The Academy of Art University

I am going into my second year at AAU, I transferred to AAU in 2009, completing a year at my community college to complete my liberal arts. I am an interior design major.

- First off, if you plan on coming to AAU, wait a year and go to a community college or state school to get your liberals done, it will save you a TON of money, theres no reason to pay 2200 for an english class when you could pay 200 for it.

- Also if you enjoy having a ton of time to hang out with friends and party, think twice about coming here, the homework work load is intense, especially in the IAD major. During finals week, which in reality is like the last 2 weeks of the semester, you wont see the outside of a drafting table of computer screen.

- The teachers in the IAD major are overall good, if you the right ones, there are a few that are not that great. Also when it comes to taking the survey classes, take them online, the teacher is really boring and in my case ended up falling asleep every class.

- The teachers to get are Stephanie, Eric, and Molly. Molly, you will probably hate from start to end, I did, but in the end you WILL learn to draw perspective like no other person who didnt have her.

- It is hard to get to know people outside of your major because the campus is all over SF, thats what great about this school and not, you get to see all parts of SF, but its hard to meet other people in other majors.

- Try living in the dorms at least for a year, that way you will get to know a TON of people in different majors, my best friend is a fashion major, which led to meeting other people.

- This is school is VERY competitive, people in your major are always seeing whose the best and what theyre doing, so they can bet you. You have to be on top of your game and do your best because when you have to hang ur stuff up in front of class, your classmates are going to tear you apart. You HAVE to be strong and not be afraid of people when they say things about your work

- Find a few REALLY good friends in your major, they are the ones that are gonna challenge you and help you along the way, its like an undercover competition, but they are always going to be there to help and encourage you.

- With the IAD major, teachers wont tell you where to find fabrics or floor samples, but thats part of the learning process, at first you will be running literally all over SF to find a wood floor sample, but eventually you will find where you can get amazing samples. Thats another things, if you dont know where to get materials, dont be afraid and ask another student where they get theres from, and you can always trade materials with fellow friends and class mate. Thats why too, in your 1st semester in materials class, GO TO FIELD TRIPS! you learn soo much! (Eric takes you on a ton of field trips, which means a ton of free flooring and fabric samples)

- Lastly, art school is expensive, AAU is actually one of the more least expensive art schools, and art supplies are VERY expensive and more than likely you will be running around the city and buying art supplies every week, thats why you have to be serious and know you are going to have to work really hard.

1st Year Female -- Class 2012

Collaboration/Competitive: A+, Social Life: C+

If you think this describes you then you might feel the same...
In high school I was academic, involved in sports, very social, out going and open minded.
My opinion.....
Keep in mind I'm not one of those students who flunked out and am now writing this to smear aau's "good name". This is coming from someone who was entirely open minded the whole time and didn't trust the other negative messages I've read. Sorry if this is long but I want to break down my opinion into topics so I can fully give you the pros and cons of things.

EDUCATION:
In high school I challenged myself with AP and honors courses, so you can see how I was surprised when I found the course work to be lacking at AAU. My art and design classes were good experiences because I had never had courses dedicated to specific areas of an art discipline. The other classes like astrology, math courses, english courses, were JOKES. Absolute jokes. I learned nothing new and felt like I wasted time and money. I understand they might have made those classes more lenient because it's hard for other students to balance it with their intensive art projects.... but still... we were in college.. and it felt very much like I was being babied. If you're someone who likes to learn about all different types of topics and not just focus on one subject for the next 4 years then this school is not for you!

The teachers I can't say entirely too much for because it's honestly hit or miss. My teachers who were good were AMAZING... but my teachers who were bad were HORRIBLE. Sadly there really was no in between...

CAMPUS/ FACILITIES:

The campus doesn't feel like a "campus" at all. It's only a few spread out buildings throughout san francisco that you use aau busses to get to. AAU advertises the feeling of their campus to be "the city is your campus" but in actuality that's a bit of a stretch. It feels like I'm just going to a commuter school and everyone has to take these ridiculously timed and unrealiable buses. The actual facilities themselves are just OKAY. Even though AAU does cost quite the penny, the facilities provide 'most' of what you need to do what your classes assign. This is a shame though, because think of how much better the facilities could be if AAU didn't pool so much money into advertising and other things to boost their vanity.

Yes the 'campus' is in San Francisco and SF is possibly THE greatest city I've ever been to, it has it's cons. Yes the city has a lot to offer to do in your spare time, but one can only afford to go out so much.(Unless you're one of those snooty rich kids who don't have to worry about this) If you're a freshman this is especially true, because there really arent that many parties around so you'll have to go out and spend money or stay in and be bored. (unless you hear from a friend of a friend that their friend is having an apartment party)

So, if you can afford it, then SF is AMAZING.......
SOCIAL LIFE:
I did make a good group of friends at AAU but not as many as I thought I would because I found that a lot of people at the school were really into themselves or really shy and awkward.... AAU doesn't provide a lot of opportunities to meet too many people outside of your dorm besides the events they host at the cafes.. but those in themselves feel awkward and not at all fun. If you want a school with school pride/ spirit - THIS IS NOT THE SCHOOL FOR YOU.

A lot of people who go to AAU are more into being hermits so they can focus on their work... but honestly I go by work hard, play hard and I didn't find anyone who thought the same. Either the people who play hard are dumb or the people who work hard are nonexistent socially.

If you want to meet lots of new people.... this is not the school for you.
Well those are the main things about AAU I'd want to shed some light on. I hoped this helps someone avoid the same mistake I did. I ended up transferring to another school in cali and I absolutely LOVE IT. Even though I wasted a year worth of money and time because AAU did not transfer my credits, I still feel like it was the right choice for me.

If you're the same type of person I am, then please listen to me and AVOID THIS SCHOOL.

1st Year Female -- Class 2014

Surrounding City: B+, Individual Value: F

So I just wanted to share my experience so I can warn everyone about this school. I do not mean to bad mouth this school in no way shape or form but you have to remind yourself that this school is a for profit institution so they dont really care that you learn anything as long as you pay them. They will try to charge you for everything, maybe even breathing on campus if they could. At first I was interested in the school because of the program, it is very good in theory. If they were to hire more professional employees interested in actually educating students and not just failed artists who need jobs they could have something going for them. I am pretty sure if they did, they wouldnt let just anyone attend. I had classmates who knew nothing about the craft, to me it was something they just wanted to do because it's cool, which is one of the down sides to going to an institution that doesn't require a portfolio. I must remind you that I am speaking for the undergraduate program, specifically the motion pictures department. There was one class that I really benefit from, the instructor was really professional and on top of the students, making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to. But in another class the instruction not only missed the first day of class, but several days after that. I can honestly say anything I had to learn for that class I did on my own, she was not helpful at all and would play movies and tell us to think about it, and not give us any particular explanation. I knew of a few students who filed complaints about her the thing is about a private school education that also in theory it is better quality for the price so for me I am not a rich kid at all I am just extremely hard working and thought I deserved a quality education but for the price it just wasn't worth it. I am very serious about my education so I just went forward with it and got some pretty decent grades. I think it could have been better though if some of my instructors knew what they were doing. Despite these experiences I moved away from san francisco and wanted to continue my education so signed up for online classes. This is the warning I am talking about, if you are an online student and on financial aid, stay on top of it or dont do it at all because they will not notify you of anything. So I signed up this fall and I was told my loans were approved and to sign a note, same as usual and I thought everything was going fine but none of my financial aid had gone through. I thought maybe they didn't update my information so I called them several times. Trust me when I say several times on several days for a month. I was told to sign the note every time, at this point I had done it twice once before classes started and again after school started and still nothing. So a month later my advisor calls me asking for a form, when they could have asked me several times before when I tried to contact her, but I was completely ignored. Then I got an attitude from her because I didn't give her the form right away when I wasnt notified and they put a hold on my online account. So at this point I was completely furious because of neglect and unprofessionalism I was going to get an absence and that would very much affect my grade, again my grade being effected because of the schools lack of professionalism and concern for students. You see I say this because they are so easy to hold my account for money they did not receive because of their neglect and lack of communication but when I tried to contact them they didn't want to deal with me. I decided to take my loses and transfer to a regular institution, I just continued because I didn't want to bother with the hassle of transfering but I see that compared to my experience it would have been no bother at all.

1st Year Female -- Class 2014

Surrounding City: A+, Education Quality: F