The Savannah College of Art and Design

Date: Mar 15 2016
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
I don't even know if it was worth it. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot and experienced a lot; couldn't tell you if SCAD itself was corrupt or not because I'm pretty opened minded and just accepted it. But upon retrospect SCAD is pretty bad and a lot of the reviews here are pretty spot on, so I'll summarize my comments without overlap too much.

The School:

The school itself is ok, lots of re-purposed building turned to schools; whether that is because of Savannah's strict historical preservation laws or what, being located in the historic district of Savannah Georgia.

The faculty is pretty much the same as any other school, but its evident that the teachers are more helpful than the advisers.—Most teachers are great and experienced, but some can come off as strict only because they want to push you harder; a few teachers do glorify certain students because of their skills and experience, which pissed me off at times, and would receive more attention. They do expect a lot from you and your projects, so its best to keep your scope really small or spend countless nights NOT sleeping. Oddly enough, some teachers were, at one time, students at SCAD so that tells you something.—The adviser, unlike the teachers, change every year and have no clue who you are or what you do; For some ungodly reason SCAD has to rehire all of their employees each year, never completely understood that. Couldn't get reliable information and I almost always get screwed in some way with them; for example, I went to a career adviser for scheduling advise and pretty much was handed a schedule filled with classes I simply haven't taking yet, no really one on one conversations just in and out; plus I had later work around that "schedule" because some classes were not offered that quarter. Personally, I never had good luck with advisers anyways, but still there should have been more involved with students than just "here you go, good luck".

Student Life

Student life was good, well mix of people from all walks of life. Most students are in there own group and shallow, few are not. Many of them complaint about not getting sleep because of projects, that becomes some sort of badge of honor that is both real and fake and the same time.

living in the dorms is not what you are lead to believe, unless you are a socialite, and your roommates can be pretty antisocial at times. Don't live in Barnard village if you don't have transportation, you'll be stuck there on spring break or whenever the buses stop running.

Cafeteria food is sub-par, it gets old after the first quarter. Meal plans are expensive, but worth it if you don't want to buy groceries.

traveling from one building to another is hectic, though its gotten better the year I graduated, its better to have your own car or bike if you want to get anywhere in a timely manner. Yes there has been robberies, shootings and murders in Savannah; Savannah is weird like that, some parts are safe and well populated while others are "ghetto" and its not group together in neighborhoods, its speckled everywhere.

always busy with projects and almost never have time to enjoy the city of Savannah, the city they pride themselves in for producing fine artist.

lots of events that overlap classes, can be frustrating to have potential employers visiting SCAD and you are in class, or special guest come to teach a lesson and you have a over scoped project so you have to decide on spending 2 hours on a lesson that is not impressive or waste a chance to network with professionals.

Academia/classes

Some classes are impressive and help you really think about things differently and others are a waste; for example, I had a problem with English because it was confusing, but when I took an English class at SCAD I realize that it wasn't confusing at all and that it was more simple that I thought, or that just creative writing. Some classes were not any help and was a review for me than anything else. Other classes were not what I expected, could have saved the money to learn it myself to be honest.

Half way through my education, SCAD changed the curriculum and became a huge inconvenience: constantly had to get waivers to register for classes, classes for discontinued or merged into one class so it got confusing what to take. This curriculum change has happened before, so I'm told by other students.

Summary

Most of my Complaints involve the internal workings of SCAD rather the academia part. Like I said before I don't know if it was worth my time going; I did learn things and I did grow as a person, but I don't think spending over $100,000 is worth all that. I was lead to believe I would get into a good career and that the name of SCAD would get me somewhere. But now I've gotten nowhere, I've suffer regrets and depression, and only now I'm believing what my teachers were saying about how bad the video game industry really is: all the jobs are in California, there almost all freelance/contract jobs, no entry-level positions, and low wages (35,000/yr and you really need 65,000/yr just to LIVE in California).I know that the state of the video game industry is not SCAD's fault, but the education should at least reflect the industry itself; why spend $100,000 for a job that really pays peanuts, even if your extremely good at your job. I now have to go back to school and do something different to offset this mistake, plus I found out that the only thing that transferred to my new school is my English 101 class. I'm sorry to say this, but a career in art is not worth your time and going to SCAD would make it worse.

Advice for looking for a good school

don't go for the cool factor, its just a front

don't go to a school that was advertised, SCAD wasn't advertised, but I heard about colleges like AI were falsely advertising their school.

check for accreditation and look up those who accredited them, they are not all the same

if important information, like accreditation and tuition, isn't easily found or in a appropriate location, don't go

don't go for a career that is heavily advertised, because that is a sign jump ship

read up on the school through unbiased news articles and reviews like this one.

Thanks for reading, I hope this help in some way. I hate to see people get tricked into a false career and go nowhere. Careers are not all the same, some are just fades or just a living; its like someone saying "hey you can be a railroad inspector for a living" and realize you just went to school to be a hobo.