Online Court Reporting Schools

[Katie Humphries]

I live in Southern California, and I'm interested in going to school to become a court reporter.  Since all CR schools are a minimum of an hour away from me, I've been researching online classes.  I've heard that it would be near impossible to do CR school online though. 

The schools I'm looking at are:  Sage College in Moreno Valley (Private),  Cerritos College (Public).

With Sage College, I am planning for the first 6 months to go to the classes on campus, as they are only 2 days a week.  I figure that it would be best to begin the school with "in class" classes, so that I get the teacher instruction and get a good start.  After that, I can work on my speed building classes at home.

With Cerritos College, the tuition is just night and day = a lot less money.  Cerritos offers online and in-class classes.

Bryan College is too far from me, and their online tuition is a lot more than Sage.  South Coast and Cypress College, do not offer online classes, and they are also too far from me.

I would like to get a point of view from someone who has done CR school online.  The more information I get from the schools, it just seems to be marketing brochures to get me to go to their school.

I guess my questions are:

• Has anyone gone to either of these schools?
• Can you tell me about your experience?
• Did you do in-class or online classes?
• Was it as easy to learn online, versus in a classroom?
• How was the school, overall, with student support services?
• Is there any advice / or helpful information you can give me if you know more about these schools?

Any information is much appreciated!!!

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Katie

[Shanna Gray]

I went to Bryan online. It is possible to do it. I was a part of the last class that was required to come on campus for theory classes. I live close to the school but my work schedule did not permit me to attend on campus. Anyway, we took theory for three hours every Saturday for the first two quarters, then after that everything was online -- academics, speed classes, tests. The only thing I had to go back to school for were qualifiers to get to the state test.

It was a very difficult thing to do, but it is possible. You just have to have extreme dedication. I would get up at 5am to practice or do it late at night. When I started my son was a toddler so the daytime hours were dedicated to him. I started in April '08 and graduated in October 2011. I took the October '11 CSR and passed it. It can be done. Don't let anyone tell you that it cannot be.

Because of the cost, I would recommend a public school like Cerritos or Downey. Honestly, you don't know how long it will take you to get out of school, and you don't want an enormous debt following you around after you do. I know some people  at Downey who are lovely people and they are very supportive of their students in my opinion. You can PM me for more info if you like.

Good luck!

Shanna

[Katie Humphries]

Thank you Shanna!  Great information!

You are right about extreme dedication... which is my only concern with online school.  There are so many distractions at home, and temptations to do other things. 

I will probably PM you with more questions as they arise!

Thank you again!

Katie

[Shanna Gray]

You're very welcome!! Feel free to contact me anytime. ; )

[Katie Humphries]

Thank you Marc,

The 3 people that told me it would be near impossible to do the classes online are Court Reporters that I have interviewed, and have been CR's for 20+ years.  Of course, they went to school before online classes were available, so I dont think they have had the opportunity to try learning online.

Katie