Carrington College

I attended Carrington College Portland campus and graduated December 2015. I now work at nationwide known clinic. When I enrolled in veterinary assisting progran an then started in April, I was very excited to learn a career I’ve always been interested in. I was lucky enough to start at the beginning.
The first few days went by smoothly. We were giving our schedule/​calendar with our class time and what would be happening that day. After the few days, we were told we had a mandatory meeting to attend after school that day without any heads up and weren’t given a specific duration of how long it would last. As you can imagine, it made it difficult for someone who to be at work afterwards. About three more mandatory meetings without notification happened as well.
The homework amount that we were required to do on a daily basis was ridiculous. Most of the packets we had to complete were from a different book then what we were given. On many occasions, I had to look up answers on the Internet because they weren’t in the books. Almost everyday when we graded our homework, it was an argument with the instructor about the answers.
The lab days were a plus, given the fact you could bring in your own animals. However, it was not very beneficial because the animals you will help in clinics are not comfortable with you and often don’t act the same as they would if you were really in a clinic.
We were given a packet that we all called the bible. It had everything we thought we would do on lab days. However, more then half that packet, we never even went over or talked about.
In clinic lab analysis is one of the things, I never learned while I was there. In fact we never touched the machines. Including the anesthetic machine (which is extremely important for a vet tech OR assistant)
As each new unit came, we had new students arrive. Now this is one thing that bugs me a lot.
On those lab days, after the new students would come in, it turned into more of the older students becoming the teachers and spending more of their learning time teaching someone else. And it was EXPECTED of you.
The administration was a joke as well. They push you into enrolling on the day you want a tour. They give you all the paper work and push until enroll right there. They were more concerned about getting paid and avoiding students then doing what their job requires of them.
When I had gone off to my externship, I wasn’t allowed to pick a clinic in washington. I had a clinic picked for me. On externship, you are required to complete 180 hours of in clinical experience. I spent more then half of those hours standing and just observing. I would ask if I could help with anything and the answer is ever got was to clean.
I never drew blood, learned what a surgical tech does, anything about diseases related to the area, nothing about reception, nothing about medications, nothing about triaging rooms.
All in all, I DO NOT recommend this school to anyone. It is a horrible experience and waste of time and money. I got my job because of my retail experience. Not because of a $ 14,000 certificate.

This school is former Apollo college… it had to change its name when it lost all grant funding from the fed government due to poor job placement.

This school is former Apollo college… it had to change its name when it lost all grant funding from the fed government due to poor job placement. They gouge you for high tuition, give you a degree that isn’t transferable to any accredited university and no one will hire you if you get your dental hygiene education from this school. By then they have already milked every cent of your financial aid out of you, and you can not get more if you try to go to a legit community college later. Watch them change their name again in a couple of years. Trust me I’ve been in the profession for over 20 yrs. It’s a quack school

I am surprised at how many good reviews there are!
Yes, free dental care is AWESOME — especially when you don’t have health insurance. You’ll pay with your time. It took 8 hours over 3 visits for my dental cleaning, but my teeth looked fantastic at the end!
The reason I am giving 2 stars is because dealing with the office and for follow-​up scheduling was a nightmare. During my x-​rays it was discovered I had a cavity. I was told I could schedule to have it filled at Carrington for about $ 20.
Well, after 7 (yes 7!), phone calls to make this appointment, I was told my student had graduated and I’d be put on a list of patients and should be scheduled within 2 weeks. This was 6 weeks ago. I’ve left 9 messages since then. None were returned. My final message I said, «You are training to be professionals. This is completely unprofessional.»
This would NEVER be okay in the «real-​world» so I don’t what Carrington is training it’s students for.
I left a total of 16 messages. I’m a reasonable person leaving normal messages — there’s no reason my calls should have been ignored.
I’m now going to another clinic, and they called me back in 2 hours! If I was hiring students from Carrington vs. this other clinic, I would absolutely go with the later.
EDIT: I have been informed that the receptionist are hired staff. This reflects poorly upon the entire program. You are paying people to be unprofessional? Let me restate, 16 unreturned phone calls! How is this economy do you have horrible workers? Time to fire and rehire because this service reflects poorly on the hard working students.
Additionally my small cavity was misdiagnosed by CC. Two independent dentist consultations and I need a root canal and crown.
In summery:
Cleaning: Great!
X-​Ray Diagnosis: Terrible
Receptionists: Horrendous

I am beyond impressed by the students at the dental hygienist school at Carrington College in Lloyd Center. The gal I go to is only 21 and is amazingly confident, competent and personable. I’m not going to tell you her name because I don’t want her to get booked up (selfish? Bite me). I will tell you that Becky & Christine are also awesome. But really, I think they’re all probably awesome. The dentists and hygienists who oversee the student’s work are all super competent and empathetic. I recently had a composite, tooth-​colored filling done ($ 30!) and for some reason was having some sensitivity even after a couple of shots of anasthesia. They made sure that I was *completely* numb before proceeding. Does it take longer? Sure. But it DOESN’T HURT. In the past when I’ve gone to my regular dentists, when they give you the anesthesia shots, they do it quickly and that hurts like a mofo, right? They don’t do that here. The students take their time, use plenty of topical to numb the area gettting the anesthesia and listen to your concerns. In addition to free cleanings, they also offer fillings (silver or composite) and professional teeth whitening. The facilities are clean, modern, quiet and comfortable climate-​wise. The staff are all super nice and helpful. The x-​rays you’ll receive before they work on you are comprehensive and they do provide bibs with full coverage, including the neck (thyroid) area. Oh, and FYI for ladies: don’t wear makeup when getting a filling – the students utilize «dental dams» and with the anesthesia, you’ll drool.

I went there looking for information about the veterinary assistant program. I’ve never been treated SO well in my entire life. I’m not even a student and I got treated like I was and I was so special. The woman helping me stayed an hour over her scheduled time. I’m hoping I can go there and get the funds to become a student there. The teacher I met was so nice, and all the students looked extremely happy and were nice as well. It’s definately a school I want to go to. All the staff is so helpful. Such a great experience.

Okay — I’ll preface this by saying that Apollo has changed their name to Carrington College, and that this is the same review as I posted for that listing.
Free dental cleaning and x-​rays is pretty dang awesome. Especially if you’re on a shoestring budget — which I’m pretty sure at least half of the residents of Portland are — free isn’t something to be sneezed at. Additionally, everyone is friendly and helpful, the clinic itself is clean and well appointed, and the entire process is a pleasure — at least inasmuch as having your teeth scraped by pointy metal bits can be termed pleasurable.
That said, make sure you’ve got some serious spare time on your hands when you make your first appointment. If time is money, then I paid through the nose, as it took four appointments if two hours each to get through the entire process. These folk are good, but they are students (supervised) which means they’ll take their time.