The Andrews School for Medical Transcription advertises, and indeed boasts, that upon graduation from their course, you can expect to earn decent wages. WARNING: IT'S NOT TRUE! RUN, DO NOT WALK AWAY!!

On the school's website, click on their link that states "How much can I earn as a medical transcriptionist?" From there you are directed to a page on the website of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319094.htm ---

And on that page, you read that the lowest reported hourly wage for a medical transcriptionist is $10.65. Now you're thinking, "Hey, that's not bad to start, and over the years my wages will go up from there!"

This all begins to seem like a great deal for you, especially when you consider that increasing numbers of MTs, indeed most of them, work from their home offices, either as independent contractors or as telecommuting employees. So, most likely, you would be working from home and earning this very decent money, in your exciting new career with a bright future, as a medical transcriptionist. Right?! --WRONG!!!

Time for the truth: Entry-level medical transcriptionists earn wages which are frequently below the minimum wage. Yes, it is legal in this situation. They are customarily paid between 3 cents and 7 cents per line of transcribed dictation. Most entry-level MTs work for several months before they can consistently produce 1000 line per day. Let's do the math. If you are paid 7 cents per line and you produce 1000 lines per day, then you have grossed $70.00. If you produce this consistently for 5 days of the week, you have grossed $350.00. But hold on! How many hours did it take you to produce those 1000 lines of transcribed dictation? For at least the first year or more, it is not uncommon to expect to work 60-70 hours per week or more, for those same wages. So what are your real hourly wages, after you calculate for having slaved at your computer roughly 60+ hours per week, for your gross pay of about $350 or so?!?! About $5.00 per hour or so?!?! And for the first few months, your rate of production will be considerably LESS than 1000 lines per day.

Back to the wages quoted on the website for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: What do those dollar amounts mean? They are numbers based upon national averages only and, as stated on the BLS website, THESE DOLLAR AMOUNTS DO NOT INCLUDE WAGES OF SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS whatsoever. If wages of self-employed MTs had been factored into the numbers, the hourly wage amounts would be a great deal less.

For those who are doggedly determined to stay with it, yes, over the years, your line count will increase as will your income. But most MTs begin their careers by working extremely long hours and actually earning some of the most alarmingly miniscule wages you have ever heard of in your life. Suddenly, your home office has become a sweatshop--not exactly what you had in envisioned when you decided to take a course in medical transcription! The work of an MT is tremendously skill-intensive and challenging. It is hard work, and it is thankless work. About 15-20 years ago, beginning MTs actually earned a decent living wage. But times change: One reason for the deterioration in wages of MTs has been the outsourcing of jobs to third-world workers; another might be the increased use of speech-recognition software, with the result that transcriptionists are reduced to editors and paid less for what is an equally demanding job.

The problem here is the great deception created by advertising of prospective wages for medical transcriptionists, in order to lure new students into enrolling in the course. The reality is that if you graduate from the Andrews School course, or from any other MT course, you absolutely will be able to find a job as an MT, working from your home computer. But you will work inhumanely long hours over work that is exceedingly challenge and demanding, and your actual earnings will be LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE for at least the first several months.

The turn-over of entry-level MTs is huge. This is why there are always job openings for new graduates of any medical transcription school. People are lured into taking these courses with promises of decent wages for a work-at-home job as a medical transcriptionist. They work for a few months, 60+ hours per week, earning about $5.00 or less per hour, and then they quit--long before reaching a level of productivity which produces a livable wage.

Look at the employment ads from the larger MT national service companies, such as Spheris, or Webmedx, or TRS, or Medware, or any one of numerous others. Find out what they pay entry-level MTs and ask how many hours those people are actually working. Do not believe advertisements run by MT schools, and do not believe wage information reported in any other industry-related website if they have any vested interest in getting your business. No matter what you read elsewhere, the fact is that entry-level MTs earn essentially no money at all, which is why the turn-over is so high.

Also, it should be mentioned that the Andrews School for Medical Transcription advertises that their course will help you become equipped to run your own home-based business. No, sorry, but their course actually offers no training at all in this regard--ZERO. Graduating from the Andrews School, you are no better trained than a monkey to start up your own MT service.

Schools which offer this sort of training are a dime a dozen. One school is no better than another if the job waiting for you upon graduation does not pay you a living wage, and MT just flat does not.

This is a more sophisticated scam, but a scam nonetheless. Do not fall for it!!