The Savannah College of Art and Design

Date: Oct 25 2009
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
Having experienced three majors here, Illustration, Painting and Graphic Design, I really wish I had gone to a different school. I can fairly say that about 1/3 of the teachers that I've had are terribly difficult to understand. Hardly any have degrees in teaching, they are hired due to their performance in the field. While I am glad that they have field experience, this does not translate at all to their teaching. The only teachers that demonstrate any teaching ability have been the foundations professors.

All of the major classes I have been in have followed this same structure: in ten weeks you have 3-5 (one class had 8) projects. This means you have three classes before a project is due and one critique day (two classes a week for 2.5 hours each). The three classes are normally "work days" in which the teacher goes around to the different students in the class. However, teachers rarely get around to the whole class or if they do, it is rushed. I do not feel that this is adequate teaching. Even in painting there is little to no discussion about modeling form or edge quality. Most is based on the conceptual idea behind your painting. While that is important, there is very little help for you to execute it. Keep in mind you have two weeks to produce a finished piece for each of your two studio classes (one piece a week).

This is the same way that I have felt in every major class that I have taken. For example, in Illustration we were frequently given posters to make that include hand done typography. Yet we were taught nothing of the basic principles of typography (layouts, kerning, etc), yet we were expected to do it anyway.

What is also frustrating is that there are no pluses or minuses in the grading. You are required to get an average of 3.0 in your major GPA to graduate and your GPA regulates your scholarship, it can be taken away at any point. The difference between an 80 and an 89.9 is huge. Most teachers do not round up, so even if you get an 89.7, you get a B. Teachers still believe that C's are average, and grade accordingly. There is no regulation in department of grading, it is entirely up to the teacher. I have gotten everything from rubrics on the grading breakdown, to a number on a post it note.