Merit America

The staff is friendly—sure, but that’s literally what they’re paid to be. As for the tech training? Barely scratched the surface. A bit of Python here, a touch of networking there, but almost nothing on actual cybersecurity. What I did "learn" was how to use ChatGPT to write a resume and cover letter. Most of the time was wasted watching endless videos on Coursera and some other site—those were particularly awful. Add to that hours spent on Zoom listening to your "coach" ramble about one thing or another.Yes, I got a Google/Coursera certificate, but honestly, don’t even bother printing it. It’s not worth the paper. Oh, and they throw in a coupon for a percentage off a CompTIA certification—like that’s supposed to make up for it. I really hope they honor their promise of no repayment if you don’t land a $40,000+ job because let’s face it: if you get hired based on AI-written resumes and cover letters, you probably won’t last long.The “job success” phase? A complete joke. Unorganized, unpleasant, and frustrating. You’ll spend hours applying for jobs, sitting through community connection Zooms, and suffering through more mind-numbing breakout rooms. I even reached out to a friend who works at a university to ask about the Google Professional Cybersecurity Certificate. Turns out, it’s worthless if you’re thinking of earning university credit.Overall, a huge disappointment. Save your time and money.

bonus points for this disappointment chatGPT helped me lay out my disgust here! :)

TLDR: MY OPINION IS TO AVOID THIS COMPANY AS A STUDENT/LEARNER

I just wanted to take some time to warn people about this company.

First off they are not FULLY a scam, but they do have predatory practices.

I have finished the coursework for their cybersecurity program and the following are my personal observations/reflections and things to consider if you are looking to get into one of their programs. THIS IS JUST MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

PROS:

• Kind, well-meaning staff
• Some people have reported getting exactly what they needed and having their life transformed.
  
  

SCHEDULE: TLDR: If you are currently working full time or have family or other obligations that take up more or less a full-time schedule, this program is not for you. Contrary to their marketing assertions, this program is hostile for career changers or anyone with a full schedule

• Merit will lean into how flexible their program is and that it appeals to people who are looking for a career change but this is simply a dishonest marketing strategy.
• Yes, a lot of the work you complete will be through independent work on your own time, but their deadlines are very brutal. It is very difficult to complete this program.
• They will ask you to dedicate time to meetings, projects and peer-to-peer assignments in addition to the heavy workload you have to complete through their online in their student portal. My opinion is that this is meant to give an air of support. The actuality is that it is a time-sink. The meetings are mandatory, redundant and do not help you level up your skills or learn new ones. My estimate is that about 80% of the information you receive in these meetings can be obtained through a Google Search/job readiness articles. The projects and peer assignments are similarly a waste of time
• Meetings have VERY little time for people to ask questions about their experience.
• The MAJORITY of learners in my cohort have dropped out. We started out with ~80 people in our squad. We now have ~35
• At the beginning of the program a learner divulged that they had to quit one of their part-time jobs in order to be able to do the program.
• They greatly underestimate the time you can expect to spend on coursework.
  
  
  
  

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TLDR: If you need help with interview practice, creating a resume and cover letter, and job hunting, this program could really help you, but you can find the same resources elsewhere for free or for a much lower cost.

• They are very good with this section of the program. They compile resume and cover letter templates and detailed instructions on how to utilize Chat GPT ethically/honestly.
• There are optional invitations for interview practice as well as practice built into the curriculum
• Your coach will have 3 separate mandatory meetings with you to discuss questions you have and provide feedback to help on your journey
• The caveat is that this basic help will cost you over $5,000. My suggestion is to take advantage of similar free job support at your local library or department of labor. None of the things mentioned are unique to this program and all of it can be found for free or for a fraction of the cost elsewhere
• If you are new to the job market, have little to no experience (such as coming out of high school or incarceration) have never had a job, or are struggling to get out of a dead end job and you have absolutely no idea how to confront these issues, Merit America will FOR SURE be able to help with basic job readiness/transition
  
  

TECHNICAL SKILLS TLDR: If you are planning on learning a brand new skill and you have minimal real world or personal exposure to your field of interest, this program is not for you. The technical curriculum is shoddy and you can obtain certifications outside of this program for free or low-cost.

• Merit openly warns you that they themselves are not a school. Their commitment to providing you with a path to obtain skills is still predatory in that they push a dishonest marketing strategy: “we can help you obtain the skills you need to start a career in a brand new field.” This is a lie. There is very little that they provide as far as technical training and the chances that you will be able to enter a new field with a base foundation of skills that you will be able to build upon in your new career are very low. The program offers exposure to concepts (videos, articles, glitchy/unhelpful sites, google searches), but does not actually offer training.
• They provide assistance with technical assignment completion in the form of a designated advisor that is available most days to help. Unfortunately, you will have to carve out time from an already hectic and stressful schedule to meet with them. You will most likely need help with every technical assignment if you are completely new to the material. This “help” is not training, it is just assistance in completing assignments.
• The assignments they require you complete OUTSIDE OF Coursera are NOT beginner friendly and because of time constraints, you will most likely wind up hastily completing your assignments to meet the deadlines and then needing to double back to do your own research to fully understand the concepts.You will also need to find a resource on your own to continue to practice.
• You can obtain a Google Certification and engage with low-cost, online practice modules in the field you would like to enter for a fraction of the cost of the program and a fraction of the stress.
• So far, I have researched 54 jobs and not a single one prioritizes the Google Cybersecurity certificate. Even jobs AT GOOGLE do not mention the certificate in their job postings or any
  
  

COST: TLDR: There is no way to discern how low-grade the program is until after you have incurred 100% financial liability. The chances of dropping out are very high. They are able to collect a lot of money from unsuccessful learners.

• You are given until the 5th week of the program in order to withdraw without having any financial liability. After the 5th week, you will begin to incur liability until you are 100% responsible for paying for the program. THERE IS NO WAY to get an idea of their actual program by the 5th week as you are still being introduced to the program at this point. Once again, this is predatory. They ask you to wait and see how you feel about the program because things are just getting started, but by the time you are able to figure out that what they are providing is essentially an expensive copy and paste curriculum,  the window for avoiding financial liability has passed.
• Regarding the people I am aware of who have requested a full or partial refund past the withdrawal deadlines: their requests have been rejected due to this policy.
• To reiterate: The program is upwards of $5000
• Like I mentioned earlier, more than half of my group dropped out.
• You will NOT have to pay the program cost IF you complete the program AND are unable to get a job. Take note of the details of my first section: They make completing the course as difficult as they possibly can.
• If you drop out AFTER you have incurred 100% liability you are required to pay it back if you get a job making over 40k (This is ANY job in ANY U.S. location, mind you, not specifically a job in the field you are trying to enter. If you drop out and get a job making 40k as a truck driver, you will enter into a repayment period for your loan). You are stuck with this agreement for 5 YEARS.
• If you DO complete the program, you are only stuck with this liability for 2 YEARS. And again if you get ANY job within that 2 year period, you will have to repay your loan. Another predatory practice. They are not open with this 5 year vs 2 year distinction and they are not requiring pay back solely if you enter the field you are trying to transition into; they are requiring it for ANY field and do not adjust requirements for the area you are in. In my area 40k is just below the poverty line.
  
  

OTHER:

• They mention that they are partnered with companies for the benefit of the learners. So far, all I have seen is that  they are partnered with job boards (such as Career Circle or Indeed), but you do not receive any additional benefit from their partnerships. Merit America will benefit from YOU succeeding and having their name on your job board profile but you do not get any priority, exclusives, visibility boosts, placement or any other benefit. You can sign up for these job boards for free outside of the program
• They are not accredited with the Better Business Bureau
• Most (not all) of job postings Merit highlights for my squad so far are within IT, not cybersecurity. Most of the jobs it appears I am qualified for after completing my coursework is within IT, not cybersecurity.
• Every one of my complaints has been echoed to me by other learners in the program.

I completed the Merit America program at the end of 2022 and it's done absolutely nothing for me.
I started a new job doing analytics a month before I began Merit America. During the interview I told my manager that I was passionate about data and was actively trying to skill up - that got me in the door.
After I was already in the role I thought Merit would help me get the skills that I needed to be successful, but it was essentially a job skills course so our instructors would focus on resumes and cover letters, but they had absolutely no familiarity with data or analytics so learners would have questions and they would just shrug!!!

Not only that, but most courses have one instructor the entire time. We had three. Three people that Merit America hired to lead a data analytics course with no familiarity with data and analytics. Does that make sense to anyone else?
It's essentially a very expensive tech bootcamp that sits you in front of the computer and has you do self-learning Google modules and then you meet with an instructor to get the most basic job skills known to man. Like so basic you could go to your local county's job office and get matched with someone who help you with your resume, LinkedIn, interview skills, etc. for free. 

My cohort had 30 students and a quick glance on LinkedIn shows 95% of them are in the same place that they were when they started. The few who managed to break into the industry had additional skills and bootcamps on their resume (like their Masters!!)    

As if the above weren't enough I've applied for several Merit America instructor roles now that I've upskilled via the Fortune 50 company I happened to be employed at (I also had the right background and skills they were looking for otherwise) so other learners don't have to waste their time like I did. My resume was auto-rejected each and every time!!! Like having Merit America on your resume isn't even good enough to get a person from Merit America to look at it, so your chances of getting a foot at the door anywhere else go down significantly. 

The only thing good about Merit from my experience were fellow learners. I've never met such a bright bunch of people who really, really cared about better themselves to better their lives. Quite a few of us still check on each other and I spend a good amount of my free time trying to help them find jobs in the industry because all we get from Merit post program are surveys, jobs for other programs like Java, and referral bonuses so we can convince other unfortunate souls to join the program to bring our balances down.
 
Don't waste your time! If you do anything after this review please check out your state's resources to find similar programs with state sponsorship for being legit AND tuition assistance because Merit America is the furthest thing from it. 

Merrit America can be a great program for individuals who already have a decent amount of knowledge in whatever subject they’re choosing to participate in. But if you’re someone with zero experience or knowledge, It’s extremely challenging to keep up with the pace of learning that’s expected of you. The material you study is on Coursera, which is divided into weekly modules but at Merit America, you’re expected to complete like three of those weekly models in only one week. For me personally that was too much too fast. They were not willing to let me learn at a slower pace so I dropped out of the program. Not to mention the fact that you’re paying nearly $6000 to participate in this program when you can get the IT certificate for $300 if you do it on your own. So essentially you’re paying $5700 for the “ guidance” of course instructor. And I use the word guidance very lightly because there was not much of it. So really, I don’t see the point in paying that much money for someone to help me who doesn’t even really have the time to help me. The whole time I participated in the course I was basically learning everything on my own, so it made absolutely no sense to pay $5000 for something that I could pay $300 for instead.

I made the decision to enroll in the program after a lot of discussion, research, and thought. The program failed on multiple levels. The vast majority of the content on their website seems to be driven by marketing and revenue, and is in no way truthful. They can't seem to back up the numbers they boast. I applied for well over 100 jobs without even one interview to show for it. I am still unemployed and even further away from a new career than before. I am no longer pursuing tech as a career because Merit America eroded my faith and trust. There is no way I will ever recommend this program to anyone. If I knew where to report them I would.

I have applied to this school through Amazon on several occasions; I was contacted and went through the interview phase and each time, I was turned down.  However, not to be undone, I have applied twice more in the hopes of being selected.   The last 2 applications must have gotten lost in a black hole as I was promised a response in 24 hours and never received one.   

I don't know what to think when a response is promised and is not forthcoming.   It would be most helpful to know what criteria you are looking for in potential students as some are getting responses and moved into the next phase, others are getting responses but rejected and some, like myself, are getting no response at all.   Sad.