How do Philly area culinary schools rate?

[sujiwan]

Hello,
I'm happy to see that this is an active forum!

I'm trying to help my son along by doing a bit of insider research for him. He is weighing whether to bite the bullet for culinary school. At this time, due to the influence of a GF (a native of Philly), he is considering looking for work and attending school in that area (we're in MD).

The GF has heard of JNA and someone on CollegeConfidential mentioned The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College which allows the students to work in 4 restaurants. Has anyone on this board heard anything one way or the other about these schools outside what I have learned on their websites? Or even other schools commutable from Philly?

My son has worked as busboy, wait staff, grill and saute cook,prep cook, and line cook to date at Lone Star, a Japanese restaurant , Olive Garden and Appleby's which is what we have locally. He seems to handle the work and the stress pretty well, but would like to move up the income ladder.

He was pretty sure about taking the plunge but after talking to a couple of culinary students/graduates at Olive Garden, he's now concerned that he wouldn't be making any more money than he is currently with *no college* and would be responsible for paying back a bunch of student loans to boot. Is this a valid concern or do graduates do better than he assumes? He would have to make enough to pay for room and board for himself and GF isn't going to be happy if he can't hold up his end of the finances. Does the culinary lifestyle
fit the single life best? I can't imagine being a guy with wife and kids trying to make it around this area (DC) on $30-50k a year for a good job. The cost of living is horrendous.

We parents just want him to go to some college. He's 21 now.

[sujiwan]

I'm not sure how large this message board's population is, so maybe people really don't know.