A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Can you make a living as an MT? - Nick

Posted: Oct 16, 2011

I am thinking about going to The Andrews School to become an MT. I have taken the pre enrollment exam and they said i passed with a score of 84%, which i think is pretty good for not knowing what im doing. But, today i was surfing the web and seen a post from someone that was ranting about how the school is a scam and after they completed the course they got a job where they had to work 60-70 hours per week and only get paid 3 cents per line. So, i was wanting to know if there is any Andrews School Alumni out there that have had a positive experience with the school and went on to make a decent living as an MT? I think the school sounds good, but i don't want to pay $3800 dollars for tuition if im not going to be able to find a job that pays well.

How Hard are you willing to work? - Schipperke

[ In Reply To ..]
If you are looking for a job that is going to pay you well right out of school this isn't it. If you are willing to work hard, invest your time as well as money, and then work hard some more to get the knowledge you need then the answer is, yes. Yes, you CAN make a living as an MT. No, you will not do it for at least 3 years. It simply takes that long to work your way up to top speed and get the best jobs. That's a reality of the MT business. I am a recent Andrews grad looking for my first job. I have no doubt that I will get a job fairly soon. I talked to dozens of Andrews grads before I enrolled, plus a dozen grads of other schools. Andrews actually IS the best IMO... I've already had a positive response to a job application and a promise to let me test when they have another opening. In this business it doesn't get better than that. But face it, you are unlikely to make more than $10,000. a year for the first two years... simple fact.

Different school - Cheesey

[ In Reply To ..]
Hi, I recently graduated in April from a school called Career Step. They were very involved in my post school "era" in finding work for me. Literally, I would get numerous e-mails from them about job opportunities. 2-weeks after graduation, I was locked into a paid internship. I am subsequently a full time employee now.

Money wise? Sucks right now. Frustrating as heck. Some high school drop out flipping burgers is making more than me. But I haven't even worked a year yet, so I can't possibly have an accurate gauge on if this is just a noob thing, a employer thing or a career thing.

Cheesey - Monday

[ In Reply To ..]
Could also be a school thing. Some MTSOs prefer Andrews and M-TEC.

Hey, Nick - Nick

[ In Reply To ..]
Just so you know, I am also Nick and have been on here a long time. :)

Making a living as an MT - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, you can make a living as an MT. No, you won't make a really good one for your first year, more than likely.

If you're going to spend money to go to an MT school, Andrews is one of your best bets from what I understand.

The reality of this business is that 5 years from now there will very likely be NO straight typing jobs left. The trend is to go towards voice recognition and lower pay. 3 cpl is low, but the reality is that most places are paying 4 cpl for VR editing, and it's really freaking hard to make a decent living at that rate.

This field is changing drastically every single day. I am not going to discourage anyone from going into it. I've only been doing this 4 years myself and I love it, but you have to go into it knowing that the climate of the industry today is not going to be the climate tomorrow and I believe the industry will be unrecognizable in 5 go 10 years with the advent of technology.

I believe that there will always be people needed to edit the product that VR puts out. It's getting better, though, so there will need to be less and less of us.

The schools are doing people a disservice if they are telling people anything else. It's not the relatively easy money that it once was. People are having to work much longer hours to get the same amount of money, with the only advantage being that you can do it from home and don't have a commute and don't have to deal with idiot office politics. That still weighs very heavily in the plus column for me, but it does not for a great many other people.

Do your research and do your budgeting very carefully. You have to be able to live for at least a year on essentially minimum wage AFTER you get out of school. You might get very lucky and find that perfect job that still pays decent money and has very few ESLs and doesn't bounce you around from account to account, but chances are slim for a newbie.

If you do go into the MT business, welcome aboard, enjoy it, and I hope you do well. Please do your due diligence and research so that you are doing it with your eyes open, though.

Best of luck to you.

Ooookay . . . - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Andrews is not a scam. I believe most of their graduates do well -- they are one of the few schools whose graduates not only get jobs but do well in them --but there are exceptions to everything. You have no way to know if that was a real Andrews graduate, either.

As for the pre-enrollment test, I do not believe it is a test of knowing what you are doing in MT . . . my guess is that it is an aptitude test. You must have made more of an effort on it than you did on your post.

There are missing hyphens, missing apostrophes, and it appears that your shift key only works at the beginning of sentences. The grammar errors actually made my teeth hurt.

In all honesty, if that is the way you write and you cannot see what is wrong, MT is not the career for you. I think that degree of error would need to be corrected before enrolling in an MT course, because it is typically very difficult to correct.

And as for you, - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You obviously are incapable of reading and/or understanding instructions. The moderators have posted repeatedly that we are not to comment on or correct errors of grammar or typos. Online forums are completely different than work and/or academic environments. In all honesty, if you cannot read or understand written instructions, then MT is not the career for you. Though I must admit, you are pompous enough for it.

And as for you - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
Another poster made some remarks about Nick's composition skills, as did I. Please keep in mind that he is considering whether MT is a good career for him. He is the one who asked the question that opened the door. And as to calling the other poster "pompous," can't we behave like professionals rather than sandbox six-graders? He asked an honest question, we gave him honest feedback. Have a great day!

Whether or not you can make a living - Depends on what you

[ In Reply To ..]
consider making a living. I make a living because I have no kids, no bills and lead a very simple life, as well as have a significant other with a decent job to help out. I have been an MT for over 20 years, and if it were not for these factors, I would not be making a great living, but I could probably get by okay.

If I had $3000 or whatever to spend on an education, I would put it toward some sort of degree where I knew there would be a good job waiting for me when I was done, and sadly MT is just not it any more.

There aren't any of those left anymore - Sadly

[ In Reply To ..]
Those kinds of careers have all disappeared.

Some can; some can't - Hard to say how you will do

[ In Reply To ..]
There are a lot of variables that make a big difference. I've seen people who can't even take correction by teachers. They wouldn't make it. Others may not even be as smart, but they appreciate people taking the time to point out their mistakes so they can do better. I'm not talking about on this board, because we aren't supposed to correct the grammar and spelling of others here, of course. Will you be one of the people who can learn from the errors the instructors tell you about? Time will tell. I think a "passing" score on that test is 75%, and it tests for basic foundational skills in grammar in spelling, so it probably isn't going to be easy with a score lower than in the 90s. MTSOs (employers) in our business expect a 96% minimum.

What will matter is how motivated you are and if you are almost obsessive about every little detail your instructors try to teach you. If you've done that in the past when you were learning from instructors, you might make it. If you are someone who just ignores what the teachers teach, you won't make it. If you are a person who only uses good grammar and spelling when you know you are being tested, but not on casual e-mail and when you are talking to friends, you probably won't make it. I don't know you, so I have no idea if you always use your best skills or not. If you haven't been, now would be a great time to start. If you have been, good for you! Keep it up! Learn from your mistakes. You will at least have a chance.

We know those teachers have a good track record for teaching, but each potential student needs to ask themselves if they have a good track record for learning.

If you're doing VR, you'll need2-3 jobs to make a living to - support a family

[ In Reply To ..]
The pay in this industry is dwindling.

Nick - Can you make a living as an MT? - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
Before you even consider studying MT, you need to take a course in the basics of grammar, spelling and composition. This is not said unkindly, but you asked the question. Before you can become an MT, you need to use the English language properly; you need to know how to properly compose a sentence, how to use verbs correctly, and how to use caps properly. I would suspect that the MT world might not be your cuppa cuppa.

making a living as an MULTIPLE - cindy

[ In Reply To ..]
Find something better. You will probably make more without any schooling as a cashier in the grocery.
Good luck.

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