Art Center College of Design (cinema, best schools, universities)

[BMA5]

I was recently admitted to their transportation design department with no scholarship. Tuition is about $17,500/semester + living + materials ( an additional $1,000) and I would have 8 semesters to complete. I have always had a talent for automotive design but a part of me just can't justify the price this school wants for tuition. It is one of the best schools in this field, but I feel like the field itself is extremely small, competitive, and not very well paid. I believe a lot of companies are contracting design work also, which makes it even tougher. I tried finding some jobs on Indeed but for the past two months, there have only been 2-3 openings in California. I'm assuming this industry is entirely word-of-mouth and who you know, I doubt they post jobs on sites like Indeed or CareerBuilder but I can't say for sure. Does anyone have any experience at this school or field? The degree would be a Bachelors of Science; Industrial Design.

[jaijai]

There's an education forum with a college and universities sub-forum.
You may want to post this over there.
//www.city-data.com/forum/education/

[Snort]

$150K in tuition for a job that pays $60K/year on average? (I got that figure with a google search).
I don't think so, but your mileage may vary.

[.highnlite]

Now, I know nothing about this school, but, I do know that there are a number of for profit "colleges" that are happy to take your money, but do not leave you with marketable skills. FIDM is one, there are more. Please check these schools out carefully. Often you can get similar and possibly better skills from a community college or a state school, for a lot less money.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by .highnlite

Now, I know nothing about this school, but....Often you can get similar and possibly better skills from a community college or a state school...

It's an excellent school with a great reputation but in this economy, I would rethink a decision to attend any school with such high tuition. (And FWIW, FIDM, the Cal States and certainly no CA community college hold a candle to Art Center.)

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

It's an excellent school with a great reputation but in this economy, I would rethink a decision to attend any school with such high tuition. (And FWIW, FIDM, the Cal States and certainly no CA community college hold a candle to Art Center.)

yelp reviews are positive, mostly, with a few complaints, but, heck, you could give out free Christmas trees on the street and some one would complain.

[BVitamin]

Talk with some upper level students, seniors, juniors, even some of the teachers who may or may not be in the industry, either way these teachers will have connections to the industry. The school is well connected, ask what you're asking us and anything else ... then formulate your conclusion, better informed from people who are in it than random online persons.

Also, if you really had wowed them with your portfolio, you would have gotten some kind of scholarship.

Might as well try your luck and try sending your portfolio to these companies, to the right person, in the right format -- do some research, it's all out there.

And yes, the school is top tier but if the tuition is too much (which I think it is, most art schools are) why not try another college with solid program for industrial design? It's not like they all recruit graduates just from Art Center.

[BMA5]

Thanks for the reply's

I hear the school used to be pretty good back in the 80's,90's and early 2000's but now its pretty watered down and mainstream and tuition has steadily increased over the years. When I first heard about it, tuition was $14,500. When I applied, it rose to $16,300. This coming semester, its $17,500.

The transportation design department only accepts 20 incoming students per semester, so it is a very VERY small program. However, I think the industry is pretty hard to break into, even with a degree from this school. I saw a special on MSNBC about the BMW headquarters in Germany. Apparently they only have 20 exterior designers working there! So you have to figure if ACCD is graduating 15 students every term ( 3 terms a year ) then these positions must be at full capacity and already have tons of people with way more experience waiting in line? Plus there are about 5 other schools with this major that companies hire from and they're graduating that many people per term as well.

Also, its BS degree but I see absolutely no math or science courses...

I only found three job listings on Indeed in California, one of which requires 10 years exp., so I don't think my predictions are far off.


I'm still unsure..I'm leaning towards no though...

[BVitamin]

Originally Posted by BMA5

...
The transportation design department only accepts 20 incoming students per semester, so it is a very VERY small program. However, I think the industry is pretty hard to break into, even with a degree from this school. I saw a special on MSNBC about the BMW headquarters in Germany. Apparently they only have 20 exterior designers working there! So you have to figure if ACCD is graduating 15 students every term ( 3 terms a year ) then these positions must be at full capacity and already have tons of people with way more experience waiting in line? Plus there are about 5 other schools with this major that companies hire from and they're graduating that many people per term as well.

That's like with any profession. You spoke about not getting a scholarship, well think about it. Also, not to suggest anything about you but in general with art schools, it needs money to function, so you will see (if you do attend) some other students will make you wonder how they got in.

Also, its BS degree but I see absolutely no math or science courses...

I only found three job listings on Indeed in California, one of which requires 10 years exp., so I don't think my predictions are far off.


I'm still unsure..I'm leaning towards no though...

It's an art school, you're not going to find academic courses in the curriculum. Even if you do, it's not going to be standard, more watered down easy version of maths and sciences, think remedial.

[BMA5]

I think I fall into the category of not getting one because my parent's are pretty well off but don't fully support my decision to do this, plus I don't really want to burden them with the cost.

I guess what scares me most are a couple things..

A) Job security, a large corporation like BMW only has 25 exterior car designers and 300 TOTAL for the entire company for all design work. So although it may take a while to get there, smaller companies are going to have even less design staff.

2) Job pay....not sure if its as much as you'd expect it to be unless you're at the VERY top, in which case there are only one or two of those positions per company. I heard entry level is about 50-55k but it tops out fairly early (85-90k).

3) Tuition cost + living + materials would easily be around 250k after all is said and done! Extremely hard to justify...If the school was 4-5k per semester I wouldn't even think twice about it. At 250k, I don't see a huge ROI anytime soon, if ever.

4) Majority of the jobs are in Southern California (higher cost of living) or Detroit (...). With California's current state, it doesn't sound very wise to limit myself to only working in that area. Going oversea's might be fun, but I don't speak German, Korean, or Japanese plus i'd rather stay in the USA.

I think i'm going to decide against it but I'm not sure what other field I'm set out for in all honesty. This and Architecture are two passions of mine and coincidently both have pretty ****ty outlooks as far as jobs go. I'm very creative, great with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Cinema 4D so I'm not sure what else I can do. They offer product design but for some reason I have no real interest in it although it doesn't sound like a bad option right now.