Wyotech or other tech schools??

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48james

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Okay, so the time is here to decide what to do with my life. Almost done with high school and it's time to pick a choice. Throughout school I have always taken honors and AP courses and my last semester (finishing tomorrow) was AP Econ, Ap lit, calculus, and a university of pitt physics class.
My mother has always pushed me for college and quite frankly she basically says i will fail without a true degree. Although I was wanting to go for Mechanical engineering I knew that in the back of my head that I am destined to restore cars and a dream would be to have one of my own fab or resto shops:glasses7:
Now I have always worked on cars and I do have some great starting points for fab but what school would be the best around my area? Wyotech street rod fab is the criteria I want but there are many bad reviews for this college?

P.S Don't comment on how doing this for a living will never make me want to do my own work because not everyone is like that, and I'm fairly sure i wont be:wack:
 
From what I understand ....a community college is better run for the money. I went to a community college and was involved in V.I.C.A. club and the whole thing and it was a fraction of the cost of wyotech.

I have heard a lot of bad things about wyotech ...particularly that it is over priced for what you get.

The community college credits transfer and work as electives in a 4 year university ...I ended moving up to a university and I was surprised when all the automotive classes counted as electives towards a Bachelors degree in a science field. That was win/win
 
You could consider the military. They will send you to school for whatever you want. Maybe you could get in the motor pool.
 
I have heard alot about how community colleges are better than Wyotech Rani, but my Community College of Beaver County offers nothing related to cars..? Is there anything else?
I only want to go for fab, maybe high performance motors but no technician working on new crap lol.

Rusty, I have nothing on the military but I just dont consider it an option and would rather not go there
 
Can't speak directly to PA, but most (all?) states have a network of community colleges. Check them all out for the courses you want. I took auto body classes at one near me in the evenings. I had a ball doing it, and got to work on my own car in class. My last quarter included painting it in the school's paint booth.
C
 
I have interviewed a **** load of guy's that have completed the program at Wyotech, never hired one of them, they all walk in with their flat billed monster energy hats and saggy pants and start talking about all the **** they can do and all the **** they have built, then I throw a couple pieces of aluminum and steel up on the bench and ask them to weld it and bend it a certain way and they all fail miserably, I have worked in quite a few fab shops, race shop's, own my own chassis shop, and have done a lot of work with the engineering depts at Yamaha and Polaris, my advice to you is go to a four year college for automotive engineering and expand from that. you can learn how to weld and fab and do auto body by just jumping in and doing it, is there such a school that will teach fabrication?
 
quite frankly she basically says i will fail without a true degree.


lol.. tell that to all the college degree holding people on the unemployment line or making close to minimum wage at red lobster..
 
lol.. tell that to all the college degree holding people on the unemployment line or making close to minimum wage at red lobster..
an engineer that can weld, machine, and fab **** will never be on the unemployment line, and there is no money in auto body or auto mechanics any more, and how many people are able to run there own shop these day's and make it survive? not many, I have weaned my chassis shop back to a hobby and doing work for friends because the ******* government and all the tax bullshit make it impossible for a guy in a small shop to make any kind of living. welding jobs are in high demand but unless you have your own rig and are out in the field doing pipeline work or in north Dakota in the oil fields you will be lucky to see 45,000 a year after years of experience.
 
Community college if you plan to run your own business. Try to find a job at any kind of welding fabrication shop, even a part time job. You will learn more then at a tech school. Second take a serious honest look at the area you live in. Is there a demand for what you want to do.
 
an engineer that can weld, machine, and fab **** will never be on the unemployment line, and there is no money in auto body or auto mechanics any more, and how many people are able to run there own shop these day's and make it survive? not many, I have weaned my chassis shop back to a hobby and doing work for friends because the ******* government and all the tax bullshit make it impossible for a guy in a small shop to make any kind of living. welding jobs are in high demand but unless you have your own rig and are out in the field doing pipeline work or in north Dakota in the oil fields you will be lucky to see 45,000 a year after years of experience.

True. I was a welder for a very well known heavy manufacturer, and welding was considered non-skilled labor. Since it was a union shop, the wages were decent. When I got laid off, I went looking for welding jobs elsewhere, and none of them wanted to pay any more than twelve bucks an hour. This was only a few years ago.
 
I would recommend Wyo Tech over UTI. I sent one of my sons to UTI, and he didn't get enough hands on to feel confident to go work at a garage....
 
I have mentored students straight out of Wytech, they get a decent basic knowledge, learn how its done from a perfect environment world, they end up with high student loan payments and nothing that they would not have learned by just going to a local shop, offering to sweep the floors in exchange for minimum wage and some training.

I would not recommend the schools, instead recommend the military ( highly )......well Ok maybe not nowadays but instead go to you local bodyshops, put some decent clothes on that arent falling off at your hips, shake the mans hand with a firm handgrip, look into his eyes when speaking with him and tell him your dreams, eventually you will find someone that will be eager to hire a young man like yourself.
 
Also look into getting your Aviation A&P license. The Airframe and Power plant License can be very rewarding and is need all over the world for very good pay. I work Helicopters overseas in the oil industry and get very good money, work six weeks on then six weeks off and repeat. You can work as an apprentice for three years or go to school for if I remember right 2 1/2 years. Mechanics is mechanics, boats, aircraft, motorcycle's, do what you love and it's not work.
 
Good luck with this career path. I had a whole paragraph typed up and the stupid computer backed out ! Just get a job and learn real world skill / technique. And the A&P thing wasn't great either. Got mine after the Military, could not find a good paying job on US soil. Went to the car side and been there since. Not an easy living ..... Don't waste your money on those funny schools
 
My opinion is do not pay big money for one of those schools to get out owing big money and only an income of 40,000 a year. Now days the job of being a mechanic does not pay well. Owning your own shop you will find at the end of the year you only make what you pay your help. Is it really worth the grief to run a business and make the same as if you worked for someone and didnt have the grief.
 
You could consider the military. They will send you to school for whatever you want. Maybe you could get in the motor pool.

That's what my little bro did. 4 years active duty Army and now he's got a full ride to Wyotech under the G.I. Bill.
 
I think with your ability that you should pursue the Engineering degree. If you can find a way to work in the automotive area while not in class you can have the best of both worlds. A couple of the posts above mentioned checking with shops to see if you could help out and learn at the same time. I had to work while going to college but I chose the oilfied instead of automotive because it was readily available. The experience I got while working has been very valuable for me through the years even though it doesn't relate to my work at all. After college I went to a 9 mos. auto body school, completed that and started my shop. After a while I was offered a job in the Material Control area and I have just worked on cars as a hobby. It's been great.
WyoTech used to be a first rate school with an actual waiting list of employers who wanted graduates. Over time it has grown into just another expensive trade school. With a degree you've got a lot of options. Employers often look at a degree as a indicator that you were willing to commit and follow through more than the specific information learned so it is not uncommon to get a good job in a field other than your actual education. As previously mentioned, I can't imagine that an engineer who can actually weld or work with their hands would ever be out of work.

Good luck with your decision!
 
Okay, so the time is here to decide what to do with my life. Almost done with high school and it's time to pick a choice. Throughout school I have always taken honors and AP courses and my last semester (finishing tomorrow) was AP Econ, Ap lit, calculus, and a university of pitt physics class.
My mother has always pushed me for college and quite frankly she basically says i will fail without a true degree. Although I was wanting to go for Mechanical engineering I knew that in the back of my head that I am destined to restore cars and a dream would be to have one of my own fab or resto shops:glasses7:
Now I have always worked on cars and I do have some great starting points for fab but what school would be the best around my area? Wyotech street rod fab is the criteria I want but there are many bad reviews for this college?

P.S Don't comment on how doing this for a living will never make me want to do my own work because not everyone is like that, and I'm fairly sure i wont be:wack:

Sounds like you are pretty good with schooling :D

UTI or Wyotech may not be for you, I have had friends who have done both and were all ready pretty good with working on cars. They also all left those schools shortly after starting because it was too slow or not teaching them anything they didn't already know.

Some folks recommend just working your way into a shop and learning from there. But considering how good you are with honor/AP classes you really should consider a meaningful degree (not a liberal arts degree of any kind lol, I had a smart friend who got a degree in some art field and needless to say he has been living with his parents for years after graduating working at a Best Buy).

Mechanical Engineering, just about anything in a tech field, or medical because you can always work on cars.

Although if you really want to only focus on restoring cars then consider this place...

http://www.mcpherson.edu/autorestoration/

Seems to be well respected, people like Jay Leno and Wayne Carini also recommend this school.
 
That's what my little bro did. 4 years active duty Army and now he's got a full ride to Wyotech under the G.I. Bill.

Kind of going along with this, I am 31 years old and have been working since I was 16. Never fully applied myself in school and always figured I would work a blue collar job my entire life.

I passed on the military because I thought I would have a problem with people telling me what to do.

But let me tell you, the past 16 years all that has been happening is people telling me what to do lol.

Looking back and coming out of high school at 17 or 18. You serve 4/6/so on years in a specialized field then to get out in your early to mid-20's with that under you belt. Having the benefits (bonus, education, training, medical, retirement, etc.), and being able to potentially travel throughout on the government's dollar has me kind of regretting that I didn't serve.

There are lots of areas you can spend your military career in, areas that trying to pursue in the private sector may be out of reach when considering cost so something to think about.
 
I think with your ability that you should pursue the Engineering degree. If you can find a way to work in the automotive area while not in class you can have the best of both worlds. A couple of the posts above mentioned checking with shops to see if you could help out and learn at the same time. I had to work while going to college but I chose the oilfied instead of automotive because it was readily available. The experience I got while working has been very valuable for me through the years even though it doesn't relate to my work at all. After college I went to a 9 mos. auto body school, completed that and started my shop. After a while I was offered a job in the Material Control area and I have just worked on cars as a hobby. It's been great.
WyoTech used to be a first rate school with an actual waiting list of employers who wanted graduates. Over time it has grown into just another expensive trade school. With a degree you've got a lot of options. Employers often look at a degree as a indicator that you were willing to commit and follow through more than the specific information learned so it is not uncommon to get a good job in a field other than your actual education. As previously mentioned, I can't imagine that an engineer who can actually weld or work with their hands would ever be out of work.

Good luck with your decision!

Thanks for all the input! I wanted fast help and I sure got it :cheers: I am going to go for engineering, looking into other types of it but you can change majors easy. I think Grimreaper has the best idea of just going to school and trying to get my foot in the door at some shops, and if it doesn't work out then I will still have the tools to get me a good living and to use on cars:burnout:
 
Thanks for all the input! I wanted fast help and I sure got it :cheers: I am going to go for engineering, looking into other types of it but you can change majors easy. I think Grimreaper has the best idea of just going to school and trying to get my foot in the door at some shops, and if it doesn't work out then I will still have the tools to get me a good living and to use on cars:burnout:

Good for you.
I spent 25 years in the Air Force Aircraft Maintenance and would do it again. At one point I was working on a Test Program and dealt with an engineer on a daily basis. Turns out his hobby was old cars. He new all about design loads etc. but his real gift was his ability to think of how a new design was going to be maintained in the field by the folks turning wrenches. Sounds like you would have that niche!
 
Get the catalogs from a few colleges and Univ. Look at the classes you would be taking to get a BSME. Welding and machine shops classes were some I was required to take. Even today, a good general knowledge Mechanical Engineer can find a job. You can still work on cars when you have time.
 
I have a friend who Grandson went to Wyotech about 6 years ago. Loved it, and is now working in the industry. I understand he's pulling a 6 figure income, now, too. Working somewhere in the Midwest.

It's not where you go to school, it's what you do with what you've learned.
 
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