This school closed down in March of 2016. I am one of the few that graduated from it. My student loan debt is staggering and I dont make much money in the North Florida area. I love what I do, but could be making more money with less student loan debt if I had followed any of many different career options.My heart goes out to the teachers that hung on at the school because they cared about the students. Some of the teachers and staff are very nice people and deserved better than the owners of that school did to them.For those students that dropped out, dont feel bad. When I graduated, the school was excited because they had such a high number of graduates, a whopping eight graduates! That was in the fall of 11. The best I can tell from the rumor mill is that two-thirds of those graduates are not even working as court reporters now.The owners of that school screwed over a lot of people.

As a graduate of this school, I have many good things to say. I was very pleased with my experience there and the personal attention the staff gave me. I received excellent instruction, and am currently a reporter, as well as an instructor. When I went into the field, I found I had been completely equipped with the skills I needed on the job. As far as my experience as a student, the instructors and administrative staff went completely ABOVE AND BEYOND to be considerate and accommodating with my schedule and needs, both personal and scholastic. All of the instructors are graduates and court reporters.When I enrolled, I was told up front that the graduation rate was very low and that it was a program that required A LOT of out-of-class practice time. It is a self-paced program and requires discipline on the students part. The school has undergone some very positive changes in the last couple of years and has just acquired NCRAs endorsement once again, and received rave reviews. They now provide both in house and online classes, day and evening and work with a students schedule. I have friends who are graduates and court reporters, and are very successful and accomplished. This is an excellent career for those who are willing to put in the work.The tools are provided for every student to complete the program in a reasonable amount of time IF THEY ACCESS THEM and PUT IN THE WORK OUT OF CLASS AS WELL AS IN CLASS. The amount of time and debt a student incurs is completely up to them. This institution provides EVERYTHING needed to become an outstanding court reporter.As far as teacher turnover, this school has high standards and will not let any student be mistreated or not receive the very BEST care and will do what is necessary to make sure that is being provided. When any sort of mistake is made or misunderstanding, it is immediately addressed and remedied, with the students best interest in mind! I have witnessed this many times.If you are considering this school, I would pay them a visit and do my own research before letting disgruntled students reviews decide your future.

This school is wonderful. I couldnt be happier. The teachers and staff have all said such encouraging words to me and I am very excited to finish my education. What a fantastic career waiting for me :)

The Stenotype Institute of Jacksonville will be closed down within a year. They charge a huge tuition to every student, yet cannot even update the computers in their school, some of which are five years old. Do you ever wonder where all that money goes? It goes right into the pockets of the owners of the school. And who are the owners? Most students dont know and have never seen them. The owners know nothing about court reporting, hence the condition of the school. The dropout rate at the Stenotype Institute is very high, much higher than normal schools. The program is not designed to let you pass tests. Its designed to keep students there as long as possible to get the maximum amount of money out of each of them.If you talk to the administrators of the school, they will tell you that you can get through school fast. This is a lie. It takes most people at least four years to finish school. In many cases, its five to six years. They paint a wonderful picture of the school and court reporting. You should be aware that this is just what they tell you in order to get you to enroll.They are beginning to incorporate an online program in the classrooms. This is what happened with the Orlando campus, right before it closed down. Yes, the Orlando Stenotype campus is gone. All of their students either dropped out or went online.If you go into the Stenotype Institute, you will find nothing but confustion. Many students have questions. Whats going on with online? Is the school closing down? Why doesnt anyone tell us whats happening with the school?They do their best to keep everyone in the dark. They do not want word getting out that theyre running out of money. The enrollment is the lowest it has ever been in the schools history. They cannot even afford to keep the people they used to pay to clean the school.If you wonder why all of this is happening, its because word is getting out that the Stenotype Institute of Jacksonville is nothing but a scam to get your money.Get out now while you still have some money left. Get into a good career, one that doesnt lie to you, one that tells you exactly how many years it takes to graduate.

The teachers are awesome, they really care for their students. However, the organization itself is horrible. They are unorganized and the teacher turnover is ridiculous. They dont keep their promises. They offer only one class which is machine shorthand for a while year to me. While their catalog clearly states additional academics are offered during the first year. They just dont have enough teachers to provide the classes they state they offer. I truly enjoyed my time with all my teachers, they are great,but you just dont get your money worth by the school itself.. Its funny how the employees are giving it 5 stars but the students only give 1 star. IJS.

You are seeing a one star rating, because it is required by this site. You do not wish to attend to this school! They are definitely a for profit business where I feel the owners do not care one wit about whether you actually graduate or not. As long as you have student loans or are financially set that you can pay cash (and we are talking a LOT of money), they will be happy to keep you there as long as possible. I have yet to see a student graduate within the period of time they say it will happen upon enrollment. The teachers are lovely people, but after you learn the initial theory and enter speed classes, those teachers do not know our theory and cannot help you any longer. All they do is sit there and read to you for three/four hours per day. I had to do all my own research, and once I realized how much I was paying to teach myself, I found another school where they truly wish to see you succeed in the shortest amount of time and smallest amount of money possible.

The Stenotype Institute is great if you have about $60,000.00 for tuition and other expenses, or are willing to take out massive student loans. It takes about 4 years to complete the program and once you do, you will need about $10,000 for equipment to begin work. The drop out rate for court reporting school is extraordinarly high - most folks dont graduate. The demand for court reporters in Jacksonville is not great and neither is the earning potential. Also, the Stenotype Institute is currently being sued by former students as a result of alleged bait and switch for a prior 2 year program that was impossible to complete.

I didnt mind the school. I went for 4 years in jax on campus. U get what u put into it. Got into the 200 wpm and found p/t work.

I graduated from the Stenotype Institute, and I am a Registered Professional Reporter, a Florida Professional Reporter, and a Certified Reporting Instructor. I enjoyed a rewarding career as a court reporter before I became an instructor. All of the instructors at the Stenotype Institute graduated from the program, and they are dedicated and devoted to each and every student they have the pleasure of teaching. The Stenotype Institute was founded by Thyra D. Ellis in 1940, and it is one of the longest running court reporting schools. Stenotypes graduates excel as professionals in the multi-faceted field of court reporting. Students can attend on campus or online. The online program was not sold to CCR. If youre interested in pursuing a rewarding court reporting career, please check out the Stenotype Institute.

My wife went here and now has nothing to show for it.First of all, the school has a very high turnover rate of teachers. Several of my wifes teachers were fired due to misconduct showing favoritism, racism and other big red flags like letting some students grade their own stuff or even marking things as wrong when they were clearly right. There were tests my wife would have passed if it was graded properly for example.Certain academics that a stenographer is required to complete to get their certification are only offered once each calendar year (if you are lucky). So if you are done with your speed building but are missing an academic you are possibly SOL until they offer it again.Initially the course was offered to my wife as a 2 year course with a graduation rate of about 80%. Seemed reasonable. At $16.000 a year that would cost $32.000 (plus book fees, machine purchase, etc.). Not too bad for a job with an average wage of $40.000+ in Florida.However its not a 2 year course unless you can dedicate 100% of your free time to practice.On average its apparently closer to 4-5 years with a graduation rate of (I am assuming) less then 25%.There are certain teachers who are very passionate about their job and I have no complaints about them, but the school is apparently run by a family who are there to cut as much as possible and generate money at the expense of their students. (As is usual with a for profit school.)I mean, if the first step of enrollment is to talk to a financial adviser you know something is fishy. Then again this is America we are talking about.. I digress.The computer lab is horribly outdated. When I visited I have seen machines run on Windows 98. We are in 2016 now, come on. Microsofts timeline : Windows 98, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10. Support for Windows 98 stopped about 15 years ago.The other thing about the computer lab, a student was only allowed to enter and transcribe (part of finishing your tests so you can get graded) if there was a teacher supervising. Since they are severely understaffed, there were many times when you couldnt transcribe and could possibly miss your time window to get your test graded.Due to being understaffed, classes got compressed quite severely. Initially there were 2 speeds in 1 class (for example 100WPM and 120WPM). That changed to 3 speeds (for example 80WPM, 100WPM and 120WPM). This causes the people in the lower and the higher end to not get nearly as much quality education as they should receive for the amount they are paying.The audio equipment they utilize still uses tape and therefor quality wise is severely under par and disrupts classes way more than necessary.The lawn maintenance around the building (while not necessarily the schools fault) regularly disrupts classes due to loud equipment being used.There are online classes but due to lacking internet stability they often got disrupted. This did seem to improve near the end of my wifes attendance though.Now, its not all bad. I have heard of people graduating including pictures in their hallway of their graduates. Apparently its also common practice for them to hire graduates to teach.They also have postings for (paid) internships to get you going in your career should you be able to dedicate the time necessary to become a stenographer/court reporter.Long story short, this school needs to get their act together. Hire more quality teachers so they can dedicate quality time to their students. Upgrade their equipment and screen their teachers more thorough. A graduate of stenotype institute might know how to be a court reporter but that does not mean they know how to transfer that knowledge to students.One other thing I would like to add, I recognize the names of some of the 5 star reviews on here as employees of the school.

Is anyone pursuing legal action against the school? Please let me know.

Zero stars is more like it. Teachers were not qualified, their internet was always down. I didnt realize that you are obligated to a year with them once you start. So Im stuck with a $14k debt and nothing to show for it. Please let me know if someone is seeking legal action against this school.

DO NOT!! Five years of my life wasted and close to $60,000 in debt with NOTHING to show for it. Upon enrollment, I was told it was a two-year program and graduates make up to $100,000 a year. What they didnt tell me was that their success rate hovered around 10%. I found that out about two years in. I had a few work/life challenges as did several other students, but the school was not accommodating at all. Im devastated by the debt Im in.This program is a scam, take it from the 90% of students who didnt finish.

I would like for someone to contact me in regards to machinery & books I turned in h it as reported that they were not!

This school is horrible!! The owner stole my overage money and the turn over of instructors are horrible. Beware of this school!!

I went for 3 weeks as a part-time student and withdrew because of the lack of staff, dead environment, rumors they were closing, no toilet paper in bathroom, cockroaches in kitchen, misrepresentations regarding time to complete program, etc. They failed to refund the loan and now they are making me pay for it.