Art Institute Online

Biggest joke of a school. $25K down the drain. Teachers do not communicate with students, parents or even care if students show to class. As long is someone is paying those dollars they don't care if a body shows up or not. They don't care what kind of grades are being made, they don't care if a student is falling through the cracks. Pathetic!!! Even spoke to someone who use to teach there, and he too said it was a joke of school.

The art institute says they will help and support but if you are a single parent beware. My son got really sick and I had to travel to hospitals 1 to 4 hours away to see specialist. I told my adviser I am finishing classes this semester but I need to take a semester off. My sons health comes first and I cant handle traveling see specialist like the cancer one and classes. Its a hard to go to a cancer center with your 1 year old. The adviser said he would help and not put me in the next semester. I didnt think anything of it and when the next semester started he still put me in. I had to withdraw from classes(cause I know I cold not do them). Now when I am trying to go back I find out I have to make an appeal. Now I have sent my sons records to the school and the reason I could not take classes. I have two semesters till i finish and they wont let me start till the appeal is done. It was not my fault the adviser lied to me and now i have to fight just to finish. Its hard enough being a single parent/ work full time/ be a full time student but this school makes it so much worst. I would suggest looking at other school cause if your child gets sick like mine the they cant help and when you come back you have to fight and fight and fight just to get into classes. I just wish someone told me this before i started my classes.

This school is a shame. They have people teaching courses that they do not have training in. I went to a design class and they had a G.E. teacher babysitting. It seems like a cult. All of the people that teach there are friends and relatives. They don't tell you who is teaching what and they have people in the catalog that are not even there.

I took on this program in the hopes that it was what I have been waiting for all my youth - a degree in a game related field. What this program is, however, is just a general approach to all facets of games creation minus the programming. It covers all factors of game art creation at a mostly beginner level with a few other classes thrown in there that are challenging to learn in respects to the software needed. 3D Max was the modeling software of choice when I attended from 2003-2006. Beyond that, you need Photoshop, Painter (for one class) and Macromedia Flash (for the animation and games prototyping class). NOTE: I actually made it through my last year of school without ordering ANY of the “required” textbooks, which is a said statement about the program. All the information you may need can be found on various sources online. Also, be prepared to cover non-game art oriented classes like literature and history. Not everything here bleeds games. The teachers are a mixed breed. You have the really knowledgeable and good ones like the excellent Jeannie Novak and then you have "the others", those instructors that hold full time jobs and do this on their spare time for extra dough. You can tell the difference after the second week of each class which instructor is which. The institution that The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (the operating arm of AIO) is quite sad. In my 3.5 years in the program, I experienced so much turnover with no fewer than 3 academic advisors and 2 financial advisors. For some reason, they cannot maintain a consistent workforce which is frustrating when you constantly have to tell your story to a new face. Support was average. Their financial department was less than helpful in my experience. Again, the changing personnel doesn’t help but they don’t provide all of the payment and loan information up front so be prepared to do your own homework there - which you should do regardless. In terms of Value, the program never fully prepared me for a job in the games industry. The degree is probably more profitable to you if A) you are already in the industry or B) you plan on doing ALOT of outside of class work to beef up your portfolio. Their discussion board system was fine for what we needed it to do. I have no complaints there. Team-based projects are annoying as not everyone is online at the same time. Plus you will have team members that do almost nothing on their end, effectively forcing one or two dedicated classmates to do ALL of the work. Overall, it was an "interesting" experience that's very expensive. Be prepared that the material covered here does not fully prepare you for a job in the games industry nor is it too helpful in attaining one. Perhaps now some two years after I graduated, things have changed. But I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this program to anyone when there are more viable products out there such as Guild Hall at SMU in Texas and Full Sail in Florida.