Up to date info on MT Schools

I am interested in the MT career. However, lots of these discussions have old and outdated information in them, so I wanted to give a heads-up to anyone else looking into this field.

In my opinion (and a lot of my post is opinion) and in the research I have done so far, the only three schools to even consider attending to become an MT are M-TEC, Andrews School, and Career Step. These schools already have established relationships with potential employers, and many of those potental employers will waive the 2 years of required experience to let their graduates test for jobs. While no school can guarantee you a job, all three of these will assist with your job search.

1. Career Step offers Medical Transcription and Medical Transcription Editing. They are two different prices. MT only is something like $1875 while adding the editing course brings the total to around $2375. They offer payment plans with a minimum down payment of $300. The 12-month payment plan does charge interest, though. From what I understand, editing is something you want to learn because MTs jobs are becoming more and more about editing voice recognition files than only straight transcribing. If I were a potential CS student, I'd definitely take the MTE course. All CS courses are completely self-paced. You have no dedicated instructor, so you must be self-discplined. If you're not or can't teach yourself to be, you don't belong working at home in the first place. They say if you dedicate 40 hours a week to the course, you can be done in 4-6 months. It will most likely take you longer. Who has 40 extra hours a week? Not I.

To be continued in the next post..

One thing that may or may not be relevant about Career Step is that students and grads get a $50 referral fee when they get new students to sign up. Therefore, I urge you to take reviews from students who beg you to use them as a referral with a grain of salt.

A plus of Career Step is that many employers use their system's setup to test potential employees. This means that graduates are at an advantage because they already know the testing platform.

2. Andrews School offers the MT program for $3800. Their program generally takes 12 months to complete, but can be completed a little sooner depending on how often the student studies. It is a fantastic school with a stellar reputation. The only drawback for me personally is that their website did not look up to date, which made me wonder how current their learning material is. Hopefully the website is no reflection of the content. Lisa, the owner, said that the first part of their course is done in instructional message boards and the second part through email with an instructor. I don't know.. sounds a little 1998 to me. Nevertheless, Andrews does give you a dedicated instructor to check in on you and council you. It is also more-or-less self paced. Part of the program does focus on voice recognition. Andrews offers payment plans for 24 months at NO interest. It seems like a great school and the same woman has been running it for years.

3. M-TEC offers the MT course for $3,975. They, too, offer payment plans but they accrue interest. This school offers regular MT training along with voice recognition/editing training AND training with foreign accents and doctors that are ESL. That is a HUGE plus for me because I am from the South and don't always understand foriegn doctors well. I need to be trained to understand them. They also give you a dedicated instructor throughout the course. Like Andrews, they expect you to finish in about 12 months (give or take). Another huge pro of M-TEC is that their final exam is actually the same exam as the one they give to receive your Registered Medical Transcriptionist credential. That means upon graduation, you will be ready to take the RMT test. According to one of their reps, 85% of their students pass it the first go around. Being an RMT shows how serious you are about your career to employers, so I don't see how you could go wrong there. Also, all of their instructors are CMTs (Certified Medical Transcriptionists) which means they most likely have 2+ years of MT experience and they probably know their stuff pretty well.

All schools offer extensions if needed. Everybody has stuff that comes up sometimes, and they all seem flexible and willing to work with you as long as you keep in touch with them.

Now solely for my opinion..I spoke with Career Step and M-TEC on the phone and through email, and I only spoke with Andrews through email and not phone. My impressions are: Career Step is the McDonald's of MT training while M-TEC and Andrews are like Starbucks. That being said, I think when choosing a school, it all comes down to what is most important to you. If it's price, go with Career Step. If it's reputation, go with Andrews or M-TEC. If it's technology, go with Career Step or M-TEC. If all of these things matter to you (like they do to me), weigh your options carefully. If you're a praying person, pray about it.

I just wanted to post some current information up here so people just starting their research can get it in one place first.

I'll let you guys know if/when I do start, and where I end up going. :)

Dangit.. I meant to say Linda, not Lisa Andrews. :-P

And one more thing.. those of you that are North Carolina residents may want to check out FTCC. They offer the same exact Career Step program for a LOT less.

And if you can only attend one of these schools with financial aid, check out Everett Community College. They offer the Career Step program for $4,000+. But if you get a full Pell Grant, it'll cover the entire cost.

Ashley, you really did your research! Great job!

I just wanted to respond quickly to let you know that Career Step's programs, both the Medical Transcription and the Medical Transcription Editor courses, also include extensive training on accounts that are dictated by healthcare professionals with heavy accents. In fact, 30% of the practice reports in both the MT and MTE programs are from ESL dictators. Accents range from Hispanic, Indian, Australian, Asian, German, European, Middle Eastern, southern, and several "unknowns."

Good luck deciding on the best program for you!

Awesome..that's definitely a plus for Career Step! Thanks for letting us know.

I also want to point out that Career Step graduates have access to a help hotline forr a full year after graduation. Not sure what kind of help they provide, but I'm assuming it's something along the lines of, "I'm afraid to ask my employer--what do you think?"

Also, while Andrews has their message boards closed to the public, potential students can check out part of M-TEC and Career Step's message boards here. It help to get a feel ofnthe course when you read what current students have to say:

careerstep.groupee.net/eve/forums -- CS
forum.mtecinc.com/ -- M-TEC

Ashley -

Thank you for being so thorough in your update! One thing that really sets MTEC apart is the fact that all of their instructors are certified medical transcriptionists with an average of 20+ years in the field. MTEC also has a dedicated technology instructor on staff. The school holds holds weekly webinars that cover technology, grammar/punctuation, professional development, research techniques, medical specialties, etc.

Best of luck to you!

Ashley - did you decide on a school for the MT education? Your research and opinion was extremely helpful. I'm trying to decide on a school and keep going back and forth with the same three schools you have listed above. :)

Thanks,
Mellisa

No.. I never did decide as I had some personal circumstances come up in my life. But if money were no object, I'd most likely have chosen M-Tec or Andrews. Both have stellar reputations! Good luck!