The Art Insitute

I think I am going for the A.A first..

2009-08-12T20:19:00.002-04:00

After reviewing the A.A course sheet I think I should go for that first. It would allow me to get into classes sooner without having to worry about all the prerequisites the BFA program is plagued with. Once done with that I will hop back in the BFA program.

I should have enrolled in the A.A program earlier. I transferred with a few credits but I was still missing about 5 general education courses. Had I gone into the A.A first it would have been only 2 so those extra 3 classes could have been spent on courses in the program.

Yes, I still would have had to still take those extra classes after I finish and go into the BFA but general education courses are easy to get into. Some of the major courses are only offered every other quarter if that and you can't get into one with out completing other courses first.

Web Design and Interactive Media..

2009-08-06T20:46:00.003-04:00

I do attend the Tampa campus. From my knowledge I enrolled at a bad time since apparently all the good teachers left.

The first few courses that one will be taken are on the graphic design side. Although I felt like it was a waste of time to take these courses the teachers were proficient and knowledgeable.

There are three web courses. Intro to Scripting, Intermediate Scripting, and Advanced Scripting. All these courses have the same teacher but she is not proficient in web design at all. The courses are all the same exact thing and it is basically solely up to me to learn this stuff since she can't really help me past basic stuff.

There are two flash courses Intro and Intermediate. The intro course is extremely basic. All it focuses on is tweening and the various features of flash. Something a person can get down in an hour at most but they stretch it out 11 weeks. Needless to say there is a lot of down time in that class. The teacher is new and since the course is so basic I cannot judge his proficiency in flash. The next course is Intermediate this course will be all actionscript. The downside to Intermediate is they do not give you any projects in games,desktop applications it only focuses on building a site. This is a bad thing because flash is almost completely out for web design replaced by Javascript. They do not teach Javascript and there is no teacher in the school to my knowledge that knows it.

Photoshop (Image Manipulation) and Illustrator (Digital Illustration) were ok classes with an ok instructor. His assignments were absolute crap though. There are tons of projects and tutorials that truly utilize the programs. On top of that we had assignments that had nothing to do with the program for example I had an assignment in Digital Illustration that I felt was more of a photoshop assignment. His way of grading was equal crap.

more to come...

Up to speed..

2009-05-08T09:25:00.002-04:00

Now in Quarter 4

So far had one complete bitch of a teacher. I believe she was fired nobody liked her.

Showed up for my portfolio review but they decided to review someone else instead of me. Never sent me an e-mail drove all the way there with my stuff and waited by the door. Got pissed so I left.

Degree audits were handed out in class mines stated I needed to take Developmental Math 2. Uh.. What? I passed college algebra. I need to speak to the director but he is usually nowhere to be find when I am looking.

Layout and Design is a horrible course. I do not understand why I am taking this as an IMD student. It seems beneficially to graphic design students but to me it's a waste of time and money.

Concept Design that's another pointless class. Took it last quarter and I still do not understand what it was about.

Failed POD1 which really set me back had to take it over again passed with a D+. Art by hand is not my thing.

The school seems to be in some hiring troubles. A lot of the classes during the summer do not have teachers. It says "Staff" on the schedule.

They keep taking the teachers they do have and shoving them in classes where they have little to know knowledge about the topic.

Currently I owe 30k in student loans.

Final grades..

2008-10-03T13:59:00.002-04:00

History of Western Art I C
Developmental Math I A-
Psychology of Personality A
Beginning Drawing B

I got the minimum 3.0 gpa needed to take online classes. The developmental course did not count towards my gpa and is not counted in my total credits. I find that to be odd because I had to pay for it. At a non profit University when a course does not count towards your gpa and it is not counted in the total credits you do not have to pay for it. Yet the Art Institute charged $1200+ for the Developmental Math course because it was supposedly 4 credits.

Finals week...

2008-09-20T17:06:00.002-04:00

Finals week is fast approaching and I am glad to have this term over with. Since midterm I have raised my grade in some classes that I was doing bad in and bombed in classes I was doing good in. I am crossing my fingers and hoping for a 3.0 at least.

Accreditation issues?

2008-09-20T17:02:00.002-04:00

There is a rumor going around that the AI I am attending may loose its accreditation. Just a rumor I sure as hell hope!

Another day another buffet..

2008-09-20T17:00:00.002-04:00

There was another free buffet held in the culinary department. The food was not as good as last time and they had tiny little plates so I did not get a chance to sample everything. Crabcakes were great though!

More credits transfered in!

2008-09-04T15:41:00.008-04:00

I finally got the copy of the form I signed that had the transfer in courses and I had a meeting with the director today to review my transcripts. Everything that could possibly transfer in did.

Out of 16 courses I took at other schools 11 transferred. Which means I saved $18,396 and time.

General education

2008-09-02T18:47:00.002-04:00

One thing I hate about school is you are REQUIRED to take specific general education classes. At a normal university you have options like you can pick any social science course you want as long as it satisfies the requirement. Not at the Art Institute I MUST take classes like History of Architecture, Contemporary World, etc. None of which is offered online so I MUST sit through these 4 hour long classes. It's just moronic to say the least.

Currently I am in Psychology and Art History which are the most mind numbing classes. I have no interest in these subjects at all and even though the quarter is only 3 months long it feels like forever and I just want it to end. I don't even want to think about the fact that I have to sit through two more of these gen ed courses the thought would make me cry.

Free food...

2008-09-02T18:41:00.002-04:00

One good thing about art institute is the free food. The culinary department sometimes gives out free food and the school randomly gave out pizza a few weeks ago. Today I got free pizza again but I had to go to some club meeting. I didn't stick around though.

Need...More...Credits!!!

2008-08-28T12:58:00.004-04:00

They finally looked at my official transcripts and a total of 36 credits transferred in. When I first enrolled in the Art Institute, the beginning of July, they looked at my unofficial transcripts and I could have sworn they said more then 36 credits transferred in. They then had me sign a paper with all the courses that transferred in of course me and my stupidity never asked for a copy. Now, I went to the registrars office to ask for a copy. They said come back later and they will give it to me. I smell bull shit perhaps they need enough time to "accidentally" drop it in the shredder.

Make sure to ask for a clear copy of the courses transferred in! I feel like a dumb ass now for not doing so I just figured that once they looked at my official ones they would add more.

First semester is almost over!

2008-08-27T08:31:00.003-04:00

Well the summer semester is winding down. I am a little more settled and SO FAR things aren't as bad as thought. I do hate the mass amount of drawing courses I have to complete. I am struggling in Beginning Drawing which is a course meant for people to become better artists. It is kind of hard to become a better artist when I can barely draw a line. I want to design websites damnit!

I do enjoy the extreme smallness of it. The school I attended previously was a small private school but it did require a bit of walking compared to AI.

I like the way they schedule classes. Because each class meets once a week gives me plenty of time to do homework and because the classes are 4 hours long you feel like you are absorbing just as much if not more than if you were in an 1hr + 2 day a week course.

There have been some hiccups though I sent my official transcripts over 3 weeks ago and they still not have evaluated them and there is a hold on my account. When ever I go to ask about it the counselor tells me "Oh,we have them don't worry every thing is fine". Wtf is going on?

How it all began..

2008-08-27T08:12:00.001-04:00

I started the Art Institute back in July after being denied readmissions into the university I was attending. AI seemed sketchy right off the bat. I mean school in an office building? Then it got even worse once they went through the long tedious process of reviewing my files, looking at my work reading my admissions essay they finally admitted me! It took a whole 2 minutes. Then I had papers shoved in my face to sign. Sat in that office for hours while they had me sign loan document after loan document. They kept asking me where my mother was. Finally they got through to my mom via phone and had her on the other line for almost two hours asking her for information so they can fill out the FAFSA. They were extremely pushy to the point of insanity!