School policy

Completion Time Frame:
Students enrolling as of the June 2007 tuition increase: Each student is allowed one year from the date of enrollment to complete his/her program. Course completion is ascertained by the date your exam is ordered. It is the responsibility of the student to either order his/her examination by the one year completion deadline date or contact us to request a pay by month extension. This extension can also be filed by completing the extension contract located in your course package.

Students enrolled prior to the June 2007 tuition increase: Each student is allowed 6 months from the date of enrollment to complete his/her program. Course completion is ascertained by the date your examination is ordered. It is the responsibility of the student to either order his/her examination by the 6 month course completion deadline date or contact us to request an extension contract if you have not received one in your course package.

Extension allowance:
Students enrolling as of the June 2007 tuition increase: We do allow a pay by month extension at a cost of $50.00 per month beginning from the completion deadline date of your original enrollment. It is the sole responsibility of the student to contact us if he/she needs to request an extension on or prior to the one year course completion deadline date. We must receive your contract within 7 days of your enrollment completion deadline date (date of enrollment, not date you received the program) along with the appropriate credit card/debit card information so we can auto bill you the $50.00 fee on a month to month basis. If we receive your contract after 7 days of your completion deadline date, a $100.00 penalty fee will be assessed along with your first monthly payment. If we receive your contract after 15 days, but within 30 days of your completion deadline date of your original enrollment, re-enrollment would require full tuition payment for another year of study time. This tuition fee is set on a yearly basis as noted in our license application to the NJ State Dept. of Education. If we do not receive this contract or are not contacted within 30 days, we will have no further obligation to offer further services to you as a student and you will receive an incomplete on your final transcript.

Students enrolled prior to the June 2007 tuition increase: We do allow a 6-month extension beginning from the completion deadline date of your original enrollment. Again, it is the sole responsibility of the student to contact us if he/she needs to request an extension on or prior to the 6-month course completion deadline date. This extension requires a tuition extension fee. The extension fee for students enrolling prior to the tuition increase is $325.00, however, this can change at any time and you are advised to contact the school regarding current charges at the time you are applying for the extension. We must receive your contract within 7 days of your enrollment completion deadline date (date of enrollment, not date you received the program) along with the appropriate tuition fee. If we receive your contract after 7 days of your completion deadline date, a $100.00 penalty fee will be assessed along with the required extension fee in order to re-enroll as a student. If we receive your contract after 15 days, but within 30 days of your completion deadline date of your original enrollment, re-enrollment would require full tuition payment in order to facilitate six months of further study time. This tuition fee is set on a yearly basis as noted in our license application to the NJ State Dept. of Education. If we do not receive this contract or are not contacted within 30 days, we will then have no further obligation to offer further services to you as a student and you will receive an incomplete on your final transcript. Should a student require more than a six month extension, he/she can pay a $50.00 fee on a monthly basis for as long as she needs further study time. Arrangements for this would have to be made prior to the original extension expiration.

Testing Process:
Each student is given the opportunity at the completion of his/her program to take a final examination. This exam is mandatory in order to receive a certificate of completion and to use our school name as your training source. If the examination is not completed, the course taker is prohibited from using the school name in any way in order to secure employment. This examination is part written (open book/multiple choice) and part transcription. The exam is mailed to you and the transcription portion of the exam will be on the same format you chose for the program. There will be a return by date at the top of your exam, which allows approximately four weeks to complete the exam. The cost of this exam is not included in your course tuition and a separate fee is required. Again, although we try to keep the exam fee the same on a yearly basis, this fee is subject to change without notice. Although we do provide order forms in your course materials for convenience,we also provide the ability to order your exam online, and this would be the best way to ascertain what the fee is at the time you are ready to order your exam. It is the responsibility of the course taker to check with the school regarding the appropriate fee or changes at the specific time they are requesting the exam. You receive one final examination for this fee, however, a re-take may be granted free of charge at the discretion of the instructor, which will be based solely on the outcome of the original examination. If you score borderline pass, that is between a 65 and 69, you would receive this automatic re-take at no charge. If you fail with less than a 65, there will be several options available to you at that time. For students enrolled prior to June 2007 increase, if you have already exercised the 6-month extension, you would then be offered a month to month extension at a cost of $50.00 per month at that time. If you have not exercised the 6-month extension upon failure of your final examination, you could then opt to exercise this option following the guidelines set above under extension section. Both of these options would allow you further study time and preparation for your 2nd examination, which would require the appropriate exam fee at the time of testing. If neither of these options suit your financial situation, you may also opt to re-test within two weeks of receipt of your final exam results, which would also require the appropriate exam fee set at the time of testing. Students enrolling as of June 2007 tuition increase will have the option of a month to month extension at a cost of $50.00 per month if they do fail their first exam and need further study time prior to re-test. Further explanation and guidelines will be included at the time you receive your exam results regarding these options.

The exam must be ordered prior to your enrollment completion date regardless if this is an original or re-enrollment. If the exam is not ordered by that date, but within 7 days past that date, a $50.00 late fee will be assessed. If the exam is ordered after 7 days, but within 15 days of the enrollment completion date, a $100.00 late fee will be assessed.

After 15 days, the student will receive an incomplete. If the student has not exercised the extension enrollment and contacts us within 30 days from the completion deadline date wishing to test, the student would be required to pay the present extension fee in order to become re-instated as a student prior to testing. Once again, the extension would run concurrent from the original completion deadline date and the student would be required to pay the present exam fee and $100.00 late fee at the time of testing. If the student has already exercised the extension option and has not contacted us within 15 days of their completion deadline date, he/she will receive an incomplete and the school will have no further obligation at that time regarding testing, services, job placement, etc.

Grading process:
The written portion of the exam you receive is an open book test. Because of this, the exam is a weighted exam, so the point deductions will not always correspond to the amount of questions given.

Deductions are taken off as follows:
Written:
5 points deducted for each incorrect answer.

Transcription:
3 points deducted for each incorrect , missing, or misspelled word.
1 point deducted for each blank representative of one word.
1 point deducted for each blank with an incorrect underlined word (guess).

Final Grading:
70 to a 100 - passing grade.
65 to 69 - Fail/borderline grade with possibility of re-test at discretion of the instructor.
Below 65 - Fail - Re-test in six months.

Final grade comprised of 25% written/75% transcription. Referencing, sentence structure, proofreading, and spell checking are also taken into consideration. You must pass both parts of the examination in order to receive a final grade. Failure to pass one or both parts of the exam will result in re-take following the procedures set forth above.

It is recommended that a student score 80 or above to be assured they will be able to pass company employment tests.

You will receive a formal disclosure/agreement regarding more in-depth, up-to-date policies/guidelines regarding the testing process included in your exam packet. Please be sure to read, sign, and return along with your completed exam. Also, as noted in your exam instructions, please be sure to return the tape or CD along with your completed exam. No exam will be graded if we do not receive your agreement or tape/CD.

Payment Plans:
If a payment plan payment is declined for any reason, you will be assessed a $20.00 decline fee charge as of 1/2007. We then will contact you to obtain new processing information on that day via email/phone or both. If you do not contact us within 24 hours of our contact, you will be assessed a $5.00 late fee for 7 days. If we do not hear from you within that 7 days, your account will be turned over to our collection agency. Once that has occurred, and you contact us within 30 days of that time wishing to continue your enrollment, the total remaining balance on your account including any decline/late/collection fees plus a re-enrollment fee will be required at that time in order to continue the course. After 30 day's time, no further options will be available and collection will be continued through the collection agency. Please refer to Payment Plan page for further explanation of payment plan agreement additions and/or changes.

Support/Services
We operate Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST. If you call and receive voice mail, we do begin returning all phone calls after 1 p.m. EST. If you call after hours or out of our time zone, we will return your call that day or if not possible, on the following business day. Since this is a distance learning program and we have students from all different time zones, we do have email support available daily. We try to respond to emails within hours of receiving them, but no longer than 24 hours. If you require assistance or support during off-hours or would like a quicker response, we recommend email.

We also have summer hours as follows:
June through August - 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST with email support available during off-hours.

We also observe the following holidays:
New Year's Day
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Thanksgiving
Memorial Day
Labor Day
Good Friday

Email inquiries received on holidays will be responded to on the next day of operation.

We also have two vacation breaks as follows:
One week during the month of April and one week during the month of October.
These weeks are determined at random and email support will still be available during this time, but is limited. You will receive an auto response informing you of our date of return during this time and if it is an emergency, you will receive a personal response within 24 hours. All others will be directed to contact us upon our return.

Although we do take pride in providing very personal service and support to each individual student, it is impossible to be available 24/7. Each student's question or concern is very important to us and we ask that upon emailing or calling, you have patience as we will respond as quickly as possible.

Job Placement Assistance
Over the years we have been offering our training program, we have come to have a very good track record and reputation with regard to assisting our graduates with obtaining jobs. Although it is totally impossible for any school to guarantee placement, we do make every effort possible to assist you during this time. We have developed a great reputation for sending employers work ready MTs and most waive the experience requirement concerning our graduates.

Of course, this profession is like any other profession and job placement is not always done immediately. We ask graduates to have patience during this time as we have no control over the industry hiring slumps or peaks. We can proudly state that to date we have had 98% placement of our graduates whether through referrals or through graduates obtaining their own jobs and the work success rate is very high. This is proof of the integrity of our school and the reputation we have attained in providing work ready transcriptionists.

Again, it is not difficult to obtain a position in this field, but one must remember that you will be entering this profession at the entry level. This may not always present the job criteria you have in mind. The reality is if you get your foot into an at home position, you must have patience and show an effort sometimes requiring 3 months to become acclimated. Once you gain experience, the profession will present opportunities that will fit the criteria you are looking for. Until that time, it is most important to remember that any opportunity that comes your way is an opportunity that many do not get. When you are hired as an entry-level candidate, you do receive ongoing training that takes a lot of time and manpower. It takes time, patience, and a willingness to learn on your part to get to the point where you can pick and choose the companies you would or would not like to work for. So, it is most important to realize that should we assist you with securing an employment position and for whatever reason it may not work out, we cannot guarantee that we can provide you with another opportunity as we have ongoing graduates also seeking positions. All we ask is that you put a true effort forth and give any opportunity a chance.

*Policy subject to change without notice* Because we are a distance learning school, all notices and/or policy changes will be posted on our school web site. It is the student's responsibility to view this policy at the time he/she has any questions or issues regarding school policy for any changes and/or additions to same. In the event there are any policy changes and/or additions posted on the web site, these additions and/or changes will replace any written policy information you may have received with your course materials. Any fees listed on this page can be subject to increase at any time. Fee changes will be posted to this page and CAI will not be responsible for notifying you of these changes. Again, it will be the sole responsibility of each student to visit this site regularly to review any possible changes and/or contact the school directly

BACK TO HOME PAGE