Cleveland Institute of Elec.

[High4Volts]

Anyone here taken any of the courses at Cleveland Institute ?

[Dean Huster]

I haven't. My choice was old CREI (Capitol Radio Electronics Institute) since it had the best reputation for heavy-duty electronics without the emphasis on all the "free" equipment that the other schools offered, basically putting a lot more education in place of the hardware.<p>However, CIE has been in business a long, long time and had always been a faithful monthly advertiser in every electronics hobbyist magazine and other non-electronics mags as well, since the 1950s. You don't last that long if you're a fly-by-night operation and offer shoddy material and put out lousy or unsatisfied students. I'd say that you likely won't go wrong with them.<p>Dean

[frhrwa]

I did, and if I remember correctly it was in the early 60's.. great course at that time, don't know what it has evolved into now, but I'm sure its still a great course given the years it has been around..

[josmith]

This question has been asked before this was my reply. The fact that a company continues to advertise and stays in business is no indication of quality. Unfortunately there is always a new batch of suckers to be plucked. Media like this forum are the best defense.<p>I took a CIE coures in PC repair a few years ago. They covered the electronics part OK but avoided math almost entirely. The computer part was not very useful and they charged me extra for an upgrade because of the hardware getting cheaper and better. (Read rip-off)
I sent in a few questions and from the answers I got it appeared that they were not making an honest effort to give me the personal attention they promised.
Unless you need the motivation of having the lessons sent to you I would say that you could spend your money on books and hardware elsewhere and learn more for a lot less cost.

[bridgen]

A good many years ago I bought their electronics slide-rule with a series of instructional lessons.
Still got it lying around somewhere but the booklets disappeared long ago.<p>A big difference between that and an electronics course but I remember being satisfied with their service.

[Enzo]

Didn't CREI morph into something else? Or am I having another senior moment?<p>If you are looking into courses, consider the closest junior college - or if they no longer call them that, two year college, commumity college, or vocational college.<p>WHile you can learn on your own from books - I sure did - the class/lab seting gives you real time feedback, the learning and experience are simultaneous with the instruction. I don't care how good the response is from a mail course, you still have to reconstruct your frame of mind when the response comes. A question to an instructor in the same room doesn't allow a train of thought to be derailed.<p>Here in Lansing, Michigan, Lansing Community COllege has electronics programs. You can get am associates degree in that, but they also offer specialized tracks that certify you for bio-med (working on the stuff hospitals use), and for avionics. (the stuff used in aircraft and air traffic control.) In those situations you can often blend into other programs such as computer maintenance, or in our case such things as TV production, audio production, and other media, and the technologies on which they are based.<p>The college setting gives you not only the face time with instructors, but also a lot more facility than your table top lab kit from the mail order course. They will have a range of test gear already, and so on. You will have more opportunities to be exposed to new things and ideas.

[Dean Huster]

Joe, I agree that the fact that a company has long-term advertising is no indicator of the quality of the product. It's just that it HAS advertised for so long and I've really never heard any anti-CIE comments over the years, so I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.<p>Over the years, I've never like the companies that have tons of electronic equipment kits included with the "curriculum". Test equipment, radios, televisions, stereo systems and most lately, computers, were always a drawing card. More folks had all this stuff provided under the GI Bill than should have been allowed, for the courses were taken for the equipment and not the education. CREI was known for NOT having equipment bundled with their courses until the last few years of their life. Their curriculum was very thorough while that of most of the equipment pushers was usually very minimal.<p>Enzo, CREI did "morph" into another school. Here's the site of what CREI used to be a part of. http://www.capitol-college.edu/ My understanding was that CREI had a correspondence course and an actual sit-down-at-a-desk school in the D.C. area.<p>David, here's a couple of URLs that illustrate the custom Pickett slide rules you mentioned. They were cute, but Pickett rules suffered with chipped paint, easy misalignment and the "black-finger" syndrome.<p>http://www.sliderules.clara.net/collect ... -531es.htm<p>http://www.sliderules.clara.net/a-to-z/ ... tronic.htm<p>By the way, if you are interested in slide rules (which have a theoretical infinite precision vs. the 10-digit limit of a scientific calculator) the above main site is really nice. http://www.sliderules.clara.net<p>Dean

[bridgen]

Thank you for those links Dean.<p>It looks as though there is sufficient information for me to be able to use the thing again, but more for novelty value really. (Rather like eating Chinese food with a couple of little sticks when better tools are available.)

[paulrevelcet]

I have taken a few, and I have to say that they are not bad if you have a specific goal in mind and you need a structured way to learn, most of there prices are ok but some are a little high.<p>I cant really comment on there ability or desire to help because I never asked, if I had a problem I used the internet to solve it, cie is really what got me into electronics, where I live, even to this day, there are no vocational courses in electronics so cie was a good way for me to learn about the basics and then build on that more in the direction of what I enjoy which is animatronics. <p>All in all I would have to say that if you can learn without the structured environment, spend your money on books, tools, and the internet, and if there is no vocational schools in your area that teach electronics then cie it is, what I am trying to say is, if you have no other choice, then cie is sufficient, pluse you get a little certificate that you can hang on your wall.

[High4Volts]

Thanks for all your input everyone. I have always had a fondness for eletrical things but never had any real schooling in it. Being an industrial mechanic i have more training in AC. I think i would like to learn more on DC and maybe get into PLC systems and PIC. Books are good but i think i really need more of a structure when it comes to learning. CIE has a intro course to electronics that i may just order to get started. Want to make sure i'm not bitting off more than i can chew. <p>paulrevelcet, if you don't mind me asking, which CIE course did you take?

[paulrevelcet]

servomechanisms and components, FCC exam review, A+ cert. and computer tech, electronics technology with lab., Associate certified electronics tech.<p>I am A+ certified, Network+ certified, and I am A certified electronics technician through ISCET.<p>I dont think you will be disappointed with cie.

[High4Volts]

Awesome! Thanks paulrevelcet!

[paulrevelcet]

Just remember that cie dosent administer the certification tests, they only provide the course work.

[High4Volts]

They will provide the study guide for it though. One thing i noticed is they don't say if their exams are proctored? Or are they all at home exams?

[Deal]

I took CREI courses back in 70's and was impressed that they actually graded and corrected my write-ins. I still have some of their notebooks and my old tests. I had little money and few options back then and was grateful for connection from small town North Carolina to an honest outfit. I don't know anything about them now, but would put my poker chips down on them before anything else. PS, I know about the GI bill stuff having taught night school in community college. CREI is actually amazing in that it was able to profit among all the scam arts. Final observation is that their course notebooks were well conceived and well illustrated and look fine (I'm looking at an illustration on transistors) today. Good luck