This school started off in the 1940’s as
United Television Laboratories aimed at TV
repair following the WWII boom. later in the
50’s they changed name to United Electronics
Laboratories, and by the early 60’s became
United Electronics Institute.
By the mid 60’s the enrollment in the
Louisville school was around 2,500. Pretty
much anyone could get in, and it was a easy
way to stay out the draft, so the thinking
went. That was reflected by an approximate
10% graduation rate, which would not survive
government scrutiny nowadays.
The enrollment success was enough to
spawn a national or regional chain of UEI
schools, and they made some serious money
doing it. The 2 year program ran around
$2000 for the duration which doesn’t sound
like much today, but an average salary back
then was around $6,000 per year. By
comparison top universities weren’t charging
that much.
They survived fairly well up until the
80’s or so, but enrollments dropped badly,
the same as other tech schools at the time,
and they wound up offering medical office
and secretarial programs to meet the bills.
ITT bought them out eventually, but the
programs had slipped so much that their
curriculum was outdated and scrapped by the
new owners.
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