Hard-Sell Tactics at the California Culinary Academy
Remember the story from early last month about the high cost of culinary school? How cooking schools were being accused of playing up the celebrity chef thing to attract students? How those folks were graduating into a field whose starting salaries often aren't enough to pay off student loans?
There's another, longer, more depressing story in SF Weekly about that topic, and this one talks to two former admissions counselors who describe the questionable practices they were told to use:
... the admissions counselors tried to make the program seem worth its exorbitant price tag by giving students the impression that the school was selective. "We were advised to tell the students that because it's such a prestigious school, Cordon Bleu recognized, yadda yadda, you have to tell me why you should be accepted," [said former admissions rep Jennifer D'Ambrosio].
The article is equal parts hard-luck story mixed with the peculiar history of the CCA, and details how the school's once-prestigious reputation has been tarnished by a sale to a for-profit education corporation and the subsequent quadrupling of enrollment.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
1 Comment:
I'm a recent career-changer enrolled in cooking school and have given the issue of limited application requirements (i.e., "Can you pay in green dollars? You're in.") a good deal of thought. Here's my solution:
Make prospective students work a week as a dishwasher in a restaurant as part of the application process. See the belly of the beast up close, stay out of the way, learn some basic skills and end up with a paycheck reflective of your future earnings. Then decide if this is for you.
oldstove at 10:46AM on 06/08/07