I moved from Chicago to Tampa in the beginning of 2005 to attend IADT. I flew down here prior to speak with the institution and get a feel for the school. I was told the world about what to expect. I was informed that there would be some drawing and that my drawing skills are irrelevant for a 3d animation degree. I was also told that industry professionals would be teaching the classes. Boy, was I misled... Drastically.
Putting aside student loan "robbery" and the extremely high tuition costs this school enforces; I have a few warnings for anyone attending this quote unquote "university". Unlike I was told, the teachers graded upon your ability to draw. Over 2/3 of the entire 3d animation program is drawing and 2d animation. With real 2d artists that expect you to be as good as them. I was told several times in my first few classes (intro to drawing 101) that my drawing skills won't matter and that as long as I can get my idea across i'll be fine. That was also a lie.
Secondly, for the school to be accredited the teacher listed as teaching the class has to be a industry professional with at least a bachelors degree. What was done to get around this? The head instructor put his name as teaching the classes while another past student (not an industry professional) would teach the class. The few good, industry professionals, teachers that did happen to teach there (I counted three), and of those three two of them quit on me during the semester. One quit the day the classes started, and the other quit just over half way through the course. We were left with last years students once again - the blind leading the blind.
Finally, the courses them selves. For the school to be considered a school they have to have a few math and writing classes as well. Keeping in mind that this is an art school - you can't expect too much from the students. I attended Purdue University in Indiana and have taken, and dropped, physics. This school said i needed to take "Physics" which was actually geometry 101. We learned how to get the area of a circle. And how fast timmy can cross a river that is 10 feet wide with a current of 5 miles an hour.
What a joke. The same goes for their writing classes - a waste of time and money. We also had to take a "UNIX" class. Oh my god, don't even get me started on this class. The teacher was a know it all (that knew nothing) with a degree from ITT tech... What's that tell you. She spent most of the class time di*g around to 'teach' us. We spent, literally, the 9 weeks (of the 11) learning microsoft office. Ya know, word - excel - powerpoint. No, i'm not kidding.
Then the last two weeks still no unix. We then learned how to list, copy, move, and navigate windows command prompt. To finally do 3 or 4 commands in unix the last day of class. The quizzes she gave were also a joke. No structure and with questions that resemble an A certification style. I use linux. And nothing was taught that could ever help anybody in that class.
The school is a catastrophic joke. And I am NOT the only one, and they have not heard the last of me.
Be warned.
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