shelterbay17

I figured you had to be either in California or Florida.

Definitely go with a community college in Florida. Or, there are a couple of decent state tech schools with good programs. Avoid the private career schools and especially those that say they now offer a "degree". They are over priced and will not be a benefit to the your daughter's education in the long run. The price of one year at these "career schools" could easily pay for a real college degree.

Some hospitals also restrict what the students from these programs can do during their clinicals because of their bad reputations. For example, the students may not get to do live intubations but must rely on manikins for their entire check offs.

With any luck these private career schools or "medic mills" will disappear over the next few years. They have done very little to improve the Paramedic as a professional and have been a hindrance to improving it as a profession. They have mass produced Paramedics to where Florida is saturated and some are still flipping burgers at Burger King after they graduate from these schools.

However, if your daughter just wants to be a Fire Fighter and is just using the Paramedic certification to get hired and has no interest in medicine.....

While I would like to say just scrap all of the above posts of information on education, it would still be good to be an educated Paramedic in the FD. Many of us here got our start as Fire Department Paramedics and some of us entered with a solid college education. Unfortuately, in Florida, to be a Paramedic in EMS, you may have to be a Fire Fighter. There are a few exceptions such as Lee County. I would also suggest a college based program for hiring on at Lee County since they are all for medically educated providers who can present themselves as professionals.

I figured you had to be either in California or Florida.

Definitely go with a community college in Florida. Or, there are a couple of decent state tech schools with good programs. Avoid the private career schools and especially those that say they now offer a "degree". They are over priced and will not be a benefit to the your daughter's education in the long run. The price of one year at these "career schools" could easily pay for a real college degree.

Some hospitals also restrict what the students from these programs can do during their clinicals because of their bad reputations. For example, the students may not get to do live intubations but must rely on manikins for their entire check offs.

With any luck these private career schools or "medic mills" will disappear over the next few years. They have done very little to improve the Paramedic as a professional and have been a hindrance to improving it as a profession. They have mass produced Paramedics to where Florida is saturated and some are still flipping burgers at Burger King after they graduate from these schools.

However, if your daughter just wants to be a Fire Fighter and is just using the Paramedic certification to get hired and has no interest in medicine.....

While I would like to say just scrap all of the above posts of information on education, it would still be good to be an educated Paramedic in the FD. Many of us here got our start as Fire Department Paramedics and some of us entered with a solid college education. Unfortuately, in Florida, to be a Paramedic in EMS, you may have to be a Fire Fighter. There are a few exceptions such as Lee County. I would also suggest a college based program for hiring on at Lee County since they are all for medically educated providers who can present themselves as professionals.

Thank you.....this is all such good and helpful information....I appreciate it.

What county?

Pinellas County.....

My opinion is that regardless of job you intend to go into (remember this may change...decide you don't like it...get injured and forced to retire...etc etc), you want your end goal to be a 4-year degree. You can start at community college, then transfer to state. Or go straight to a 4-year. Private, Public. Just end up with a bachelor's. That's baseline (for hireability and being well-rounded and life experience). Then go for your specific job training (whether that's a PhD to be a chemist or a certificate to be a paramedic).

Of course, many are successful going different routes, but there's no way to know if that'll work for you.

I'm at the age where I'm starting to see friends "stuck" when they realized their LE or EMS careers were not for them and are now trying to get back into real school.

thanks for all the info....passing it on to my daughter.

btw..... she is in Florida

How does going to a career college (vocational school) vs regular college compare in the areas of education, desirability as a hire, salary, etc?

The career college is 1 year (EMT-B and Paramedic) total.

The college is either 4 months or 6 months, depending obviously on days attended oer week.

Then the Paramedic program is 19 months.

Thanks