ITT Capstone - The final course all students must pass in order to receive their degrees.  The capstone course is kind of like the final of a regular course, but instead of it being a test at the end, the whole course is one long test.

The first day students are given a packet with a made up scenario that they need to create a network for. I have heard rumors that there are projects available at other schools that are up to date, but at my school they use the same one year after year. This allows students to do searches for ITT Capstone, or CNS Capstone, and find a good number of pages with completed capstones ready to go. Which I am sure no one reading this now is doing.

Anyway, what is really impressive about this class is that it is supposed to be super important.  Students are always nervous giving their presentations, and the thought of failing and not graduating is there; then everyone passes and graduates, even if they did next to nothing.

Lets take my capstone for instance. A normal capstone group is around four people, my capstone group had eight people. This in theory should be a good thing, lots of people to do research = awesome results, right? Now the fun begins...

Bob #1:
This person came to class for about 20 minutes ever other day, sometimes every two days. This alone should have failed him, luckily ITT's grading system is a bit off.  He never turned in any work until the final week of class, and the work he did turn in was wrong and stolen from online.  I had seen the same work multiple times on the first page of google images. He didn't change a thing, just cropped out the other students names.
--This student passed. 

Bob #2:
This person owned a mac, and for weeks couldn't figure out how to open the word docs all the other students were sharing with each other.  That's right, an IT student about to graduate couldn't open a word doc.  To make it worse he didn't even tell anyone that he couldn't read anything we were sharing until the 6th week! --This student passed.

Bob #3:
The only thing this person had to do was the budget, which happens every capstone.  The laziest, stupidest person can always be found doing the budget. This person did the budget on a piece of paper, did all the math with a calculator, then transferred it to a spreadsheet.  This took him the entire quarter to do, the math he did was wrong, and to this day I can't figure out why he didn't just let excel do the math for him.  Insert data, insert function to add up the rows, done. --This student passed.

Seeing a pattern here?
Students did almost no work, or work that has nothing to do with networking, or straight up stole other peoples work....  and - still - passed.

These students now share a degree with me and are out there, looking for jobs, interviewing with companies, ruining the chances for other students to get interviews.  How many brain dead IT students from ITT Tech does it take before the human resources person ignores people with ITT on their resume?

Assuming you made it this far down, congrats, there was a lot of ranting here.  I also assume you may be interested in seeing the final result of our capstone project.  So here are the final files (power point and documentation) for the cns capstone of the TTI network.

Update! The files were broken temporarily, I have re-uploaded them for your viewing pleasure.
Power Point  -  Documentation

Keep in mind the only reason it looks this good is 100% because of me, I spent hours cleaning up most peoples slides and researching their information. And as I said, this network is terrible and would not ever actually work, and it contains flat out wrong schematics.  

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10 Responses so far.

  1. Unknown says:
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  2. Unknown says:

    I have seen this as well at my local ITT, however, if you do the work right, study, and actually indulge yourself in the coursework, you will pass for the right reasons. I have learned that the school is very easy, but I actually do the work right and learn from it. If you don't, you are just cheating yourself, and I hope you fail at life. I agree, the grading is way off, and students should be held accountable for late work, plagarism, etc. It is not always the student's fault, most of the instructors do not care if you do this or that. They read their required plagarism statements and that is about it. It is messed up, but like I said, if you actually act like a real student in college, you will actually learn, and therefore earn your degree. This generation is the gimme gimme generation, what can I get for nothing generation, makes me sick!

  3. Josh says:

    Sure, you can squeeze some education out of this place. But that should not be how it works for the price you pay. My biggest issue with the school across the board is the value it offers. The value is a combination of the quality of the teachers, the education being offered, and the price.

    The teachers are mostly bad, and often either lazy or browbeaten by year after year of being forced to pass idiot students. The education level is also very low, possibly to increase the ease of aforementioned idiots passing; and don't forget its easier and cheaper to find teachers who only need a general understanding of the basics.

    I didn't want to be handed an education, I wanted something I could be proud of. But because ITT passes everyone, the response you get when asked where you went to school is "Oh...", not impressive. These same idiots also rob you of your chance at a better education, because the teachers are forced to hand hold the stupid people through classes and labs. So there is no time to move forward and really dig into subjects and branching concepts.

    I've said it before, but it bears repeating. If the cost of this school was cut roughly in half, this site wouldn't exist. That would put it in line with most community colleges, which is much closer to the level of education you receive.

    My out of pocket cost repaying debts for this school are roughly $1000 per month,I will be paying that for decades. Unless you have a GI bill to blow through, I honestly don't know how most of the people I went to school with will repay that. Almost everyone I know from school is still in retail waiting on that top notch ITT job placement.

  4. Unknown says:

    I agree that most of what ITT is teaching is outdated. Recently they have changed their grading policy which is helping to keep the idiots from stealing opportunities from those of us who actually learn and try. Just this past quarter I had Group Theory and about half the class had a C- D- grade. about 4 or 5 failed. I got a 96.3%. How the hell do you fail Group Theory? Most of the work is done in groups and about learning to work in a group and deal with diversity.

    Passed Physics with a 90.5%. There were one or two times that I got stuck on a problem and I googled it. Sure enough there was an answer and it was correct. I used that as a last resort after spending an hour trying to solve the problem to no avail. But what struck me as terrible is how the answer I was looking for was answered 3 to 4 years ago!!! No change or update to course material is evident.

    I too feel the cost of ITT is way more than it is worth. a good example is my tool box (I'm in Electronics Engineering). So they charge you $400 for all this stuff, all of which is the cheapest, bottom line, strip down version you can get. Nothing is name brand. The soldering iron is a $15 Weller no adjustable version. Solder is cheap Rosin core with next to no flux. The wire strippers.....don't even get me started. They have no pre measured holes for different gauges. they are honestly wire cutters with a small notch on them that you put your wire in, squeeze just enough to cut the insulation and then slide them to remove it. They are absolute crap. All in all, the same garbage they charge you $400 for could all be bought at Frys or anywhere that sells it for about $100 total, if that.

    There are some great teachers there though, but they are few and far between. One teacher, who happens to be the chair for the EET program is very good and very descriptive and helpful, but the knuclehead has a habit that is really bad. Before every exam, and I mean literally right before the exam, he goes over the exact test we are about to take and gives the correct answers to all the questions. Naturally the dishonest people are writing these down somewhere so thy can use them when the test starts. Its highly annoying that Joe Schmo Idiot who does nothing in the class, has 50 missing HW assignments and is always late, and I know did not study, gets 90-100% on the exam and I get an 90-100% and I DID study. One teacher I had was teaching his last quarter. So yeah you guessed it, He could care les about anything. Funny how the whole class got A's and B's whether you did anything or not. Again highly annoying being a student who did all work and put effort into it and actually studied hard to EARN my A and Joe Schmo Idiot pulls a B when he missed half the quarter!!! WTF?!?!

    All in all, ITT has its shining moments but they are greatly outshone by the rampant bad ones. Money wasted that could have been better spent elsewhere.

  5. Josh says:

    Yeah, I had very similar experiences for all of the above. I went for a networking degree, so you can just swap out junk soldering irons for junk networking gear. I don't think that teaching the test was a habit for that teacher though.

    It's been awhile so I don't recall exactly, but I believe it's part of ITT's policy that they do exactly that. Especially for the classes that could potentially fail people. I honestly couldn't tell you how many teachers and subjects I was given every answer to.

    Some teachers even went as far as to print out the actual test, let you take it, then give you all the answers to study. Some teachers would even let us correct our own tests, so after you finish they just go over the answers and you can change as needed.

    It was all quite silly. If I ever find myself in a position of authority over such things, I would shut ITT down in a heart beat for massive fraud.

  6. Anthony says:

    With anything else in life you get what you put into. Having spent time at a University and at ITT people like to pretend that reviewing for exams, or cheating doesnt happen at bigger Universities get real. Its up to the student to get everything they can from the programs ITT offers. I have my Assiociates in Electronics Technology and am working on my Bachelors and have recieved plenty of job offers because guess what I am good at what I do (field engineering) and I network. The people who coast through just like at ANY other University will be exposed in the interview process and if not then its probably not a company you want to work for anyway.

  7. ianc1215 says:

    I am in my capstone this quarter (only one class left) and I see so many people in this class that have no idea what the __k they are doing. One group doing the capstone priced of video tape racks to put their servers in because they had no idea what a server rack was. Keep in mind these people are with my in the NSA degree and are about to graduate.

    Other groups are designing their networks using servers for desktops and desktops for servers. Mainly because the classes never show anyone what an actual server looks like. All we ever did in both of my schools was run VMware player since the school is too cheap to buy VMware Workstation for everyone. Everyone's exposure to servers was cookie cutter pre configured labs that were turn key. Students pretty much answered questions about what they saw. Not on how to do things. And when they were told to do things in the lab manual it was done with EXTREME handholding. The teacher that I had for my one networking class was completely useless. Instead of teach real troubleshooting skills (you know since no one needs thoughts in a real job or anything) he just said "oh you should reinstall the lab VM and try again". WHAT THE ___K!

    I was pulled into that damn school by a very slick sales pitch and a few of my family members. At first I was optimistic thinking I might gain something out this that might help me in my career. After about 3 quarters I realized I made a huge mistake and I was pretty much stuck.

    The only reason I am not 100% screwed in my career field and life now is because of some great teachers from my high school vocational school. Get this... In ITT I am going to get a degree that really amounts to nothing. But in my vocational school I came out of there with my CCNA, A+, Net+ and a round knowledge of Linux, Netware and Windows Server. I also would configure switches and routers like it was second nature to me. Wanna guess how much that education cost me? NOT A DIME! I paid nothing! Yet they gave me access to high end (for the time) equipment and relevant material. Wanna guess how many router I got to configure at ITT? I'll give you a hint the number is between 0... and 0.

    Just writing this post and thinking about the school gets me fired up. Knowing that I could have gone to a real school and possibly got a degree that is actually worth something instead of sitting in a school full people that have no ___king clue what they are doing. I best analogy I can think of to describe ITT tech is to take bucket of raw sewage and dumping it into a crisp clean river. Because of the kind of people I see my school ( I cannot speak for anything other than what I observe) preparing to graduate and go out into the workforce I realize that they make it harder for people in my shoes to get a job that they are qualified for and instead it becomes an uphill battle.

    But atleast I have the privilege of paying back my $28,000 in loans back. Oh, wait that not fun, its a high cost for a poor education. I have two friends who went to a local university and graduated with an associates in Computer Information Systems and paid half of what I paid. Let me reiterate that point.... HALF!

    Anyhow to hell with that school, come next week I will done with my classes and I can leave the school behind me and starting working on getting an education that will actually get me somewhere in the world.

  8. Unknown says:

    complain complain complain.... Any idiot can complain. Education is what you make of it. Read your books, study and learn what you need to for yourself. Stop complaining about the lazy idiots coasting through. They will get what they deserve in the end. Not every school is perfect, and they ALL have their faults from teachers, students, to administration. ITT is a good school (depending on which campus you're attending). I am about to graduate with my Associates, and will continue for my BS. I've gotten so many job offers and am already working with a great company that interviewed me at the school out of 5 other top students. They hired me b/c of my experience, my grades, and b/c of the rep at this particular ITT campus. Yes, I have complained about the slackers, but my focus can't be on them. They have to pay back their loans just like I do. So if they choose to slack in class and homework and choose to smoke weed in their cars in the parking lot, then that's on them. Focus on yourself.

  9. Josh says:

    Your mistake is that you are focusing on the tree's when there is a whole forest to see here. Sure a lot of this is just simple complaining, but if you read a few of the posts you will note that I was like you, one of the top students in the school. You have to remember that the slackers are actually hurting you, they get the same degree you have, and give potential employers a bad opinion.

    As you mentioned yourself, most schools have the same kind of issues you see at ITT. With that in mind, ITT will cost you at least double what it costs to go almost anywhere else. So it's not just that the school is filled with slackers and crappy teachers, it's that they are charging you a premium amount for it.

    The simple fact is that you would be as successful regardless of which school you went to, your success is not a direct result of your attendance at ITT. I consider going to ITT one of the biggest mistakes of my life, not just because the education they offer is catering to the lowest denominator, but because of the debt it put me in for that poor education. If ITT cut it's price in half, they would be in line with community colleges, and this blog wouldn't exist.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I elected to earn my Associate of Science degree at a late stage of my career (and life!). I chose ITT Technical Institute as the place to do it. I'm almost finished, now. All I have remaining between me and my hard-won sheep skin is my Capstone Project. I've discovered that I'm a class of one student in the School of Drafting and Design and my Capstone Project will be conducted ONLINE. Online? Hmmm... this is going to be QUITE interesting, to say the very VERY least.

    This will be the first time I have ever performed a course online. Ever. During my previous 19 months of classroom instruction, I had every reason to expect my Capstone Project to be conducted by one of my previous instructors face-to-face, or by the very knowledgeable Dean of Academic Affairs. But events of the past few months have changed all that. Enrollment for the September quarter dropped so sharply that the District Director personally visited my campus to announce that no more new students were being accepted for enrollment. The receptionist and all recruiters were immediately given pink slips. Then, on the day before Turkey Day, this knowledgeable Dean of Academic Affairs was quietly reassigned to an ITT Tech campus almost 400 miles away. A core staff of five in the Administrative Offices remain, but the four work/study students who work 20 hrs/week, paid less than $10/hr. by a Federal Grant, were not affected. Thank God because, for starters, you can't (in all good faith) lay off current students if they are being paid to tutor fellow classmates. Right? I'm glad they didn't lay off any of them because I am one of them -- and I happen to DEPEND upon what I earn to survive through all this until I secure a POSITION through Career Services with a GOOD-PAYING local firm sometime (hopefully) during the next three months while I do my Capstone Project.

    Whether or not this scenario is playing out across the nation at other ITT Tech campuses is anybody's guess. Conventional wisdom states that, when the Economy sucks, people enroll (in droves) at higher education campuses so they can get a jump-start in anticipation of job opportunities that will surely come as the economic recovery begins. When the Economy is humming along like it seems to be doing presently, people are just too busy working to think about earning degrees or switching careers. This wisdom appears to accept the inevitable, anticipating another recessional downturn in the very same cyclical manner that we accept the recurrence of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sad, but unavoidable? I suppose so, if you choose to believe that economic bubbles and busts are the way we should prosper, or not. I always hoped that the Economy would cruise along for the long haul, but experience tells me that forces beyond politicians, economists and the media punditry decide when things go up and down in our Economy. Forces like multinational and multi-state corporations? Who knows? I don't pretend to know, but anyone can speculate -- to their ultimate peril, or be an ostrich, to their ultimate blissful ignorance.

    All I can really do at this point is be optimistic. Performing my Capstone Project online will certainly BE one of the biggest challenges of my adult career. Given the fact that I have never taken an academic course ONLINE. But, who knows? Maybe this will reap benefits for me beyond anything I might otherwise fear or anticipate ... but at the ripening age of 58, I definitely do NOT have an eternity ahead of me by which I can EXPECT the best possible outcome. I might do well to draw upon my "self-taught" past to get through these final three months of degree-earning. If I elect to continue my education and earn a BS, chances are that I will have reached retirement age ... or I will have already met Joe Black.

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