The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles

Date: Jun 09 2005
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended FIDM as a Product Development major. It seemed like a good way to get a quick degree and into a fashion industry job. Boy, I was wrong. The school tries to sell you on how great their job placement after graduation is but, at least from the San Francisco campus, I never recieved any useful help/advice. On the contrary, the job placement director was rude and unsupportive every time I went to talk to her about jobs. Don't believe the admissions officers a.k.a. salespeople.

The curriculum for my major was average. Half of my instructors were inadequate to be teaching but still remained at the school even after my classmates complained several timese to the administration. The workload was supereasy the first year and then the second year the workload was intense, like, superintense-don't-expect-a-social-life. Now, I realize education should be a challenge, but the order the courses were set up was the problem, with a little adjustment, moving some of the heavy workload courses earlier into the program would help.

The other thing I learned after graduating with my AA was that I was mostly unemployable with only a AA. Almost without exception, to be hired for an industry job with room for advancement a Bachelor's degree was required. So, I wasted 2 years and $40,000 to work as a sales girl. My advice is to get into a university with a Fashion Merchandising/Business Bachelor degree program and do that instead. There are several public universities that offer such a program and you will be better served in the future with a full degree.