Trident Technical College — Local services in North Charleston

Trident is an absolutely awful school, that I do not recommend for anyone. It is beyond difficult to know what you need to be doing and what classes you should be taking when your academic advisor, or in my case, 5 advisors in 2 years, advises you wrong and wastes a lot of your time. You have to ask other students and find out for yourself which classes to take next, not even sure why they assign advisors. I constantly have to fight with them about my grades and the fact that their records do not synchronize with the business office blows my mind! The majority of the professors are absolutely horrible! I found very very few good ones that actually wanted to teach you the material in a way you would actually retain it, and I did. Otherwise, I had professors that referred you to youtube videos or the book, not caring if you learn the material or not, they just want paid. Students would not learn anything from the course, a core course, yet have an undeserved phenomenal grade. On the other end of the spectrum, you have professors that should absolutely NOT be teaching and I am not sure where Trident found them or how they passed a background check, I've found many professors had a substance abuse past and lost their medical license. Some just do not care if you learn the material and will not nor care to help you when you are struggling. Others, are some of the most disrespectful people I have come across. The way they treated students I am sure is illegal and would not stand in lower level schooling, which did not make the classroom conducive to learning. Overall, I have had an awful experience at this school. Just about EVERY single department is atrocious. Also, the seven week course classes for science classes is beyond ridiculous! You cannot possibly retain the information you need to over a long period of time, so you do not end up learning anything, and the amount of studying required for science because of the seven week schedule is beyond ludicrous to expect students to have that much time to devote. It is a community college, meaning most of the students there are full time parents with full time jobs while trying to take a full course load, and it seems realistic to expect them to spend six hours a day studying for one class alone; that is preposterous.

Disclaimer: I have a 3.0. I am not some disgruntled student that failed out of the school due to a lack of commitment and motivation. I have had to fight my way through this school every step of the way since day one and keep record of EVERYTHING to prove myself. Anyone who says this is a "free" school is full of crap, it is not free by any means, and I wish High School teachers would stop teaching...

The 13% graduation rate tells it all. Overall Trident Technical College is very poorly administered. There appears to be a plethora of ethnic and gender inefficiencies in the name of diversity which causes students considerable difficulty in getting registered for classes; getting financial aid; getting tutoring; getting proper assessment; and coordinating classes. This results in many unnecessary trips to the college, since getting help on the telephone or online is virtually impossible. Also, students are often given erroneous information which can delay both their matriculation and graduation.

The drop out rate is frenetic and it almost appears some teachers are intent on failing students to lighten their workload. By example. certain activities in one Trident Technical College class involved: Invasion of student privacy; Exposure to health and sanitation problems by forcing students to touch other students without washing their hands or using hand sterilizer; De facto sexual abuse by forcing students to touch other students in the dark; Exposing students to pornographic material and sexual innuendo; And promoting sexist remarks by students. It is little wonder students in this class rarely make above a C grade if they even bother to finish the course. They are far too distracted. And It is very difficult to see how these activities relate to the curriculum, and some students find them disgusting, sexist, and demeaning. In another class the teacher constantly instructed students to "Goggle it" in response to student questions and wound up with only one student in the class.

It also appears many student sign up for classes just to get grants and student loans which the may never pay back. These students are often disruptive and make study harder for serious ones.

Trident Technical College can and should do better. Some will say the student participate voluntarily, but this is not always the case. Any psychologist understand the desire to please an authority figure and fear of receiving a failing grade is in play. Plus the obvious fact that administrators do not put their email address on the school web site and there is apparently no state agency a student can contact that will investigate such matters without revealing the students identity. Certainly there are some good teachers and courses at Trident. But it would be interesting if students were encouraged to rate their teachers, classes, and the College in toto, with the information made available to students (and their parents) before they...

As a TTC alumni, it pains me to post this negative review but the experience that my son has had as a TTC student is subpar when compared to the 5 star experience that I had 20 years ago. Despite the advances in technology over the last two decades, TTC’s online learning platform has failed to keep pace, resulting in a navigational experience that is polar opposite of any of the intuitive features found at alternate universities. Additionally, the institution itself revealed just how much it lacks foreword thinking, when today, we receive notification that my son will now have to have an additional advisory blessing on his future course registrations, due to his poor GPA. I am not pointing fingers or suggesting that his GPA is anything less than a mirror image of the efforts he has taken to ensure his academic success - I am simply disgusted that this letter arrives after he finally had his first successful semester -completing all courses with passing grades. Not one time in the past 2.5 years, where he has demonstrated his inability to be successful, repeatedly, — not one person has made any effort to intercede and assess if there were any actions that could be taken by the university to aid him with his academic challenges. Not one instructor took 5 minutes to pick up the phone to offer him the advisement of tutoring that may have been available ~ after all, certainly these advisors/instructors could see that he had graduated high school early and that in high school, he had been a successful student simply by viewing his age or his transcript.

Possibly that small gesture could have closed the gap and propelled him to be successful before repeated failure. Instead, today - when he should be able to ruminate in having had his first successful academic semester, he receives notice that an additional potential barrier has now been put into place, preventing future course registration because the same person that should have been seeking ways to establish check points to ensure his success, but who never made an effort to connect with him, now has the authority to veto continued progression.

Despite this additional hoop that he will have to jump through, he is determined that he will take the self-taught strategies and tactics that he began to employ this semester and he will continue to build upon this first successful academic semester and he will right this ship - but it will not be to the credit of this institution or to the faculty whom are appointed to advise the students at Trident...