Answered by Zamzam
I went to the AI in Chicago and transferred to the one in San Francisco for animation. The schools are ok if you're A) a decent artist to begin with, B) objective, and C) learn quickly. But there are many drawbacks and personally, even though I have a good job now and I'm okay with what I'm doing, I wish I had done something else. Now, my following reasons mostly apply to the Animation major. The Fashion major seemed to be the same (from a distance) but I think the Web Design and Graphic Design majors can be good. #1 The schools are EXPENSIVE. I finished with a debt of 73K (not including rent) which may not sound so bad when you're young, but trust me, when it's time to repay those loans and you see how long it'll take and how much interest you'll have paid, you'll regret it. One piece of advice I can give you is, if you're sure about going, first go to a cheaper state or community college and get the general subjects (English, Math, Science) out of the way, there's no use in paying $1100 for an Math class from an art school. I should warn you, once you enroll at AI, they don't let you start taking classes elsewhere, they only accept transferred credits from BEFORE you started at AI, so get these subjects overwith at a cheaper school, it'll save you thousands. #2 The teachers, in my experience, were not critical enough and would pass kids who couldn't draw (when I applied, the schools didn't even ask for a portfolio, that says a LOT). The biggest problem with teachers who spare you the truth is that a lot of the kids I graduated with were not very talented and they did not land jobs. AND they still have to repay their loans, which sucks. #3 The Art Institutes do not have a great reputation, for all the money that they are charging. They don't turn out real artists, mainly, I think, because they do not really teach. You can learn a program, sure, but they don't teach objectivity. You have to be a decently talented person who is pretty objective about your own art to make it through and have a great portfolio when you finish. To be fair, a few kids (who were already good before attending) landed good jobs. Most of these kids were in Web Deisgn and Graphic Design. So if one of these is the degree you want, you should be ok. Remember, with any school, you are what you make of your experience. If you go to a good school but you don't pursue honest criticism, you have your feelings hurt too easily, or you don't want to work hard, you will not have a good portfolio. On the other hand, if you go to a weak school but work hard, constantly compare yourself honestly to other students and other schools' students as well as professionals, and you work hard at learning the technical side, you can come out among the best. It's really what you make it. Just be careful with loans.