The Art Institute of Washington

There are many gripes to list. First and foremost being discriminated as a under 21 year old solely based on how a «person looks» and not what is on their DOD ID cards is annoying. Second of all as a transferred student my security card were rejected few times and I have reported this college to Federal Trade Commisions. My account was treated with least priority and the Accounting Office framed me with over $ 800 out of pocket expense without explanations and apology. As a result, Sallie Mae is now owing $ 60 million of charges for unfair business practice class action lawsuit.
The professors were good, but the administration and tuition accounting department gave former students like myself cold shoulders. I had to repay over 2x parking fees as well which is such a burden. The parking and printing service cost so much out of pocket. Although I was offered my first independent contract web design job, I never graduated since there were so many flaws and unkind support just because I wanted to learn! What bothers me the most, legally, is the breaches of contract as an adult consumer and customer/​former college student. Why I was treated unfairly and why there’s a class action lawsuit years later is not fair. I am wondering if I had attended other private art school if I would have been treated and welcomed with respect and dignity. I hope no other immigrant/​transferred student is discriminated ever again. It would be very disconcerting if they continue w/​this unethical standard. Every student has an obligation to be treated with mutual respect; art students can be very sensitive individuals. It is a breach of contract to not disclose certain out of pocket expenses to novice consumers and over charge them fees without explanations included in the Terms and Agreement sector of the legal binding contract. I have been ignored by this company for many years and I felt scammed and betrayed. I was also discriminated against many times and based on ACLU and law books was unethically treated poorly. I have completed business law course before attending this school which is such a disappointed to allow them to get away with what they got away with and I owe it to myself to defend my rights as a consumer and not treated like a scammed tuition enrolled former student. My MP3 Apple was also stolen in the the campus library and I didn’t even file a police report for larceny. Many UCMJ and penile code regulations have been violated and I am above and beyond betrayed. As a citizen I would discourage other prospect college students from this type of pro-​profit college school. The unfair and illegal business practices are shameful and in REALiTY intolerable. I shouldn’t have to waste time griping about unfair and unethical business practice/​s

I didn’t have an option, but to give this school one star. I referral this school to my boyfriend and I assumed it was a great school. BE WARN, this school is a piece of shit. All they care is about money and giving you a damn headache. The teachers half are good and half are worthless. It not enough some are bitchy, they don’t give you the chance to turn work in late.
School policy is beyond stupid is like they want you to fail. You can’t be late they don’t let you in the class and if you miss 3 days your dropped from a class. They assume people don’t ever have shit to worry about beside their school. Your basically getting yourself into loans and loans to belong to a school that doesn’t give two f*&$%# about your education. I truly regret sending my boyfriend to this shitty school.

Let me say this honestly as a recent graduate of this school. The teachers aren’t too bad and the curriculum isn’t terrible. I think I actually learned a lot as a student there and as long as you put a lot of effort into learning and taking those skills into a workplace, you won’t be that bad off. I got a department supervisory job right after graduation!
The absolute worst part of this school is the fact you’re paying so much and the school doesn’t have much to offer you in return. For example, tuition is high everywhere, but we don’t get the same resources as you would if you attended a state college. Not even close.
Another issue is the financial aid office. At first I had a great financial aid officer. He literally took care of everything for me and encouraged me to ask questions as well as walked me through the process so I understood where my money was going. After a year and a half, they started making cuts to the staff at the school and that included my amazing financial aid officer. I got left with some guy who couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to me, pushed my stuff to the side so I was waiting for my housing stipend for over 4 months when it was supposed to be process in two weeks, and somehow I now owe 2k for my last quarter of tuition when the school is suppose to get my student loans first, take out what they need and then send the left over to me. Now I have that to pay on top of student loans.
I just don’t understand how messed up things could get within a span of months. I’m also not the only one who was screwed by financial aid. I’ve stayed in touch with some classmates and the same thing happened to them.

My friend went here for the cooking school and she does not know how to bake!
Just tonight she tried to make a healthy banana bread and she created this disgusting brownish hot pudding that tasted disgusting!
She managed for the loaf to be raw and burnt at the same time. How? Don’t even ask me, or her because she has no idea.
Terrible place! She hated it and even transferred to Catholic!
Not recommended. Unless you wanna know how NOT to bake or cook.
A big failure and embarrassment of an institute.

Poor School and 80,000 dollars that’s a lot of money to pay back! In debt for life but like any other college you be in beta anyways no matter what college you go to. but if you go to this school its a 50% 50% percent risk you will graduate or find a job

The whole staff is horrible, teachers at the audio production department are horrible. My whole experience at this place was nothing but stressful from the beginning.
If you read this, please save your money on another institute or apply at nova. All they care about it taking your money!

It is the worse school I have attended. I gave this school one star because of my enrollment officer Tyrell Huggins who is part of the reason I decided to enroll. I also loved my fashion teacher Caterina Fox. She answered all of her emails and responded back with countless of information and advice.
As for the other staff and teachers… they are horrible (well at least the other two I had). The registar is a rude person, the financial aid office never returns calls and the school is so overpriced for the quality of the education. My English class was taught by a person who I could not properly understand due to his thick African accent, and the worse class I ever took was called Society and the Adult Learner (Susan Bowers). Basically this class was a waste of time. The assignments included: making charts and meal plans for the week, going over your schedule, how to plan for the week, your career goals, journal entries that had nothing to do with the course (personal info), and the fact that you had to write a fake research paper on your future goals that she wanted you to outline to a «t» what you were going to do step by step.
There is no way to fail this school because it is not challenging and the only way a person can truly fail is if they stop attending all together. Please don’t go here it is a waist of time, and MONEY… and your credits can’t be transferred to other colleges or universities nor is it recognized in the real world!!! SCAM!!!

Most people don’t graduate here with a stable job, and end up in debt… end of story.

So, I am 3 weeks from graduation. And I am speaking from my experience in the culinary department.
Let me be clear, the 1 star is for the instructors that care, if not for them, the joint gets zippy stars. But there are also instructors there that are clearly mailing it in.
Lest you think I am some disgruntled, bad student, I carry a 3.6 GPA and have made the Dean’s list repeatedly.
Much has been made in the past year or so about the for-​profit schools, and how bad they are. Well, in the case of this school, it’s pretty much all true.
My first 2 quarters, I seriously worked my ass off all the time, followed every requirement to the letter. By my 3^rd quarter, I noticed that the people in my classes the first 2 quarters and literally did fuck all, were still there. And I noticed it again the next quarter. The same people, people who after a year still didn’t know how many ounces are in a cup, or how to sauté, or how to dice an onion. They continued to be moved along. People who had no business passing these classes, and no business in a professional kitchen. But, AI has a rep for being a diploma mill, and I have seen nothing to prove otherwise. How else can they explain continuing to pass these students who should have been gone after 1 quarter? It’s pretty obvious.
It’s been put out there that these schools have been targeting poor and minorities, because they will get govt guaranteed student loans. I have seen nothing to contradict that.
The equipment in the kitchens is shoddy, old and needs to be replaced. All of the pans are old and beat to shit. Generally half of the appliances, like mixers, blenders, etc, do not work. Every quarter, thousands and thousands of dollars are pumped into that school, just in the culinary program, and yet the equipment and supplies are garbage and never updated or replaced.
I think it speaks volumes that classes you take at this school are generally not accepted anywhere, even the gen-​ed classes.
The support staff, that is non-​instructor staff, is really bad. I have seen the dean be utterly dismissive to students’ concerns, and she actually seems to have clear disdain for students, and regards complaints as whining, complaining; Just shut up and keep that cash coming in. Much of the other staff seems to not care at all about providing good service to the student body, they actually seem to be inconvenienced to have to deal with students.
They hold job fairs once a quarter. In fact, these job fairs are a major recruiting pitch. Who is there? quality places like Lime, the burrito chain, and California Pizza Kitchen. I think Chipotle was there once. I have long since quit checking out the job fairs, seriously, prep cook at CPK? I could have had that job when I was 15.
Luckily I didn’t get loans for this education. Sadly, it was GI Bill. Sorry taxpayers. At least it’s not a student loan that won’t be paid back.
I agree with Anthony H., in fact I know him. You do get out of it what you want. But Ant, you deserved a better education than what you got, you have that passion and you should have been at a school that was worthy of that. And I deserved better too.
Again, the 1 star is for the instructors that still care, they know who they are. And so do the burnouts who just pick up a check.
They will tell you how your AI diploma will open doors. I had an interview for a position at a HIGH-​end restaurant, and was basically told that AI was a joke. I got the job, btw. But it had nothing to do with AI.
Did I learn anything? Yeah, of course. But I learned so much more working in an actual kitchen.
Would I recommend AIW to anyone? No, not in a million years.

Can I write a review if I go there? I’m gonna type this up and hit [enter] and see what happens? NBA where amazing happens? Probably not.
I speak mainly about the Culinary Program at The Art Institutes. Let me break it down. Give me a beat.
With any program or college you go to it’s what you put in that you get out. I believe I put in a lot of effort and am learning a lot from the program.
I like that they do offer an associates as well as a bachelors program of study (why I went there instead of Nova, La Academie or FCI).
The reason why I didn’t give this place 4 stars, (I hardly hand out 5 stars like its candy) is because the level of the chef instructors and staff that they have there. Yes there are chef instructors are that awesome and care about you and want you to make something out of yourself. Then there are chef instructors who I can’t believe that they are teaching me.
But hey, we don’t always play with 4 aces now do we? But we can at least try.

a waste of time and money! not worth the headache

I had a terrible experience here.
1. Most of the students here are unmotivated, rude (to both their peers and instructors) and ignorant. My brand-​new smart phone was stolen in the middle of class one night (I pressed charges and the situation was resolved, but I feel like a classroom should be safer). I made some really great friends, but was often intimidated by the other students.
2. Some of the instructors are great — others are not. Some of them seem to have a political agenda and are unwilling to hear opposing points of view.
3. Overall, the administrative offices are full of incompetent, rude, and ineffective employees. My financial aid officer is nearly impossible to understand due to her poor speech. I have never seen her dressed in anything other than sweatpants and a tee-​shirt. (I don’t expect everyone here to be dressed in a BB suit, but I work 9 – 10 hours/​day in heels and slacks and feel that having an enforced dress code for the employees would help the school project a more professional image.) The mass emails that are sent out by various administrative individuals are fraught with poor grammar and misspelled words.
I learned almost nothing here. My original intent was to complete an A.A. in Baking and Pastry, but hated this school so much that I quit with a Diploma in Culinary Arts. My time will be much better spent pursuing another degree in Economics at a «real» school.
EDIT, 1-​20-​2011: I found out this morning that even though the most recent graduation took place on 12-​15-​2010, I will not be receiving my diploma until late March ’11 or early April ’11.

I don’t know a lot as far as all the programs go but as for the Culinary department… It’s pretty awesome. The school overall is extremely lazy. There are a lot of people that like to give you the run around. In particular the Financial department… there is a lot of hmmm hawing there. As far as culinary goes… The instructors are awesome. Not everyone likes every instructor but you learn a lot. They have a lot of CIA graduates working there. Downsides to our department is the sick policy. Most Chefs understand if you’re sick but it definitely affects your grade… even if you are serving food.
Also check out the study abroad program!

The really only good thing about this school is the teachers, other than that it has so many issues. First off, please keep in mind that if you are going for a bachelors, and do not have scholarships, grants, federal aid. etc…then you will be paying about 100k, or possibly more since they school increases its rates just about ever couple quarters. Yes the school does have all the programs that are needed for your classes such as the adobe suite, auto desk products, etc… but they usually are slow with updating. For example a 2010 version came out for a program about a year and a half ago… and they just got around to putting it in. For the amount of money students pay, I feel they should be a bit more up to date. The worst part about this school I would have to say is the Financial Aid Department. I don’t know how many of my fellow students (and me) have gotten screwed over by them. The mess up your loans, notify you at the last minute about something you need. and of course love to take like 3 hour lunch breaks. So if you do go here, make sure you are on TOP of your financial aid information. Overall the academics at this school are great I feel. All the teachers know what they’re talking about and are good at what the teach. It’s just the rest of the school that will bring your down and make you think this was this a bad decision. So look at other schools before you choose AiW.

Even though this place is called «The Art Institute of Washington» it is actually a branch of the the Art Institute of Atlanta. It falls under the umbrella of schools nationwide called The Art Institutes.
Although 99% of the time this space is used for the Arts Institutes’ classes, the exhibit space hosts shows not only from the Institutes’ students works, but also works from other art organizations like Art League of Reston.
Since the shows here are free, they are well worth checking out since they are by either local artists or by up and coming artists-​in-​training from around the country. The Institute itself offers classes for people training in visual and practical arts as well the culinary arts. The practical arts degrees offered here include design, media and fashion.