Columbia College - Chicago

I warn you before you attend this university to consider many other schools. This schools tuition is steadily increasing. The academics are too easy it is hard to make friends and meet people. Most of the student body commutes this school has no sense of community what so ever. The social life here sucks their are rarely ever parties. Also avoid getting a meal plan if you can it is a waste of money the food is bad. Live off campus if possible on campus housing is expensive and over rated. I suggest looking into tailor loft apartments by UIC. The schools graduation rate is quite low. I myself am transferring and i know many other people doing the same. Save yourself from making the same mistake I did. The only majors that should even consider this school is acting,film and photography. Their campus is spread all over so you don't get that campus feel. The only thing i really liked is that the class sizes are small. I will leave this college and never look back.

1st Year Female -- Class 2015

Innovation: A-, Education Quality: F

I am a veteran of the US Army. I was in my first year with a 3.9 GPA when a drunk kid who was smaller than me picked a fight with two of my friends then with me. I shoved him to the ground and walked away. I was then given 48 hours to vacate my dorm and was banned from all dorm buildings. The school ignored the facts and did not seem to care that i had no where to stay so I was forced to drop out and move home. The security guards in my building told me they had people beat other students up and all they had to do was switch rooms or suffer a short suspension. So just because I was bigger than the instigator and was a veteran I was "too dangerous" to keep around. If you are a veteran looking at Columbia College forget about it, it's a waste of time.

1st Year Male -- Class 2015

Surrounding City: A+, Education Quality: F

Overall I have had a bad time at Columbia College. I went to Columbia College on the premise that I wanted to work on the business side of online media. So I majored in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management. That decision was solid, however what I found out as I got deeper into the school is that the classes are built exclusively around those who want to be in the VISUAL arts field, the MUSIC industry, and the FASHION industry...not anything that had a single thing to do with MEDIA, especially online media. Why the name ?Arts, Entertainment, and MEDIA Management?

But thats not's the worst part. The worst part is the culture of the school. A big reason why people go off to college is so that they can meet new people, gain a broader worldview, and develop lifelong relationships. On this Columbia totally fails. The culture is that of a community college. Socializing on campus is not facilitated as it should be so most people simply go to class and go home?or work in order to pay the enormous costs of living in the big city. Not to mention the fact that Columbia does little to help out in the way of scholarships. If you are a fine artist, and/or photographer, scholarships come a little easier, but otherwise be prepared to look elsewhere for finance aid. There are no REAL incentives to achieve academically in comparison to Columbia's competition.

They claim to put on various events, but the events are scarcely attended and consist of random art shows and talent shows, with a small, inside group of students who attend. If you're coming in from out of state, adjusting to life on an ?urban campus? in the middle of downtown Chicago will be hard, since there is no real ?campus?. They market it by saying that Chicago is the campus. But Chicago is a world city with many, many different cultures, things to do, places to go, and alcohol to drink, mostly not conducing to a serious student's regimen. Without the proper focus and/or support system, it is easy to get caught up into non-productive activities with those who could care less about your academic career.

Columbia boasts about having faculty that work are still currently working in there industry. This produces a variety of issues that outweigh that small benefit. Here's my point-by-point take on the part-time faculty thing:

1. Most of the instructors are part-time faculty and are not instructors by profession, nor do most care to be. So it's a hit or miss with finding a good instructor. The bad ones are REALLY bad. Class becomes more of a show-and-tell than a place for learning. Most of these "industry" instructors are hard to contact after class since they have no office hours and most don't use the college portals for communication.

2. There are hardly any professors. In my four years I have only maybe two true professors who actually had an office.

3. Since they have more important things to do, a go many of instructors have little patience for working with students who need extra assistance, even though they are animate about saying they are.

3. Grading is inconsistent. It is my understanding that grades should be based on how much is learned, retained, and demonstrated. But it often times becomes "creative" and is more of a demonstration of how much the instructor likes you or how much you already know. In other words it's like a real-life job, your performance evaluation is based on how little you bother your manager. This may work for some, but I've already worked jobs in the real world that PAID me, and I am PAYING Columbia College to teach me skills that I did not previously possess. Thats the purpose of school. This is not on-the-job learning. If they want to structure it as such, then it should be at the very least a vocational school with vocational school costs. That would then justify the overuse of part-time faculty.

4. The marketing ploy of having instructors who still work within the industry also insinuates that because you are in the presence of industry professionals that it would be easier for you to find a job in your field upon graduation. This is hardly the case. I know very, very few graduates who have found work, internships, or anything else in their chosen fields and the ones that have, done it completely on their own, with extremely hard work. There are no official channels that funnel students, or at least put them up for some kind of official consideration for work. There is the Portfolio Center and a job fair every semester, but these avenues dont hold very much weight outside of the college. The job fair showcases scores of retailers, MML companies, and random entities that are basically looking for desperate students. The Portfolio Center does a fair job at helping students prepare their portfolios for the workforce, but there is where it ends, and I have found much better portfolio resources on my own.

4th Year Male -- Class 2012

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Scholastic Success: F