The School of Visual Arts

Date: Dec 06 2010
Major: Video/Media (This Major's Salary over time)
I was a film major at SVA who dropped out during my 2nd year there. Let me just come right out with it and say that THIS SCHOOL IS HORRIBLE! Just all around a horrible school. It is totally overpriced and overrated as most NY film schools are. The professors are film industry rejects who never worked on a feature film in their life and teach film classes to pay the rent. Many of them are actually former graduates who don't have a film credit to their name. Embarrassing! They will over-analyze just about everything and come off as pretentious. They speak out of their a$ and are extremely condescending, hurtful, and unhelpful when they criticize your films/work. Teachers here are so discouraging. They actually suck the creativity out of you and try to force their ideas on how to do things onto you. Some of my high school friends who went here became so discouraged that they stopped pursuing art as a career completely. Sad! And don't even get me started on the students who go here! It's extremely hard to make friends. Most of the students either don't speak English, are anti-social, or are film snobs or snotty kids who form cliques. Most of the kids who go to this film school are obsessed with being artsy and becoming the next Orson Welles. No one is approachable or genuine. And as a Hispanic young man I witnessed first hand how racist and elitist teachers and students are at this school. I always got dirty looks from people and was often excluded and ignored because I wasn't a rich white kid. Back where I went to school everyone regardless of ethnicity got along fine and I was well-liked and popular. It being NYC you would think people would be tolerant to everyone right? WRONG. The buildings are horrible and cramped. Bathrooms are ridiculously tiny. All the staff is really mean spirited. Not into helping students at all. All about the paycheck. There is no sense of community here. No brotherhood of artists. Everyone is so selfish and concerned only with their work and getting "famous". Good luck trying to get together a crew for your movie. The cameras are always in short supply. They really are ages behind in the supply department. The lights are old and they lack most essential film industry tools. Nothing here is "high tech" or "cutting edge" as SVA always boasts. Most of the students who go here are pot head hippies who have no genuine love of film and have no direction in their lives. As a person who is the anti-thesis of that I did not fit in here and found this school to be a sorry excuse for a film school. I'm assuming that if you're reading this you care about art and want to further your knowledge and love of it. You want to grow and share yourself through art. If this sounds like you please avoid SVA like the plague. As a matter of fact unless you are sure of it avoid art school. You're better off studying art through books and taking an apprenticeship/internship where you can learn from a real industry expert who hopefully will nurture your talent and love for the arts. It's a lot of money, stress and most of all pain and grief saved.