The Andrews School’s earns a 3.0-star rating from 0 reviews and 2 complaints, showing that the majority of parents and students are somewhat satisfied with educational experience.
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Being discriminated against for answering questions
I was really looking into going into this school after doing a lot of thorough research. I was planning to study medical coding after hearing really good reviews about their program and how you can obtain both a CPC and CCS. My dilemma at the time was choosing between a career in nursing (which i already completed all my prereqs but realized after I did not like direct patient care.) I wanted to make a change to medical coding and the HIM field. I enjoy the medical field and am a straight A student. However, when I was asking honest questions on their face book page, they did not like that and blocked me from everything and told me I am not able to enroll in their school even though I wanted to an have the funds to do so. They basically discriminated against me for asking honest questions instead of answering them. I guess this is the new "cancel culture." I said nothing bad or derogative when asking questions. I was confused on the field of medical coding and was looking for insight, especially from the potential school I wanted to go with. I was completely flabbergasted by the way they conducted themselves in regards to my questions. Blocking me from all email and face book pages acting like I am a criminal for asking honest questions! I made a complaint on another board about this and Andrews School response was "this person is not a student here." So, again instead of addressing my complaints or concerns they dismiss me once again. I wanted to be a student here and they discriminated against me for being inquisitive! I do not advise anyone to do business with this school! Their actions say a lot about who they are as human beings.
Claimed loss: Not allowed to apply to this school based off of discrimination for asking questions in regards to the field of medical coding and their school.
Desired outcome: I would like an apology and I would like them to admit that they discriminated against me for no reason.
Issue resolved. miscommunication.
Resolved.
False Advertising Regarding Wages
The Andrews School for Medical Transcription advertises, and indeed boasts, that upon graduation from their course, you can expect to earn decent wages. WARNING: IT'S NOT TRUE! RUN, DO NOT WALK AWAY!
On the school's website, click on their link that states "How much can I earn as a medical transcriptionist?" From there you are directed to a page on the website of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319094.htm ---
And on that page, you read that the lowest reported hourly wage for a medical transcriptionist is $10.65. Now you're thinking, "Hey, that's not bad to start, and over the years my wages will go up from there!"
This all begins to seem like a great deal for you, especially when you consider that increasing numbers of MTs, indeed most of them, work from their home offices, either as independent contractors or as telecommuting employees. So, most likely, you would be working from home and earning this very decent money, in your exciting new career with a bright future, as a medical transcriptionist. Right?! --WRONG!
Time for the truth: Entry-level medical transcriptionists earn wages which are frequently below the minimum wage. Yes, it is legal in this situation. They are customarily paid between 3 cents and 7 cents per line of transcribed dictation. Most entry-level MTs work for several months before they can consistently produce 1000 line per day. Let's do the math. If you are paid 7 cents per line and you produce 1000 lines per day, then you have grossed $70.00. If you produce this consistently for 5 days of the week, you have grossed $350.00. But hold on! How many hours did it take you to produce those 1000 lines of transcribed dictation? For at least the first year or more, it is not uncommon to expect to work 60-70 hours per week or more, for those same wages. So what are your real hourly wages, after you calculate for having slaved at your computer roughly 60+ hours per week, for your gross pay of about $350 or so?!?! About $5.00 per hour or so?!?! And for the first few months, your rate of production will be considerably LESS than 1000 lines per day.
Back to the wages quoted on the website for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: What do those dollar amounts mean? They are numbers based upon national averages only and, as stated on the BLS website, THESE DOLLAR AMOUNTS DO NOT INCLUDE WAGES OF SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS whatsoever. If wages of self-employed MTs had been factored into the numbers, the hourly wage amounts would be a great deal less.
For those who are doggedly determined to stay with it, yes, over the years, your line count will increase as will your income. But most MTs begin their careers by working extremely long hours and actually earning some of the most alarmingly miniscule wages you have ever heard of in your life. Suddenly, your home office has become a sweatshop--not exactly what you had in envisioned when you decided to take a course in medical transcription! The work of an MT is tremendously skill-intensive and challenging. It is hard work, and it is thankless work. About 15-20 years ago, beginning MTs actually earned a decent living wage. But times change: One reason for the deterioration in wages of MTs has been the outsourcing of jobs to third-world workers; another might be the increased use of speech-recognition software, with the result that transcriptionists are reduced to editors and paid less for what is an equally demanding job.
The problem here is the great deception created by advertising of prospective wages for medical transcriptionists, in order to lure new students into enrolling in the course. The reality is that if you graduate from the Andrews School course, or from any other MT course, you absolutely will be able to find a job as an MT, working from your home computer. But you will work inhumanely long hours over work that is exceedingly challenge and demanding, and your actual earnings will be LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE for at least the first several months.
The turn-over of entry-level MTs is huge. This is why there are always job openings for new graduates of any medical transcription school. People are lured into taking these courses with promises of decent wages for a work-at-home job as a medical transcriptionist. They work for a few months, 60+ hours per week, earning about $5.00 or less per hour, and then they quit--long before reaching a level of productivity which produces a livable wage.
Look at the employment ads from the larger MT national service companies, such as Spheris, or Webmedx, or TRS, or Medware, or any one of numerous others. Find out what they pay entry-level MTs and ask how many hours those people are actually working. Do not believe advertisements run by MT schools, and do not believe wage information reported in any other industry-related website if they have any vested interest in getting your business. No matter what you read elsewhere, the fact is that entry-level MTs earn essentially no money at all, which is why the turn-over is so high.
Also, it should be mentioned that the Andrews School for Medical Transcription advertises that their course will help you become equipped to run your own home-based business. No, sorry, but their course actually offers no training at all in this regard--ZERO. Graduating from the Andrews School, you are no better trained than a monkey to start up your own MT service.
Schools which offer this sort of training are a dime a dozen. One school is no better than another if the job waiting for you upon graduation does not pay you a living wage, and MT just flat does not.
This is a more sophisticated scam, but a scam nonetheless. Do not fall for it!
Nearly 5-1/2 years after posting this, I never once checked it until today. Delighted to see this much response!
Might be worth reiterating that wages quoted on the website for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are, by the Bureau's own disclosure, numbers based upon national averages only. As also disclosed on BLS' website, these dollar amounts of reported average wages have not been adjusted and/or calculated to include wages of self-employed MTs. This is relevant, because these reported wage numbers are not entirely accurate, not reliable, and therefore of no real value--at least not for the purposes of a prospective MT student.
For any medical transcription training course to refer prospective students to the website of the BLS, in order to get an idea of realistic wages, is deceptive. Ask yourself what percentage of MTs are self-employed. Is that percentage fairly significant, would you guess? I sure would. I don't know the exact percentage of self-employed MTs, compared to MTs who are not self-employed. But even if this number is only about 20% or so, it should be factored into the wages BLS calculates as national averages, for MTs; otherwise, this wage information from BLS is not very accurate, is it?
From my experience, it seems unlikely that most self-employed MTs earn more than those who are not considered self-employed. Unless I am wrong and indeed self-employed MTs, on average, do earn significantly more than those who are not self-employed, then the real, accurate amount of this national average wage calculation (by the BLS) would necessarily be a good bit lower.
So if an MT school refers you to the BLS for information on what your wages as an MT are likely to be, please take the above facts into consideration.
Graduating from Andrews, my grade point average was figured to be over 97%, I was proud to have finished the course in 11 months' time; I had no objections to the tough grading system was or to any other aspect of the course. In fact I enjoyed the course very much and was optimistic getting my first job offers (plural). To me, the term "sour grapes" applies to the unjust criticisms of someone who does not have the skills and the work ethic to succeed. My excitement about being an Andrews grad gradually turned to sadness and frustration, when I realized that the School's advertisements about FIRST-YEAR wages for MTs were grossly exaggerated. As I personally spoke with lots of employers, I was repeatedly told of the enormous turn-over rate for MTs, especially during the first couple of years after graduation. And each time an employer would tell me this, the reason was always because recent-grad MTs are customarily and understandably VERY SLOW, meaning their line count is correspondingly very low and that their wages, usually based upon line count, are...well...a JOKE, okay?!?! Yes, it's HARD WORK! Linda Andrews always was writing on those student discussion boards, preaching to us that we had to learn to "WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER, " her words, verbatim. But where the rubber met the road, Andrews School fell way short of actually teaching how to "work smarter!" For one small example, the Andrews School course turned out to be woefully inadequate in teaching how to use macros, word expanders, etc. These are critical tools for increasing transcription productivity. Another small example of inadequacy of the Andrew School course was Linda Andrews' constant directive to recent graduates that (verbatim): "Unpaid job training is unacceptable!" But there was one company, then doing business as "ATT, " which I know for a fact had hired at least 20 of us at the same time, and the training they gave me was well over 12 hours, over a couple of days' time, and absolutely NONE of that was paid training. Linda knew perfectly well that large numbers of her recent grads were coming on board that particular national MT service company; Linda's office had been providing verification to that particular company, for each individual recent graduate's information, at the time of that grad being hired. Linda either knew or should have known that particular company, hiring numerous of her graduates, was not paying for job training. Another example was when I was offered a job at Webmedx (now known as "Nuance") and I personally had to be the one to tell Linda, in a phone conversation, that for an MT doing clinic transcription work, as opposed to acute care transcription, the wages are automatically lower. During that phone conversation, Linda questioned me (verbatim): "You mean clinic work does not pay as much as acute care?!?!" If she knew this and was pretending to not know it, from her tone of voice asking me this question, it certainly seemed very genuine, i.e., she did NOT know that clinic work automatically paid less, considerably less, than acute care transcription, and she seemed most surprised--unpleasantly--to learn this from one of her graduates. (Folks, this basic wage information is absolutely something Linda Andrews was responsible to know, as she was preaching so often that we must "Work smarter, not harder!")
One fellow Andrews grad was a retired school teacher, a lovely older woman who had completed the course roughly 8 years before me. She told me that some weeks she might earn as much as $15 per hour but that usually she earned about half that much. She also told me something of even more concern, i.e., that medical language had changed a great deal since the last time the Andrews School had updated its course. (I don't know the last time, if ever, that Andrews School updated its course, but if an MT school is not offering a course that keeps current with medical language, in general, then I believe a 10-year-old child can understand why that course would be totally worthless.)
No regrets on my part, not spending any time working as an MT. I regret the money I wasted on the Andrews School course, sure! But I'm not sure "sour grapes" describes my motivation for authoring this post.
My purpose was and remains simple: Warning prospective students of MT courses that the hard reality is they are unlikely to earn a living wage, at least not for the first year (if not much longer than the first year!). I pray that any prospective student of ANY medical transcription course will do sufficient research of this failing industry, necessary to ask the question of whether vocational school courses should offer training in any type of work for which you cannot earn a living wage.
Friends, MT as a profession is DYING! Please heed the post of "SSusan, " dated December 2, 2009, which I'm pasting below. "SSusan" has the experience and the real-world wisdom to be warning everyone far better than I ever could, and I thank her immensely for her post as follows:
"After being an MT for 30 years, it amazes me how these schools promote employment upon graduation. For those of us in the industry, companies like Webmedx continue to hire, however, there isn't enough work for existing workers and many are complaining that their income has dropped to below minimum wage. This is the reality regardless of what these schools tell you. Check out MTStars and read the posts and contact people who actually work for these companies. It's almost a crime to take your hard earned money to enroll in a program that very well may not yield more income than working at MacDonald's!"
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Anyone who starts ANY career and thinks bread and butter money starts the moment you walk in the door is not educated enough in life to earn that kind of money. Transcription is a lucrative career but you do have to work at it. Newbies find it difficult because so many want experience because there is so much work being off-shored that what the transcriptionist in the US is responsible for is correcting the mistakes made by others. As a small-mid sized transcription company owner, I find that many come to me as newbies, or even with experience, and want top dollar but cannot put two words together to make a proper sentence when transcribing non-medical reports. We work together to get the work I need and then they find the bread and butter money comes - with availability. It doesn't matter how much per word, per hour, per line, per anything you make - if you don't make yourself available, you are not earning money and if you don't give the client what they want, you never will. I have worked with Andrews' graduates. Some get it, some don't. Those that don't thought they'd have it easy sitting at home and typing a few hours. ANY transcriptionist who makes it, makes it because they have a desire to learn, earn, and take care of their family the hard way - by being the best they can be! They figure it out rather quickly and then post items on the internet about how bad the job is, the pay is, or the people they paid to train them are.
I graduated from Andrews in 2003, and I had a job within 2 weeks. I stayed in the industry for 6 years, and when I left I was averaging $30-35 per hour. My experience was excellent, and I'm considering using them for the coding course. It's an excellent school. Yes, they are tough, but that's good for the student. Quit whining about the hard work and the tough instructors. Geez.
The medical coding program is really top notch. I would not use any of the reviews on here to decide on whether to attend or not, especially if you already thought they were excellent.
I worked with cbay systems india pvt ltd, (mmodal global services pvt. ltd) Airoli for six months from home (outstation). This is a very bad company to work as HMT. I urge everybody not to join this company. Their 85-100% ALLOTED work is worse. Before joining, I mentioned clearly I will not continue in FULL NIGHTSHIFTS, but till 2:30 a.m. and they promised, initially I have to work in nightshift and then they will shift me in dayshift after 3 months, which they did not and when I came in dayshift by myself they have endless problems against me and they Made Me To Leave the company in the end of the month and they blocked my user ID and password not allowing me to work even after resigning to complete a minimum resigning period from the job.
NOW THEY BLOCKED MY SALARY AND NOT RELIEVING MY MINIMUM WAGES FOR THE WORK I HAVE DONE FOR THE COMPANY.
So, I kindly request all my transcription, MT and QA, friends not to join cbay systems india pvt ltd, (mmodal global services pvt. ltd.).
As a disabled student of the Andrews School of Medical Transcription, I was refused accommodation for my handicap by Linda Andrews. In addition, I was threatened with expulsion when I queried about accommodation.
I suffer from chronic fatigue. I requested flexibility on the deadlines for assignments. I am aware that meeting deadlines is an essential for many employers. But there are also hospitals and medical offices that need older records of patient histories transcribed in order to make them accessible electronically.
I contacted the agency for licenses and monitors private schools for the State of Oklahoma. Apparently it is staffed by one person. I called him to discuss filing a complaint against the Andrews School and Linda Andrews for discrimination. Before I had a chance to describe my situation, he went into a discourse about how well he knew Ms. Andrews and what a wonderful educator and person she was. I decided to look elsewhere for information about filing a complaint.
Next I googled "oklahoma board of private vocational schools". Guess what I learned. Linda Andrews sits on the board of directors! How very convenient.
I put aside my complaint efforts in order to complete my education at Andrews. I accomplished this with the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head and continuing warnings and threats from Linda about expelling me with no appeal or possibility of re-enrolling.
I had the EXACT same experience of loooooog hours producing perfect lines, not even averaging minimum wage for several months. I drained my already meager savings account, after NOT working during school, and max'd out credit cards trying to stay alive. It is absolutely darned-near impossible to live independently as a self-sufficience bill-paying responsible citzen while trying to start work as an MT unless you work for a hospital where a guaranteed wage is, well, guaranteed while IT people deal with the IT messes and you can help out with the filing until the power outages are fixed. STARVATION wages persist even after you've been doing it awhile, because this company buys that company who don't have quite the reputation and lose some of their accounts... it just goes on and on and on. Meanwhile, you end up working so ($^@*^(@$ hours trying to pay last week's bills you don't have a spare hour or brain synapse left to hunt for a new (real) job in the community. I feel absolutely enslaved in this industry now!
Anyone who is looking to enter the MT field needs to research thoroughly. I did, and still chose Andrews School although the option of M-Tec didn't look like a bad choice either. No one at Andrews misled me about what to expect. What they DID do was support me when I hit that brick wall when you begin to think "I just can't do this!". Linda Andrews was on the telephone within hours, and had me reassured and back to the keyboard right away! The best schools will be there for you... and when you graduate you'll have to join the queue, just as I have. The jobs are out there. The pay, at first, is small but this isn't a job where you are going to get rich without working for it. This posting sounds like that's what someone expected, and that is sad. I'm a newbie myself and not at all sorry I chose Andrews. I'm not saying it is the only good school out there but there are 3 or 4 that top the list and are pretty much equal in terms of what they offer. I can't speak for the support system at any other school but at Andrews it was there for me. I can't think of anything that says more.
I graduated from Andrews in November 2008, and while I didn't land a job until the following April, I was hired by the employer at the top of my list. I was making $8/hour by the end of my first month and receiving better feedback than other new hires (from CareerStep - their grammar and punctuation are almost always atrocious). The grading scale is difficult at Andrews because it's the same "grading scale" an MT has to face on the job. I am expected to maintain 99% accuracy while meeting my minimum line requirements. Thanks to my training, I'm up for the task.
As for typing - Andrews makes it perfectly clear that they do not offer any training in typing and that typing skills are a prerequisite. If someone with poor typing skills passes the entrance exam and then decides to take the course, they are knowingly going against the recommendations of the school It is not the fault of the school if that person cannot meet their line requirements and earn a decent paycheck.
Having said all of that, I do agree with previous commenters that Andrews offers no technical training. If your intention is to seek employment status with an MTSO, I believe the training at Andrews to be perfectly fine. However, if you want to be an IC, you will have to learn the ins and outs of MT technology all by yourself.
What I think are reasonable expectations if you are interested in entering this field:
+A pay rate that is low but still above minimum wage.
+Employment status means you have a set schedule - you do not make your own schedule unless you are a *completely* independent contractor. I work the same schedule every week and get a 30-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks. Expecting to work during the kids' naps or after they go to bed or whenever you just plain feel like it is not reality.
+You will not be bouncing your baby on your knee while you transcribe. It's just not possible.
Transcription requires your complete and undivided attention. Well, it does if you want to make any money and actually keep a job.
+You can, however, put dirty laundry in your washing machine during one of your 15-minute breaks. I love doing that!
+There's an excellent chance you will have to settle for a schedule you hate.
I agree that the wages are bad, but that's not the fault of the school, it's the fault of the owners of MT companies who won't pay for the knowledge their transcriptionists have. I worked at home for a local hospital and made about $17/hr. That was with experience and working nights (shift differential). Nobody in this economy is going to walk into a job making 40k a year. With transcription, you get what you put into it.
As far as working from home with a baby doing medical transcription - forget it. Most of the time you still have to adhere to a schedule and you have to meet a daily quota for the number of lines you type - even if you're paid hourly. You're doing a job, just like working in an office, you have to have the self-discipline to work and not yak on the phone, play on the computer, or take care of your kids. That's reality
I graduated from Andrews almost 6 years ago and found a job at a hospital part time. When my husband's work slowed down, I added work through a small company part time to supplement. Working on production with them, I would average about double an hour that I would make through the hospital. We did go to voice recognition and now I work full time with the hospital, straight hourly, with benefits, i.e. vacation, sick pay and insurance. The benefits combined with the advantage of not having to pay daycare and no commute, plus being able to write off part of my electricity and gas, as well as all of my internet has to be weighed with the pay. If I were to pay daycare for 3 kids, that would take a lot away from what I make. It is tough when you first graduate to find a job because most people want experience, but usually that is the case with any field you go into. I know someone who graduated with a Bachelor's from a State college and it took her 5 years to find a job in her field.
While I wouldn't label Andrews a scam, I do not recommend it as a program. Every single correspondence you have with them will be trite and short tempered. They are rude via email and treat their students like they are idiots. If you read the tone in the educational postings via their student forum, they really do talk down to students. I wish I could repost some here as examples.
Also, they can't handle critical feedback and will blacklist you if you argue. I can't help but wonder if this is why I was getting mostly A's and still got assigned remedial work.
I seriously regret not attending one of the cheaper options. AVOID this school if you can.
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The Andrews School phone numbers405-721-3560.405-721-3560.Click up if you have successfully reached The Andrews School by calling 405-721-3560. phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached The Andrews School by calling 405-721-3560. phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached The Andrews School by calling 405-721-3560. phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached The Andrews School by calling 405-721-3560. phone number+1 (405) 721-3555+1 (405) 721-3555Click up if you have successfully reached The Andrews School by calling +1 (405) 721-3555 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached The Andrews School by calling +1 (405) 721-3555 phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached The Andrews School by calling +1 (405) 721-3555 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached The Andrews School by calling +1 (405) 721-3555 phone number
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The Andrews School address5601 NW 72nd, Suite #167, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73132, United States
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Checked and verified by Andrew This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn moreJun 30, 2025 - View all The Andrews School contacts
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