The School of Visual Arts

Date: Nov 08 2011
Major: Design Arts - Industrial Design/Graphic Design/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
SVA, as an institution, downright sucks. It's irresponsible as a business and horrible as a school—they'll squander your $100K in tuition on ad campaigns, recruitment, and promo materials to keep up the school's reputation that was (rightly) established decades ago, but it's nothing like that now. Only some of your money will actually go toward things that will help you directly as a student. The facilities are average at best, and half the teachers just plain ol' don't give a flying F about their job. Many of them are in it for the benefits (not even the pay, because it's so low). The administration treat you like cattle, and the student advisers are the the worst in the bunch. God forbid something's wrong with your schedule, because getting help from them is a nightmare. I've also found that the school will actually attempt to swindle unsuspecting students out of even more money, by forcing them to pay for redundant classes, or other administrative "accidents" that you will end up being responsible for. As an illustration and cartooning major, I found that the departments' chair, Tom Woodruff, was irritating more than anything. He hates comics and shouldn't be in charge of the department whatsoever as well. However, there are some fantastic professors there… if you can find them. My recommendation to someone that's interested in going to this school to major in illustration or cartooning is to take a class here and there on your own, and read a lot of books on your favorite artists and technique. There is very little I've learned from going to SVA that I couldn't have gotten from a $300 trip to Barns and Noble.