Being a person that has gone through many schools, mostly university, I found myself not knowing what I really wanted to do with my life. I remember dreaming of creating video games as a child, and one day saw an add for The International Academy of Design & Technology of Chicago, sounds impressive, right? They were offering a new degree program in Game design. So, on a visit to see my brother, who lived in Chicago, I decided to pay them a visit to check it out.
I was welcomed by an attractive young women who interviewed me to find out my educational back round, she seemed surprised by high test scores and grade history (i.E. 32 on ACT), but gave me no indication that none of that mattered, IADT being an open enrollment school and all. I didn't even realize that was the case until I started classes, but we'll get to that later.in the end, I told my rep that I would be interested in attending if my credits transfered well. Which they did, to the point of absurdity, A psychology class on personality as cultural diversity credit, huh?
Next came setting up my financial aid. To make a long story short, They were extremely interested in getting me to sign up for as much loan money as possible, including private loans from Sallie mae private loans. I found it unusual that money for books and living expenses was added to the total cost by default. The possess became more complicated when I told them that i had no interest in using private loans. I began to wonder what kind of kick backs that may be getting from this loan company, but was reassured that it was nothing like that. I arranged to loan money from my grandparents anyway, and was placed on a "payment plan".
When it came time to gather the extra money that I had put into the school, once again, I was presented with a complicated process. Unlike most other school, who give your extra money to you in a check right away, IADT has its students put in requests for any cash refunds in advance, and payment plan students needed special approve on top of that. This whole situation made me wonder what the company was doing with my and all the other student's money that they need warning ahead of time to pay it out.
Now, we come to the classes. Right away I realized that a large percentage of my fellow student did not have much in the way of scholastic or creative ability. This made for a very poor learning environment. Also, my first quarter I was not allowed to sign up for my classes; they were given to me. One of which was a beginner's computer class that I very much didn't need and was told i could test out of. Which I did on my first day, but was then charged for changing my schedule that i didn't setup. Of all the teachers I had, there was only one that I admired, who quit the quarter after I had them.
Among the first classes in was given, was a class titled Design Fundamentals, which I'm sure is a huge cash cow for the school all incoming students are given this class which requires students to buy an over-priced art kit from the campus bookstore with their extra Sallie mae money, at the same time giving unwise young students the chance to buy expensive toys and gadgets with that same money. For many student, I believe this class was difficult and I wonder how many of them fail this class and never come back with CEC smiling all the way to the bank. And, even students like me who understand the material well, find the class difficult to finish, not because it is hard but it is nothing but unnecessarily, mind-numbing busy work, a sheer waste of time and money.
I had been attending for nearly a year before i quit. I had imagined that i would be able to jump right into the meat of game design right away because i had so much general credits already, but I didn't learn dime one about the subject.instead I was force to take classes like digital photography which required buying a camera from the bookstore as well as doing expensive projects which I was encouraged to print out at the school's on location print lab (overpriced, of course).
I have never been very good with the whole life skills thing, even though i have genius level creative and intellectual ability. I hope that this might stop others from making the same mistake i did. Anyone can get a much better education from a city school, or even a library. Never trust a school who's largest and most important departments are recruitment and advertisement.
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