(AAU) I greaduated AAU in December 2012

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Date: Nov 12 2014
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
I greaduated AAU in December 2012. When I applied in 2006 they told me it would cost roughly $80,000 to get my BFA in Commercial Photography there. By the time I was done I was $144,000 in the hole before even counting in the interest.

While I was there instructors were in and out the door every semester so it was random luck if you were to get anyone good. From my experience you had about a 1 in 6 chance of getting someone good. But probably 3 out of those 6 we pretty awful.

From the time I started to the time I graduated the number of photo students more than tippled, studio hours decreased, and they in no way vaguely bothered to keep the amount of equipment up with the increased demand. (You could see how may of each piece of gear was available, or not, to loan out at any given time.)

The LA classes were laughably easy and were maybe, MAYBE, high-school level.

They charged about $1300 a month for a SHARED studio, while the market rate at the time was about that for a studio two building down the block , so housing rates are pretty much extortion.

The available transportation was never on time, so if you had back to back classes you were pretty much always late for the second.

Every year there they raised the tuition by something like $225 a unit (most classes are 3 units)

One year they told us the reason for the tuition increase was to offer us perpetual CS6 suite licences which they are now pulling from everyone one.

I can't even apply to consolidate my loans that I took to go to AAU because, banks, and credit unions (I've tried 2 banks and 3 CUs) don't believe that someone who attended the academy will be able to repay the loans.

Just don't go. Is there value to the education they offer? Yes. Is it anywhere near $144,000 dollars (roughly $300,000 if you include interest over the standard repayment time, (roughly $1,300 a month)) that it actually cost. No

The Academy of Art University was the biggest mistake of my life.

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