Reviews

WARNING: ????????IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A #gunsmithing #school look elsewhere. #sdi Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI) is the worst school for #military #militaryveterans and/or #spouses to attend. They will act nice and welcoming. However, when they do your annual #evaluation they will s**** you over. They will take the word of the one person who does your evaluation of the students, faculty, and colleagues of yours.#karma will hit all who took part.

Thankfully I was able to use the ** Bill to fund my experience with SDI. I say thankfully because if I had paid for this out of pocket, I would have sued them. Where to begin? I asked a question in January and to this day, I still have not gotten an answer. 3 of the tools I was sent were already broken. They do not provide everything you will need and if you don't already have a head start on what you will need you're screwed, they don't tell you in advance. None of the teachers seemed like they knew what they were supposedly teaching, since most of this school is read this, watch this, write this, you learned it. Supposedly a hands on school right? They routinely say incorrect things about the military, and use incorrect terminology like "cam stud", while teaching you about the rifle. Here's a fun fact, if you look up cam stud not one AR-15 part pops up. Now if you get crazy and type out "bolt cam stud" you will get results for a "bolt cam pin" which is what it's actually called. Instead of giving the correct torque specs for the castle nut, they (and I wish I was kidding) said "don't twist it like a gorilla". The rifle they sent me had to be fixed (not part of the class) before I could even complete it. The finish was chipping, the safety selector had to be filled so it could rotate on the detent, the hole for the gas tube had to be filed so the gas tube could fit, the gas tube rests directly on top of the barrel nut, the cut out on the buffer tube for the lock plate was cut too wide and allows excessive movement for tube itself. It got to a point where I asked my "instructor" what he gets paid for because he clearly doesn't know how to do it. But don't worry, they'll send it up for advisement just be sure to fill out the survey. I almost forgot, we were litteraly told not to use the term "dummy rounds" just for it to be on a freaking quiz. Do yourself a favor and go to ANY other school. DO NOT GO TO SDI.

This school is an absolute scam. I am seeking legal counsel, because they told me the classes were self paced which I need as a working single parent. Once the classes started they weren't self paced at all. This made it difficult for me to finish all class work on time and work to make ends meet. I reached out to them to explain this and the finance department told me I should take out a student loan to help make ends meet so I took out a small one since I do want an education, but my kids still have to eat in the meantime. They held onto the money and give me completely random disbursements I can't rely on so I haven't been able to attend and meanwhile my money is probably sitting in an interest bearing account for them. Not to mention the classes are an absolute joke. It's always read a chapter from a textbook then write ******* words and take a quiz. There isn't any hands on other than the occassional lab which has very little guidance at all. When they talk about for profit institutions being a scam and leaving people worse off they were talking about SDI.SDI is at the forefront of the student crisis.

Full Disclosure: Sonoran Desert Institute is an absolute joke. Do not waste your money or allow them to further ******* federal education funds in your name or from your service member education funding benefits. The courses lack actual instruction, the course material consists of 98% various ******* links which are not made by or for SDI instruction/instructors. I withdrew from classes after my 2nd semester, and have since filed an official petition with the federal student loan board to have any/all federal moneys returned on the basis of the institution failing to provide the promised level of education/knowledge as well as the blatant misinformation SDI feeds potential victims (aka future students) regarding the validity of ones "credentials" upon completion of their *********** of ******* Sciences Degree in Firearms Technology" which is not recognized by any reputable name in the industry (or anyone in the industry for that matter aside from being an overpriced, sad joke) nor is it offered anywhere else in the country because it is an entirely made-up degree. I am now currently entirely prevented from enrolling in courses elsewhere (need to complete a final semester to obtain my teaching cert. in high school Special **** due to Sonoran Desert Institutes refusal to release my, 2 semester, transcript while I wait for the f*** ***** of *** to get around to reviewing/granting a release of responsibility for the partial semester they claim I owe tuition for after withdrawing (despite having already been charged in full for said tuition). These people are straight up snake oil salesmen. Stay far, far away!

Certified gunsmith through SDI and half way through an associates degree with SDI right now. Good people and learning material.