Yesterday I had submitted this email to my instructor and my academic counselor. I also forwarded the email to some previous instructors.

“Dear Elise,

I hope this email finds you well. I regret to inform you that I will not be completing my assignment for this evening as a result of an extremely discouraging and frustrating series of interactions with The Art Institute. Based on my treatment and the lack of faith that I have in the school, I’ve decided to withdraw from the Cognitive Psychology course, and will finalize my withdrawal tomorrow with the appropriate office.

Since my start at AiO in 2009, I’ve been nothing but an eager and driven student. However, over the past year I’ve run into issues while tirelessly attempting to attain a firm graduation date from my academic counselors. On at least two instances, I was told that it would be “_____”. I planned my life accordingly and worked towards my goal. As those dates approached, and I followed up with my academic counselor(s), the dates were constantly being pushed back. Unable to get a definitive response about my graduation date, I decided to complete my own degree audit.

Through this audit, I discovered that four of the classes completed at AiO were not even on my required curriculum. This was something that shocked me, as I had been lead to believe that all of my credits were going towards my major. To date, I have not gotten a clear answer from the school and still do not know when I will graduate. I feel that I was mislead as to which courses were necessary especially since it is the school that selects my courses for me based on the curriculum.. After paying $5,000 in tuition last week and thousands more over the last year, and getting the runaround from an accredited academic institution, I feel unsatisfied, mislead and very discouraged. I do not feel that the school is forthcoming, or has their students’ academic interests in mind.”

I’ve spoken to my academic counselor 2-3 times in January and her response is that she’s “working on it”. This has been a waste of time and money, and I’ve decided to withdraw from the school which results in another ~$500 down the drain. One of my professors told me to contact the Dean or Academic Director. I’ve called the school for this information and still haven’t heard back from anyone. Has anyone contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Education? I’m going to call them on Monday if I don’t get a response in the next day or so.

AIO is a pretty terrible place to try and actually teach, the workload placed on our shoulders is incredible, we work non-stop, and are paid an absolute pittance. Probably 95% or more of the instructors you see at AIO teach at other institutions in order to cover their basic living needs. I know, I know, it is really hard to believe given how high the tuition is. All I can say is that someone is getting rich (EDMC is, after all, a corporation), and it ain’t us.

Every session or so we get another round of new duties that are added to our already over-filled plates. Basically, we are on call ALL THE TIME. Our class sizes get larger every year. There has not been an increase in class pay for a decade or more.

We get evaluated by a random, anonymous person every few weeks, and once a year by another faceless person. There is no person-to-person contact, we get our evaluations through a website. These evaluations often contain many errors, and we have virtually no recourse (technically we do, but in practice, not). We actually cannot teach what we really want to or know, oh sure, we can try to sneak it into the classroom, but at the end of the day we are bound to teach the assignments they give us, and to grade they way they want us to. If we change assignments, we can be penalized for doing so.

Take my word for it, there are many really, really good instructors, the vast majority seriously care about the students, but are just barely scrambling to meet their workload and pay their bills.

Yes, there are some full-time faculty, and they DO have a better time of it, and have more stability to resources to work with students. But as of yesterday, the school is laying off large numbers of full-time, they say they are economically strapped. It is hard to believe, of course, given the huge amounts of tuition you guys pay. So now, there is even more chance the instructor you get will be a virtual migrant worker. Please don’t blame us, we are on your side, we ALL want to work for a GOOD school that values skills and experience, and allows us to teach well.

This school IS NOT RUN BY ARTISTS OR DESIGNERS. We have NO SAY in how things go down here. It is all about the bottom line. If they really cared about you, they would care about us. As the saying goes, if you want to know how you will be treated as a customer, look to how the employees are treated. If they are unhappy, you don’t want to do business with them.

If you want a good art education, get together a really good portfolio, and apply to a top tier school where they put money and resources into the students.

Please, somebody with experience, help me chose between these or another.

Does anybody have studied on CUNY Queens College – Digital media programs?
I want some opinions and experiences about it.

Please, I am exhausted of doing a very comprehensive and deep Google Research!

I was so frustrated with this that I emailed everyone in the class to see if it was just me. NOPE, turns out over half the class was having issues and a majority of them stopped caring about it entirely, only doing what it took to pass the class. I wrote a formal complaint about the issue along with the responses I received from the other students. I never received a follow up from this still.

This has been one of the worst experiences I’ve had…so far. I’m on the verge of transferring to a different school. I like the online environment but this bs you have to deal with doesn’t seem worth it. I’ve learned more things online about algebra than I actually did in class. Same goes for a majority of it. Its almost just a paid guidance or “keep you on track” than a school.

Basically I would suggest that anyone that is considering to attend AIO to pass and find another option. I’m only 3 classes in and I’m ready to get out of it.

AIO is a joke!

I had a feeling I should check to see what the pros and cons of AIO were before enrolling this next week. So, needless to say…I won’t be enrolling.

Thanks…and best wishes to everyone still wading in all that debt for a degree they feel was worthless.

I am writing after reading through these posts to tell you the side of the Adjunct (a fancy word for part time) Professor at the Art Institute.

I make $1600 per 6 week class. Which may sound like a lot of money, but if you subtract taxes, and divide this amount by 6 weeks, I get $225/week for one class. Opening, reading and evaluating a students work takes time. And, classes have 3/4 assignments a week. $225/week per class divided by 10 hours is $22.5, divided by 20 hours is $11.25 and divided by 30 hours is $7.5 an hour. But, my pay rate is not hourly. It is a flat fee of $1600, whether I teach for 10 hours or 30 a week.

Another way to think about this is if I teach 20 hours I make $11.25/hour and if there are 15 students and 4 assignments in a week, that is 60 total assignments that I have 20 hours to evaluate giving me 20 minutes per assignment, not including responding to emails, problems and solutions or questions for the professor. Also, this job does not give me healthcare. I pay 600$ per month out of pocket for independent coverage.

However, I choose to be a professor because I love design and want to mentor students. And, most of the time I really do the best that I can. Some days I do not reply to every email because I have just worked 10 hours at my other jobs. I think that many students at the art institute do not realize that most of their teachers are part time. I am not a full time, tenured professor with great benefits happily working from home ignoring you. I am a part time adjunct professor that does not do this job for the money. I do care about you and your work and want to help you improve. I just feel badly that I can not spend more time teaching here, as it does not pay enough to be my only job. But, I feel that the classes I teach are strong, and the work completed in them is excellent.

What is funny is that I used to teach at a public state funded community college that offered the same classes taught by the same teacher (me) for a total cost of less than $5000 for a full 2-year degree with outstanding financial aid. Many of the students posting here that are most concerned about cost, might be better off enrolling in their local community college. Most of the teachers that teach at Ai also teach elsewhere. A design education is what you make of it, regardless of where you go. And, when you look for a job later, it is your portfolio that matters, not your degree or where you got it from.

Jill