Brown Mackie College - Salina

Date: May 17 2009
Major: Design Arts - Industrial Design/Graphic Design/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended Brown Mackie College, Louisville. I would never recommend that anyone go to this school and would do anything to get back my wasted time. I graduated in 2008 with a 3.98. When I started in 2006, it seemed promising enough. They hire smooth talkers to get you into the school as soon as possible. They really don't care about any previous grades and will admit just about anyone. I started about two weeks after I applied.

Throughout my years at BM, I had various bad experiences. To list them all would result in a lot of writing, so I will just stick with the highlights. The staff, with the exception of a few teachers, mainly consisted of people who really didn't want to be there. Most of them didn't really care. The turnover rate on all faculty was very high. One of my instructors could not write the alphabet correctly, did not understand the concept of critical thinking that they were teaching, and could not even spell (that is no exaggeration). This teacher was fired after a group of students got together and complained. We spent the rest of the class watching movies like Disturbia and working directly from the book. I didn't learn anything.

Most of my graphic design classes could have been taken at home for very cheap by reading Adobe Classroom in a Book on the various programs. Though web design has become an integral part of graphic design (that is required for most jobs in the field!), we were taught nothing about it unless we were able to make some workshops that were outside of class hours and basically given because the instructor was a nice guy who wanted to. Also, we were using outdated programs when the new ones had been out for almost a year.

To anyone who asks why I saw it through, I had no choice. According to Brown Mackie, If I dropped, I would lose my financial aid and still have to pay for the entire program. Not only that, but there are very few schools that will take their credits. So once you're in, you're stuck.

When I finally got to the end of my program, I had to take an externship. They arranged for me to work at a business owned in part by an employee from BMC. When I got there to work, the person who was teaching me knew less about design than I did. I didn't learn anything that would be useful in any job making more than $9 an hour.

This brings me to their supposed job placement assistance. Basically, all they did was give me a list of places to go and tell me I could print out my resume there and use their resume paper. They didn't give me any contact with any employer. They had no places that they hired out to. They didn't help me to get an interview. They did nothing.

I wrote the person who was supposed to be helping me begging her to help me find a job, expressing my frustration in a completely non-accusatory manner. She basically said, I'm sorry you can't find a job but they are out there if you'll just keep looking! I put in for fifty plus jobs on my own and got one interview. I didn't get the job because my potential employer hadn't heard of Brown Mackie and was wary of it. However, she said my resume and portfolio were impeccable. It has been six months since I graduated. None of the other people I graduated with have gotten work either. One of them said he took BMC off of his resume because it made him look bad. What a waste of our lives!!!

I hate this school with a passion and PLEASE don't waste your money. Don't go there. They are totally full of crap and they just want your money. Once they have you hooked (after about six months) they could give a crap about you. Also, the classes are dumbed down so everyone can pass and not challenging at all! If any instructor tries to make students work, the majority of the students will complain and that teacher will get reprimanded. I want to feel like I am actually EARNING an education, not just paying to waste my time. I guess that is the thing about for-profit schools. They are money making machines who do not care for people at all.