Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology — Local services in Aurora

Very good little school, in a safe area. As a graduate I can honestly say your chances of getting a job once graduated are EXTREMELY high. More than half our graduating class already had jobs lined up BEFORE graduating. In regards to the actual schooling experience there is definitely a little of the good, the bad, and the fantastic. For the good the campus has undergone some fantastic renovations, with an extra classroom added and some cosmetic work to one of the buildings. In class there is an appropriate amount of hands on experience (the school has a wide variety of on-campus animals to work with), but this school really goes above and beyond to line up volunteer and shadowing experiences right into your hands, especially if you feel you need more practice, AND these are fantastic networking opportunities! In addition, this school offers AMAZING laboratory classes. You learn an incredible amount but I will not lie--these courses are challenging! But the experience you gain is a major factor in why so many facilities hire this school's graduates. For the bad, most of it comes down to the scale of the facility. Because it is a small campus it does allow everyone to become a tight-knit little community, but at the same time it limits staff flexibility. Because it is not a larger campus the limitations on staff also limit the scheduling times for classes. You WILL have a flexible schedule, it just won't be as flexible as you think. Mostly because the quarterly schedule makes you feel like you're moving at a breakneck pace. This isn't necessarily an issue for most students, but for students with children this can be particularly difficult to work around, especially if it is a single parent household. In addition there are some course policies that can be rather harsh, but most of this is necessary for both the school's accreditation and for the fairness to other students. If you go here you will be frustrated at least once, but I think it's a small sacrifice when you know you will have a job at the end of it all. Which is hard to say for some universities!

And for the AMAZING it has to be the staff. They want you to succeed and they want you to be honest. (Seriously, they are blood-hounds for cheating--they will find you, and they will kick you out. A common saying at the school is that if you are willing to cheat to pass a test, who knows what you'll do to an animal. And this is extremely accurate.) They want you to be a good vet tech and they want to know you did it honestly. The professors give lots of opportunities to help struggling students and guidance from their personal experience. If you work hard they will be there to help.In addition the administrators are awesome too! Sometimes life throws a curveball and interrupts your studies, but the administrators do their best to help accommodate. They can help you with almost anything. Counseling, finding roommates, adjusting schedules, and in general just helping sort your life out!

Ultimately, I would highly recommend this school! I have a few nitpicks here or there, and a couple of moments I remember were frustrating, but in the end I am satisfied with my education. AND the staff will be there to help if you ever need guidance navigating the job market, both before and after...

Decided to go back to school to get another degree and always wanted to be a vet tech. This school and the teachers will drain every ambition and dream you have out of you.

Let’s start off by saying when I went back to school I was 28. I had the support system so I didn’t have to work that much.

Choose Bel Rea if you want an expensive online course but in a classroom. Teachers only read from the manuals and are not interested in students understanding. One of the best teachers was let go because she was more concerned with students mental health. All of the students I was attending with were very stable and eager for a future as a vet tech. Many of the students had higher aspirations. I can speak none of our students had mental health issues but were striving to understand the curriculum. When my parents and I were researching the program the graduation rate was higher and it has dropped down to 66 percent. I have one degree already and never had difficulties in school and even graduated high school early. I applied myself, I’m 30 years old and went into this and have been paying for it myself. I barely worked so I could study. The reason I’m saying these things is I want to warn other students that this school is not academically supportive. You’re paying them to show you nothing and gain nothing in return.

Be prepared to watch a ton of YouTube videos and just have instructors read out of a manual word from word. If you ask a question be prepared for the teachers not even to answer you or to look at you like you are not smart.

It was like high school all over again except the teachers were the ones in the gossip pool.

I regret giving up my 50k year job to try this school out. Thanks Bel Rea for sucking every dream and ambition I had out of me.

I will also mention that I was on high honors for a good year but did not want to pay 30k for this education to be belittled by teachers and treated like you’re just another body. I got out with a year left, granted I’m paying an extra 5k on future credits I will not receive which is whatever we all signed a student contract.

You do not get hands on training with animals, you take care of them meaning; you clean about 50-60 rodent cages for a week. If I wanted to sign up for a cleaning service I do it at home with my guinea pigs. You do have to volunteer which isn’t an issue but during volunteering you follow someone around and don’t get to do anything, I signed up with VCA to do this. Basically you’re a body for 2 hours and they end up letting you go home early.

Save yourself 20k and go to Lowry community college. Had a lot of friends transfer there and they...

I’ve been going here for about a year now and this school is extremely overwhelming and overpriced for what your getting in return . I’m normally an honors student at other colleges but this place is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. You can go to any other accredited program and get the same education for a lower price as well as be AVMA accredited and take the board exam(VTNE) . Only a quarter of the students in your classes will actually pass the program. Go look at the graduation rate . It sucks ! These people just like to take your money because they rather see you fail so that you have to pay $250 per credit to retake a course so if your course is 5 credit hours that’s $1250 you have to pay out of pocket with no aid and it will be due by the time you start classes that following quarter. It’s a shame because there are SOME really good teachers here but the place is WAY TOO mis managed. I don’t think the money that you pay for your tuition is even distributed properly because majority of the equipment and models your working with, are broken and missing parts or out of date. My guess is, it goes straight to the administrations pockets . I’m literally so close to failing out of this program but I’ve already invested a lot of money and my credits won’t transfer so I’m trying to stick it out so I don’t have to start all over, I moved 2,000 miles away from home to go here. You also don’t choose your classes like you would think. They are VERY understaffed and when your “choosing your classes” , they give you a paper with only one class time to choose from for each class. I wish I would have read more reviews and payed more attention to the negatives that people say about this school , because 99.9% of them are true . They will make the program seem so exciting and great until you actually attend. Do yourself a BIG FAVOR and just look elsewhere for this type of education. Because all the students here get scammed and are upset. Morale is bad here. Literally right before classes all the student just complain about being here and about how they are extremely broke trying to attend...