The Academy of Art University

I wrote an honest review and AAU demanded that Yelp take it down. In brief, my daughter was attending AAU's graduate program and she was murdered. AAU's Vice President (Sue Rowley), was completely callous and disrespectful and demanded that Security throw us out of our daughter's dorm room when we came to pick up her personal effects. The university's president (Elisa Stephens), who inherited her job, showed no interest in our daughter's tragic death, refused to come to the phone to discuss the loss of our daughter or pay respects.

We believe that it is important to understand that the campus is spread out across hundreds of building throughout the San Francisco Bay with most of them in some of the most dangerous parts of the city. Campus security is unable to protect students because there is no real campus and the school's Clery Report doesn't honestly reflect the dangers that students face on a daily basis. Our experience confirmed that the University is staffed, from top to bottom, with inept personnel who show no interest in the well being of their students.If your are contemplating sending your child to this institution we recommend that you reconsider as there are much safer places to send your child that offer far better academics.

The teachers at the interior design department are not good and they don't have engh information. Very weak . All the teachers do not teach you what the course has. Believe it or not some teachers don't hold any a bachelor or master degree in the major.

hD in Leadership for Higher Education. Not worth the paper it?s written on?
Four years ago all the rave was a study, in which Capella bought into and advertised for recruitment into this program, a study by AACC (American Association of Community Colleges) declaring a "critical shortage of community college leadership." Unfortunately this can't be further from the truth, but also through my own research has never been the case, nor is there any outlook of any kind pointing to a shortage of personnel, especially here in California. Speaking directly to a researcher who took part in the study with AACC, he said (and I paraphrase here) ?we looked only at a few states and looked only at the numbers of retiring administrators. We did not compare that against the applicant pool applying for such positions.? In other words, AACC?s research premise was thus: there are 750 Major League professional baseball players in the world and 90% will be retired in 10 years. Therefore there is a critical shortage of Major League professional baseball players!

AACC even said, and I quote: ?We did not look at California, would you like to do that for us?? Well, I did. Calling into 22 of 71 community college districts throughout California, polling from metropolitan, suburban, and remote districts, not one HR administrator agreed with AACC, with one even stating ?AACC is from Mars if they think there is any kind of shortage with administrative personnel.? One district administrator commented that their big problem is sorting through the tons of qualified applications for each position open. One position, a Dean at Santa Barbara Community College, received over 150 qualified applications.

Calling into five other states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, I found the same response from HR administrators: no critical shortage of leadership personnel predicted. One HR administrator from Arizona, jokingly but half serious, replied (and I quote): ?AACC is not from Mars if they think there?s any type of leadership shortage?they are from Pluto!? Another HR administrator from New Jersey commented: ?There is always a shortage of leaders with more talent than God and more money than Bill Gates.?

I work at a university and currently in higher education. Unfortunately it?s a faith-based institution where you had better be a life-long member of the church if you apply for any administrative position. In California, as with my friend currently in the this PhD program who got a promotion to President of San Jacinto College, Roger Schultz, these degrees in Leadership for Higher Education might get you a promotion. It will not open the door to an outsider. Go do something of real value before you think about this worthless program.

After 12 years of adjunct for three California community college districts I have recently stopped doing that (oh how many times I?ve heard the carrot before the stick? ?well, we MIGHT have some tenure-track positions open soon!?) There are two things I used to do weekly: 1) apply to a California community college, and 2) play the California lottery. There is now one thing I do every week: 1) play the California lottery. And I?m damn glad I do! I?m up $62 bucks this year!

I graduated from the Academy in 2009. My major was sculpture, I graduated with honors. So ask yourself "why would this guy slander his department? wouldn't that hurt him?"

Let me be clear, I would rather ruin the reputation of my alma mater, than be associated with that place.

The San Francisco Academy Of Art University's sculpture department just fired the only redeeming quality they had. They just fired Erik Blome over email, with no notice.

For 3 years I put up with intimidation and emotional abuse from Peter Schifrin. He even openly mocked my religion in front of a class of students (I have 2 statements from students of the class to prove this).I was disgusted at the time that most of my gradshool professors in the sculpture dept had less experience, and less resume than I did. The claim that the school is run by "artists for artist" that "professional" teach there, was not true in the sculpture dept.

Whether or not you go is up to you, but watch your back. I had some work stolen and plagiarized by some girl on the net, and now the school is giving ME an 'F' in the class because they say _I_ copied it and they are giving me ZERO CHANCE to defend myself (and this is at the GRADUATE level, mind you). Oh, and they are gladly keeping my tuition for the class too, because they won't let me drop it so I will have to retake and pay for it twice.

And in my experience, this school really doesn't care about anything else other than money. Both my alma mater and several other private schools around me are cheaper - by hundreds of dollars per credit hour in some cases - than AAU, even at the graduate level. I initially chose AAU for the online flexibility, but I think now that it was a HUGE mistake. I have had only ONE teacher that I would call very good to excellent at this point, and she was a general Liberal Arts/Art History teacher. Totally unsatisfactory for the expense.

Between the terrible treatment as a person/red tape/inflated tuition/poor instruction quality, I will not be staying and I will never recommend them to anyone at any level.

If you have no skill whatsoever, you are basically on your own here at the Academy. There is no student, no instructor, no faculty that will help you. Period. All the school cares about is your money. They don't care if you succeed or fail. As long as you keep giving them money. I tried socializing with students, but everyone is arrogant. I tried getting information from faculty, but they are arrogant. Those who are successful coming out of the school are so because they were successful prior to coming to the school and have millions and time to throw away. If this is you, then try it out, otherwise, not only would you have wasted a lot of time taking classes that won't teach you a dime, but you would be poor and out of job. I'm a student who has gone for three years now and I have never had a good experience. NEVER. Each semester I hope to meet and learn anew, but nope. I get robbed of my money and time. I make an effort to put my all into the education, but it's a one way street. Students end up doing their own research to do assignments. The academy also pours on a TON of work on you lasting more than 60+ hours of work. You cannot work parttime or have a life outside of doing the assignments. And the school thinks these assignments will teach you about the real worlds. Believe me. It doesn't. It's just busy work. I cannot stress how much I hate this school and what it has done to worsen my motivation on my chosen career. When its their way of singling out students, but that would only be singling out those who have money, not talent. Those who do stay are treated only like an assembly line. Think twice before coming here. I can only warn you.

Not worth it if you have any creative or technical background, or better choices, or a brain. You will take undergrad-level classes, do undergrad-level projects, and be treated as an un-motivated and un-self-directed student (though the school doesn't actually direct you). The school is full of contradictions and full of lies. I was told a lot of great things before I came here, and have found only disappointment after disappointment. I am not staying.

I've attended the academy for years and have spent time in a few departments. I have to say, it's true what other's say about students being a number and more importantly, a dollar sign. Like most educations, it's what you make of it. I worked hard, but most of my greatest learning has been done outside of the Academy. I got the feeling in the Fine Art department that the instructors really didn't expect much from the students. I've overheard teachers making inappropriate comments about students private life, which is completely uncalled for.

After completing most of my BFA, I felt hopeless because of the amount of debt I had and struggled through to finish. It was a horrible experience, though I graduated with honors. After finishing I fought to get my work together and my skill level up (outside of AAU).

Just recently I got word (from an instructor) that my personal life was a topic of discussion in a FA meeting at the academy. I guess things haven't changed much. I feel sad for a lot of the faculty there. I hope they can try to be better people.

I try not to mention that I went to AAU and will never endorse the Academy in my professional life. I have affiliations with other learning institutions that I can proudly claim.

For those of you that are still in your degree there, work hard and focus on standards that are in your field - not your class, grades don't matter. Good luck.

this place is a joke, the instructors are literally stupid, don't know how to comminicate, play 'favorites', and are a huge disappointment. Do they read what they assign?

If you are asian, you should go here
If you are male, you should go here
If you are able to put up, shut up, and pay high $'s you should go here
If you are female, don't go here, you would be better off at St. Mary's in Oakland.
If you want to advance your vision, don't go here

This newly accredited University should be more appropriately called "Academy of Asian Art University" because anyone else other then of Asian heritage is ignored. It is a great place for Asians to be catered to and babied. And, yes it is true, it's all about the money.

I came from a well known fortune 500 to get my Masters in Advertising. The quality of the instructors is a joke. Some are not even working in the field they are teaching in and almost all are Academy graduates as they cannot get work anywhere else.

For the cost of tuition the school should be at least above average. AAU takes advantage of International students (no TOFEL requirements) and gets other students because it is located in San Francisco.

In short, you will NOT get your money's worth and will graduate with LOTS of debt and NO skills.If you want an art school go to the California College of Art (was CCAC) or to the SF Art Institute (it is NOT the chain - it is the other one)

This is a for profit school only concerned about making money to further the president's real estate empire. The instructors suck and fail to teach you the skills necessary to succeed. They tend to focus on abstract crap and the courses lack practical application. In fact, may of the instructors don't even really know how to use the programs they are supposed to be teaching you. I had instructors admit I knew more than they did. That is pretty sad. The alumni job office also is totally unhelpful. They have no connections like they advertise, unless you call minimum wage or internships jobs connections. RUN FAR FROM THIS SCHOOL. IT IS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY. GO TO A STATE SCHOOL AND SAVE YOUR MONEY. At AAC, they pay the teachers about $30/hr for class time but don't pay for preparation time. You pay over $1500 per class. Does this add up correctly? The pay differential demonstrates how the quality of education is lacking, but the president of the school chooses to profit from her unsuspecting students. Good designers make more than $30/hr easy, take it from experience. If you are in school, transfer please. You can find more affordable and practical education at San Francisco State. When applying for jobs, AAC does not make you look good, it only makes you look like a rich fool, buying your education. I hope my critique was helpful. I have no ill will toward the school, I just want to be honest.