The Academy of Art University

Date: Apr 06 2010
Major: Interior Design (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm trying to be as neutral as possible while thinking about AAU. But it just isn't happening.

As for the IAD department, I had my ups and downs. I had planned on getting a BA in Interior Architecture and Design but decided to put my credits towards an AA and get out. I had some wonderful teachers but they were few and far between. Most of the time I had teachers that didn't speak enough english to teach so they just gave out handouts, the other half of the bad teachers would just quit randomly and left the department scrounging around for whoever felt like picking up the class. I had classes like this on more than one occasion. To placate the students the department just gave all the students A-, they wouldn?t refund the money nor would they let those students retake the class. Personally, I would much rather have learned perspective drawing and CAD basics than have a neat little A- on my transcript. Projects were challenging and I spent most of my weekends pulling all-nighters. However, you can definitely pass with doing minimal amounts of work.

I became really great friends with other students in my major because of our shared dedication to being the best students in the department. However, out of the 4 friends that joined me in being top of our class there is currently only one left at AAU. 50% of the students don?t drop out because it?s too hard. 25% drop out because they can?t afford it and the other 25% can?t deal with the administration.

Ahh, the administration. I will never ever attend another school that functions for profit. It?s very much so a dirty business with the people at the top only making decisions for financial reasons. There are so many controversies; the wikipedia page references only the nice ones.
I had read all these reviews before I attended AAU and dismissed them as disgruntled students or completely lazy art kids. It definitely is some of that. I graduated with a 3.6 GPA and I was an RA, I was deeply involved at AAU and I still recommend you consider all other options before attending. The best thing I can say about AAU is that it helped me create a strong portfolio (although I did teach myself) to be able to transfer to a ?real art school? (one that requires portfolio reviews).

It took a 11 months for me to receive my diploma, after countless angry emails and telephone calls. Trying to transfer my credits to my new institution is not a hassle because they look down upon AAU credits. It?s because AAU doesn?t give out syllabi or course outlines, all they send me are the course description paragraph that is a bunch of fluff.

I met so many great and richly diverse people.

I definitely fell in love with San Francisco.

I am in debt.

I am infinitely happier at my current university.