The Savannah College of Art and Design

Date: Aug 08 2007
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
When I first heard about SCAD, the people I talked to made it sound like such an incredible school. They all but guarenteed instant success the minute I graduated. In retrospect, I should have suspected something was up on the tour of campus. Our tour director was a proud SCAD grad. I figured he was doing that job as a continuing SCAD student. Nope, that was all he was able to find after he graduated. The bad reviews I read online should have been a tip off too. I thought those people were liars, and then everything they complained about happened to me!

After 4 years, I began to realize something. They weren't actually preparing us for jobs. At all. I was in the fashion department. Having Andre Leon Tally as your sponsor isn't really all that impressive on your resume, compared to… you know… actual work experience! There was just no effort to help us get internships, jobs, nothing. I went in to the career planning office, and all they gave me was a piece of paper telling me how to write a resume.

Now granted, we're taking about artists and designers. Job placement just isn't the same thing for us. But it really felt like we were left to fend for ourselves most of the time. And as for SCAD being the '#1 art school in the country,' that is absolute rubbish. I thought that I would finish SCAD and people everywhere would be incredibly impressed with my background. Then I go to New York and Europe, and people either had never heard of it, or dismissed it as not even being a real college. If you're expecting people to respect your degree, think again. I've heard many, many people complain that SCAD grads aren't very well trained and aren't as hireable.

I've since met other art students from schools like Parsons, Art Institute of Chicago, DAAP at University of Cincinnati, and so on. They all considered SCAD to be a joke of a school, all business and very little actual art. It really does seem that way when you really look at it. They will let in ANYONE. It's incredible. I had a Drawing II class, with kids who couldn't even proportion a human face (and not in a deliberate Picasso way). Applying as a fashion major, I wasn't even required to submit a portfolio. You would think that they would care if their fashion majors could actually do the work!

So basically, avoid avoid avoid. Go somewhere else. Choose a real school. One of my professors summed up SCAD really well to me. He said he'd never before taught at a college that is continually trying to milk every last penny from its students. By the time you finish, your debt will be incredible.

Don't count on getting a job in your field either. Of all my friends, only one got a job in fashion. The rest are just getting by, one of them has been working in a toilet manufacturing plant for the past several years. It isn't lazyness or lack of motivation that is holding us back. There aren't that many jobs, and there aren't that many people willing to hire SCAD grads. That's why I've totally changed careers and I'm getting a more useful degree. I can't do anything, it's like I never even went to college! So do yourself a favor, and just go somewhere more worthwhile.

Side note- The crime is AWFUL. My apartment was broken into repeatedly, my car was a total wreck by the time I left, and a homeless guy actually died in the park right behind our building. Imagine coming home to that at the end of the day!