Art Institute

[marknovak]

Hey guys,

I was just wandering if you could offer opinions on the Art Institute college.

It's a chain of schools across the US - I just need some opinions on it, because I haven't the slightest idea... is this a DeVry-like school, etc?

LMK what you think!

URL http://artinstitute.com/home.asp

[hurricaneone]

Here's what erova had to say a while back, in reply to fospher asking (somewhat) the same question.

It doesn't show the Art Institutes in a very good light, and I agree with what he has to say about 110%.

well fospher i can only recommend on what i know and my buddy has made it quite clear he wishes he never spent over 30 grand on his AA compared to my 4 year bachelors degree from Maryland with in-state tuition.

basically he's stuck in a few ways:

since his degree isn't accredited, he can't roll into a 4 year university and wrap up 2 years of college and turn the AA into a BA.

also, since all he has is this AA, he can't get into grad school.

plus, since the market's tougher these days, a lot of jobs require a 4 year degree (again, this is HR people making these decisions, not art directors).

also keep in mind that a lot of what you learn may or may not be applicable by the time you are ready to get into the workforce. imagine if you had taken a lot of classes in live motion just because your instructor liked live motion instead of flash?

he also said the job placement sucked.

if you don't want to do the whole 4 year degree thing just yet, i'd look more into taking art/design classes at a regular accredited community college, where your options are far more open and you have a helluva lot more cash in your pocket.

again, this is only off of one experience, but i know in the dc area i've run into quite a few Art Institute guys who are out of work and finding the market really tough to break into. so obviously take it for what it's worth...

As far as chicago/mid-west--sorry dude, come to dc and i can help you out, but i don't know jack about what's good out there...

[marknovak]

Well that about clears that up....


Maybe I should talk to erova, I'm in the D.C. area

[wiReZ]

I attended The Art Institute Of Los Angeles in Santa Monica. I knew from the moment I got there the school wasn't for me, but I gave it 2 quarters thinking it could get better. Honestly, I think the whole school is a joke, and for the price of it, it's totaly not worth it.

Unfortunatly with the school, anyone can be accepted as long as you had a 2.0GPA and you had the cash to go(most kids had loans/financial aid of course). So, I felt like the school ended up with all of the kids that couldn't get into a real college. There were a few students that actually knew what they were doing though.

Classes were very basic; stuff that you learned years back in early high school. You have to take one general education class a quarter, and the first one for me was english. In that class, all of the other kids were idiots; they must have all been in the lowest type of english in high school. They were all abnoxious, loud, and rarely worked. I kid you not, it was like high school all over again, except flooded with morons.

The only good things about going to AI was that my tuition included an apartment! But, when I got moved down there, I had some unfortunate news. Supposedly, the person who had the apartment before me trashed the place, and it wasn't ready for living! So they had to move my roommate and I to a new location. Fortunatly, it was 3 blocks from the beach (Marina Del Rey) in corporate housing! It was awesome, the apartment was fully stocked with every little thing you needed! Within a few weeks, we were finally moved into our assigned apartments which really really sucked.

hmm.... it feels like i forgot to put a lot of stuff about the school.....

[erova]

great find, cane, you saved me havin to search for that post so i wouldn't have to re-write it all again!

mark, if you're intent on dropping 30 k a year on an art education and you're near DC, look into the Corcoran (www.corcoran.edu).

They also have an AA degree and just certificate programs. Keep in mind that George Mason, Univ. Md College Park, American and GW all have extensive new media programs too.

I don't know how your grades are, but Georgetown seems to focus more on the conceptual/communication side of the subject.

But I know that both Montgomery College and NoVA have extensive multimedia programs, and would be worth looking into...

[deesh123]

hey im at UMD, college park and i pretty sure we dont have the "extensive multimedia programs" erova is talking about...

or do we?

erova, if you catch this let me know cause i am dying to find an outlet for my interest in webpages here.

-doug

[erova]

Originally posted by deesh123
hey im at UMD, college park and i pretty sure we dont have the "extensive multimedia programs" erova is talking about...

i don't know if i'd consider these courses as an *outlet*-- i think the actual software programs take a backseat to the structure, organization and content of the information...but i don't have time to go through every department to find what courses have major web requirements...

i had classes that required multimedia development in American Studies, English, Comparative Literature, and a few others (not gonna find my transcript any time soon either...)

anyway, just by quickly going to the art department's site, i found this:

undergraduate citation in interdisciplinary multimedia and technology

should be a good place for you to take it from there...

[DOaks]

I graduated from The Art Institute of Seattle waaaayyy back in 1988

I thought it was a pretty decent program. All the Art Institutes are somewhat different though. And it's been awhile since I was there....

It all depends on what you're looking for

[asun2art]

I started out as a graphic design major at Arizona State University and transfered to the Technology college to and enrolled in the graphic Information technology program. AMAZING. Took classes in 3DSmax, Flash, HTML, Indesign, Photoshop, etc.

I partied my azz off during the weekends and got a BA in 3 years with a full schedule and lots of summer school and internships. Now I have no school loans and a great job in my field.

Tuition is rather cheap at ASU also. It's worth consideration for all high schoolers looking to major in computer graphics...

I have friends that went to Junior colleges and art institutes that currently don't have jobs. I would only be looking into accredited universities if you want to manage or be a top level exec some day. If you want to work as an artist or CG designer, art schools work nicely.

[fospher.com]

Time passed since I posted that, and I still have mixed feelings.

Is it common/appropriate nowadays to get a employer support a student with potential? I've already had quasi-extensive experience in the industry - and clients quite happy with my work.

Is it appropriate to ask a job to pay/or part of my tuition fees for doing free work for them, to "work off" my education?