Savannah Technical College — Local services in Savannah

I have had nothing but trouble since starting at Savannah Tech in October. I am regretting my decision to stay with Savannah Tech.Starting in October I was told I had a hold on my account 600 and some odd dollars. Which is fine I paid it. My financial aid documents were lost, I got taken out of my classes because the aid didn’t go through and still I had a balance another $400. At the end of the miniterm another $85 hold on my account, don’t even know why but I paid it I was out of my classes for a week waiting to be added back. Fast forward to this semester, I signed up for my 5 classes and Hope should have paid a percentage. I received a letter that hope wouldn’t be paying because of my GPA. I had a 3.5 I had no clue why this was happening. After getting the round about with 4 different people I figured out I have a WF from 2012. A class that I would have to retake because the credit expired but yet I am being penalized for it now even though I ended with a A and B. I was never told about appealing it until the very last minute when everyone was out of the office for Christmas break. So I get back from Christmas break and received an email I could change my Major and receive PELL. So I did that. Went ahead with my classes spoke to financial aid. Canceled my Nelnet payment because I was told I just have to resubmit my Aid package. So I went again and purchased my books. About $500 later I have my books and supplies I need for my classes. I go to my classes and my online classes a week and a half and during my first class of the 2nd week I am told I need to see student affairs. I also can’t acces my online classes. But this has already happened before so I know the drill. I went ahead and spoke with financial aid, where I am told by a different lady that I was taken out because of non payment. I tell her no I am waiting on PELL to go through but then she says I won’t be receiving pell because of the WF that brought me down to a 2.3 and a 66% completion and I need a 67%. So now something from 2012 is effecting not only my HOPE that I worked hard to keep but still lost and now my PELL. I have lost all aid and canceled my payment plan because I didn’t know that’s what was happening because 5 different people tell you 5 different things. I contact the VP of academic affairs. At this point my only option is to pay out of pocket $1400 for school which I was prepared to do. So Al Cunningham tells me I need to contact the registrar and he will approve me to be added back to my classes (this is after I sent 5 emails to him and I’m already 2 days behind in classes )as long as I know I won’t receive and aid. I contact the registrar Mrs. Regina, (3 voicemails multiple emails and 2 days later) she emails me at 6:30 at night to tell me ok I added you back to your anatomy class and lab. In my multiple emails I spacfically explained to her exactly what classes I needed to be added to because I knew I had class Thursday and need to make sure I was added back. I was going to come to the school Thursday but when I called 3 people told me they didn’t see her and it would be pointless to come up to the school. So I kept calling and emailing her and Dr. Cunningham and the assistant registrar and my adviser. So here we are Monday which is a holiday and the reason I wanted to be sure to be added back to my classes last week so I would have the weekend to catch up. Instead I am now a whole week behind in all of my classes and still not added back. I am beyond furious. No one at Savannah Tech is helpful. I completely understand I am not the only student there and trust me how the school is improperly ran I can imagine the amount of problems everyone has to deal with. Every single person I talk to has had all of the same issues and nothing is ever done.The registrar saw my email where I was in 5 classes and put me back in 2. She never returned a single one of my phone calls and only emailed me back to tell me she added me back to my class and lab. The entire staff if a joke, the school is a joke. Not sure how it’s possible to be so...

This school is absolutely awful, and I honestly wish I could give it zero stars.

First, I applied for the Summer 2018 semester, paid the fee, and was given a student ID number via email. Fast forward to when I went in to pick classes (the same time my friends who had applied for that semester were). I was told by student affairs that I did not have an application on file, even after I gave them the ID number I was given, and was very rudely told I "must have left something off the application."

I knew I didn't do so, but decided to give the woman the benefit of the doubt, and asked where I could fill out another application. She scoffed, gave me one, and then told me to go to the bookstore to pay the $25 fee for it, even though I had a student ID number that pulled up my name.

Finally when I got it filled out, paid, and went back to student affairs, I was told it was too late to apply for the Spring semester and that I would have to apply for fall. Due to some personal stuff, I didn't end up applying for fall, and instead did the Spring 2019 semester.

However, with all the issues with SA, I should have taken the hint and found another school.

When I went to pick classes for this semester, I was told I would be taking one math course, one English course, a college skills course, and an intro course for my major. Before I left, I inquired about payment, as I had a college fund set up by my aunt and uncle, and was informed by my advisor I would recieve an invoice in the mail that I would most likely get Saturday, or Monday by the latest.

I went home not thinking much of it, but when Tuesday rolled around and I had yet to recieve anything, I called the school and was tranferred first to financial aid (from SA), then to the book store. No one seemed to know what I meant when I said I had a college fund and was told I would recieve a mailed invoice for payment.

Fast forward to the night before classes start, after I finally figured out I had to get the college fund account to mail a check to the cashier/bookstore for my tuition and was sure tuition had been paid: I recieve an email from my advisor informing me that she was somehow unaware I needed another math course (even though I handed her my accuplacer scores) and that I would now be taking English, college skills, and two math courses. No classes for my major.

The morning of classes, regardless of the 3 day period most schools follow for late payments, all my courses were dropped because they said payment had not been recieved. Took me nearly half the day to get reinstated, but finally I did.

Fast forward to the near end of the semester, I should have dropped out before the end of it.

To name a few of the issues I've had since school started, here: Not one of my instuctors seems to know how to help me on topics I am notably struggling in (I thought the instuctors' jobs were to help the students?), I was informed by career services that very few classes at the school will transfer to other schools (she showed me a list of maybe ten courses for the school, only one of which I'm presently taking), and on top of this - after nearly a month - I signed into Banner to get part of my student info, and saw that the school still said I had a balance due for them.

I went to clear it up and, after being directed to about half the staff, finally did. First, the woman told me she did not see anything like that ever, then she looked through a stack of papers she was convinced it could not be in, only to find it at the bottom of the stack, meaning it had been there the longest.

This school has so many issues, I honestly wish I had not listened to my family (who convinced me to finish the semester) and instead dropped out earlier...

Alright, it's very clear that some people want to blame the students for the fault of the college so let me be clear in this review.

Yes, I have seen students come here just because it's cheap and yes, I have seen students only care about the check. I, however, am not one of those students. That doesn't mean this institution isn't some kind of a joke.

I have had amazing teachers that put effort into their job and I've also had a teacher that was determined to see her students fail. But what upsets me the most about how this school is run (at least the Savannah campus) is the financial aid department and how no one can give you a straight answer. You ask them the same question three times and they will give you three different answers and then treat you like you're the one that doesn't understand. They also tend to act like it's an inconvenience to them that you have reasonable questions. If I ever have to deal with the financial aid department, I prefer going to the Effingham campus because at least they treat you like a person.

Something else I've noticed at the Savannah campus is that they like to refer you to someone else rather than actually answer your question until you've bounced back and forth between Student Affairs and Financial Aid half a dozen times. Also, they'll have you stand there and wait for thirty to forty-five minutes to ask a very simple question because they want to stand around and socialize. And no, I don't mean they're actually talking about school issues. I have actually stood around waiting for a lengthy amount of time because two people wanted to stand around and gossip instead of help the long line of students.

This school is a joke. It really is. I was warned about some of the issues before I joined but I was determined to get my GPA high enough so that I could transfer to a better school. Now I'm terrified of how difficult the transfer is going to be after just how difficult it is to get anything done with financial aid. And frankly, you can blame the amount of students trying to change classes/drop classes/quit all you want but the school has been through this process so many times by now that they should have a system that can accommodate these changes better than they do.

Oh, by the way, this school can never make up their mind on an attendance policy and they'll tell you that your textbooks are required only for you to buy the textbooks and your instructor never uses it or tells you it's not worth it. But knowing your terrible luck by ending up at that school, you won't buy the textbook and end up needing it the first night you attend class. So yeah, this school is messy and disorganized. So if you need it for a stepping stone to better...