 | |       | Link me!Link to page from your webpage or MySpace account:
Just copy and paste!<a href='http://www.studentsreview.com/CA/CItA_comments.html'>
California Institute of the Arts
</a> | Forward me! |
| Snapshot - Student Ratings |
Sort By:
[Date]
[Major]
[Rating]
| Bright |
Oh CalArts. It's true that you've got to be pretty dedicated to make use of the Fine Arts program. It has almost NO structure to speak of, which is what some people want, but often not right out of high school. Photography and Graphic Design are more traditional, and probably better for most undergraduates. Graphic design is phenomenal, the faculty is award-winning and the coursework is tough but you will able to make a living once you get out and you will learn a lot.
The film school is pretty great for experimental work. And the character animation program continues to be solid. | Collaboration/Competitive: A+, Surrounding City: C | | | |
| | Dec 02 2007 | 3rd Year Female --
Class 2009 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
Just copy and paste!
<script src='sr_comment.js?sckey=42564&uid=123'></script>
<a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a>
|
|
|
|
| Quite Bright | Calarts is a crock. Fine art student don't do anything. nothing is expected of us and we gain no technical support what so ever. Teachers are too busy with their own lives to be helpful. I've gained nothing but the promise of a reputation it doesn't deserve. This school might have been great in the 70's but that was 30 years ago and now the school just lives off its success from being great then. You get your own studio, which is great, but if you’re not extremely rich forget about affording the art supplies to work in it. The school doesn't help you in any way to try to help you afford any materials expect maybe for a grant where you get a 100 dollars if your lucky enough to be picked. Besides the fact that Valencia is awful. It is the most closed minded community I’ve ever had the misfortune of being part of. LA might be vapid and shallow but Valencia are those things plus being boring. Forget being inspired by where you live. The school is also very expensive for what reason? I don't know because there are no sculpture facilities except if you want to cut wood. Painting is a joke too. Perhaps photography is okay but I wouldn't know because I’m not in that program. Using other dept. facilities is also a difficult task too. Everything is so inaccessible. There also isn't much of a community unless you count the gallery openings, which is giant excuse to get drunk for free (if you get there early enough). Academics are a big joke as well. I’m learning high school type art history b.s. and I’m not challenged in any way…No wonder you have to be a fool not to get a high pass. Most of the great artists that went here were smart enough to get out be for they graduated from this hellhole (Tim Burton, Sofia Coppola). I've been here for two years thinking it was going to get better and now in my 3rd year all I want is to transfer for my finial year. If you want to go a good art college go to RISD. | Campus Aesthetics: A, Education Quality: F | | | |
| | Nov 17 2007 | 2nd Year Male --
Class 2009 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
Just copy and paste!
<script src='sr_comment.js?sckey=42251&uid=123'></script>
<a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a>
|
|
|
|
| Bright |
CalArts has more in common with alternative colleges like Hampshire than it does with other art schools like MICA or RISD. The emphasis is on conceptual art rather than applied arts, so be ready to explain your work. In general the faculty have incredibly impressive resumes, a lot of them really are at the top of their respective fields. Sometimes it can be a little hard to believe that you actually have access to all of these people. They can be a little intimidating, but don't forget that they're here to help you.
The school has great programs in animation, film, photography and graphic design. I've heard the performing arts departments are not as strong for undergraduate, but you can get something out of them if you know exactly what you want.
Valencia is just a planned community; you can get basic necessities but for anything else you've got to make the trip out to Los Angeles. The small campus will get to you sometimes, but you can always find someone new and interesting to talk to. Students vary a lot from one department to the next, and there are stereotypes for all of them (theatre students are strange, dancers are ditzy, character animators never stop working etc.), that are often untrue. In short, there are many different types of people who came here for all sorts of reasons. Rules regarding drinking are fairly relaxed. In general you'll be left alone as long as you don't bother anyone.
Overall it's been an incredibly valuable experience. | Innovation: A+, Campus Maintenance: B+ | | | |
| | Oct 10 2007 | 2nd Year Female --
Class 2009 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
Just copy and paste!
<script src='sr_comment.js?sckey=41540&uid=123'></script>
<a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a>
|
|
|
|
| Quite Bright |
Anyone who is thinking of applying to CalArts should know that even though this school was once considered a fine institution, nowadays, CalArts' main priority is taking students' money and screwing them over.
Here is the story of how CalArts screwed over two whole classes of students in the Graphic Design program:
At CalArts, there is a policy that all students must work "in residence," meaning that students are REQUIRED to work in the provided studio spaces. For Graphic Designers, that means having your computer and all your expensive art supplies in the studio at all times. Each one of us gets a desk and a large wooden box that locks with our own combination lock.
Since the room gets used over the summer by a high school art program, we are supposed to clean off our desks and put everything away in our wooden boxes and lock them. This is what we have all been told, and what I've been doing since my first year.
This year, without telling us that we aren't allowed to keep things in our lockers this year, the school just decided to cut all our locks and throw all our valuable and irreplaceable art and art supplies IN THE GARBAGE.
When students returned to their lockboxes the following fall, and found them empty, we wanted to know what the hell happened. We talked to the Dean of the school. He did not even PRETEND to care. He said it was our fault for leaving it there. "But," we say, "we have been doing it this way for years, and no one has told us the policy is changing." He said that just because we did it in the past that we can't expect to every year. "But we were told that we could!" Well, he said, you were told wrong.
Oh my God. That is such bullsh*t. If they wanted to "teach us a lesson," they could have fined us $25 or some other reasonable "punishment." But they just tossed our valuables into a dumpster.
Thom Lawson, Dean of the Art School, ROLLED HIS EYES at me when I said it was a slap in the face that they didn't even try to contact us to remove our stuff ourselves.
I lost my large leather-bound zip-up portfolio of everything I've ever worked on, expensive large pads of art paper, all my art supplies. Others lost thousands of dollars in art and design books. IN the GARBAGE!!! Can you believe that? There was a storage room that is assigned to our department that could have easily housed all our stuff, if they did, in fact, REALLY NEED the space. But they really didn't. This was a deliberate act to send the message, "we don't give a f*ck about you students" while at the same time demanding another 32,000 dollars for a new school year.
This is just one incident. I am sure other students can share many stories of being f*cked over by an administration that cares only collecting about our money.
If I had known that this is the kind of disregard they show for students, I would have NEVER chosen to attend CalArts. It is a huge investment that is going to impact the rest of my life, and it just has not been worth it. Please, do not fall into the same trap I did. You don't even want to know how much student loan debt I am in now because of the high tuition and high cost of living in Valencia for four years.
Really look into a school and talk to its students before you jump in. Do not believe the fantasy that the Admissions department sells. They are just like used car salesmen who hide the flaws and make everything sound grand. This is just too big of a decision to mess it up and come to someplace like CalArts. | Perceived Campus Safety: A, Individual Value: F | | | |
| | Sep 06 2007 | 2nd Year Female --
Class 2009 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
Just copy and paste!
<script src='sr_comment.js?sckey=41110&uid=123'></script>
<a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a>
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Additional Resources