| Fact | Cortiva Institute |
|---|---|
| Type | Private massage and beauty school; campus programs only (no online programs) |
| Campuses | 6 in 5 states: Cromwell, CT; Orlando (Maitland) and St. Petersburg, FL; Baltimore (Linthicum Heights), MD; Philadelphia (King of Prussia), PA; Arlington, TX |
| Credentials | Diplomas (clock-hour programs) |
| Program length | 180 hours (Florida nail technology, about 2 months) to 1,500 hours (Cromwell cosmetology, about 15 months); massage 600–900 hours |
| Accreditation | ACCSC: Arlington, Linthicum Heights, Maitland, St. Petersburg. Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools: Cromwell, King of Prussia (King of Prussia’s cosmetology and esthetics programs are not accredited at this time) |
| Federal aid | Yes; the last published Program Participation Agreement (to 30 Sep 2025) was provisional; not for King of Prussia esthetics |
| Owner | NT Holdings, LLC, Deerfield Beach, FL, which also runs Hollywood Institute |
| Facts checked | 8 October 2026 |
Who runs Cortiva Institute now
Cortiva Institute is a group of massage and beauty schools owned by NT Holdings, LLC of Deerfield Beach, Florida, through a limited liability company (LLC) for each campus or campus group. NT Holdings also runs Hollywood Institute, and its new-management announcement describes the two brands operating together. Cortiva once had more than 30 campuses: its own closed-campuses page lists 28 closed ones, several shut in 2019, and says ownership changes began in July 2019. NT Holdings took over seven campuses, Cromwell among them (it replaced the earlier Newington, CT site); Pompano Beach has since closed. Massage therapy is still taught at every campus, but under NT Holdings Cortiva also teaches cosmetology, barbering and nail programs at some campuses. Programs, hours and prices differ by state because each campus follows its own state’s licensing rules and posts its own catalog and tuition sheet.
Programs at Cortiva’s six campuses
| Program | Credential | Hours / expected length | Where | Prepares for | Sample total cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Massage Therapy | Diploma | 600 h / 8 months (TX, PA, FL); 750 h / 9 months (MD); 900 h / 11 months (CT) | All six campuses | State massage licence (MBLEx is the exam King of Prussia names); Maryland registration exam | $13,939 (Arlington) to $18,620 (Cromwell) |
| Esthetician / Esthetics / Skin Care | Diploma | 750 h / 9 months (Arlington); 600 h (Linthicum Heights, Cromwell); 300 h / 4 months (King of Prussia, Florida) | All six campuses | State exam required in TX, MD and PA, per Cortiva; not in CT or FL | $5,602 (King of Prussia) to $14,911 (Arlington) |
| Paramedical Skin Care | Diploma | 600 h / 8 months (St. Petersburg); Advanced, 976 h / 11 months (Maitland) | St. Petersburg; Maitland | None stated | $13,200 (St. Petersburg); $19,300 (Maitland) |
| Makeup Artistry and Skin Care | Diploma | 600 h / 8 months | Maitland; St. Petersburg | No licence exam required, per Cortiva | $11,695 (Maitland); $13,500 (St. Petersburg) |
| Skin Care & Massage Therapy | Diploma | 720 h / 8 months (Maitland); 900 h (King of Prussia) | Maitland; King of Prussia (catalog and tuition sheet) | None stated | $17,137 (Maitland); $19,152 (King of Prussia) |
| Nail Technology; Full Specialist | Diploma | 180 h / 2 months; Full Specialist 600 h / 8 months | Maitland; St. Petersburg | None stated | $3,995; Full Specialist $12,900 |
| Manicurist; Manicurist/Esthetician | Diploma | 600 h / 8 months; 800 h / 9 months | Arlington | TDLR licence exams | $9,470; $18,225 |
| Cosmetology | Diploma | 1,000 h / 11 months (Arlington); 1,250 h / 12 months (King of Prussia); 1,500 h / 15 months (Cromwell) | Arlington; King of Prussia; Cromwell | State board licence | $19,573 (Arlington); $19,782 (King of Prussia); Cromwell not posted |
| Barber | Diploma | 1,000 h / 12 months (Arlington, Class A); 1,000 h / 11 months (Cromwell) | Arlington; Cromwell | State board licence | $18,821 (Arlington); Cromwell not posted |
All programs are taught on campus; Cortiva’s catalogs say work done outside class on its Moodle and Milady CIMA platforms does not count toward attendance hours. Hours and lengths are from each campus’s web page and costs are totals from each campus’s tuition sheet (dates under “Cost and paying for it”). The Maryland catalog also lists cosmetology and barber programs, but neither appears on the Linthicum Heights campus page or tuition sheet. Cortiva’s home page cites a Dermalogica partnership and says “5+ Certifications Included”.
What the main programs cover
Professional Massage Therapy
The massage diploma covers Swedish, deep tissue, sports and event massage, massage for special populations, chair massage, hydrotherapy, reflexology and stretching. Students work in Cortiva’s student clinics and are trained in spa business skills such as rebooking and retail. Cortiva offers free MBLEx review sessions. Hours follow the campus: 600 in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida, 750 in Maryland and 900 in Connecticut, where the catalog caps classes at 30 students per instructor. Applicants must be 17 to apply and 18 by graduation; the Texas catalog allows under-18s with a guardian’s signature.
Esthetics and skin care
Each campus’s skin care program follows its state’s rules, so the same subject runs 300 hours in Florida and at King of Prussia, 600 in Maryland and Connecticut and 750 at Arlington. Cortiva says a state exam follows in Texas, Maryland and Pennsylvania but not in Connecticut or Florida. The Florida campuses add paramedical skin care, 600 hours at St. Petersburg and 976 hours in Maitland’s advanced version, and Maitland’s Skin Care and Massage Therapy diploma combines both fields in 720 hours. The minimum age for beauty programs is 16 (17 by graduation in Maryland).
Makeup Artistry and Skin Care
Only the two Florida campuses teach makeup, and only as a 600-hour, eight-month diploma paired with skin care training. Cortiva’s program page says no licence exam is required, so the diploma itself is the credential. The programs are small: Maitland’s 2023–24 cohort counted 20 students available to graduate, and St. Petersburg reported none in the same cohort. Students wanting a state skin care licence as well should ask how the makeup diploma’s hours count toward it.
Cosmetology, barbering and nails
These programs are newer to Cortiva and are taught at only some campuses: cosmetology at Arlington, King of Prussia and Cromwell, barber at Arlington and Cromwell, and nail programs in Florida and Arlington. Hours follow state rules, from 1,000 hours for Arlington’s Cosmetology Operator program to 1,500 at Cromwell. Florida’s Full Specialist diploma combines nail and facial work in 600 hours. The Connecticut catalog caps cosmetology and barber clinic classes at 15 students per instructor. Arlington’s 2025–26 disclosure reported no students yet in its cosmetology and manicurist programs for 2023–24.
Cost and paying for it
Each campus posts its own tuition sheet. Totals as listed:
| Campus | Tuition sheet effective | Program totals (tuition, registration, books, kit and fees) |
|---|---|---|
| Arlington, TX | 17 June 2026 | Manicurist $9,470; massage $13,939; Esthetician $14,911; Manicurist/Esthetician $18,225; Class A Barber $18,821; Cosmetology Operator $19,573 |
| Maitland, FL | 1 June 2026 | Nail Technology $3,995; Skin Care $6,168; Makeup Artistry $11,695; Full Specialist $12,900; massage $14,250; Skin Care & Massage $17,137; Advanced Paramedical Skin Care $19,300 |
| St. Petersburg, FL | 1 June 2026 | Nail Technology $3,995; Skin Care $6,168; Full Specialist $12,900; Paramedical Skin Care $13,200; Makeup Artistry & Skin Care $13,500; massage $14,250 |
| King of Prussia, PA | 26 January 2026 (2025–26 sheet) | Esthetics $5,602; massage $14,985; Skin Care & Massage $19,152; Cosmetology $19,782 |
| Linthicum Heights, MD | 2 June 2025 | Esthetics $13,777; massage $16,840 |
| Cromwell, CT | 29 January 2024 | Esthetics $11,250; massage $18,620; no cosmetology or barber prices posted |
Prices are the same for all U.S. students; the Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida sheets add a $350 processing fee for international students. State licensing fees are paid to the state board, not to Cortiva. Students can pay in full before the first day or use an installment plan with a down payment; the Connecticut and Florida catalogs charge a 10% late fee. Niche, using federal data, lists average net prices per year of $25,770 at Linthicum Heights, $27,595 at Maitland, $31,118 at Arlington and $33,900 at Cromwell (checked October 2026); these are yearly averages, not program totals.
Federal aid on provisional terms
All six catalogs say the campuses take Pell Grants, FSEOG, Federal Work-Study and Direct Subsidized, Unsubsidized and Parent PLUS loans, except for King of Prussia’s esthetics program, which is not eligible for federal aid. Cortiva’s last published federal Program Participation Agreement (OPEID 03296300) was provisional because of deficiencies in “administrative capability”. It required bi-weekly cash-balance reports, monthly cash-flow statements and student rosters, and quarterly reports on any accreditor, government or class-action matters. That agreement ran to 30 September 2025; we could not confirm whether it has been renewed or on what terms. Veterans can use the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Vocational Rehabilitation (Chapter 31) and must keep at least 80% attendance. Cortiva advertises a Student CARES Grant; ask admissions for the amount and terms.
Admissions and schedule
- An in-person visit with admissions and a government photo ID.
- A high school diploma or an equivalent: GED, a two-year college transcript, an evaluated foreign diploma or completed homeschooling. Applicants without one may qualify through ability-to-benefit Accuplacer scores (Reading 233, Writing 235, Math 230), except for the Florida massage programs.
- Minimum age: 17 to apply for massage and 18 by graduation (Texas: 18, or under 18 with a guardian’s signature); 16 for beauty programs (17 by graduation in Maryland).
Cortiva does not publish class times on its campus pages; Niche lists evening programs at Arlington and Cromwell. Attendance is recorded by biometric clock-in, and only classroom time counts. Campus pages list admissions office hours of Monday to Thursday 9 am to 8 pm and Friday 9 am to 5 pm.
Accreditation and results by campus
ACCSC (the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges) accredits the Arlington, Linthicum Heights, Maitland and St. Petersburg campuses. Cromwell and King of Prussia are accredited instead by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS), and King of Prussia’s disclosure says its cosmetology and esthetics programs “are not accredited at this time”. State approvals come from Texas’s TDLR, Florida’s Commission for Independent Education (#585 St. Petersburg, #2215 Maitland), the Maryland Higher Education Commission, Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education and Pennsylvania’s State Board of Private Licensed Schools and State Board of Cosmetology. Cortiva’s massage programs held COMTA programmatic accreditation in 2019, but its current site does not mention COMTA.
| Campus and program | Cohort | Completion | Training-related employment | Licence exam pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arlington, TX: massage | 04/2023–03/2024 | 80% (65 of 81) | 73% (46 of 63) | 100% of 46 who sat all parts |
| Arlington, TX: esthetician | 03/2023–02/2024 | 67% (4 of 6) | 100% (3 of 3) | 100% (3) |
| Linthicum Heights, MD: massage | 03/2023–02/2024 | 66% (27 of 41) | 85% (23 of 27) | 85% (20 sat) |
| Linthicum Heights, MD: esthetics | 03/2023–02/2024 | 69% (134 of 193) | 82% (109 of 133) | 91% (108 sat) |
| Maitland, FL: massage | 04/2023–03/2024 | 71% (32 of 45) | 75% (24 of 32) | 92% (24 sat) |
| Maitland, FL: paramedical skin care | 04/2023–03/2024 | 74% (64 of 86) | 71% (40 of 56) | — |
| Maitland, FL: makeup artistry and skin care | 04/2023–03/2024 | 85% (17 of 20) | 73% (11 of 15) | — |
| Maitland, FL: skin care | 10/2023–09/2024 | 100% (34 of 34) | 84% (27 of 32) | — |
| St. Petersburg, FL: massage | 04/2023–03/2024 | 78% (35 of 45) | 67% as printed (its counts, 27 of 33, give 82%) | 97% (30 sat) |
| St. Petersburg, FL: paramedical skin care | 04/2023–03/2024 | 85% (81 of 95) | 79% (64 of 81) | — |
| St. Petersburg, FL: skin care | 10/2023–09/2024 | 100% (8 of 8) | 88% (7 of 8) | — |
| Cromwell, CT: massage | 07/2022–06/2023 | 79% | 74% | 81% |
| Cromwell, CT: esthetics | 07/2022–06/2023 | 89% | 88% | 91% |
| King of Prussia, PA: massage | 07/2023–06/2024 | 80% | 94% | 81% (MBLEx) |
| King of Prussia, PA: esthetics | 07/2023–06/2024 | 84% | 94% | 73% |
Figures are from each campus’s 2025–26 consumer disclosure; the ACCSC campuses report them as of 1 October 2025. Completion is graduates divided by students available to graduate; employment counts graduates working in a training-related field, leaving out those unavailable for work or continuing their education. The Middle States campuses count licensure as passing the exam within 180 days of the diploma. St. Petersburg’s printed massage employment rate (67%) conflicts with its own counts (82%), so treat it with caution. King of Prussia’s three-year massage averages are 80% completion, 79% employment and 77% licensure. Arlington’s cosmetology and manicurist programs and St. Petersburg’s makeup program had no students to report, and King of Prussia published no cosmetology figures.
Campuses closed since 2019
Cortiva’s closed-campuses page lists 28 closed campuses with contacts for student records, including its former campuses in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington, Houston and Richardson in Texas, Miami and Pompano Beach in Florida, Groton and Westport in Connecticut and York in Pennsylvania. Closure notices reported by MassageMag in May 2019 dated several of them: Wall Township, NJ on 7 March 2019, Crystal Lake, IL on 1 April, Groton and Westport on 10 June, Joliet, IL and Seattle and Federal Way, WA on 30 June, and the Chicago Loop campus on 31 December 2019. Dates for the others are not published.
Before you enroll
- The last published federal aid agreement was provisional because of administrative-capability deficiencies the Department of Education identified, and it ran to 30 September 2025. Ask the financial aid office about the current status before relying on federal loans or grants.
- Two campuses, Cromwell and King of Prussia, are accredited by a commission for secondary schools rather than ACCSC, and King of Prussia’s cosmetology and esthetics programs are not accredited at this time. King of Prussia’s esthetics course is also not eligible for federal aid.
- The same program differs a lot by state: massage runs 600 hours in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida but 900 in Connecticut, and esthetics runs 300 to 750 hours. If you may move, check what your future state requires.
- Two posted tuition sheets are old (Linthicum Heights, June 2025; Cromwell, January 2024) and Cromwell posts no cosmetology or barber prices, so ask for a current written price.
- Most older listings for Cortiva describe campuses that have closed. Only the six campuses below are open; records for closed campuses are handled through Cortiva’s closed-campuses page.
Cortiva’s six campuses
- Hartford (Cromwell), CT: 45 Shunpike Road, Suite 10, Cromwell, CT 06416
- Orlando (Maitland), FL: 2600 Lake Lucien Drive, Suite 140, Maitland, FL 32751
- St. Petersburg, FL: 2370 34th Street North, St. Petersburg, FL 33713
- Baltimore (Linthicum Heights), MD: 517 Progress Drive, Suite A-J, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090
- Philadelphia (King of Prussia), PA: 211 South Gulph Road, Suite 100, King of Prussia, PA 19406
- Arlington, TX: 808 West Interstate 20, Suite 100, Arlington, TX 76017
Each campus teaches a different mix of programs; see the programs table above. Arlington operates as a branch of the St. Petersburg campus, and each campus publishes its own catalog, tuition sheet and disclosures on Cortiva’s consumer information page.
Student clinics and career help
Cortiva does not offer student housing. Its home page names career-placement assistance, and students work in student clinics, with training in spa business skills such as rebooking and retail sales. Cortiva runs free MBLEx review sessions for massage students. The Maryland and Florida catalogs list memberships in AACS, NCBTMB and AMTA.
What students say
On Niche (checked 8 October 2026), the Maitland campus page scores 3.63 out of 5 from 81 reviews and Linthicum Heights 3.79 from 28. Cromwell (6 reviews) and Arlington (none) have too few to summarize, and no Niche figures were found for St. Petersburg or King of Prussia. Reviewers praise supportive staff and hands-on training, and Linthicum Heights reviewers also mention help from career services and financial aid. Complaints focus on mandatory unpaid clinic work and extra fees, strict attendance rules, limited computers and library resources, and a confusing financial aid process. Niche does not show when the reviews were posted, so we could not tell whether they came in bursts or were invited by the school.
Sources
Checked 8 October 2026: Cortiva Institute home page and campus pages · Consumer information (catalogs, tuition sheets, disclosures by campus) · Closed campuses · New-management announcement · Program Participation Agreement (OPEID 03296300) · MassageMag, 10 May 2019 · Niche: Maitland
Programs & Courses
Massage Therapy
- Professional Massage Therapy (all campuses; 600 to 900 hours by state)
- Skin Care & Massage Therapy (Maitland; King of Prussia catalog and tuition sheet)
Skin Care and Esthetics
- Esthetician (Arlington)
- Esthetics Training (Linthicum Heights, Cromwell)
- Esthetics (King of Prussia)
- Skin Care (Maitland, St. Petersburg)
- Paramedical Skin Care (St. Petersburg)
- Advanced Paramedical Skin Care (Maitland)
- Makeup Artistry and Skin Care (Maitland, St. Petersburg)
Nails
- Nail Technology (Maitland, St. Petersburg)
- Full Specialist (Maitland, St. Petersburg)
- Manicurist (Arlington)
- Manicurist/Esthetician (Arlington)
Cosmetology and Barbering
- Cosmetology Operator (Arlington)
- Cosmetology (King of Prussia, Cromwell)
- Class A Barber (Arlington)
- Barber (Cromwell)
Campus Locations
Hartford (Cromwell), CT 45 Shunpike Road, Suite 10, Cromwell, CT 06416
Orlando (Maitland), FL 2600 Lake Lucien Drive, Suite 140, Maitland, FL 32751
St. Petersburg, FL 2370 34th Street North, St. Petersburg, FL 33713
Baltimore (Linthicum Heights), MD 517 Progress Drive, Suite A-J, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090
Philadelphia (King of Prussia), PA 211 South Gulph Road, Suite 100, King of Prussia, PA 19406
Arlington, TX 808 West Interstate 20, Suite 100, Arlington, TX 76017