As some of you might know, I had been laid off by my union job & with the unemployment rate in RI, there are no jobs available in my union(Local 57 IUOE). There are a lot of members of my union that are sitting on the bench waiting for a job, & most of these guys have scabbed somewhere for another company just to make ends meet. I've been on unemployment for about 3 weeks now, & I decided instead of waiting for my union to find me a job, I've been wanting to get my Class A CDL for quite some time. I recently went to a so-called 'acredited' tractor trailer training school that has commercials all over TV & radio that claims they'll help you get your foot in the door with no problems. The school is about 12mi from my house. My wife & I went through a bunch of red tape to meet the finacial advisers & get the loan process going. They take a bunch of my info down, look @ my wife's & mine '07 taxes, & a couple of other things & they said they'll send us a letter in the mail letting us know if I've been approved for the loans. During this waiting period, I passed by another TTT school that I had no idea was even a school until my wife had told me a girl she work's with has a husband that's going to this place. We found out that his unemployment is going to pay for this school in full & he won't have to pay a dime out of pocket. I went down to this school to get some info on this, & it turns out this school is actually better than the one I'm trying to get into. The 1st school claims they're THE only acredited TTT school in New England, the class is 480hrs., & tuission is $7800. The 2nd school is 240hrs. but is mostly hands on with little classroom time, you get more seat time, tuission is $4500, & despite what the 1st school said, these guys are acredited too! I found out from some of the 1st school's students that they actually went to the 2nd school to get more seat time because they were clueless after only getting 15min of seat time. They also found the instructors from the 2nd school are more friendly & their rigs are in better condition. So I went & talked to the admin of the 2nd school & they got me all the info I needed. All I have to do now is get a background/driving record, talk to the unemployment counselor, & I'll be getting my Class A CDL for FREE!!! I cannot wait!