Greenville Technical College — Local services in Greenville

I honestly hate to post this. But I'm hoping Greenville Tech sees this and truly thinks about the changes they've made over the last couple of years that have NOT worked and made things really difficult for students.

I went here for my nursing degree. When I was going there (graduated 2021) the college was one of the best and the nursing program from what I hear is still one of the best in the entire state, even compared to universities.

My son has been going there for a little over two years now. The way they have changed the financial department is absolutely horrible.

When I was there, I rarely had any problems with financial aide. Nursing school financial aide was a little tricky, but once things were explained, it was manageable.

Repeatedly, infact almost every semester, my son has had a problem with financial aide. When the government was helping people get through it during COVID and giving free classes, they screwed up my son's financial aide. He had graduated from a special high school, where he actually took classes AT GREENVILLE TECH while taking high school classes too.

He started taking classes the summer he graduated. I tracked the amount of times his high school transcript had been sent to GVL Tech. His high school had OFFICIALLY sent his transcript THREE TIMES.

There are 2 reasons he shouldn't have been charged AT ALL for that summer. One was that his high school was actually part of Greenville Tech and had an agreement that his first year at Greenville tech would be FREE. The second reason is that when he went in, it was during COVID and the government was making sure all of the classes were free. GVL tech had big banners on the school properties advertising it.

Somehow, it took months and months to figure out that Greenville Tech made a mistake and marked that he did NOT have his high school transcript in their system, as if they never received it. As mentioned above, they had been OFFICIALLY sent his transcript THREE TIMES.

This had a snowball effect on the financial situation for MONTHS which then affected his ability to start taking classes over and over again.

When he was supposed to start taking classes in Fall, they said he owed money. I figured there was a glitch, and I paid for it (luckily I was able to that time). They never made us aware that we were having to pay because they didn't have his transcript. This should have never happened. When I went to tech just a few semesters before my son had gone there, I never had problems with financial aid.

During the fall semester, he was preparing to sign up for fall classes but couldn't because financial aide said he owed money for the summer. I called them repeatedly and after multiple attempts found out, that they"didn't have his transcript". After repeated phone calls to the high school, I discovered that they had exact dates of his transcript being sent THREE TIMES!!!! I also asked why he was charged since either way, it should have been free, since grants were supposed to pay for it. By that time, they said they had already received the grants for the summer classes, and no more grants would be sent to back pay, basically their screw up. So Greenville tech said they would fix it. I went up there repeatedly, and into spring semester, becc a they basically let the ball drop and STILL NEVER FIXED IT. They should have paid for that on their own. But they used some money that was supposed to be his in a different way to fix their booboo. Money that still probably should have gone to him. To add on top of this, almost every single semester that my son has been going there, they have made mistakes on his financial aide. Thank goodness I was there to help my son get through there and understood that the college was really making a mistake somewhere. I feel bad for students who don't know.

I hope the college can self assess and find the differences between when I graduated in 2021 and when he started his college classes (after high...

I spent two years at this school and it seemed as if month by month things got worse. The instructors I had were friendly (kind of dumb though), but any other faculty member at Gville Tech was rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful. The people in financial aid do not know what they are talking about. It seems all the school wants is money. The books are crazy expensive. I didn't have Microsoft Office on my laptop so I had to buy that as well. I asked the lady if I should get 2010 or 2013 and she said 2010 was obsolete and she told me to buy 2013. Well as I started taking my Microsoft Office classes, they were all in 2010, so for the majority of each Microsoft Office class I had to go to the computer lab there because there were certain things I had to do in 2010 that I couldn't do with 2013. They just now switched over to 2013, the semester I finished. My advisor who was in charge of creating my schedules each semester messed that up so when it got down to the last two classes I needed to take, one of them was not offered that semester. So in order to finish on time, I had to take that class online through York tech, which then made me not eligible for student loans so I had to pay $1,300 out of pocket. I had to take a loan out through my bank. Then final exam time comes around and I assume that I will be able to take my exam for my York tech class at Gville Tech since I am a student there and it was their fault I was taking the online class through York tech in the first place, but I was wrong. I tried to explain my situation to the lady over the phone at the testing center and she was beyond rude. Kept cutting me off as I was speaking to her. Told me that she didn't have the time to talk to me and she wouldn't make any exceptions because I go to York tech. So I had to drive 2 hours to Rock Hill to take my final exam then drive 2 hours back. I feel as if I should be paid back for the gas I had to use but I know that is wishful thinking. This school does not care about you. You are just a number to them. So glad to be...

I have attended three other community colleges around the Southeast (I move around a lot) and this "college" is by far the worst experience. They're all a bit of a pain but you go through the motions to get your education, right? The admissions staff's performance is dismal. I submitted transcripts to transfer credits three weeks prior to my first semester and by the end of the semester I still had to make multiple visits to them because they weren't evaluated yet. Still i got the runaround and had to follow up WITH EVERYTHING. I couldn't register for courses I needed for the following semester. The "right" person happened to be helping me register for the first semester and just took the transcripts at face value. Despite pulling weight on my end registering for the second semester was an infuriating process that required my advisor to go to the department head and say, "look, just let him register". They're adamant that you follow their procedures even when they don't and finally have to make allotments for their shortcomings.

You are just a number to this institution. And a necessary evil.

The price of textbooks shows it. You will have several unbound textbooks that you'll pay astronomical prices for while they claim they saved you money by culling the fat of the "full" version. B.S.

Do not expect instructors to answer questions via email in a timely manner, if at all. If your online course is scheduled to take an exam on a certain day of the week don't expect any flexibility. It's an online class and is therefore inflexible. Right?

This is partly because they overburden the instructors making them take on a greater course load, without increasing pay, mind you, so they can enroll more student cash cows while not incurring more admin costs. More than one instructor has said this in class and it's not just an assumption. They're all about the money here, guys.

And I'm not just "butt hurt", whatever that means, I'm...