Are the Art Institute schools a fraud?

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I think you have to clarify for yourself what you hope to get out of a school.

I work in visual effects and motion graphics for a small industrial film company in L.A. I am completely self taught. My situation was that I was running a robotically controlled animation stand shooting video for shows like VH1's "Behind the Music" and "Biography" etc. Work started to dry up about 7 or 8 years ago and some of my clients started coming in saying "Hey, can you do that thing they did in "The Kid Stays in the Picture?"" I looked at the film, did some research to learn how it was done, got a trial version of After Effects and basically taught myself enough to make a simple demo reel.

Then I got lucky. One day an old client happened to stop by to say hello. I said "do you need any motion graphics work?" and he was willing to throw a bit of freelance work my way. Now I work for him full time and make a pretty good living at it.

In some ways I wish I had gone through a proper graphic design school. My understanding of graphics is limited to what I have stumbled across in my own meandering career rather than informed by any guided education through proven techniques for developing good, useful graphics.

A good school can help you avoid educational blind alleys. It can guide you toward learning techniques that are efficient and effective in the working world. If the teachers are reasonably successful in graphics themselves, they can give you good information. But if all the teachers at a particular school teach only because they can't get jobs in graphics, then perhaps they won't have anything valuable to teach you.

Instead of spending 60k on a school, you could spend a few thousand of some key software and then take some key courses at a local community college, while teaching yourself the graphics software on your own. Then once you have a foundation of knowledge on the graphics and the software, you will be in a position to make a better decision as to whether a school would be useful to you.

I've heard very good things about the Gnoman school here in L.A. I have bought a few of their DVDs on Maya, but I have never taken their courses as I don't have the time and also they are too expensive for my tastes. But it does look like a good program for really learning visual effects and motion graphics.

If you haven't already, you should download Blender (blender.org) and start teaching yourself 3D animation. Blender isn't the easiest program to learn (I much prefer Maya) but it's free and is a good start.

For motion graphics, you can't beat After Effects. I would recommend buying the Video Production Preminum of CS5 since it's hard to get the full value of After Effects without Photoshop and Illustrator. CS5 would only cost you a couple thousand at most... much cheaper than art school.

But when it comes to getting work... This is a hard one for Aspies. You need contacts with people. You need a network. This is one area where school can really be helpful. Professors and fellow student can introduce you to potential employers. Facebook can be useful if you can use it to create a network of "friends" in the industry. Learning graphics and learning the software isn't enough to get a job. It is a very competitive industry and basically the people who get the work are the ones who make connections with people who can give them work.

I guess my advice on this is while you are learning the trade, don't neglect your network of contacts. This is as important... maybe even more important... than being good at the job.

I've rambled on enough. PM me if you have any specific questions.

Good luck.

In response to your post. I want to say thanks for the input, it was very encouraging and great advice. I am also a striving multimedia/digital artist and I have been working very hard to learn After Effects independently. Its very encouraging to hear. I have been debating going to graduate school for digital art, motion graphics, instead I invested into a Mac Pro, CS4, and tutorials. I've desperately been wanting to further my knowledge to be more marketable but I am trying to avoid being 60K in debt. I hope my efforts eventually pay off!! !!

I think it's worth pointing out that self-teaching has several distinct limitations.

First off, it's a good way to pick up A LOT of really bad habits. I taught myself 3d modeling using Lightwave, and when I actually started taking proper classes in modeling, I had to unlearn a lot of bad techniques. Proper classes will get you in the habit of doing things in a way that facilitates the work of people further down the production pipeline, or makes your life easier as take a project to completion.

Second, there may be things that you should be learning, but you may not realize that these additional or alternate techniques or concepts are available to you.

Third, when working alone, it can be hard to find people who have an appropriate level of expertise to give you constructive criticism, which will help you refine and improve you're work. I found this was one of the more useful aspects of being part of a visual effects program; I was surrounded by people who had a solid understanding of the techniques, theory, and aesthetics of the sort of work I was doing, and could thus make useful suggestions to further improve my work.

Fourth, it's also hard to find people who you can do collaborative work with; the ability to integrate what you do into a team production pipeline is an important part of making the skills you're learning marketable. It's extremely unlikely that you'll be doing anything other than the smallest and simplest of projects alone, so having experience working with others is important. The group projects I had to do as part of my schooling were useful to me in this regard. (The good news on this point is that it is fairly easy to settle in to a group dynamic, so it's not something you'd neccessarily need before joining the workforce; having a couple of nice group projects in your demo reel/portfolio is useful when you're applying for jobs, though).

Finally, it can be hard to put together a competitive portfolio or demo reel just using your personal equipment. Using something from my background, ten seconds of cinema footage is 240 frames; a 3d secene that takes 1 minute per frame to render (that's a pretty quick render time for anything beyond a fairly simple scene) would require two hours of processor time. Having my only computer out of commission for hours on end was the major reason I did very little with animation before heading to school. Being part of of a larger program may give you access to equipment that allows you to not only expand your skills, but truly showcase what you can do (in my case, access to the school's renderfarm allowed me to render scenes that would have taken hours, or even days on one machine in not much more time than it would take to render a handful of the frames).

Now, I will admit that circumstances for you as a 'multimedia/digital artist' may be different from mine as a visual effects artist, so feel free to examine these suggestions through the lens of your experiences.

Ive heard AIP doesnt transfer credits, even though it says they do. Actually, I think thats another one of their tricks. They do transfer credits, but their credits arent accepted anywhere else.

Yeah, after financial and academic trouble, my sister who went to an Art Institute had to re-take basic art classes at a community college, intending to complete an art degree elsewhere. Now she's a salesperson or manager or something at Apple stores.

Yes! They only teach you to draw what they want you too, not how to perfect your skill. My mom made me take art lessons and every lesson I would have a meltdown on the way because I did not want to learn how to draw archtecture, I wanted to draw meerkats. The teacher was nice and let me add meerkats to my pictures but if she didn't I would have gotten violent with my mom when she tried to make me go. I only draw, paint or whatever for me...no one else. I have my own techniques and if people do not like them, they can go jump in a lake. I like my skill how it is. If my art is so good, why then do I need to "improve"? When I complained that the art lessons were not teaching me how to do meerkats, I was told I could incorperate the techniques I learned to meerkats....no I could not. Meerkats require thier own technique and I wasn't being taught how to draw fur and whiskers at all. Art books don't help because I don't understand them.

I would trust those Art Institute schools about as much as ITT Tech and the Culinary Schools. (Read: None). Those schools cost an arm and a leg more than most local universities. I'd look into some 4 year colleges with good art programs and weigh the pros and cons.

Well, my friend is in one right now and he really dislikes it. He complains about how expensive it is for the lack of quality it offers.

I go to a state school for Art Education, and I feel like while it may not have the best of the best equipment my education is as good as it would at Kansas City Art Institute or the the Art Institute of Chicago=Ridiculously high tuition. If you can get the finacial aid you might get out ok, but its getting harder to do these days.

I knew something was fishy about them... Of course, after I found out that science was my highest area, I decided to drop the idea of being an art teacher, after all, I cannot work with people at all, I lose my patience too easily and I just know I'll be one of those strict teachers kids don't like... I just know it...

Plus, there was a legit art college in my state called Kendall that I have heard nothing but good things about and from the people that went there. This one guy in the class a year up from me is going there to study photography and hopefully become a professional photographer and he is loving it.

Still... you guys make it sound like they are some sort of cult like how the recruiters tell you all of these things that are untrue and they make it seem good on the surface, but in reality, it is not and they take your money and it is hard to escape in one piece if you come out alive.

I was a professional photographer for many years.

In my early 20's I moved to San Francisco and checked out the "art" schools.
They showed me sh***y photographs and said that if I paid them umpteen thousand dollars they could teach me to do the same.

I told them that I could do better than that crap now.

Then I met a photographer at a lecture who did beautiful work.
I went to his home and begged him to be my "guru".

That was the best year of my life. I learned so much from him and met many of the world's leading photo artists.

So screw "art school". If you want to learn then find an artist that you admire and offer to mow his lawn or whatever if he will let you hang out with him.

Art schools are a fraud, so are "vocational" schools and "universities" like the University of Phoenix. Talent in art comes naturally. Save your money and try to foster your creativity.

If you want that school experience, go to a real school and either minor in art or take a few art classes for general ed. I would take another photography or ceramics class in school if I had the chance.

I attended The Art Institute of Pittsburgh from 2000 - 2004

I graduate with a Bachelor's Of Science degree in Graphic Design.

I think I did very well at the school and produced a good portfolio.
The thing is I was never able to find a job in the area I studied.

The schools career placement department did place me in a job right after
graduation but I only worked there for a month. Turns out the job was a scam
and the company wasn't even real. Myself and 5 other recent AIP graduates
were working there. None of us got paid.

I was never able to find a job in graphic design after that. I tried calling the
Art Institutes career placement department but they never returned my calls.
The person that was assigned at my career adviser was fired shortly after I
graduated, leaving me with no one to call.

While I was attending AIP, my education adviser, the one I was assigned to
when I first started was fired and replaced with someone else. That happened
at least 3 times that I know of.

Overall, I feel I didn't get the education I paid for. I have tried going to other
schools for other subjects, but my AIP credits do NOT transfer.
I remember the recruiters and the education advisers making some really
big promises to the students.

If I had it to do over again, I would NOT go to AIP.

I agree with ajl007 - do not listen to recruiters.

Honestly, it baffles me the number of young people who are swayed by what is, effectively, a sales pitch. What is their job? To recruit students, to get the fees rolling in. What's the difference between them and a car salesperson or someone else in sales? Just because they are answering questions about courses and career possibilities, doesn't mean they are selling you a brilliant future and stellar career, they might promise you that, but they can't deliver it. All they want is money in the university bank and bums on seats in lecture halls.

Lots of young people who want to work in the media, for example, do 'media studies' degrees, because the recruiters told them that was their way into a fantastic career in the media, but instead they graduate and can't get a job in the media, because lots of employers in the industry don't actually respect the qualifications. I've heard news editors, for example, say that they won't employee people who have a media studies degree. But a college recruiter won't tell you that if they're recruiting students for a media studies degree.

The best people to listen to, in terms of what course to do, is employers and other people doing the kind of job you want to do. Of course, it makes it hard if you don't actually know what you want to do, in which case, I'd suggest waiting a while, doing a crappy job and trying to save some money, or maybe travelling, wait until you get a better idea of what you want to do before you start a course and get yourself into a lot of debt.

If you do know what you want to do, Google and look up companies that operate in that field. Look in their careers section, see what their requirements are. Look at the staff section of their website, look at the profiles of their employees, see their bio details, where they studied, what they studied.

If you want to do something relating to video/graphics design, what's made you think that? Is there some particular work that inspired you? Google it, look it up, find out which company, which individuals made it. Google those company names, Google those people. Try to find out what experience they have and how they got to where they are.

Don't listen to recruiters who will promise you the moon so long as you sign on the dotted line. Listen to people who actually work in the industry you're wanting to work in. You can even try emailing or phoning people up for careers advice, ask them to recommend a course, ask where most of their employees come from. For example, in journalism, there are a handful of very well-respected j-schools.

Personally, I think if you can't get into one of the best schools with the best prospects for that particular career path, then you're probably going to be wasting your money.

Oh, and by the way, it would probably be a good idea to change the name of the thread title and not mention "fraud" as that's potentially defamatory, given that fraud is a crime.

AIO is a scam school running a "loan farm". They will teach you nothing you can't learn for free and sell you into financial slavery paying back the loans you'll have to take out for their overpriced tuition. I wish to God someone had told me that before I started.

I sincerely hope you did not enroll because this school will destroy your life. They are a FOR-PROFIT school owned by the shady EDMC corporation, have been sued multiple times and former employees have spoken to the senate about the deception and business fraud they pull.

Former teachers have even spoken out against this villain, "The students, unfortunately, are the losers here. The courses are set up so that the students will get good grades, but for what? They don't learn how to draw!! They have nothing for their portfolios! DO NOT ENROLL IN THIS SCHOOL unless you love to give away tens of thousands of dollars for a useless degree. Remember, too, that most, if not all, of the credits will NOT TRANSFER to another school." - Anonymous former AIO "instructor".

There is no question, The Art Institutes ARE a scam. They are criminals. Do your homework. The amount of devastated students calling them out online is overwhelming.

A relative of mine enrolled in a branch of the Art Institute last year, and she loves it. Previously, she had begun an art program at a highly competitive, prestigious university, but because of cost, and also because it didn't feel like quite the right fit, she decided to try the Art Institute. She says there is a lot of interaction in her classes at the AI and the professors are excellent.