iD Tech Camps
Reviews and Complaints

Absolutely awful rip off

For a week long camp Adobe Aftereffects week of June 26 for nearly $1,500 my daughter learned absolutely nothing .

They had some strange nervous boy ( most likely a year out of high school) who looked and acted less mature than the 13 year old students as a “teacher” - who had no experience teaching, had zero experience with subject he was supposed to be giving instructions in. Basically this amounted to a week long babysitting to several kids of duped parents .None of the questions my daughter had were answered, and she did not want to return after first day as it was boring and she was learning nothing. The instructor was busy providing silly games as entertainment instead of teaching the subject which he obviously didn’t know.

My daughter could have learned more watching 30 minutes of instruction on youtube. Their week long project was a complete joke - something she knew how to do years ago.

On top of it on the First day everyone was late to Bentley University in Waltham Massachusetts as the signs for drop off were all messed up.

Then the cameras were not working entire first day of "instruction"

Then I find out They spent nearly third of each day playing video games

I think positive reviews you read on other web sites are absolutely bogus and they are coming from idtech. I know another child who took a different ID tech class in MIT at the same time and her experience was not any better, she left after a day. Her parents were beyond angry.

I would be livid if I paid to have my child stay over night !

Most parents and especially the students looked abysmally uninterested at the “graduation ceremony” .

It’s clear ID tech hires nobody’s for minimal wage with zero experience in subject matter , the kids are left playing video games and are kept minimally engaged so they don’t complain about this costly disaster

My daughter attended ID Tech online camp (Online Teen Academies: Artificial intelligence & Machine Learning). The course description sounded quite promising.

Instead of teaching basic concepts of AI/ML, all they were taught was to copy and paste a readymade AI program. First two days was basic Python which she already knew. They spent rest of the time setting up Jetson NANO and copying the program from the Canvas site.

This is a news to me that copying/pasting someone else's code is considered learning AI/ML

Worst camp experience ever. Teachers do not meet kids where they are — are not skilled enough to reach the range of beginners to advanced students as they promise. Beginners are left completely behind and teachers don't notice and won't solve problems, directors don't even call back to problem solve once I (a parent) told them there was a problem. No communication or check in with kids. My son's experience after one day was so bad he wouldn't even go back (and staff said, too bad you'r out of luck — no alternates, no money back). Courses are not acurately described — youtube channel class sounds like you might build a channel but class is almost entirely about using adobe to edit. Totally software focused.

They make us say ridiculous things as if we were at a three year old YMCA camp they made us call the counselers "Disco Stu" " McNugget" "Skipper""Captain" and "Polo". And I hate all of them. The reason being is they treat me like a three year old saying always go out with laniards on and your name tag. At the start of each day they bang on your door and play really annoying music from the "wiggles" a popular show for preschoolers not to mention one time "Disco Stu" scared me by putting makeup on and nail polish which made me call my mom immediately to get me out. I was also notified that if you go to these camps your parents have to sign a document which gives the counselers "temporary" custody over you. They also put people like me who are sixteen with degenerate nose piercing 13 year olds. They line us up and give us a number for attendance like in prison. They never let us play games hardly. The instructors talk for hours on end. When there is an issue they have no concern whatsoever for people involved they just go with the fastest solution. Then worst of all at the end of each day we have to do a ridiculous thing called shoutouts which means you literally get tickets for being good which makes me sick. Not to mention worst of all when they take us out in public they make us line up single file and sing a song like munchkins in wizard of oz. not to mention the fact that they barely feed you anything healthy and soda is literally all anyone drinks and everyone here but me looks like sunlight would burn them alive. DONT SPEND 5, 000 dollars to go here they don give refunds even when they do a terrible job doing what they were paid to do.

My son just completed a week-long ID Tech camp at Rice University. I want to the Family Showcase today, and it was obvious that no instructor had even looked at his code. My son did not understand even the basics. He had enjoyed camp all week, unfortunately it is now clear that was because he was able to play (non-educational) video games pretty much all day long while he was there. Very, very disappointing.

Don't believe all the glowing testimonials, they are obviously from parents who don't know how to program. It took me all of 3 seconds to figure out my son had no clue and that no one had so much as glanced at his code to see if he was understanding anything. For nearly $1k I expected much, much more. Total waste of money.

Honestly, this organization should be taken to court. They are NOT delivering what they promise. Many reviews can attest to this.
We have done robotic courses around the Bay Area before (for much cheaper I should add) and this one (Robotics + VEX programming) was the WORST. Like another reviewer (Tunam A.) said this camp is "babysitting." The Craigslist-hired "teachers" were inept kids themselves who could not get things working. Today, they couldn't get the software working (the other day it was not enough components to go around) so the whole class played GAMES ALL DAY. My son can do that at home! For $1, 200. I was hoping he would learn something. My son is 13 and he thought it was boring, intellectually insulting and a total ripoff.

This is obviously a huge scam where they say "STANFORD IDTech camp!" and you, the unsuspecting parent plunk down a wad of cash and assume some young, bright computer science major will be imparting some shred of wisdom to your kids. Nope. Not at all. It is purely a fraudulent money-making scam. We have done several camps around the Bay Area. This is just...complete horse manure. Save your money and go to TechShop. REally great value there. Your kids will actually LEARN things, MAKE things and love it. I am sooooo angry...

WAAAAAYYYYY overpriced for what you get! This was my son's first time attending this camp and last. Unfortunately I have paid for two weeks, so he is stuck going. Everything that he has done this week he has already learned online on Khan Academy. The "instructors" don't teach the kids anything. Kids are inside all day on the computers on their own, while the "instructor" walks around. Kids who bring lunch eat together while the kids who paid overpriced lunch eat together. They have an hour for lunch and an hour for activities. WHAT A FUN CAMP! Not.

Can't / won/t provide the most basic info about the camp even after registration (and payment!) despite numerous requests. Endless runaround.
This raises all sorts of red flags...

According to ID Tech's OWN, this seems like a hallmark of a "bad camp":

"bad camps are out there ... The key is the camp director. Call the camp. Ask good questions. Especially if the camp or camp director is new."
http://blog.signupforcamp.com/2009/10/05/pete-ingram-cauchi-president-of-id-tech-camps/

June 23-27, 2014
ID Tech does not teach what they advertise. We want to tell you that our son just finished a week with ID Tech Camps in Houston, TX, in a class called 3D Game Design with Minecraft. I DO NOT recommend it all. This is the class description: With millions of players worldwide, Minecraft is one of the most popular video games in history! Whether you are a veteran or new to the game, this is your chance to explore, build, and develop new skills. Learn how to host your own server, install and manage Minecraft mods, and accelerate your Minecraft game creation skills. Put your construction skills to the test with individual and team-based 3D design challenges. Finish up by designing and building your own roller coaster, then publish your very own Minecraft map. I had called ID Tech before we enrolled to verify that they would indeed learn to set up a server for Minecraft and was assured that the students would learn to download mods and to set up a server and would also learn 3D game design. At the camp, we were not told what to expect other than what was advertised. Each day I would ask him what was covered in class.

On Monday evening, he told us that the students had the opportunity to get tickets for helping other students that would be used for prizes. He was not told what the prizes were but we assumed it be something suitable for a kid who loves computers and Minecraft. He indicated that they really hadn’t done much other than play Minecraft. The next day, I asked the staff for notes or an outline or instructions for what they were supposed to be covering. They said "sure" but none were given. On Tuesday he said they did some stuff with MC Edit. I googled it and it’s a free app for in-game editing. It’s not game design. It is only for enhancing Minecraft play. Wednesday he said they recolored some items within the game. They didn’t alter anything, just recolored some items.
On Thursday I told them I wanted to go to the classroom to talk to the instructor as we were not seeing the instructor when we dropped our child off, just the parking lot coordinators. This seemed to make them nervous. The students were using laptops and two classes were in one room. All the students sat at laptops and were facing toward walls and windows except for the wall with the whiteboard. Students would have to turn away from their computers to see anything on the whiteboard. I asked the instructor about written instructions and he said they would be on ID Gameplan. No explanation of ID Gameplan was given or had been provided previously. Thursday evening I asked my son to go to that website and saw that their were stars and circles, etc on there. We didn’t realize at that time that the stars and circles represented learning modules that would change colors when the student actually clicked on them. Almost all were hollow or not filled in. We did not know the full extent of the items that had not been covered. We did know that they had not addressed building or installing servers. We were asked to come 2 hours early on Friday to see a presentation of what they had done. We realized then that it would not be a complete day but did not realize how short the day would be. Apparently it was not even half a day of instruction. We asked about learning to install a Minecraft server. Apparently the instructor had installed a server file on my son’s laptop. There was little to no instruction on where this came from or how it worked. They had spent quite a bit of time trying to use the trial version of PowerPoint on the laptop to put together a presentation.

That Friday, our son showed us Minecraft play as we watched the laptop. We thought there would be a presentation of all students. There was not. Each group of students and their families were asked to go outside and stand in the grass and his instructor gave the students a certificate. And everyone was asked to wait there while someone else did something in the classroom. Then we were allowed back in classroom. Our son still thought there would be a group presentation time and he added some additional text to a slideshow via a trial version of PowerPoint. My son asked him when the presentation would begin. The instructor said “you can show your parents your presentation”. That was it. There was no group presentation. And earlier in the week they were told there would be prizes that they could win with tickets that they were earning for helping other students etc. The prize was getting to throw a pie in someone's face!

When we got home, I had him log into the ID Gameplan and realized the stars and circles were modules that when you clicked through them the stars or circles filled in as attempted or done. His stars and circles were 90% not attempted.

I then clicked on the module dealing with servers. There was an area that looked like it would be instructions for installing a server on a Mac. But it was only a link that led to the Minecraft Wiki page of instructions and a link to some Youtube videos that are not associated with ID Tech.

My son has completed several self-taught classes through another company called Youth Digital and understands that concept but in this instructor led class, he had depended on the instructor to help work through the modules and that did not happen. I took a screen shot of the “not filled in” stars and circles.

And if your child has food allergy issues, you should be concerned. Our son can't have gluten. When I found out that his lunch was tomatoes on the 2nd day of class, I called ID Tech and then I spoke with a lady who seemed to be coordinating things on location. She said items had posted ingredients and that our son could read the ingredients. She told me about the pizza, the salad station with pita, the sandwich station with all kinds of breads and that the hamburgers come with buns. She was smiling and quite proud of herself. I asked her if she was aware that gluten problems meant he could not have wheat, etc and she said stated “I’m in the teaching profession so I am used to dealing with all kinds of food allergies". She clearly had no idea! We talked with our son at length on what to eat as he was going to have to fend for himself. It seemed he ate cold cuts and French fries after the day of tomatoes. It seemed that there was nothing specifically or uniquely GF. Our 11 year old was supposed to read ingredients and determine if an item had gluten in it. Adults have problems doing that! The $55 for lunches that accommodated gluten free was a waste.

Our son had just finished a two week game design class at SMU taught by SMU instructors. The differences were like night and day. The SMU taught class was professional and educational. The ID Tech class was not. Don’t let the association with a reputable university fool you. What was advertised was not delivered.
Learn how to host your own server, --Not covered at all until Friday morning then only a short amount of time allotted.
install and manage Minecraft mods—touched lightly
and accelerate your Minecraft game creation skills—lots of game play and use of an in-game app called MC Edit.
Put your construction skills to the test with individual and team-based 3D design challenges-- not done at all.
Finish up by designing and building your own roller coaster not done at all.
then publish your very own Minecraft map—not done.