Whatnottodp's Review: Hudson Valley School of Advanced Aesthetic Skin Care - New Paltz

Teacher to student ratio can on occasion be one to one but is usually one to twenty-five. The basics take 600 hours to learn. You cannot fit all the other things taught such as IPL, which has injured several people & left permanent scaring, within 600 hours. The pass/fair rate with NYS has dropped, the school has been unable to keep a doctor as Dr. Chevelia of Midletown was sued because Maria Furguson, the owner, burned someone doing IPL on them. At the time she had accidentally let her insurance lapse and was not covered. That type of oversight in not acceptable for a school owner. Speak to the current students, it's the blind leading the blind. The policies change on a regular basis because the correct and perfected way is always being come up with. Students have been forced to switch books in the middle of the course because the owner changed her mind again. IPL should have a minimum of 200 hours all by itself. There are chemicals used that are not covered by insurance because of their PH. The order of the curriculum changes at the owners discretion. This leaves students having to wait to graduate as the course they need to take was skipped to accommodate the owner's personal agenda. An example of that was when the owner needed to get her botox prior to a conference she was attending. She took the night class on a trip to a plastic surgeons but they then had to scramble to finish their buisness plans. Students are promised the world when they sign up and they're lucky if they're provided with the privilege of a teacher. Movies are shown on a regular basis so that no one has to bother teaching the class. The clients that go there have no idea that the student may not have ever done the procedure before and there is little if any supervision. This is because the students are charged to have procedures done. This is in addition to the exorbitant tuition they've paid to attend. So the students have no one to practice on. Stop in unexpected and see for yourself how chaotic it is. Talk to the students when they're on break and ask them what happens there. If you speak to them out of ear shot of the camera you'll be surprised what you'll hear. The owner is now performing procedures there herself on Fridays and Saturdays, a procedure called thermage which is supposed to be done in an Operating Room by a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon under sedation or general anesthesia. The New York State Department Of Education has previously told her she's not allowed to do procedures at the school for profit but she continues. The point of clinic, which is still profitable, is for the students to get used to working on people. Not for the owner to see clients privately on school property. None of the instructors know every single subject but are told to teach them anyway. She even hires cosmetologists and teaches them the basics so that they can then teach students. They do not have the hours of training needed to do skin care procedures just as an aesthetician can not do a perm. Since 1999 the school has gotten worse and worse and the pass/fair rate with NYS has dropped considerably. The ratio is not 3 to 1. Most students are lucky to be in a class that's 20 to one. Now for college that may seem low but this is mostly hands on and technique is what counts. The teachers are who ever she can get to teach even if they're not aestheticians, a cosmotologist will due even though they don't have enough skin hours. Placement, barely, no weekend except Sat. if convenient. Only PT day or night available. See ripp off report.