IMG Academy

Huge disappointment. They make promises but do not do what they say they will do. A huge waste of money. This was the biggest mistake of my life. They talk a big game with no follow through. They get your money and do nothing to help you. It was a waste of time and money.

AMAZING. My son attended the baseball camp at IMG, and he had the time of his life. Yes, it’s expensive, but coming from Manhattan, it’s actually pretty reasonable as compared to what we pay for day camp, not sleepaway, which, is well into the 5-​figure range if you don’t want your kid bathing in an outhouse. It’s cheaper for me to send him to IMG than to sleepaway camp up here.
I only know about the baseball program, but, if your kid is training multiple times/​week and really wants to play baseball, or their sport, then try it. My son met other kids who were just as in love with their sports as he is with baseball (they don’t room exclusively with their own sport), and those personalities get it, understand each other.
In addition, I have spoken with the school admissions folks, the camp folks, and they are always kind and take the time to respond and listen, and am seriously considering sending my son there for school. They have folks to help you figure out the financing, need-​based money, scholarships, loans, etc., but like anything else, you need to do your own research and cross your Ts because it is very expensive, as is ANY boarding school. Also, I actually went to boarding school, and you have to be a certain kind of personality for it. It’s not for everyone, and you can’t blame the school because it wasn’t a fit for your kid, or because it’s expensive. I mean, unlike many other schools, the costs for IMG are all laid out on the website, so nothing is hidden, and you know from the get-​go about the insurance fees, game fees, etc.
Regardless, whether at camp or school, we will definitely be back!

I sent my son to IMG Academy for two weeks this summer and after the first week, he was so disgusted with the program that I decided to bring him home early. IMG is only concerned with taking your money and keeping it. The soccer program offers nothing that you can’t get at any local sports camp. Don’t waste your hard-​earned money by sending your child here. The staff is lazy, rude and incompetent. All they are about is covering their hinds and doing as little work as possible. Anything that you read about IMG providing first class soccer training and development is a sham. After one week, I inquired about getting a refund for the second week and after giving me the run around; having me talk to one pencil pusher after the other, I get an email with a refusal to issue the refund. This is what you are dealing with; a place that has no desire to stand by their commitment to young people. The place is way over priced, overrated and a waste of money. Don’t make the mistake of sending your child here. You will regret it.

We sent our son here for one semester and it was pure, utter torture. We felt like we entered the twilight zone after one week and clearly regretted taking our son out of a normal high school and placing him in this money obsessed joke of a school. IMG should be investigated and shut down by the State of FL, as it clearly is a pure money maker and should not be in the area of education. The two areas, education and money, clearly do not mix at this place. The admissions office basically accepts anyone who is alive, breathing, and with either a lot of money or a 5 star recruit who they can manipulate and take advantage of. The school accepts over 95% of the applicants, and does not require any sort of entrance test. That alone should have been a red flag, as almost every school my son applied to required some sort of entrance exam. However, they call their program a «camp», not a school. They also accepts kids mid year and provide them with no information/​resources to transition in a successful manner. The only communications you ever get pertains to the dollar sign. Additionally, approximately ¹⁄₃ of the students are on IEPs and yet the school does nothing whatsoever in determining if they can in fact accommodate students with certain learning disabilities, they strictly look only at the hard cold cash the parents are willing to fork out, and accept any and everyone regardless if they are going to be successful. Kids drop out left and right and they do not give a sh**t, because their payment policy is that they get 90% of the tuition upfront. They also push putting kids on Adderrol, every other Thursday a doctor comes in and sees tons of students to write out ADD prescriptions. One semester at this «school», exactly 5 months, is almost $ 50,000. Yet, the place only calls you when it pertains to money, nothing else. Your kid could be half dead and you will not hear from them. The cost to attend is ridiculous and yet they nickel and dime you to death, everything comes down to fees/​money and only money. Use a credit card, 5% fee, late for a payment, additional fee, need a tutor, another fee, attend the Learning Resource Center, a huge $ 1500.00 fee, laundry service $ 700 fee, ride the bus another fee, attend SAT Prep, $ 1000 fee, use the toilet another fee, and the list goes on and on… They strategically place beverage areas, vending machines and eating places all over the place, that are additional monies, and at the same time limit the cafeteria to just a few hours for each meal, in order to rake in more cash from the kids. My son spent $ 800 one month on food at the school, even though he was on the food plan because it is never open. The school, (and I use that word loosely), is a complete joke… Teachers, (I use that word loosely as well), are bottom of the barrel, with minimum experience and are clearly there because they cannot make it anywhere else. My son was there for 2 weeks doing poorly and not one teacher reached out to me, I instead had to chase his teachers down to talk to me and update me on his status. None got back to me and in the end, once the administration realized your child was a little bit of work they start to play hardball, trying to squeeze your child out. They lie and are completely underhanded and do not care about kids who are less than 5 star recruits. Further, the school mandates random drug testing, and certain 5 star athletes fail almost every test, and yet coaches and administration look the other way. There is no school pride or high school feel to the place, most of the kids travel all week with sports, combines, tournaments and what have you, so a large percentage of them do online classes while they are there. And I question if they actually do the classes themselves, as the place is pretty shady. When my son applied the admissions lady went in great detail, regarding how they get their ACT/​SAT scores up, by manipulating the testing with kids on IEPs. The recruiting of high profile high school players, who are young teens is sinful and should be illegal. It is absolutely disgusting. The football coaches don’t give a sh**t about the paying kids and make empty promises to get them in the door, and once there they drop them like hot potatoes. They in reality don’t care about the star athletes either, taking advantage of them and using them as a tool to bring in more media attention and ultimately money. The coaches spend half their time coddling the 5 star recruits so they don’t leave and the other half of their time hunting down new 5 star recruits to join the program. I could go on forever, our short time there was one big disappointment and an eye opener, we regret every day having found this place because it did more harm than good to our son, we are still picking up the pieces…

IMG Academy Academy’s camp was such an amazing experience for my daughter that she decided to move across the country to attend her senior year with coach Kelvin Jones and the U19 Girl’s soccer team. It has been one of the greatest experiences of her life! There are kids there from all over the world that come to make themselves better athletes and IMG Academy provides all the resources they need to accomplish this and more.

Img academy, wonderful campus, lousy management. Our child attended the golf program and one thing which we observed was how underpaid the coaches were, with the lousy treatment of the coaches, demotivation, low energy attitude and burn outs were all over the place. Sad to see that img academy has been focusing on improving infrastructure instead of people. Parents, think twice before you spend your well earned money there!

IMG academy its amazing! I visited the school and it was so impressive, and it had a really high quality in education and in sports, that i ended up registering my self to apply for the next school’s year!

Our 10 year old son attended the 4 day Thanksgiving Week soccer camp and had the best time of his life! from the moment he stepped on campus he was in awe. The campus is state of the art! the soccer fields are spectacular!
Soccer players under 12 are only allowed to attend certain times of the year due to the intensity of the training. Our son who is very fit and a technically solid player found a new level to push himself to. IMG has given him a new standard to play to. He said he did not know he could push himself that hard. Four days of training at IMG have impacted him more than the last year back home and he plays for a structured professionally coached team.
I recommend the boarding options. Our son had so much fun hanging out with the other kids from all the different sports from all over the world! He said the food was good too, particularly the pizza. Each dorm has a dorm mentor who enforces the rules and watches out for the boys.
IMG is worth the money!!! Our only frustration was with registration… email responses and return phone calls where very slow to be returned!!! I didn’t deducted only stars because the actually camp and coaches are as good as it gets!
The coaches and trainers highly impacted our son! He appreciated their ability to explain the drills in a variety of ways so everyone always understood.

This is the school for the ultimate soccer mom, or any super committed student athlete and their parents. The program is run in conjunction with the world renowned athletic training program IMG. Basically, if a student has athletic talent they want to pursue in college or professionally, this is where they can go to school and still devote significant time and training to their particular sport. My sis who is a devoted soccer player said she often saw many a famous athletes at either Pendleton or IMG going to school or getting their skills brushed up. She had a blast and managed to get herself into a D1 school that was in the top 20 in the country for 2 of her 4 years in college. Now she is pursuing a professional career. I’d say they were a success.