The Good
1. Their staff are all very knowledgeable in all aspects of trucking. It's very rare that they can't answer your questions. The instructors all seem to have decades of experience behind the wheel. My favorite instructors are Constantine, Jose, and Carlo. I find that they have positive attitudes, are easy to get along with, patient and always willing to help you out when you need it, provided they have time. Constantine especially is very patient, I've never seen him get upset or frustrated with a struggling driver. He's generous with positive reinforcement and is very encouraging.
2. Your results may vary, but the classmates I have are all very nice and friendly, and the atmosphere of the class is geared toward helping eachother. It's a very diverse class, people come from all cultures and walks of life here, but everyone feels welcome and part of the group. You're all trying to learn the same skills and you help eachother out. When you go into this class, be as friendly as possible with your fellow students and make friends early on. You're probably going to need their help.
3. They accept GI benefits, so I was able to attend these classes for free. If you have some hangups with paperwork or dealing with the VA, they are patient and won't kick you out just because there's a delay in getting everything you need. Robin in the office seems very good at dealing with these issues and can usually help you out. The guy they have in charge of student enrollment is also very good, although I forgot his name (sorry).
4. If you don't have everything down by the time the four weeks is up, they'll let you keep coming in for practice time after your official course has ended. The students still there from older classes are usually just practicing parallel parking, and they often help the newer classes learn pre-trip and straight-back. I look at them as auxiliary instructors. If the instructors are too busy, seek out one of the senior students from the previous class.
5. When you're trying to get your learner's permit, they count time spent at the DMV as class time, so you don't have to try to go to the DMV on the weekends to take those tests.
6. There's a wide variety of recruiters that visit Shipper's Choice, and the instructors often have personal experience working for these companies. Jeff especially seems to have been all over. There are plenty of companies to choose from and all of them will train and hire you fresh out of school.
The Bad
1. The class sizes are too big compared to the number of trucks and instructors. It's hard to get any private time with an instructor because they're usually busy with other students. When you're in the lot, you'll generally be learning more from the other students than from the instructors.
2. Since there are so many students, you're going to be competing with the others for seat time. You'll only get maybe five minutes of practice in the truck before you have to switch with another student, and the most times I've ever been in a truck in one day is two. So out of the three hours you spend in the lot, you might only get 10-15 minutes actually in the truck.
3. As previously stated, all of the instructors are good. But I do have a small complaint about two of them. Jeff seems to get frustrated more easily than others when a student gets stuck, and I think it flusters some people and makes it more difficult for them to learn. Charlie seems to have a bad habit of answering questions with "you tell me". If we knew the answer, we wouldn't have asked the question. It just annoys the student and gets in the way of learning.
4. They should be more up-front about how long it REALLY takes to get your CDL. While the course itself is 4 weeks, a lot of people need to spend more time practicing after their official course ends. A few of the senior students are still here from two classes ago! Don't go into this thinking you'll be done and working for a company in 4 weeks. Plan ahead for extra practice time.