$8500 is RIDICULOUSLY HIGH. Even with simulators and all that extra stuff that sounds cool, it's just not worth it.
In my opinion, you could go to Harvard University's School of Freight Relocation Engineering Technology and still only be marginally better off at the beginning of your career than the guy who went through a two-week program at Cheapass State. The real learning comes when you go out with your trainer in the real world. More school up front might mean less time with a trainer, but I don't think the numbers are going to work out in your favor. Whether you go to a big name school or not, and no matter how long you're with your trainer, you're still not going to be making any real money driving until you've got a solid measure of experience under your belt. The first year is typically pretty lean for most new drivers, and that makes this $8500 as a proportion of your income that year look really bad.
I went to a high dollar ripoff school that was still less expensive than that one. What I didn't realize until too late was that they charged such ridiculous tuition because their entire business model was based on getting unemployed/unemployable people shoved through their program by way of the JTPA program. People who got laid off from factory jobs in scores of dozens, for example, could use this place as one of their retraining options while they were drawing a pittance on unemployment. There were lots of criminal types in there too. If the guy is too violent for McDonald's, let's put him behind the wheel of a big truck. That'll work. :roll: I was probably the only dumbass that entire calendar year who actually paid for the tuition out of his own pocket.
Anyway, I wouldn't pay $8500 for CDL school. No way. If you don't want to get married to the Great Pumpkin for a year and a half, you might do well to consider enrolling in a program at some Cheapass State away from your home, and weigh the cost of living at the Crooked Roach Motel for a couple of weeks while you go to school, plus your tuition, against that $8500. These ultra-accelerated two-week programs aren't very good training, but I don't think any trucking school can really prepare you for the real world anyway. You need yourself a CDL, and a rookie company, and then you need to get to work. Everything else will fall into place from there.
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