The Academy of Art University

DO NOT go to the Academy of Art University! The only things that they are concerned about are money and skewing the data to make it seem like their graduates are successful. They do not care if you actually learn anything from them. They overcharge for every aspect of their company. Once they ask alumnis about their out of school work experience, they only use the data that reflects well on their "school" and bury the information of all of the many, many alumni who can not find work, so they can tell new students considering attending their school that something in the 90 percent range of alumnis find work in their chosen field shortly out of school. This is a lie. Let me repeat, this is a lie! And I am one of the students who was actually a very good student, getting good grades, and becoming involved in the school.

Find another school who will actually teach you and help you make the transition to a career. One that will not just steal your money and leave you in helpless straights.Going to this school is one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Don't make the same mistake. DO NOT even consider going to the Academy of Art University!!!

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I'm on the fence between negative and neutral, but ultimately when I look at where all the students I worked with and graduated with wound up outside the Academy and in the real world -- I have to go negative.

I graduated in 2006 with a degree focusing on computer arts. I have yet to land a job doing anything related to my original goals. When I run into fellow 06 alumni from the same department, it's the same scenario.

"We graduated at the wrong time man. The Academy wasn't ready to teach us the new stuff, which is really now the current stuff."

"Crap. Everyone keeps telling me my stuff is good, but last generation good. My education was worthless before I even graduated."

"It's been four years. I had to teach myself all the techniques people wanted. The Academy was mostly worthless."

The computer arts department was way behind the times when I was there (2001-2006...yes 5 years...they also don't tell you that it is impossible to do it in 4 unless you kill yourself). Outside of 2-3 good instructors (who were also pretty open about how screwed up things were in the dept/school), every CA related class was horrible. I would go to class, just to wind up riding BART home and looking up tutorials. We had to fight for a Z-Brush class, which only became a regular part of the curriculum after we graduated. UnrealEd was another class we had to fight to get, yet was only taught in our last semester.

The traditional/fine arts side seemed great, at least from my perspective. Most of my best experiences came from this side of the Academy. I wound up wishing I had gone for an illustration degree instead. It is true that the Academy will let anyone in, which I know makes those with already acquired skill or raw talent furious. For all I care, those students can get bent. The FA related teachers would work with the worst of the worst students as long as they showed signs of improvement (which only came from hard work). Given the work load, explained later, those students deserve their chance to have someone help them improve. Not coddle egos.

The administration side is the entity to be most wary of. They're the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Give bad advice. Always changing up requirements. They won't hesitate to send goons to your classroom to bounce you out if something funky has happened with your payment.

Reported workload in another comment is correct. 60+ hours a week if you go full time. Initially it is so they can weed the weak out. Eventually it becomes a, "preparation for the real world". All it did was burn everyone out and gave one student diabetes (drank so much soda to try and stay awake). It isn't 60 hours of work concentrating on one thing. It's 60 hours of work juggling 4-5 assignments that require a lot of man hours to do well in a very short amount of time each (with different skill sets/concentration required).

Part of that number is also based off of student competition, which is very high. This is a good thing. Students pushing students. Just realize in order to stand out, you're going to put in those hours.

The icing on the negative side of the cake: ass kissers got the job leads, opportunities and get pushed towards internships. I know of maybe 2 out of 10-ish people that got a job lead/internship in school for my major that was not constantly trying to dry hump an instructor or his/her industry friends that stopped by. That was because their work was so good, it would be embarrassing not to give them the opportunity (one student's work was 90% of an ad they put on TV...not multiple students work). If you fell below great into good/mediocre/shit it was time to kiss butt.

With all that, you get out what you put in most of the time. You work hard and genuinely try to do your best, you will get results from the good instructors. Just be very cautious of anything CA related. You'll put in work and get out good results...good results for last generation techniques that is.Currently in debt. Unemployed. Burned out. Bitter.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

DO NOT go here!!! The college has the WORST customer service skills ever. You are not and will never be important to them. You are only a number. They do NOT work with you like they say they will. Thanks to the Academy of Art I'm stuck paying $6,000 worth of classes I didn't attend because they told me they would help me and then refused to. The college is a big rip off. You are not allowed to talk on the phone to whoever you would like to help solve your problems. Worst finanical aid department ever. They told me, "it's not their job to notify students when there is a problem." If there finanical aid and customer service wasn't so useless and crappy I probably wouldn't be in this mess! I'm pissed that I have to pay $6,000 because they refused to let me drop all my classes before it was too late. There are only a few good teachers there. One teacher ripped me off on a grade and was too arrogant to write back to me. A good amount of the classes you were tested on information that you were not taught and couldn't find the answers to. I did online so pretty much the only good grade that this college is getting from me is A on the campus cause I have no clue but I'm sure the safety and what not isn't bad. The online students are horrible. Out of my year at this wasteful college I only made one friend. Everyone is closeminded and rude. I have never been in a class environment where just about everyone is rude. If you feel like getting screwed over then this is the perfect college for you. Please go to a better photography schoool! This is the biggest mistake you could make!! I'm no longer attending here and going to a better college that I'm luckily going to be done by next year (2011). I feel like Academy of Art could careless in making sure people succeed.

1st Year Female -- Class 2011

Campus Aesthetics: A, Education Quality: F