Frequently asked questions

There are many flexible career options that allow you to make your career what you want and what you need to fit your lifestyle if you are dedicated to working hard. Our programs provide you with a solid foundation for interesting careers in: court reporting, government or corporate reporting, webcasting, broadcast captioning, CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), scoping, proofreading, and more.

You must possess a minimum of a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) certificate. Our experienced Admissions Representatives will help you determine if this program is a good fit for you.

We offer the flexibility of on campus or online classes. Many of our students attend school and maintain part-time employment. Please visit our campus calendar to view term and quarter enrollment dates.

We offer realtime technology in our computer labs and classrooms. In addition, we offer the very latest in Web-enabled instruction technology to our onsite and online students.

Prince Institute offers a range of degree, diploma, and certificate programs depending on your campus and area of study. Find your campus below to see exactly what programs, degrees, and certificates are offered.
 
GREAT LAKES CAMPUS:
Certificate Programs:
Realtime Reporting: CART/Captioning Concentration
Realtime Reporting: Judicial Reporting Concentration
Scoping/Proofreading
 
ROCKY MOUNTAINS CAMPUS:
Diploma Program:
Web Design
 
Associate Degrees:
Court and Realtime Reporting
Web Design
CART/Captioning
 
SOUTHEAST CAMPUS:
Certificate Programs:
Office Assistant
Scoping/Proofreading
 
Associate Degrees:
Professional Transcription
Realtime Reporting: CART/Captioning Concentration
Realtime Reporting: Judicial Reporting Concentration
 
Online Learning: You must first align with a campus to qualify for Online Learning. The programs, certificates, and degrees offered at your selected campus are available online.

Flexibility: You can still work part-time or be a stay-at-home parent and take courses. You have extra flexibility with our online courses designed to fit your schedule. Courses can be taken onsite or online, and, at our Southeast campus, our students have the best of both worlds—they can take a combination of both.
 
Job placement assistance: As a Stenograph school, we have close ties to both local and state reporters, and our relationship with our parent company, Stenograph, the worldwide leader in court reporting and captioning solutions, gives us a unique opportunity to assist our students with placement. For placement data by campus and program, please visit Student Consumer Information.
 
Dedicated teachers who know the industry: Our certified instructors are experienced professionals. Guest speakers bring the "real world" to our students.
 
The opportunity to work with modern technology: We offer modern technology with realtime capabilities in computer labs and classrooms including the most current student machine shorthand and software technology.
 
Affordability: Grants, loans, and various scholarships are among the financial aid options available for those who qualify.
 
Individualized attention: We keep our class sizes small.

Prince Institute is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) and is a member of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU). Some of our campuses have additional certifications and/or approvals:
 
GREAT LAKES CAMPUS
Approved by the Illinois State Board of Education
 
ROCKY MOUNTAINS CAMPUS
Approved and regulated by the Division of Private Occupational Schools of the Colorado Department of Higher Education
Certified by the Council on Approved Student Education of the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA)
Approved by Division of Private Occupational Schools with the Colorado Department of Education (DPOS)
A member of CCRA (Colorado Court Reporters Association) and the NorthMetro Chamber of Commerce
 
SOUTHEAST CAMPUS
Licensed by the Alabama State Department of Postsecondary Education
Approved by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education
Certified by the Council on Approved Student Education of the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) 
 
ONLINE LEARNING
To enroll in the online program you must first align with a specific campus.
Accreditations of selected campus also apply to online learning program.

Prince Institute is invested in its students. Our goal is to provide hands-on training and education that may lead you directly into the workforce upon graduation. Building relationships with working professionals plays a big part in the process. Through participation in school activities, community events, and the Prince Institute internship program, we assist students in networking with future employers throughout the time a student is enrolled.

Prince Institute employs highly trained instructors who know the industry and have a genuine interest in, and commitment to, the success of each student. They are practitioner-based professionals who are passionate about sharing best practices from their experience on the job. They are committed to providing you with an education that is relevant and to teaching you the technology skills that are applicable in today's workplace.

Prince Institute has three campuses geographically positioned for the convenience of our students.

 
• Our Rocky Mountains campus, located in Westminster, Colorado serves individuals living in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
• The new Great Lakes campus, located in Schaumburg, Illinois serves those who reside in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
• Our Southeast campus, located in Montgomery, Alabama serves residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

 
Because programs vary by location, if a desired program offering is not available at your geographical campus, students are given the option of aligning with one of our other campus locations.
 
Housing is available at the Rocky Mountains campus—not through the school directly but through the school’s contact with Regency and the Inn at Auraria. There are two dorms that serve the Denver metro area college students. For additional information, please contact the Rocky Mountains Admissions Representative.

Leading court reporting educators say prospective students should be intelligent, disciplined, motivated, computer-literate, and possess above-average language skills. A court reporting career requires two and a half to four years of uninterrupted training, as well as state certification in many jurisdictions. Court reporting students also need to be able to meet deadlines, work well under pressure, and concentrate for long periods of time. Students in court reporting should expect to do college-level work. In fact, court reporting students learn a variety of subjects that are part of many different postsecondary programs of study, including civil and criminal law, grammar, languages, legal terminology, anatomy, medical terminology, computer technology, and keyboarding. One of the most essential things to learn as a court reporting student is machine shorthand. Once a student has mastered the machine shorthand theory, he or she will spend a majority of his or her time concentrating on speed and accuracy. In order to graduate, students typically need to write at speeds of 225 words per minute.

A court reporter is someone who is trained to take official, verbatim records of proceedings in environments like courts, government meetings, and public hearings. The job requires accuracy, skill, and an ability to perform well under pressure. Many people are familiar with the sight of a court reporter. Typically, he or she sits close to the proceedings to ensure that no words are missed, and a variety of technologies may be used to create a transcript. Some court reporters use a Stenograph machine, which records symbols which stand for various sounds or words. Others transcribe verbatim speech in real time, or record proceedings to transcribe later. Technology such as voice recognition may also be used by a court reporter.
 
Once the court reporter completes a transcript, it serves as an official record of the proceedings, and it is usually carefully filed. In some cases, transcripts may be inspected for signs that a legal proceeding was not carried out properly, in an attempt to overthrow the decision in a case. People may also use such transcripts for research; many courts make transcripts of their proceedings available to people who want to look them over.

Income varies depending on the type of reporting jobs and the experience of the individual reporter. The median yearly income for court reporters is $61,800 according to the National Court Reporters Association. However, earning potential is often only limited by the amount of time court reporters are willing to work. Official court reporters earn a salary and a per-page fee for transcripts. Freelance reporters are paid per job and receive a per-page fee for transcripts. Broadcast captioners are paid according to the number of live broadcasts they caption. CART providers are paid by the number of classes or events they caption.

The idea of taking accurate records of important proceedings is centuries old. While the profession has evolved from a pen and quill process to state-of-the-art technology, a few things remain true:

• Court reporters are often at the frontline of social and cultural change as they document history for the official record.
• This is a highly skilled position requiring a unique ability to convert the spoken word into information that can be read, searched, and archived.

A scopist is a professional transcript editor for court reporters. However unlike an editor or a proofreader, a scopist has the ability to compare a court reporter’s shorthand to the finished transcript. By “scoping” the transcript, mistranslated errors can be identified thereby helping the court reporter preserve an accurate record.

This profession requires a detail-oriented individual with an interest in research or fact finding, good organizational skills, good English skills, and the ability to sit for extended periods of time in front of a computer. Individuals who enjoy this kind of independent, project-focused work would likely be suited to the work of a scopist.

The U.S. Dept. of Labor reports that the occupational outlook for court reporters, stenographers, and transcriptionists is “excellent.” Given the interdependency between court reporters and scopists, the job outlook is very good for those considering scoping as a career.

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), also referred to as realtime captioning or live-event captioning.

These professionals can work in many settings, including: classrooms, courtrooms, religious services, conventions and conferences, personal appointments and meetings, civic events, cultural presentations, and more. Captioners often work for local television stations and networks to caption the news, emergency broadcasts, sporting events, and other programming.

These professionals transcribe the spoken word into readable English text using a stenotype machine, notebook computer, and realtime software. Through the services of CART providers, text appears on a computer monitor or other display and serves as an important communication tool for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or learning a second language.
 
CART provides a complete translation of all spoken words and environmental sounds in realtime as they are spoken for the benefit of an individual consumer or larger group in a variety of settings including classrooms, courtrooms, religious services, conventions and conferences, personal appointments and meetings, civic events, cultural presentations, or anywhere communication access is needed.

About 30 million Americans are considered deaf or have some form of hearing loss and CART professionals help those individuals get the information they need. CART is specifically recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act as an assistive technology that affords effective communications access.

Captioning:

• Experts estimate that more than 100 million Americans a year utilize closed captioning to follow the audio portion of TV broadcasts.
• The audience for captioning includes people who are deaf or hard of hearing as well as patrons in noisy environments such as restaurants and gyms.
• Federal regulations require captioning of hundreds of hours of live television each week.
• Captioners use realtime technology to produce instantaneous text.
• Captioning helps the 30 million people for whom English is a second language.

• Captioners work for local television stations and networks to caption the news, emergency broadcasts, sporting events, and other programming.

• For dependent audiences, closed-captioning can mean life or death in an emergency—a hurricane or other natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or localized dangers such as natural gas leaks or fires.
• Closed-captioning allows people who are deaf and hard of hearing to participate in civic and personal events, such as city council meetings, medical appointments, and church services.

 
CART:

• CART providers most often work as independent contractors.
• About 30 million Americans are considered deaf or have some form of hearing loss.
• Unlike computerized note taking or abbreviation systems, CART provides a complete translation of all spoken words and environmental sounds, letting consumers decide for themselves what information is important.
• CART is specifically recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act as an assistive technology that affords effective communications access.
• CART providers usually accompany CART consumers to the site of the event. But, depending on circumstances, a CART provider may be able to work remotely using a phone line and an Internet connection.

These professionals perform a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to run an organization efficiently. They serve as information and communication managers for an office; plan and schedule meetings and appointments; organize and maintain paper and electronic files; manage projects; conduct research; and disseminate information by using the telephone, mail services, Web sites, and e-mail. They may also handle travel and guest arrangements.
 
Office assistants use a variety of office equipment, such as fax machines, photocopiers, scanners, and videoconferencing and telephone systems. In addition, they often use computers to do tasks previously handled by managers and professionals. These tasks include creating spreadsheets, composing correspondence, managing databases, and creating presentations, reports, and documents using desktop publishing software and digital graphics. They may also negotiate with vendors, maintain and examine leased equipment, purchase supplies, manage areas such as stockrooms or corporate libraries, and retrieve data from various sources. For more information, click here.

• This occupation ranks among those with the largest number of job openings.
• Opportunities should be best for applicants with extensive knowledge of computer software applications.
• Secretaries and administrative assistants are increasingly assuming responsibilities once reserved for managerial and professional staff.

Web designers are found in virtually every field. A talented Web designer can help a company enhance communication to any given audience.

Web designers are part artist and part programmer and are responsible for both how a Web page will look and programming the content.

Web designers use a variety of design, programming, editing, and video technologies. At Prince Institute we teach XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and programming languages to meet W3C and ADA standards.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Web designers and developers have titles such as: computer scientists and database administrators (Web designers, Web developers, and Webmasters); desktop publishers (Web publications designers); writers and editors (Web writers); and computer programmers (Web programmers).

There is a wide variety of jobs that Web designers and developers perform and the job outlook varies. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, computer scientist and database administrator occupations are expected to grow faster than average for all occupations.
 
Web designers and developers need to know a variety of skills. Understanding HTML is essential and knowing about the Web server that Web sites run on can help you build a better site. For more information on the skills and job opportunities, please click here.

A professional transcriptionist accurately converts dictated materials or rough notes into written form using headsets, computers, and/or transcribing machines. The transcriptionist must check for correct punctuation, grammar, and spelling, as well as mistakes and inconsistencies within the material to be transcribed.

After transcriptions are complete they become permanent records that can be extremely useful in the future.

Steady growth in employment is expected to continue due to an increasing demand for standardized records. Professional transcriptionists can work for a transcription firm or as an independent contractor with a flexible schedule either part-time or full-time with excellent income potential.