The Art Institute of Pittsburgh

[AaronPGH]

One thing... tuition. A bachelors is completed in three years at AIP because you do not get summers off. Therefore, you are looking at $75,000 total for a degree. What is the total tuition for a bachelors in design at a 4 (or 5) year school? It's probably pretty similar unless you're going to a community college (not a bad idea).

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by Jabronie

You mean like my friend that had never drawn anything in his entire life, and enrolled basically with the ability to draw a stickman, and even that was questionable. lol He's now a very successful IT guy.

Yep.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

One thing... tuition. A bachelors is completed in three years at AIP because you do not get summers off. Therefore, you are looking at $75,000 total for a degree. What is the total tuition for a bachelors in design at a 4 (or 5) year school? It's probably pretty similar unless you're going to a community college (not a bad idea).

According to a recent article in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/ed...t-in-2010.html, "Students who graduated from college in 2010 with student loans owed an average of $25,250." The article goes on to say, "The report is based on data from more than 1,000 colleges, representing half of all public and private nonprofit four-year schools. The average amount of debt would be even higher if the report included profit-making schools, where almost all students take out loans and, according to federal data, borrow about 45 percent more than students at nonprofits."

Best bet would probably be to go two years at a community college and finish the last two years at a state school such as California, Slippery Rock or IUP. I'm sure the debt would be much less than $25K.

[AaronPGH]

Right, but even schools like PITT are averaging around $15k a year now. Multiply that times 4 or 5 and you're pretty close in range. I'm not defending tuition at either of these schools (tuition on average is completely out of control), but it's not far above other local universities.

[BettyTheHun]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

One thing... tuition. A bachelors is completed in three years at AIP because you do not get summers off. Therefore, you are looking at $75,000 total for a degree. What is the total tuition for a bachelors in design at a 4 (or 5) year school? It's probably pretty similar unless you're going to a community college (not a bad idea).

Just curious, normally one is eligible for 4 years of state grants, can you get the total "4 yrs worth" in the 3 yrs at AIP?

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Right, but even schools like PITT are averaging around $15k a year now. Multiply that times 4 or 5 and you're pretty close in range. I'm not defending tuition at either of these schools (tuition on average is completely out of control), but it's not far above other local universities.

I think it is more important to focus on the loans that students end up with at these schools. According to the NY Times article, "The average amount of debt would be even higher if the report included profit-making schools, where almost all students take out loans and, according to federal data, borrow about 45 percent more than students at nonprofits. But only five of 471 profit-making colleges reported student debt data for their 2010 graduates, the report said."

[stateless]

I recently read an interesting article about the Art Institutes - it focuses on the photo programs but the broad strokes could apply to other programs as well.

The Art Institutes: Legitimate Photo Schools or Accessories to Fraud?

[algia]

WOW! that's insane! why are ppl still signing up though?

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by BettyTheHun

Just curious, normally one is eligible for 4 years of state grants, can you get the total "4 yrs worth" in the 3 yrs at AIP?

I landed a couple of local scholarships and grants... ended up with only around 20k in loans. That has a lot to do with why I left not hating them.

Originally Posted by stateless

I recently read an interesting article about the Art Institutes - it focuses on the photo programs but the broad strokes could apply to other programs as well.

The Art Institutes: Legitimate Photo Schools or Accessories to Fraud?

That's a pretty balanced article. I think the last few paragraphs from Brandon Werth sum up my feelings on it best though. It's a shame they can't tighten their standards and actually make a name for themselves because AIP *does* have great facilities and staff. Their recruitment policies are just so bad it overshadows that stuff.