The Academy of Art University

I studied photography online. I had a couple of outstanding instructors. The rest were average. I'm not sure if I learned much more than I would have reading books and posting photos on photo.net for feedback. The feedback was somewhat helpful, but not what I expected from a university. My advice is not to study photography online. It is more like studying in a fancy correspondence program; only the assignments get emailed instead of mailed. Yes, you can chat on a board. But I didn't learn much from the chat boards that they promote so much. I would have been much better off, reading books, doing self assigned projects at the end of the chapters, and going to a couple of Santa Fe workshops. Find a good program at a NON profit univ. and go there to study photography.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2015

Surrounding City: A+, Education Quality: D-

STUDENTS BEWARE! ... If I could give this school zero stars, I would. This is an institution hard up on taking your money. They are not in the business of educating people. You're better off going to a State University or even a community college. First off, any of those options would be a more legitimate school than AAU. Second, you'll end up with a whole lot less student debt/loans/money paid to this school. Try $824/a credit. You'll be left with more debt than an average job you can get with a college degree from their school (although, they love to lie and say otherwise). Oh and beware, if you decide to get behind on your payments, they've been known to cut off your classes, still charge you for the full semester (b/c after a certain period you can't get any refund, even if you withdraw), and after they will hold your transcripts to any other school. So if you plan on transferring to get out of that blood sucking black hole they try to pass off as a college ... you can just forget about it. They are all peaches and smiles when you first apply ... and really, they let anyone apply -- all you really need is a pulse -- just read those other reviews. Most of the good reviews are all from newbie students who don't know any better yet. If you're considering dorming while you're on campus, prepared to cough up more money 10K/semester... this school owns more real estate than most in San Francisco, because let me reiterate, they are in the business of taking your money. SO, if you'd like a third rate college, where no one will really take your degree seriously, you'd like a heaping load of college debt and students loans, non-responsive student advisors, a school who let's anyone off the street in, and a below average education ... this is definitely the school for you. My personal advice .... RUN, far, far away. You're better off going to a a 2 year college to save some money and transferring to a legitimate school that people in the real world actually consider a real, RESPECTABLE college. How they even were able to call themselves a University is beyond me. All you really need to do is read the rest of the reviews, there are so many bad ones. Look up a state or legitimate University -- they don't have a plethora of awful reviews like AAU. You can't say you weren't warned.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2012

Surrounding City: A, Education Quality: F