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I'm a student in one of the AcadeMedia for-profit schools. They have around 30 schools with the same brand name as mine and they keep on buying others. There's
by alvarlagerlof 6y ago
I'm a student in one of the AcadeMedia for-profit schools. They have around 30 schools with the same brand name as mine and they keep on buying others. There's over 600 of them. There are of course other brands that they own but this one is focused on technology.
Now let me tell you about my experience. First, this school is very focused on marketing. They keep on doing things that are only for seemingly attracting students. For example, they made a "maker space" with more 3d printers than anyone could ever need. I'm not against 3d printers but who needs 10 when only one is being used at a time. They also failed to mention their shitty secondary basement location on a showing of the school for upcoming students. They literally bought a second location to double the amount of students, and it had air quality issues for two years. No windows except a few ones in the roof. This location still isn't mentioned to students looking at the school. Wonder why.
All of these marketing-focused efforts have real impacts for the students. For example, there isn't any room for a kitchen, so they give us lunch cards. These get loaded with 55kr each day (about $6.5). Then they have agreements with some local restaurants at which we eat. Problem is that normally those restaurants would change maybe $12. As a result very few of them allow us in and we get tiny portions. This is served to growing teens.
Now I have asd and bipolar-2. Don't even get me started on how badly they're able to handle that. Nothing really ever improves. It's all talk. As a result, I'm about to drop out.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoWow, do you at least have as mc donalds nearby so you can get a few of their cheap "child sized" burgers? Hope you can find a better school!
- vagrantJin 6y agoThis is amazing. You recommend eating burgers from McD for lunch every day? Not fruits, not home cooked food, not simple sandwiches, not street food --- but MacDonalds burgers in Sweden Holy shit.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoWe actually have McDonald's and Max on the list and there's a whole bunch of people who eat there very often.
- tartoran 6y agoYes, eating McD on a daily basis is not only boring but downright unhealthy. I remember eating at McD when in college because it was perceivably cheaper and while I was enjoying the food when I was hungry I always felt not so good afterwards. I haven’t touched any MCD in 10 years and won’t do anytime soon unless there’s an emergency
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoI find it weird that we have fast food restaurants on the list too. Even weirder is that they compensate with "healthier" restaurants that are so far away we don't have time to get there.
- IG_Semmelweiss 6y agoI don't think its weird. Its just a function of supply and demand : vendors following the customers, not the other way around. In the US, Customers are college students, and they don't have money for restaurants. That's why you have pizza joints near campuses, and not healthy options instead. I suspect this is more of the same here.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoNo, I reccomend changing schools as their lunch allowance isn't enough to cover even a full meal at McDonalds. If they just got cash the recommendation would be to get something from a supermarket, but it's locked to restasurants so single burgers is likely an upper limit outside of the cointracted restaurants that, as stated, sometimes denies service. I wonder what gives you the idea that hot dogs is much better than McD, as that's about the limit of what 55 SEK will pay for in terms of street food.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoMost of us eat at subway pretty much every day.
- LatteLazy 6y agoFyi, A big mac alone costs 48kr in Sweden.
- bjeds 6y agoThank you for your reply, I didn't expect I'd find a comment from an actual student of these schools here at HN. Your perspective is valuable. If you follow Swedish media you probably know there's a large discussion/controversy right now about high school students (and younger kids) changing their behavior to avoid crime/trouble. For example see this recent article at SVT: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/man-maste-vara-pa-sin-vakt-att-nagot-kan-handa-vaxer-man-upp-med https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/man-maste-vara-pa-sin-vak... What's your take? Is this a problem in your school as well, or peer group? I'm genuinely curious: I'm old enough to never naturally meet people your age, but I'm not old enough to have kids or relatives your age.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoI'm not one to go to parties drinking or smoking illegal stuff, although this is very common in certain groups. So I can't comment on that. I've actually avoided that on purpose because it would worsen my mental state with my diagnosies. But I guess that criminal stuff would happen in those groups.
- Grustaf 6y agoIt's not related to drinking or smoking, it's about the dangers of being outside in the evening in Sweden nowadays.
- riffraff 6y ago> a large discussion/controversy right now about high school students (and younger kids) changing their behavior to avoid crime/trouble Could you explain this? It seems people avoiding crime wouldn't be a source of controversy.
- skybrian 6y agoIs bringing a lunch you make at home an option? You might even be able to save up some money that way.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoOnly on the summer as the school does not allow eating anything other than what the cafeteria serves in the buildings. The lunch cards are restricted to certain restaurants only.
- skybrian 6y agoWow, banning people from bringing their own lunches to eat for lunch seems quite weird to me. Over-regulate much?
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoYes. But that's what they do. It's a trend. The programing teacher also forces one editor on all students. You can't even rest fruits in school.
- cycomanic 6y agoThat suggestion defeats the purpose. The thing is schools are supposed to provide meals to students (at no cost), so if you're bringing your own lunch you're not saving your money, you saving the school money.
- skybrian 6y agoIf you take the money that the school gives you and make your own lunch for less money than the restaurants charge, that's better than a free lunch, since you have more money.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoThe cards are locked to a few restaurants.
- cycomanic 6y agoActually the thing to do is stage protests one the dates that the schools have their information evenings. I'll bet you they will listen very quickly.
- alvarlagerlof 6y agoProblem is many have experienced even worse schools (and there are many) so they're comparatively happy with this. It won't happen. I've also experienced a non-profit teacher co-operative. It was leaps and bounds better than this.