Art Institute of Vancouver

Please please please people!
Listen and save yourself while you still can.
Avoid The Art Institutes like a plague.
They are run by EDMC a for-​profit organization
that targets young vulnerable people and puts you
into a massive amount of debt which you can never repay back.
DO YOUR RESEARCH!
A lot of people have been victimized by these crooks!
PLEASE AVOID and SAVE YOURSELF!

This schools student recruiting methods ranks up there worse than late night infomercial. Operators are standing by!
Who can imagine how many young impressionable students have had their hopes, dreams and wallets stolen by this school? My daughter took a gr.10 high school cooking class, 4 years ago in Calgary, and one time the Art institute of Vancouver did a presentation to the class, harassed everyone for their contact information and have not left her alone since. The only reason she took the class was to learn to cook and as a fluff class to balance the more academic high school classes she was taking. She ranked 6 out of 480 students for overall academics in her high school graduation, got multiple scholarships and is living in Rez finishing up her first year in University and hopes one day to become a doctor.
Regardless, 4 years later and repeated attempts to have her name removed from their mailings, and this school still has her on their mailing list and won’t stop marketing to her, sometimes multiple times a week. Their desperation reeks!
If you are a perspective student researching this school, STOP right now and explore your other options. This school will take your money, load you up with student loans that you will never be able to pay off and leave you high and dry when you graduate.

Disappointing, I was expecting top notch service and fantastic food. I was disappointed in both. Food was average, was also expecting more value for my buck. Glad I went, but certainly won’t go back in a hurry.

If I could give this place a negative star, I would!
I toured the culinary school with my wife Janet, as I am potentially interested in becoming a master chef (seriously, though). We arrived and we were surrounded by nerds. Oh gee, you shoulda seen the suicidal emo guy! I mean, the crowd made me feel cool and I’m just a geeky old guy.
From the start you could tell that the institution was not prepared to accommodate such a large group of prospective students. The relatively boring sugar-​shaping demonstration was cramped and hardly visible unless you were in the front row. There were truffles for tasting that literally made us gag. I’ve never tried chocolate that tasted so much like tropical vomit.
The facilities were unwelcoming and did not seem as clean as competing institutions that we also toured.
The introductory presentation was insincere and failed to cover crucial information such as tuition costs and teaching methodology (very little emphasis on hands-​on learning). We got the vibe that the institution was a corporate machine with an intricate marketing scheme rather than a school with a true dedication to teaching culinary arts.
On a more positive note, for those looking to gain experience in the business and management side of the restaurant industry, AI seems to have a strong program and good career connections (?).
However, the most horrifying aspect of our tour was when I noticed that the school serves bluefin tuna on their student-​run restaurant menu!!! (For your information, this is a critically endangered species — it’s like serving roasted Panda bear.) I commented to the staff about my concern over their consumption of threatened wildlife, and I was laughed at.
I would say you should think carefully before supporting such a corporate machine in disguise as an educational institution.
Sincerely,
Earl and Janet

WSET Program
The WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) program is the only program for wine professionals and those with an interest in wine, worldwide for those not wanting to follow a sommelier program. The program at the Art Institute goes from general Interest level 1 courses to the Diploma which is a requirement to go on to the Master of Wine program. The instructors are brilliant and make wine interesting, they have a Master of Wine on staff. These classes are not FUN wine evenings but systematic introductions to the wines of the world.
The Art Institute courses are longer than other WSET courses offered through UBC and wine shops around town. I don’t see how one can taste the number of wines say 6 wines over 6 evening which is the introductory course at the Art Institute in 1 day. Well I don’t think they do 36 wines but even 18 – 24 would blow out my palate, it is one thing to walk around a wine festival and taste 36 – 50 wines and another to learn 36 wines in 1 day. Now when I’m a Master of Wine, (dreamer eh!!) I would be able to cover 36 wines in a day. But for now the longer program you pay for at The Art Institute is worth it.

I went to the International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute of Vancouver for a wine studies class. It’s the only place to take the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Diploma in Western Canada. It’s a convenient, downtown location, the teachers were really great and I enjoyed the atmosphere in class.
I was disappointed with the administration of the school. I was contacted numerous times to take the second level of the class. After I signed up, they continued to call. Left and right hands obviously weren’t working together. Then, the night before the class was to start I got a message that it was cancelled. It was incredibly poor organization and customer service.
I would go back to do another class there, because they have some top sommeliers as teachers. But I hope to spend as little time as possible dealing with office admin.