Ryan P.'s Profile

I attended this school back in 2001-2003 when it was called Silicon Valley College. I graduated with the "Design and Visualization" Bachelor's degree (aka, the Graphics program).

I can't speak for the school when it was known as Western Career College or even Carrington College, but here are some notes from my experience.

* VERY expensive ($38,000 for my degree).

* I was interested in web design and development. They told me the graphics program would be a great fit. It was not.

* While I had a couple of very good teachers that I'll never forget, I also had a number of completely worthless teachers.

* The "Job Placement Program" consists of someone flipping through the classifieds for you. I found my own job, and have found every one since.

* Of the thirty-someodd students that I started with, only 6 or 7 of us made it to the end. Of the 4 or 5 that I've kept in touch with over the years, I'm the only one that landed a serious gig in my field.

* The curriculum was sub-standard for an entry-level position in graphics/web. I learned early-on that I had to excel and advance on my own time, at night and on the weekends, in order to be even remotely competitive. If all you do is go to class and listen to the teacher, you won't learn what you need to learn to make it in the industry.

* Your degree is non-transferrable. You cannot build on top of it. Although the school is accredited, there's another type of certification that the college doesn't have. This prevents your credits from being transferrable to another institution.

All-in-all, I'd have to rate my experience at SVC with a resounding "meh". Aside from taking classes that had nothing to do with my career path (3D modeling, drawing by hand, Flash, Freehand, Illustrator, ImageReady, and Macromedia Director), the classes that _were_ relevant (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) were all taught at a level that was much lower than where I already was. I spent the majority of my 2.5 years helping my classmates instead.

I learned a little bit about Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive (which I never used again after that class), and having some experience with Adobe InDesign helped me when I started writing and formatting a book I was writing (which I ended up doing in DocBook/Markdown instead).

General Ed was interesting, and I had one of the best teachers I've ever had for that (Tuyen Nguyen), but aside from that, I really didn't walk away with much to show for my time and money.

Asked for a deluxe burger without mayo. Apparently they don't do custom orders, so it was mayo or nothing. So I left.

Not being able to custom order a burger within reason in this day and age shows the utmost contempt for your customers. I ended up enjoying a mayo-less burger in a diner a block away.

Anybody who puts this in the same league as In-N-Out is a complete nut-job.

This place is a great lunch spot. It seems that the lunchtime menu is mostly sandwiches and such -- but boy, what a sandwich! The place is nice, and the staff has that family-owned sort of feel to it -- warm and inviting. Best of all, the prices are extremely reasonable. I'll definitely be coming back again soon.

The staff seemed friendly enough, but nothing I'd write home about. The pizza was very "meh" -- neither good nor bad. I'm from California, which means I like thicker bread and thinner slices. I'd already read a number of the reviews here already so I wasn't expecting much going into it.

If you're looking for awesome pizza, this isn't it. But if you're simply looking for quick sustenance, this will do the trick.

It's like Cheers... where everybody knows your name.

Chili's is one of my favorite American restaurants. Great steak, great ribs, great broccoli (my favorite), and generally great service.

I've been eating at this place since 2000. It's great tasting, well priced Mexican food that is as close to authentic as you get without being in Mexico.

Admittedly, customer service tends to leave a lot to be desired, and there is ONE particular waitress who is, quite frankly, a bitch every single time I've gone in there over the last 8 years.

But if you place your order to go, and don't really have to interact with the waitresses, this is some of the best Mexican food you'll find.