MedVance Institute

While watching late night TV recently, I saw a commercial for MedVance Institute. It is a small for-profit private school offering degrees in practical medical-related fields such as Medical Assistant, Medical Billing & Coding Specialist, Sterile Processing Technician, and Medical Office Administration. What interested me most though was their degree in "Radiologic Technology." I thought this was interesting enough to look up on the web.
MedVance Institute prepares you with in-depth knowledge of X-ray positioning according to standardized practices and procedures, physics, specialized equipment and techniques, film critique and patient care.

Ok, so it's just x-ray tech training. If you want to become an MR tech or CT tech, you would have to get more training. But check out the annual tuition for the Nashville Campus:

Radiologic Technology............$36,995


Good Grief!! Thirty seven thousand dollars per year for two years, after which you get an associate's degree. Then you can take the exam to become an x-ray technician. Let's compare this school's tuition to some of the full fledged medical schools the Nashville area. In-state tuitions have been recently:

University of Tennessee....$18,256
East Tennessee State....$20,176
Meharry Medical School....$33,120
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine....$36,600

Only the private medical schools come close to the tuition of MedVance Institute.

There has been some buzz lately about the excessive fees that for-private schools are charging these days. I think this may be a good example. For-profit schools are making huge profits off the federal student loan program. That program has distorted the market. The Obama administration has been making noises about "cracking down" on these schools. I'm not sure what the best approach to the problem is, and I'm not sure that the not-for-profit schools are doing anything better.

But this bubble has to pop soon.

1 comments:

Dennis Thompson said...

Im realy sorry to say but medvance nashville is a big rip off,#1 they keep all your pill grant money,i have $2,506 coming ill never see all the VA students are going through the same thing as i am,also medvance lies about there certifications,medvance said they pay for them and their givin at the school,they should be ashamed of themselfs taking money from students and especially VETs,i tried to talk to the administration with no avail,i wish i never wasted my money,i should have taken my VA money else where.