I had excellent instruction about noise footprints and being a friendly helicopter pilot. Based on my insurance rates, it appears my school is considered exceptional. I feel very lucky to have learned where I did. Seriously, not being snarky! Based also on what I've read here and on various other helicopter internet resources, damn lucky! Which is, sadly, a backward indictment of a lot of other schools. Indeed, another local school just went out of business. Pissed of some local establishments that USED to be helicopter friendly, and pissed away all their money doing stupid stuff. At least nobody got killed in the process
All I can say is don't pick a school that does the minimum, and don't pick a school that only has you flying paved runway to paved runway with an occasional foray into 80 acre farm fields that are "confined". But not everyone has the luxury to make those choices, of course.