The Art Institute of California - San Francisco

They are really bad and they don’t have any concept of TIME. They scheduled a tour with me at 6pm on Thursday and called me on 5pm and said they cancel it. That’s ridiculous. I suspect if I take the course, the teacher will cancel the class at anytime they want.
1 7 years ago (03-05-2018)

Before I proceed, I do want to set a disclaimer that after graduation, I did become a full-time employee for The Art Institutes, but as of this writing, I am no longer with them, so this review is solely my experience as a student first. Also, this is a review for the Art Institute of California - San Francisco, in San Francisco, California. I have no knowledge about other Art Institue campuses out there as they may operate differently. After being out of school and reconnecting with many old friends from high school, sharing our college experiences, even with those I graduated with from this school. If there's anything I realized, it's how much I've grown as a professional and an adult thanks to going here. I would not exchange the experiences I've gained from coming to this school. What prompted me to rewrite this review, is recently EDMC (parent company of the Art Institutes) has sold the school to a non-profit organization, in which brought hopes to me that the school will once again strive to be this great place that I remember my freshmen year. I know the people that run this particular campus care so much for its students, but hands were always tied thanks to the corporation that runs it. Kudos to the leadership at this particular campus. But enough with that, you're probably wondering if I'm in the field I want to be now. Well here's the reality. No matter what you do in life, you may start with a goal, but then that goal grows and changes as you learn. In my case, with an interest in photography, but enrolled into the film program. As I went along my journey, I discovered that I was a very technical person, and loved technology and art. I'm now an IT Manager/AV Expert for a major NGO that focuses on improving the lives of people in developing nations. Is it related to what I've learned? Somewhat- yes. I'm applying the Photoshop, HTML, design language, to name a few that I've learned from school to my position now. In certain cases, I'm called upon to film major events. All these skills that I've learned from school are now being applied in the real world, in a career I love. In short, I may not be in the exact field I majored in, but the narrative is, I'm applying the same skills that I've mastered into another field that I enjoy. My advice for you incoming freshmen is to build a network and take in everything you'll learn because no education is a waste. They can be applied to many other jobs that you may have never even heard of. How are my loans? I've paid them off. Yes, that was my top priority when I graduated, and I've put basically 70% of all my checks to pay off my loans in 2 years. It's achievable, don't let it scare you. The legitimacy of my enrollments and current career? You can find me on LinkedIn/jlrumohr or my website at jlrumohr[dot]com - I still get offered side film/photo projects so still pretty much in the game. Given another chance to choose the Art Institutes or my local community college, I'll gladly choose Ai over and over again.
5 7 years ago (26-10-2017)

Excellent school I promise you!!!
5 7 years ago (16-04-2018)

Terrible school! Run away as quickly as possible!! I'd give them zero stars if I could. I made it to my final year and had to take 4 AutoCad classes before graduating. In my beginning class, the instructor was a complete jerk who didn't have any interest in helping the students and would become highly irritated if you asked for help. Eventually I got help from a top student in the class and hard core busted my butt, doing 12 hr days, once a week on my homework to bring up my C+ midterm grade. (This was the only class there I had ever received below a B in). At the end of the semester, the instructor told us we were the best class he ever had and wasn't giving us a final. He specifically singled me out, along with 2 others who were new to AutoCad and told us how proud he was upon seeing our tremendous improvement. After all that, he gave me a C- in the class -- lower than what I had mid-semester!!! Needless to say, I was pissed!! I went to the head of the interior design dept. and the Dean of the school to get the situation dealt with, and all they could say was "Sorry, but the way they grade limits them to how many of each specific letter grade they can hand out per class". So basically, it doesn't matter if you did A or B work, if there were others who also did it, but just a little bit better, or others who were preferred over you, then you automatically get bumped. They refused to change my grade and I still had 3 more AutoCad classes to take with this jerk, so I ended up leaving the school. Other students also left at this time, tired of dealing with rude, immature instructors -- some even using degrading names, towards their students, and there were at least 3 students with lawsuits pending against the school. They also had lied to the interior design students about being accredited and had a mediator coming in every week to handle disagreements between students and teachers. As for the few good teachers that were left, most had planned on leaving by the end of that year. This is by far the worst school I've ever attended, and they don't deserve the $12,000 they charged me to attend it. They don't even deserve $12.00, so save your money and go someplace far more worthy and better accredited!
1 7 years ago (18-06-2017)

bad teachers, owned by goldman sachs.
1 7 years ago (15-12-2017)