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SCAD doesn't prepare you for outside in the real world, especially not computer majors. It's full of hope and a "you can do it!" attitude until maybe 5 minutes after all your parents drive off during orientation. Yea, the idea of being an actress or a fashion designer SOUNDS cool, but after 4 years of pretending youre the best thing since sliced bread and having teachers all tell you that and never really critique you...you'll get a rude awakening.
Plus, the school is full of far too much drama. In my 4 years there I knew one student who the school lied and gave 2 quarters worth of "A" credits for classes they never took (even with people I knew in the class who saw his "attendance" continually checked as present. But its ok, they made the school look good in the real world!) I saw teachers hired with no experience in their subjects and degrees. The higher up's are money grubbers. I had many friends robbed or assaulted and it never saw the light of day...
Trust me, if you REALLY think an art degree is the way for you, there are much better schools. Go to RSDI or Ringling or a community college- anything else. It'll be cheaper and you'll learn more. | Preparedness: -, Reputation: - |  | |
| | Jul 08 2007 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Bright |
As art schools go, SCAD is really as good as they get. I came from the Midwest, so I was kind of limited in where I could go, and SCAD was really the least expensive of those on my list. For all the griping about tuition and how expensive it is (yes it is expensive), SCAD is actually middle of the road or lower compared to other private art schools. I'm speaking as an Interactive Design and Game Development undergrad alumni (within the last two months), so some of my opinions are kind of sided to the School of Film and Digital Media, where I spent 70% of my time. I'm going to try to break down my grading criteria here:
Friendliness: the faculty is warm and generally receptive, as much as any of the schools I've been to. Yes, there are a few jerks, but generally once you have that professor, they warm up to you pretty quick; they just tend to be less patient with strange students making bizarre requests of them. Students are pretty broad range. Being a pretty upscale and expensive art school, you get a fair share of snooty kids on mommy and daddy's paycheck, but you get far more students passionate about what they do. Freshmen tend to be either shy or extremely rebellious, as would be expected, and upperclassmen are generally willing to help people if you ask and don't interrupt a class.
Competitiveness: The school is definitely competitive against other schools. Depending on whom you ask and when, SCAD is either the top art school in the country, or one of the top five. Within the school, there's not a lot of push and shove type of competitiveness, but art is a very competitive field, so students are *constantly* fighting for attention, whether they know it or not. You learn to recognize the telltale-sinking look a student has when they think they have the best project in class and the first person at critique totally blows them away. But those that thrive on that type of atmosphere are those that are going to excel at this type of school.
Faculty availability: The only two people I ever had trouble getting in contact with were the chair of the department and the president of the school. Obviously, they're both very busy. Professors don't have research requirements; most only have personal art projects they work on here and there. Some professors leave right when class is over, and that's it; some are there until all hours of the night (occasionally) to offer help to students that need it. Usually, as long as you're not coming to them the day a project is due they will be willing to help as much as they possibly can.
Creativity: All art schools are "creative," no matter what they say. In the fine arts majors, creativity 'abounds.' That is to say, they have more than their share of new age post-modern found art trash-gluing crap. The painting department is all but a joke at the shows except the intro classes where they actually teach you to paint what you see without sticking shreds of metal on the canvas. The same goes for some of the sculpture classes and photography. Some of the less 'fine art' majors don't have as much of a problem with this, since they are mostly focused on a working-world production environment, and they are actually concerned with getting jobs after graduation. The school stays at the top of the field technologically though, and constantly listens to students if you know where to put your comments and who to talk to.
Busywork: the first year is almost entirely busywork. You're going to learn to draw. Again. You're going to take color theory. Again. You're going to take figure drawing. Again. And you're going to hate it, because it's boring and repetitive, and you feel like you know it. But after that first year when they call for entries to the foundations show and your professor urges you to submit something, you'll look back and realize how much of a difference that one year made. I always thought I could draw well until I had to learn it again, their way (and *all* art schools do this). After the first year, you're going to still get some busywork in some classes, but you'll never see a workbook, thank god. Some of the stuff in the school of film and digital media can really only be taught through boring exercises, but once you learn the basics and get onto your own projects, you'll have a lot of fun with it. The senior year is a lot of fun and work with your studio classes where you get to do essentially what you want in your portfolio.
Scholastic success: in art school some people get away with B.S.ing their way through school. It's unfortunate, but it's true, even at SCAD. The only consolation students have is that their portfolio is going to suck, and they'll be living with their parents doing graphic design they're academically overqualified for. The general education classes are less flexible, as one would expect, however. You either know it, or you don't. Some professors are more rigid, and some more forgiving, across the entire school.
Quality of the Program: I'm pretty happy with my degree. In order to be really happy, I would have had to have just taken electives for four years and not have to put up with any of the other crap, and then get a BFA for it. That doesn't happen here; SCAD is not a trade school, it is an accredited art college, and that's an important distinction. Students get a good overall education with a specialization in what they want to do, rather than a quick 2-year degree program. You will learn to be an artist in your field, not just a grunt in a chair. I came in a year before the Computer Art major broke into four separate specialized majors, and the first iteration of Interactive Design and Game Development had three classes that people just complained nonstop about. It took some time (changing core required classes means going back to the accreditation board, and they have to re-certify the entire major again, including auditing the school's financial status, the faculty qualifications, the level of success of the students, and so on), but they got changed. Yes, I hear time and time again that some of the things people really want to do they have to learn outside school, but I hear that from students at every college.
Perceived Campus Safety: Oh boy, here's the doozy. It goes back and forth on this subject: some people say Savannah is terrible; some say it's not that bad. It really depends on where you are. Yes, it's not that bad, but for a city of its size (100,000 in the city of Savannah, around 300,000 in Chatham County) it is pretty bad. I stayed in an apartment by the ghettos my first year, and there were roaches, gang shootings, and constant screaming matches. But I learned, and got an apartment out on Whitmarsh Island, which is about a 20-30 minute drive (depending on traffic) and it was so nice out there we could leave our apartment unlocked. And best of all, when we had three people in the apartment, it was actually cheaper than the ghettos. It is important to know where to walk in downtown Savannah, and when. Obviously, don't go out after dark, and if you have to, drive, and if you have to walk, walk in groups. The school provides a personal security escort after dark, but it is sorely underutilized. The SCAD busses are also a great asset, especially when there's a group of students in front of a building with a security guard at the entrance. Most of the violent crimes happened after dark, when students were walking alone. Yes, there are a sizable number of such gunpoint muggings that happened in otherwise "safe" areas of the city with groups of four or five students. Yes, there was even a young woman who was kidnapped at 2 in the afternoon from a SCAD parking lot, and raped. I'm not sure that any other schools in large cities have much better records though. On the upside, if you have classes at Montgomery Hall (where 95% of the computer art classes are currently held), you get to park in a nice gated parking lot, the largest other than the dorm lots, with at least two security guards posted at night, and at least three after dark, including one at the parking lot entrance. Statistically, it is the safest place on campus, but that is also because it is the furthest away from the rest of the campus. You hear a lot of horror stories, but a lot are repeated, and among 7000+ students, it's actually a very small portion. Overall, it *is* pretty safe campus. Every now and then, though, something happens and makes it *feel* much less safe.
University Resource Use: The college library is very well stocked, even if most of the books are pretty old, and for obvious reasons, there is little outside the art fields. There is a great deal of money invested in the school's growth, for obvious reasons. However, it does occasionally seem like there is quite a bit of money thrown around for sake of the college itself. For instance, there is apparently a jail the school bought that was condemned, and they hired an international artist to come in and plant vines that now climb the walls, put some walkways in, and claimed it was nature reclaiming architecture. In reality, it was a bunch of money spent on a pile of rubble.
Campus Aesthetics: *Most* of the buildings are pretty nice. Some of the older ones are in pretty sad shape, but nothing worse than a 70's or 80's house that hasn't been renovated. At least they don't have roaches everywhere. I do feel obligated, however, to note that one particular building, the "fabrication shed" behind the architecture building was actually condemned by the city. The school only used it for building large student projects for architecture and furniture design, and began the process of rebuilding it according to historical standards (all of SCAD's buildings are historical). However, after about 6 months, when all but one wall had been pulled down and there were just tons and tons of bricks laying in piles, SCAD announced it had 'run out of money' to continue the construction. A little flaky if you ask me.
Campus Maintenance: There are only two things I ever noticed needed constant fixing (beyond the fabrication sheds I mentioned above) are the skeletons in the life drawing rooms and the touch-order stations in the Byte Cafe of Montgomery Hall. The skeletons were constantly missing their heads because stealing them was as easy as removing a screw and lifting the skull off the spine. Professors began to lock up the replacement skulls a while ago, but they keep being stolen. Apparently it's the new flaming dog poop. The order stations at SCAD have been broken for months, and the school refuses to fix them because supposedly it will cost $10,000 each (there are two) to fix them, and the income the cafe receives doesn't even begin to cover that. I wonder why they bought them in the first place, and what happened to the warranty.
Individual Value: In a big school, it's easy to become a number. Sometimes I felt like it, but that was usually when dealing with the administration and having to rattle off my student ID number instead of my name. However, if you get involved, and become memorable, the school gets much more personal. I was on a first-name basis with all of my professors, including the chair of the department, was constantly involved with suggestions for improving the school and departments, and for providing events and resources for students (through Thirteen Thirty-Seven, discussed below under clubs). It is sometimes hard, however, to shake that feeling that you are just a walking 100 grand check to the college, but I think you're going to get that no matter where you go. I even got it at a local community college back home, when the professors there weren't wallowing in self-pity at not getting a job at a university.
Social Life/Surrounding City: It's difficult for me to speak on this one, since I gave up my social life when I went to SCAD. I do hear, as often as I hear about campus safety, "there's nothing to do in Savannah." There is stuff to do, but Savannah is a 'sleepy southern city,' a city that happened to have a college that grew into it, rather than a city that grew around the college. There are clubs, bars, cinemas, etc, but there's not as much nightlife as you're going to find around the New England coast or western coast. To be honest, it's a really good city to just sit down and focus on college.
Extracurricular Activities: SCAD has just about everything extracurricular except football, which was actually being started (for the third time) when I graduated. Starting a club is literally as easy as getting a group of interested students together, writing a constitution, being able to argue how the club is different from other clubs/organizations/sports, and being able to argue why you should get as much money as you are applying for. I was part of the founding group of Thirteen Thirty-Seven, the Interactive Design and Game Development club, and it really was that easy. It's lots of paperwork and bureaucracy, but it's easy at least.
School work and challenges: A lot of the early stuff is pretty easy, but if you're just learning some software, expect to be wanting to drive an ice pick into your leg sometimes. Some parts go smoothly, and sometimes you build that marshmallow sphinx and it melts in your car (true story from one of my art history classes). Once you find your groove, however, a lot of times you may find it hard to stop on one project and finish the one that is more pressing. I have my gripes about the school, as everyone does, but I really loved it there. | Extracurricular Activities: A, Perceived Campus Safety: D+ | | | |
| | Jan 03 2006 | 4th Year Male --
Class 2005 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Bright |
I first heard about SCAD from a college rep who came and did a presentation at my high school, i was impressed by this as few other schools did this. Being uncertain about the other schools I had applied to (small schools, low acceptance) I decided i would apply there as a back-up. When my mom found out she immediatly pressured me in to choosing that school despite my desire for a small school and my acceptance to several other schools i wanted to go to more, she did this because of the the city:
SAVANNAH IS A HUGE TOURIST AREA!
the top 3 things going on in savannah are
1.SCAD
2.Tourist(EVERYWHERE)
3.Crime.
if you do any reasearch regarding the schools layout you will see that they have bought random buildings within the city, the industrial design building, and animation/game design buildings can take up to 45 minutes to reach from the dorms(you will need to take the bus or drive). If you do choose this school i strongly recommend a bike, they can be incredably helpfull, but be carfull
SAVANNAH DRIVERS ARE DANGEROUS!!!!
most of the upper classmen i know have had very rough times with savannah drivers as well as the savannah tourist trollys. the trollys are everywhere. you will hate the trollys if you have anywhere to go in a hurry as they stop frequently in many areas leaving you no way to get around, also the horse drawn buggys do this(but they usually give you enouph room to squeeze by).
Althought the tourist areas a very pretty the rest of savannah can be downright dangerous. the freshmen dorms are sandwiched in between two ghettos, the sounds of sirens in the night is a very common ocurance. There are ghettos all over savannah, and lucky for us many of the buildings(especially the foundations buildings) require you to travel throught them. one night my first quarter i rode by 4 seperate shootings, on the way to 1 class, i found out later that night there was five shootings that happened mear minutes before i rode down to class at 4:30 in the afternoon.
ABOUT 80% OF THE STUDENTS OFF CAMPUS THAT I KNOW HAVE HAD THEIR APARTMENTS BROKEN IN TO.
but the dorms arent safe either, winter quarter of last year two students in the dyson dorms where robbed at gunpoint in their own room. I have heard tales that there are gangs in savannah whose initiation rights are to kill as scad student(even thought i find this hard to believe, there is still alot of animosity twords the students by locals).The local population is for the most part very poor, seeing hundreds of spoiled rich kids wandering the streets blasting there ipods and taking many of the jobs in savannah isnt a welcome sight. Despite the sterotype of "southern hospitality" i found many of the locals to be jadded and short with alot of SCAD students.
SCAD WILL ACCEPT ANYONE!
The "#1 art $chool in the country" doesnt even require a portfolio of any kind to get in. you will meet lots of kids who wanted to to go to an art school to avoid math and science requirments and are floating along on mommy and daddys trust fund. Lots of BMW's, Audi's, Corvettes and other very expensive cars can be found in the freshman parking lot.
IMPORTANT.
SCAD will give you a scholarship, but beware, they only do whole letter grade's for class's meaning a 2.97 is a C, and dont think that the professor will bump it up just to give you the grade cause you will find alot of them are very harsh graders. Also, if your GPA drops beneath a B average you will lose your scholarships till your average returns.
SCAD has also introduced a program called FYE(first year eperience) in this program they show you the ropes on how to sign up for class's, where different buildings are located, college resources and such, also they give you a "passport" which you are required to complete to pass FYE. The passport is a tiny replica passport that you are required to get stamps in for different events and places (EXAMPLE, sporting events or gallery shows), not a bad idea for the first quarter. If you fail FYE however you are required to take it again, till you pass, and they will charge you somthing like $2000 dollars each time, if you miss more than one FYE class(you cannot pick the time of the class, and its one a week) you will fail it.
MAKE SURE TO GO TO FYE IF YOU GO TO SCAD!
The school is very expensive, and they dont skip out on showing of how much money they have to spend. there are hundred of flat screen plasma TV's around the school as well as "sleep pods" and all sorts of usless crap that is not needed for students. Palla Wallace throws huge gallery show partys for invessters often to show off her #1 art school. There is little resources for items such as light tables and other expensive materials that can be extremely helpfull in foundations class's and superfolous for students to buy.
IF YOU PLAN ON GOING TO SCAD NEVER EVER COUNT ON EX LIBRIS(campus book and supply store) FOR ANY THING YOU NEED, IT IS EITHER OUT(lots of foundations teachers assign projects at the same time, and there are alot of students) OR EXTREMELY OVER PRICED!
there are two places in savannah(aside from wallmart or micheals wich is about a 30-45 min drive)that you can buy general supplies for class, Ex Libris and Primary art supply. Ex Libris will jack up the price (they made me pay 9 dollars for a can of spray paint) on any item and usually has specific items out of stock. Primary, thought better priced and more reliable for supplies, is still somewhat expensive and further away, if you can buy as much of your supplies online before hand, www.dickblick.com is a great website.
DO NOT WORK FOR SCAD AS A WORK STUDY STUDENT.
the hourly wage is somewhere between 4 and 6 dollars an hour. i was given $75 dollar pay checks bi-weekly! there is not way that you can survive down there on the min wage if you are trying to go to SCAD.
Savannah(besides being poverty and crime striken) is also the foulest smelling city ive ever been to in my entire life, the river it borders houses several paper mills, the horses often leave crap all over the road, and the garbage from the numerous buisness's creates a stink that will make your eyes water. combine that with the humidity of the south and it becomes unbearable.
I wouldnt recommend SCAD to anyone, let alone a serious artist. the school is nothing more than a overpriced day car filled with spoiled rich kids. I transfered far away, and i have no regrets. | Extracurricular Activities: B, Useful Schoolwork: F | | | |
| | Aug 05 2007 | 1st Year Male --
Class 2010 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Quite Bright |
SO I know there are a lot of people out there who are speaking negatively about this school and trust me I could give you an ear full.
But let me say this. SCAD is a business first. They need to make money just like the rest of us. Is the money you spend at SCAD worth it? It is expensive I will give you that but you get a good education but it is up to you to make the best of it. The professors will not spoon feed you materials, information or jobs.
If they feel you are qualified they will recommend you for a job and trust me when I say it is possible to get work with a degree from SCAD.
As far as safety is concerned I don't care what other people say. This town has it's dark side but it is also beautiful and if you take proper precautions than you will be ok. For example don't walk alone at night, don't leave stuff in your car where people can see it. Be smart.
Do your research and take your core classes at another school like a community college. You will SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE money by doing that and possibly get out a little sooner.
Utilize the resources they give you. If you can, work late into the night when the labs clear up. I am tired of people blaming the school for the cities problems. It is not SCAD's fault that there is no parking. There really is no place to build parking decks. Face it if you go to SCAD you are moving to a tourist town first not a college town.
I would recommend this school and trust me when I say I have every reason not to but I felt I got a good education from it. The departments and the school are still young and they are learning and with each year it get's a little better.
My final thought. Contact alumni. That is what we are here for. If you don't trust the school to hook you up with one then look it up on line. FACEBOOK is a good source or you can even get a one on one lunch with a student from the major you want to major in. Ask questions.
Good luck and have fun! | Starting Job: Logger, Preparedness: C-, Reputation: C- | | |
| | Jun 06 2007 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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