Lincoln Technical Institute — Local services in South Plainfield

I see there a lot of mixed reviews regarding the Lincoln Tech campuses. I am solely explaining mine n my son's personal experiences recently btween 2 different campuses here in NJ. The 1st campus I enrolled my son in was for the IT program. He was in class for 3 days n adamently decided this course was not for him. He was upset, stressed n anxious to the point where I felt I made a real bad choice for him. I figured computers was the way of the world today so this was the best choice. When we initially enrolled, there wasn't an actual advisor or real guidance in making a match w a student to an educational goal. It was more of ok, you chose this course, here's the curriculum, here's financial aid n here's the remainder of your bill. That was that, then he started class. My son felt a disconnect on day 1 but he kept trying. When I started to see his self esteem decline every day he was in this class, we realized we needed to pull out of the class. That same day, I looked Into the south plainfield campus and their programs. We drove there right after canceling enrollment at the 1st campus. The minute we walked into S.Plainfield, I felt this was the right choice. My son was still quiet n unsure but I saw his interest peaked. He was already into the 4th day of class; we wanted to start class n not wait till March enrollment. The staff welcomed my son to try the class that same night, meet the students, n see from there if this was what he wanted to do. Longer story shorter, he is enrolled in the diesel program. In 4 hrs, he was a new guy w excitement n a drive to succeed. He was back to being himself, not anxious or overwhelmed anymore. I have to sincerely Thank Althea Davis, the admissions representative and Meme (hope I am spelling his name correctly), the head instructor in the Diesel and Truck service program, for their reassurance and commitment in making my son feel confident n acknowledged that this journey will be the best choice for him. Meme also came in on a Friday morning to get my son caught up with the rest of the class n that to me, stands out above any bad review you can read online. There are always going to be bad reviews and you can't satisfy everyone, and some people's expectations are not so realistic or they are blurred. You can go to a not so great class or school and still make gains. It depends on you and maybe 1 or 2 other people along your path that can be a game changer. To ameliorate is to step in and make a bad...

I am currently a student at Lincoln Technical Institute South Plainfield, about to graduate next month. I am editing my previous good review. Their reviews are misleading. Not even one month into school, they coax you to write a good review in exchange for raffle tickets. You can't possibly have any true opinion on the school before you even truly experience it. I will say, my instructor Mr. T was great. However their financial aid department is a joke. Less than a month from graduating, I get called into the financial aid office and completely blindsided by them saying they never charged me for my laptop and that I owe them over $500. Which is ridiculous because I signed an agreement saying I would pay them X amount and now they are saying I owe them more. I tried to give them back the laptop and they refused. Saying if I don't pay them what I "owe" that they will send it to collections. The financial aid department tried to put blame on me, fabricating a story saying I was "on the fence" about the laptop which is why I was never charged. I had said from my first meeting with admissions that I needed one, so this is completely false. Financial aid was completely unapologetic in their incompetent mistake and tried to turn their mistake around on me. Very unprofessional. I don't see how they can charge me MORE than what I had agreed (and signed by both me and financial aid) that I would owe. The head of the school said I can get a lawyer, knowing well that a lawyer would cost more than the laptop. This entire situation has caused me a lot of stress. It is a financial burden that I did not expect. I thought I had one last payment to pay before I graduate, and now they are telling me I owe them more. I can't even focus on class, I am so distraught. My advice coming out of this unfortunate situation is to tell you to be on top of financial aid and know EXACTLY what you signed up to pay. And even then, you may still owe them more money. Better advice, get an apprenticeship. This school is expensive and teaches you the very basics, but you will learn mostly on the job working AND GET PAID TO LEARN THE SKILL. Don't even bother giving them your money. Just go find a place to work...

For the amount of money you have to spend on this school you should come out with a certificate and a job. Instead of having either of those you get a monumental amount of debt, a hate for the trade and breathing issues since they don’t service their fume extractor. The booths and the weld “trees” are broken or missing parts and they lack an efficient amount of machines to run aluminum tig welding. Not only does the school not have enough weld machines our cutting and beveling machines or constantly down. As of this post the bandsaw has been down for one month, our pipe beveler is not level and the clamp doesn’t work so we have to place a secondary clamp on the clamp on the actual machine. We have run out of metal to weld before and had to walk into the scrap metal bin to get pieces to weld on. Other weekend classes have run out of gas to weld with and also oxygen and acetylene to bevel pipe with. When I first got to the school it seemed to be the best thing in the world but after we actually started welding you could see the problems start to funnel in. They are so strict on your attendance yet when they run out of materials or tools they tell you to do a different welding process than the one you should be learning. The curriculum makes no sense and you don’t get enough time to actually get good at one welding process. The curriculum spends 10 weeks focused on stick welding on open root and fillets and only six weeks focused on tig open root and fillets which is a way slower and more difficult welding process. They cram in the pipe welding sections and you aren’t allowed the time to hone your craft. I do recommend the trade but this school is not the way to go. I wish I could go back and do it different. The only reason I stayed is because of my classmates and my instructor Mr. Thomas. There is no support from the admission office whatsoever. We had one job fair in 9 months and the two people who landed the job had to quit because the job was horrendous. Overall anyone looking to get into the trade should go to another school or better yet just be...