Ozgrade3,
Nice to hear your friends and acquaintances have found a pleasant experience here. No one actually comes out ahead by abusing people in training. And while my personal experience over the years is somewhat out of date, I trained many places here in the USA and never had a toxic experience. It's not part of the av culture here generally.
As for the application/interview mechanism, there's always room for mistreatment in any country and while it doesn't routinely happen here it's not unheard of. Once one gets away from the cubicle droids, they may find a positive experience.
So, you gonna take the plunge yourself ?