Empire Beauty School — Local services in Town of Greece

Former Student Here!

I’ll start off with, it’s unfortunate this is one of the only programs in the Rochester area that holds Part Time classes. Otherwise I would have went with another school a while back!

As there are a couple of decent staff members, the school is extremely unorganized, staff (Ms Wilson especially, let’s be real) is rude, One educator, clearly on some type of drugs (we know the school can’t talk about it, but us adults have voiced our concerns more than countless times about this matter) and nothing was done about it. Nobody helped her. Nobody offered anything for her. Staff just shook it off like it’s normal and it’s sad to watch. I hope she gets the help she deserves as I do not wish she hurts a client on the floor while high, herself, students or staff. If the school actually cared about the well being of their staff, they would have gotten her help long ago or taken other measures. Anytime it was brought up, they just said “we can’t talk about another staffs business.” Correct, but you can certainly get her the help she needs or guide her in the right direction.

As I was in the program, I was a part time student, work full time during the day and am a mama. My average was above 90-100% as well as perfect attendance & making up hours when needed. In the beginning of the program, students were able to make up hours any day of the week, which was great & extremely helpful for those who worked and had families. That changed soon after to signing up to make up work, and to only come in on Wednesday & Saturdays. I worked both days, but I still made up hours when needed- even received a certificate for perfect attendance and an above 95% average.

Unfortunately, in December (being there since august) I was removed from the program. I had missed a couple days one week, because they had the educator who is high on the floor to teach. And who wants to be taught by someone who’s nodding off and about to pass out on the floor having to call an ambulance? Nobody. The next week went by, unfortunately my family and I had caught covid. Even talking to the educators after my 5 days of quarantine (per state with covid regulations at the time) they said I was clearly sick, but I was still missing too many days (including holidays) So I wouldn’t be able to return until 6 months later in June because I had passed all the modules in between. Still to this day, I am confused as to why they would count one of my missed days being “Christmas” but nobody else was there & / or had to work there that day. So, if you don’t want to waste your time and be 16k in debt, then I highly suggest looking at other schools!

To most of the good reviews from students, they literally sat us all down on our first day and had us give them a 5 star review so that way they don’t look like a mess of a school. They would ask us during those 15 minutes, “did you fill it out???-“ “so I can get on google right now and I’ll see it?!”, basically pressuring you into making it seem like a great school when I promise you it is far from it.

The director, Lori, at the time, lied the entire time, telling me I was able to return in February. I return in February, she comes out and tells me I actually couldn’t return until June. Still causing me to pay for the kit, even though she said I didn’t have to. March & April I was threatened by Empire to pay $5k for the kit even though I was suppose to return in June like she said. She’s a mess, very unorganized & shouldn’t be working there as she is setting students up for failure.

The only educator there who actually gave most of the girls hope was Mr. Toni, who unfortunately (also fortunately) was a substitute teacher. (Keep rockin, Mr. Toni!)

I seriously hope soon that the head ppl in charge of Empire, find out that their school is not being ran in a professional manner because a lot of things really need to be gone over with a fine tooth comb, and changed for the better? My daughter just recently left there because she lost hope that she would achieve her license, and lost desire for even wanting to attend due to how things aren't being done as promised?

She wanted to get her license for nails mostly but with how she was made to think that if she signed up for hair, skincare, and cosmetology(which the most she learned about makeup was one day of coloring on a piece of paper, then nothing more because there's supposedly either no teachers/or not enough teachers for that subject and the lady who signs ppl up for the programs is the one who taught one day of makeup)then she'd also get to learn about nails more in depth as well? The program isn't ran like a program because she was taught in the beginning by Mrs. Greene(who by the way, is not only a wonderful caring teacher but is also a veteran that served our country)and she loved it because Mrs. G, gives structure to her students with how she teaches them? I get the feeling that Mrs. G would love to teach her students more but she can only do what she's told?

After learning a few things about hair, and even less about cosmetology and nails, she was put out on the salon floor but of course she wasn't feeling ready because she hadn't learned as much she was told would happen? Losing Mrs. Greene's structured ways of teaching she felt lost. Miss. Knapp(my daughter's other beloved teacher is also a wonderful caring instructor)was also trying to teach my daughter as much as possible out on the salon floor. There's one teacher who I feel is very unprofessional and her name is Ms. Wallace. She behaves very immature and at a very sneaky "again" unprofessional level. When she found out how well my daughter does nails(just like how she behaved with previous students who did very good nails)she really acted as if my kid was there to fix her nails whenever SHE messed them up braiding hair? She had brought her daughter with her to the school which is of course her job(but when the students asked if they could bring their kids, they were told "no")and while she would be teaching or getting her hair done in the classroom, her kid would be out on the salon floor bothering the students. When my daughter didn't get a chance to do the little girl's nails, from that time on Ms. Wallace would roll her eyes at not only my daughter but other students who I guess didn't make her happy? She speaks terribly about her fellow employees and allows her students to roam out onto the salon floor when other classes are using it? My daughter and her classmates brought all of those things up to the gentleman in charge but it seems as though, he lets Wallace slide because he'd just rather not deal with the issue? There's not enough teachers in order for those students to be taught properly, and there's no teachers for the night classes(which I've heard is a big problem amongst all the beauty schools currently)but Empire itself, really needs to be restructured.

I am heartbroken that my daughter really thought she was on her way to learning more and obtaining her license. I know she would love to return to Empire but between not fully being taught everything she was told about, and the unprofessional tension that Ms. Wallace brings with her, I'm sad to say that my kid will not be the only one who feels let down by this school? I don't wish anything but the best for...

As a former student of Empire Beauty school I wish Google gave me the option to give 0 stars because one star is far too generous. The only reason this school has so many good reviews is because they make us all write good reviews during our orientation to bury all the honest reviews, Ive never met an empire student, former or current, with a good experience at this school.

I started out in the night program and they failed to inform us students enrolling in the night program that they had no educators. During my first several weeks at this school, my class was being either on a rotation of substitute educators or canceled due to understaffing because no one wants to cover night class on top of their full time work schedule on the $18 dollar per hour pay empire offers their educators, likely the reason the didn’t have a night educator in the first place. I’m the only student from my starting class that graduated from Empire as my classmates had all dropped due to lack of education. Let me be clear, the sole reason I made it to graduation was because I would lose all my grants and loans and I cant afford the full $15k tuition, so I figure I either stay and learn nothing, keeping my grants and loans or drop and still learn nothing at the cost of all my savings.

Eventually I made the decision to move to the day program as they had educators and the night program did not, what the school failed to mention is that by moving programs I’m effectively dropped and re-enrolled into the school making me ineligible for the $1,000 dollar check I was promised upon enrolling so long as I maintained above 90% in both attendance and academic average (graduated with 96% thank you very much.) On top of wasting thousands on a school that taught me less than instagram reels, I’ve now lost my opportunity for the money promised to me due to staffing issues at the school.

Honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could probably write a book about how incompetent the school is, how most, if not all, reports of abuse are ignored by corporate, how unsafe the practices are, how they don’t adhere to health standards (any other students remember poop being smeared on the bathroom walls? or the bedbug infestation?) but frankly I don’t have the time to write it all and I doubt anyone would read all that anyway. All I can say is this school is a scam, go to Continental or Shear Ego. Empire is not worth your time or money. I graduated in spite of Empire, not...