I am currently a college student at a legitimate university. First, I want to say that the accrediting agency that IADT falls under is owned by that group of trade schools and is NOT the same accrediting agency that regular university (such as Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State) fall under. Which means chances are, the school with not take your transfer credits because IADT is not recognized at postsecondary education. I attended two regular university's before then. I went to prep school all of my life. I thought IADT would be a change from traditional education since they said in the commercial that you would take courses that would have to do with your career right away. I called to get more information and they told me to come right down to the school to check it out. So I went with my mom.
The admissions rep right away took us on a tour of the school. It was pretty small, which was what I expected. And she showed us the drawing class. When I got back to the admissions office, she had me fill out paperwork and pay an application fee of $50. Okay. Some top colleges DO have application fees that high (especially if you use a paper app). She took my transcripts, glanced over them, then admitted me right away. She told me the school costs $3000 a quarter. (It never occurred to me that she meant 3000 for a term that's shorter than a semester at a regular university, which is about 15 weeks). I got to talk to the financial aid guy. He figured out my financial aid right away (You know, without looking at documentation. They never needed ANY documentation. The school I go to now checks, re-checks, and checks again.) For all they knew, I could've had a million dollars in my bank account. Anyway, the guy said that it's actually about 15,000 a year. A red flag should've gone off long before that, but when you're looking for a change, the last thing on your mind is that you're getting scammed. (First, I thought I could finish at my own pace. You know, go fall-winter, then take a break.) Right now, I'm going to a school and it's not even 15,000 for tuition room and board.
Anyway, he told me I could get a Sallie Mae loan. I didn't think I would get it. My mom got turned down right away (for some reason, who knows... Considering she got approved for a loan for my brother two weeks later at a regular university). But they gave it to me and the interest rate is through the nose. So I was all set. The admissions rep welcomed me to the school and said that I should get a list of courses for me to pick from in a couple of weeks.
A couple of weeks went by. Nothing. So I called the school and they told me that I'd take care of all of that at orientation. Okay. So I get to orientation and they give me a schedule with classes picked for me. You know, classes I took in HIGH SCHOOL. Along with drawing. I can't draw for crap. Really, I can't. But then when they told me we will TEACH you how to draw, then a red flag should've gone up then, but it didn't. You either have it or you don't. You can have the talent for drawing and need your skills honed, but you can't be taught how to draw if you go through life not being able to draw. You learn this around Kindergarten or first grade when there's maybe a handful of kids that draw something really amazing and the rest of the kids are struggling with potato heads and stick figures. The guy at the orientation that was the president wasn't dressed up, really. He was wearing a cap and gown saying this can be you. There were things at the orientation that should've had red flags go up. Just the presentation of it. Everything, actually. Orientations usually have financial aid counseling, learning how to use the online system for the school, handbooks, grading scales, they might give you a course catalog and give you a schedule of classes and this school had none of that. I was really irritated I didn't get to pick my classes. Especially since the only one that was challenging to me was drawing.
At the end of orientation, we went to the bookstore. Actually, they grabbed the stuff for you, which I thought it was convenient. Then the total came up. It was over $500 dollars. Okay mind you, most of it was art supplies, but come on. Did they have to get the most expensive colored pencils? I took a photog class at my current university and didn't even spend that. Especially since we had the option of getting the supplies wherever we wanted, so if we found that someone had something for $30 cheaper, we could get it. The books they gave me, I found on ebay for 10-20 bucks. Oh and I get that they want to teach you art stuff, but when I took a ceramics class, people sketched out their bowls and crayola did wonders. And no, 35 dollar colored pencils will not make me an artist magically. And we didn't use ALL of the art supplies give to us. We used the colored pencils, a couple of paints, and the markers. We did not even touch half of the stuff in the art kit we were given.
Anyway, I had drawing. And of course, since I don't have drawing talent, I grew increasingly frustrated with the class and the guy saying I wasn't trying hard enough, which I was. I was frustrated with my whole semester and the classes made me want to fall asleep (with the exception of art of course) due to a lack of a challenge.
Anyway, so I get my first semester grades back and I did well (and miraculously, I did well in the art class even though my drawings looked nothing like the subjects. Thought A for effort stopped after the first grade.) Anyway, I got my second quarter schedule, paid another ridiculous amount for books and ended up in a math class with math problems I learned in elementary school. No joke. I sat in the class the first day and we were learning subtraction and addition. Um... I thought you had to at least have this knowledge before getting to college? Hell, even before getting passed the first grade. You should at least know how to add and subtract basic numbers. I grew so frustrated, I went to the "library" (small with hardly any books whatsoever) after my classes were over and googled IADT and voila! Found lots of complaints online and lots of people saying how they got had. I was pretty much shocked. I talked to my parents about it. And immediately started looking for a real school. I took copies of all of my transcripts over to my current university (they had an admissions event) and of course, I had to wait to get admitted because they had to get official records from all of my schools, including IADT. So when I went to orientation to actually pick out my classes, the admissions counselor went over what classes I should take for my major, then looked at my previous transcripts. She placed this big stamp on the IADT transcript that says not regionally accredited. The accreditation that colleges and universities have are completely different and have higher standards than the accreditation the CEC schools, especially IADT have. As soon as I was admitted to the legit university, I was relieved and happy to know that I was out of there. But then again, I have to pay back the huge outrageous loan I had to borrow for that school.
Anyway, I've read horror stories about them not finding a job or people not being able to find a job except for retail or whatever because they find out the whole thing is a sham. High school kids work retail, so that should tell you something right there.
I had a dispute with IADT because apparently I had an overage (stipend is what they called it) that they refused to hand over, so once I told them I had found out about what they were really about and that they were a scam and they handed the money over two days later.
I've been through my current university's career center (and my university has thousands of kids) and I've found it extremely helpful. You make an appointment with one of the people in the career center, and a lot of them deal specifically with certain majors so they can steer you in the right direction. There are workshops and seminars and they will sit down and literally help you find a job somewhere. They'll tell you what's available with your major.
I really just wish CEC/IADT would give me my money back. Again, if you've seen news reports, the CEC has stock on Wall Street. A few politicians are backing them and getting kickbacks from them, so of course they're going to support these schools because of the $.
Seriously. If you're going to go to an Art school, go to a regular university with an art program. Or go to College for Creative Studies. Or at least get a legit associates at a community college. Do not go to iadt. You'll regret it. Honestly with the IADT money I spent in five months, a little more money and I could've gone to U of M.
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