In
the two years I've been at SCAD, overall I feel
a bit... meh. Granted, there were other factors that contributed
to this feeling (mostly problems with living situations. Dorm life
could have been much, MUCH better), but in hindsight I
feel that I should've gone to a community college or
a state university for the first year, THEN transferred. Or
had I known I could've filled out withdrawal-pre-requisite forms, I
could've skipped many fundamental classes and saved time and money.
The English 101 class is somewhat of a joke (we
only watched movies and wrote 1-page long responses. I wish
I did better on my AP exams, then I could've
skipped this), and from what I've heard about math, it's
basic algebra.
I've had fantastic and inspiring professors, and I've
had downright terrible, rude, and unhelpful ones... Honestly, out of
the 18 professors I've experienced, I feel only 2 or
3 of them truly inspired me to do my best.
Maybe that's normal, I don't know. Ratemyprofessors.com is a great
help when registering for classes, as well as word of
mouth.
SCAD likes to brag about their facilities, renovated dorms,
bus systems, great security, and what have you. It does
seem nice on paper and during the SCAD Day tour,
but the reality is a lot different. Animation is one
of the biggest departments at SCAD, but President Paula Wallace
spends our money on -Equestrian Studies- when half our cameras
and capture stations don't work properly, no matter how many
students fill out the end of term surveys complaining about
this.
I'm not going to lie, the dorms definitely leave
something to be desired. There's a reason why they only
show Turner House on the tour... I lived in Dyson,
which was dank and dark, and felt like a swampy
cave. When my father visited me in Savannah for the
first time, he said he was disappointed with where I
was living for what he's paying. Turner House is slightly
better because it was actually built to be a dorm
(Dyson and Turner Annex were motels before), but Turner House
has their problems. The only plus I can think of
with the dorms is that they gave people the opportunity
to be closer together... but even then, you'd want to
destroy your neighbors when you haven't slept in ages. Plus
there were a lot of moments where Turner's fire alarm
system would malfunction, and kids were evacuated outside. One time
they were outside in the winter for two hours -at
night-. I could start on the meal plans, but all
you need to know is “Sodexo".
Aside from the weekends,
the bus systems are very handy, even to an off-campus
student like myself. However, there are a lot of complaints
about the bus drivers, whether they are taking too long
of breaks, or they skip a stop, or general rudeness.
On the one hand, I sympathize with them because they
have to drive around hundreds of whiny hipsters every day,
as well as the suspicion that they're not being paid
enough, providing reason why they act they way they do
sometimes. But on the other, I have to agree with
the whiny hipsters when I'm about to miss a class,
or I'm stuck in a place for an hour. I
HIGHLY recommend investing in a bicycle as an alternative, I
don't know where I'd be without mine.
Yes, Savannah is
a beautiful city, but there are definitely parts one should
avoid. I live not too far from Arnold Hall, maybe
three blocks, and my roommates were mugged at gunpoint within
that radius. Apparently Savannah was worse ten and twenty years
ago, but there's still a lot of low-income housing and
projects that contribute to crime, so it isn't smart to
walk around by yourself when it's dark — regardless whether
you're male or female. Again, this is where a bike
or car becomes handy; be sure to secure these, too
— bicycle thefts are superfluous, and it isn't uncommon to
see your stolen bike being ridden down the street.
Since there isn't a real campus, sometimes you have to
endure the ghetto areas to get where you need to
be. I get cat-called all the time when I'm on
my bicycle, which is unnerving, but all you can do
is pedal on. Of course, this is more of a
city issue, not a college one.
I was going to
say that the biggest disappointment I can find is in
the student body, but it has to be realized that
time weeds out the best and promising from the terrible
and lazy. I've met a lot of people who I've
questioned, “How the hell did you get here?” but I've
met just as many who deserve to be here —
or somewhere even better.
It's true what they say
about SCAD being one of the biggest hipster schools, it's
almost disgusting. But 'hipster' is such a loose term these
days that I've been called as such, to which I
respond, “What? That doesn't make any sense.” But if you
mean hipsters that dress eclectically, and fill any void of
personality with PBR, we've got plenty of those. Some of
them are nice, some of them are dumb as a
bag of hammers.
I've spent probably an hour reflecting on
all this, so here is my close. If I
was offered an opportunity to go somewhere else, I can't
say that I wouldn't consider it. I mean, I
have thought about transferring a few times to be closer
to home (I'm from the West Coast), but the reasons
I haven't mostly have to do with the time and
money I've invested here already, and also the networking and
career opportunities SCAD has to offer. Countless companies and
big name artists come through SCAD to recruit and/or look
at portfolios, and it's worth just to be around for
the feedback. I know I complained about unhelpful professors, but
that's mainly in the classroom setting. If you simply come
in and ask to have your work critique, they will
certainly let you know what you need to improve on.
I'm barely tapping into my major this year, but I'm
learning a lot about animation, character design, and stuff I
never thought about before (right now I'm trying to figure
out how to get better at design as a whole).
So from what I'm hoping is that my Junior and
Senior years will be the best in terms of academics,
social scene, and confidence. If there's a school that's cheaper
and offers this much or more, then I'd probably take
it. Otherwise, I'll stick it out and see what next
fall brings.