ARROJO Academy — Local services in New York

My review is specifically for the Esthetics program from August 14th, 2023 through December 19th, 2023.

As always, I encourage everyone reading this to do your own research when finding out what school is best for you. Some people loved their time here and it’s important to take their criticism into account along with bad reviews as well, but it’s always best to find things out for yourself. My time here was chaotic to say the least. It was filled with a lot of petty drama and was very unorganized. There was miscommunication between ALL of the staff and the two instructors teaching us had their own drama which lead for one instructor to leave before the program was over and the other has just recently left as well. The rules would constantly change depending on who was working that day or more importantly, what kind of mood they were in. It was very unprofessional and every day you never knew what you were walking into.

With all of that aside, you will have to put in the work to get out of there. Don’t let any one in that building discourage you from achieving whatever goal it is. Esthetics, Cosmetology, or barbering, be patient and always show up.

The reason why I am giving this school 2 stars and not 1 is because I’ve learned so much how NOT to be in a professional setting. There are “leaders” there who do not lead by example or have any integrity in my opinion. I’ve learned to not let anyone get in my way for what I’ve worked hard for. I graduated with both highest GPA, highest attendance and am the first in my class to receive my Esthetics license. If you are someone who needs reassurance or validation during a program, this may not be the school for you but it does prepare you for the toughness of what it’s really like out there with bitter, catty and selfish people in the business. However, now that time has passed and both instructors no longer work there, maybe it is a different place? I really hope that is the case but only you can decide that. Also, please do full research and ask as many questions as possible as I was told during my tour of the school that I would learn lashes and other skills that this school does NOT teach or at least at the time was not teaching. Take your time and don’t rush into this. 10K or more depending on the program is not a small amount of money to just rush into. Sometimes, bad examples are the ones you learn from the most.

I would like to acknowledge :

Aileen, for keeping track of hours and constantly having a lot on her plate but somehow managing everything with all the students.

Joey, for also having so much on his plate but somehow trying to balance between the esthetics and cosmo students all while pursuing his passion and being in nursing school. There’s no way that’s easy.

Grace, for the shaves, her kindness and her humor.

Shar, for listening to not just my complaints but the complaints of the other students in the class. It was not an easy 4 months at all for all of us.

Kerri, for taking over our class even though you’re in the field of cosmetology towards the end of...

How do you give a place 0 stars !! I can finally leave my review of this ridiculous organization after months of me and my classmates fighting for our rights. I would seriously consider other options before coming here. I enrolled into the esthetician program in January and literally not even a full week and a half later me and my entire class within the esthetician program withdrew and LEFT may I add in we were specifically Class E14 for those wondering. We were all told different stories and guaranteed different things (big red flag) upon touring and enrolling all to find out that certain things like makeup and false eyelashes were not taught. Very misleading when you tell all your future students that these are things they are getting taught and paying out of pocket for. One of my classmates was very purposely and intentionally misgendered which is honestly just very ridiculous disrespectful and not professional. One staff member even called the entire class broke because we had an issue with not knowing of extra expenses we would have to pay that are typically paid for when enrolled in other esthetics schools.. Such a nasty attitude she had and even her colleagues said the same about her. Now moving on we found the facility to be extremely unhygienic. The classroom was lacking in plumbing, so students had to manually empty out dirty sink water into the same laundry room where we were meant to disinfect sheets and towels, the equipment was broken, resulting in injury to a student. We did make an attempt to resolve our concerns internally with the school administration, but the administration was resistant, and as a result, we withdrew from the program as the quality of education and safety concerns did not justify attending the Academy. Staff separated different classes in order to keep the previous class from informing the newer class about the condition of the school. We were also spoken to in a rude and condescending manner. Forgot to mention a couple of previous students who were close to graduating from there ended up withdrawing to because they all agreed how terrible this facility was and I think that speaks volumes. My esthetician teacher (such a lovely woman and KNOWS her stuff) was treated POORLY and talked down upon you know it’s bad when you have to witness your teacher cry because of being targeted over things that is not in her hands or her responsibility. Very sad.. very unprofessional such a waste of money. Such a waste of even the consideration. 0/10. Very much dislike that our picture is still on your instagram as if we all would like to continue to represent that school. I’ll attach photos that we took to support our concerns when this all happened. Do better for your students their future...

Only leaving this review so other students can prepare before spending their money and I’ve been sitting on this for about a year. I graduated from here under their weekend program and to be honest it wasn’t the experience they advertised or promised. A lot of what I got out of it was stuff I took upon myself to learn and used the hands on experience with clients to practice things I learned online. The weekend classes are not prioritized or even really cared about. Our instructors were constantly changing and seemed to be fillers that were not educated in the “arrojo techniques” we were promised to learn. Jenn was fantastic and taught what she could but was stretched too thin because of a lack of support. She was teaching multiple levels of students, dealing with clients, and working the front desk all at the same time when other teachers came and went. They try to say they set themselves apart from other schools because they prepare you to work behind the chair. That really wasn’t the case. Makeup hour students were always pulled from our class because it was known our class was not going to be taught anything. We were left on the floor for 30min- 1hour with no direction man times. Students attended makeup hours during the week and for the first time received an instructors undivided attention and learned so much more. Day time instructors were able to tell us what we were during right or wrong because they took the time to watch us. We had to learn how to do graduated bob and pixie cut and other things from YouTube, which is disappointing when we picked Arrojo based off of his cutting techniques and we weren’t being thoroughly taught. Instructors either seem like they don’t want to be there or are more concerned with clients than our education. Despite the new law, about teaching all hair types, we had a practical on a curly diffuse without ever learning how to do it. We have not learned anything about styling all textures of hair. When we learned about different types of braiding, we each taught each other the type of braids we individually knew because the instructor didn’t know how to braid. Also, I regret not saying anything to the director at the time but my class brought our concerns to two different instructors, one told us to speak up and the other was pissed that we even suggested doing that. I’m writing this to not discourage students from attending Arrojo but to consider being a weekday daytime student and not part time student. If you have to go part time I would choose a...