, however, I give it two-thumbs down, with the exception of two to three notably awesome and genuinely kind, I-want-you-to-succeed type instructors. For the past three years, between 30-50% of the class fail in the first semester of their two-year programs. The semesters following lose up to ten students each semester. There is a high turnover rate of nursing instructors, as well as clinical instructors. In my experience, there is a good portion of instructors who enjoy the control they have over students. Meaning, if you don't address them by Mrs., Mr., or Ms., they will issue a SSIP (Student Self Improvement Plan), which requires you to write an essay on why you need to respect your superiors. SSIPs are issued for every little thing you do wrong. Don't get too many of those; otherwise you're out of the program. During one winter break, I broke my ankle. The nursing administrators told me I am not allowed to continue in the program due to my injury. As I was preparing an appeal, I spoke to an ab-tech instructor not affiliated with the nursing program, and I was informed the reason I'm not being accommodated is because I'm a man. The Dean eventually granted me two days of healing time, in which I was not able to walk by that time, so I had no choice but to quit the program. Ironically, two years later, after I entered the ADN nursing program, a girl in the final semester fractured her hip. She told me she was totally accommodated for: her clinical were switched around to avoid absences, plus, the nursing administrators told her if she doesn't heal in time, she could make up her clinical time the following summer semester. Maybe that non-nursing instructor was correct. Because I was one of the ten people who did not pass the final semester, I was forced to come back into the program the following year and repeat now two semesters per their policy and procedures. I was accepted back into the program and registered for the mother-baby class, however, my advisor placed me in two different classes, even though I only registered and paid for one. It could be an honest mistake, but it's probably a control issue.. Read on. When the school informed me to go on ahead and register for my final semester, my advisor prevented me in doing so. I could not register until she gave me the go ahead. I sent countless emails asking why I cannot register when everyone else can; I pleaded to her to allow me to take this class that had only three spots left. She did not respond to my emails until three weeks later, just three days before payment was due. Here are some quotes from instructors instructors & admin: "I encourage you to drop the clock issue" sent in an email to me when I asked an instructor to provide a clock or a full timer for the test. "I've heard you are a little miss know-it-all" statement to a very nice LPN student. "You do realize I'm not going to pass you this semester" via clinical instructor. "I became a teacher because I couldn't handle families of patients anymore." "We are just waiting for those that have been barely passing to fail." Via nursing administrator. "You are not on our radar list." Via class instructor. “Take an Imodium and go to your clinical to avoid being removed from the program.” – A response from an instructor when I informed her I had used up my all my absences and was still sick, too sick (fever/diarrhea) to be around sick babies. I resquested on how I could avoid going to my NICU rotation. "Go check on your patients, they could be dead for all we know." Yelled by a clinical instructor down a hall lined with patient rooms. Heard by patients, families, & staff. "I'll give you a second chance to earn a higher grade on your presentation, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone this." Via a class instructor. "I can look into your student email account at any time." Said a nursing...

I do not commonly write reviews about anything because I know that it will always go unnoticed by the company being reviewed, and anyone else on the internet. I know writing a review on the internet would be just as effective as me going onto my roof and shouting it at the sky and then hitting myself in the head with a hammer repeatedly until losing conciseness. Yet, the experience I had at this "community college" was so frustrating I felt compelled to write a review about it just to vent my feelings. First off I must say that the staff at this school are outstandingly friendly, and yet at the same time outstandingly unhelpful. Simply trying to register for classes at this college was an unbearable task. At the time of my registration I was a student transferring in from another community college in the state. I already had the knowledge of what I needed for classes and how the transfer program worked I just needed help registering for classes, and I told them this. I guess I didn't tell this to them the right number of times because they didn't listen and still sent me from location to location wasting my time when I could have registered for my classes and been on my way. Even when I finally got the chance to talk to an advisor I didn't even get registered for my classes. The advisor only told me which classes might be best for me and then said I could do it online on their WebAdvisor site. I wasted half my day trying to register for classes and in the end I couldn't even get that accomplished. Not only that, but I haven't the slightest clue how their WebAdvisor site works so I had to go through a whole other set of steps to figure that out on my own. It is as if the staff are trying to make the process as complicated as possible. Registering for college classes can be a very stressful time for students of all kinds, and the staff does not make it any less stressful sending you every which way to complete a task only for you to end up getting nothing accomplished in the end. Also, if you plan on sending your official transcripts to this school, don't even bother. You are better off delivering the sealed envelope to them yourself rather than leaving it to chance of them not losing it. AB Tech seems to excel at not having your official transcripts no matter how many weeks you send them in advance.

When I think of an ideal college I think of efficiency, professionalism, and simplicity. AB Tech is none of these things. I could rant more about my distaste for this school, but I will leave that to others on the internet. If you are looking for a complicated, irritating, and unhelpful college than AB Tech is the school for you. If not, you must still have a functioning brain between your ears. Take it from me, you are better off spending your money at any other community college. AB Tech is like the DMV of community colleges. I will conclude with this: I hate Asheville-Buncombe Technical...

I don't give five stars often, but AB tech is quite deserving. I have had good and great teachers here. They are very welcoming towards vets like myself, and offer so many ways to improve your learning, research, and motivation, outside of the classroom. Also I can compare this to another community college I attended while in the Marines. It's wayyyy better. UPDATE: If I could give more than 5 stars I would. ABTech truly is amazing. My gf and I lost our little girl over the summer while we were taking classes. I won't go into the level of stress and absolute sadness we will forever endure, but I can say that ab tech really came through to help. They let me cancel my class despite only have a couple weeks left, and even now a whole semester later, past and present instructors are helping in ways beyond their paygrade reflects. I will forever have good things to say about...