The Art Institute of Austin

The worst experience ever… by no means sign up for this crap. degree is worthless. they have student advisors that lie to you .acc is so much cheaper… btw no credits transfer so if you decide to change schools .it was a complete waste of time and money. thier credits dont even transfer between thier own campus. all the art institute’s are sister schools they call them… i have recordings and emails of them telling me one lie after another
.then trying to charge me for a class i dropped… total scam please respond so we can turn this into a class action law suit… the collections guy telling me i owe 4k for one class because it is part of a package

Avoid the same mistake myself and many others made and do your homework on this place. Many of the Art Institute campuses are closing and it’s parent company Education Management Corp. is facing lawsuits and on the road to bankruptcy. A degree from here is next to useless in the eyes of employers, the curriculum is out of date, the instructors are only here because they couldn’t hack it in their actual industries, and the career placement services consist of getting emailed job listings from Craigslist. I could go on and on but just do the research yourself, the information is out there. Community college education at Ivy League prices.

There are pros and cons in every department here. There are mostly great instructors, but that ONE bad apple can try and spoil the whole experience. There are some great administrators, and a few not so great. It is my impression that they are all about the money, and not about me as a student. You have to personally be on top of things when it comes to financial aid processes. I am glad that I have obtained the valuable knowledge in my field through the good instructors. Just learn to bear the not so good ones (rare)!

I go to school here for graphic design, and I think the graphic and web design program is really good. (Not the same as web and interactive, they could use help but it’s getting better) They do have trouble with having enough teachers, which is not really typical of a college and seemed to me like a strange problem to have. That being said though, I do love the teachers I have and the small class sizes have allowed me to get to know my classmates and teachers better, which makes it feel more personal. I have learned a lot by going to school here, and have also acquired a massive amount of debt. ‚) can’t wait to start making those payments
My advice if you’re thinking about going here — do your research. It’s a for profit school that seems to be pretty stingy with their money. They also aren’t accredited, which means you actually have to be good at what you’re doing to get a job, cause your diploma is basically a thank you note for the $ 100,000 you forked over. As for admissions, literally anyone can get in here. They don’t care if you know anything about what you want to do. You will pass your classes if you go to class every week. Not much effort required, though some choose to waste their money by skipping class anyways.
DO NOT LIVE IN STUDENT HOUSING. They don’t put you with people in your program, or even people close to your age. Just stick whoever where there’s room basically. The apartments are nice enough and come furnished, but living with random strangers is not fun at all, especially when you keep having problems that are just brushed off by the RA’s. I have gone through close to a dozen roommates in 2 years. I’m ready to gtfo out of student housing.
I have seen a ton of people drop out, I mean a ton. Don’t go to school here if you aren’t serious and don’t know what you want to do. Seriously, don’t waste your money if you’re not sure. This isn’t a college where you party all the time and meet your new BFFs, and if you come here with that mindset you will probably not last long. Just go to Texas State or UT if you wanna party. In the graphic design program we do a lot of projects that take a lot of time and effort and passion (!!!) but in my opinion are always worth it. I have a portfolio that I’m proud of and am pretty confident that I’ll get a job after I graduate, which is all I really wanted to get out of this school. Like I said before, the degree itself doesn’t really matter.
TLDR; don’t go here if you want to party and don’t care about school. Do go here if you are passionate about what you want to do and are willing to put in the work for it. At this school you get what you give.

Worst decision I’ve ever made. I completely felt pressured into going here. I asked for some info and starting getting emails and calls daily from the recruiter Amanda. I went in there to check it out and see if I even would be interested. The whole time she kept trying to make me feel bad because I didn’t take this more seriously and why didn’t my parents come with me and she just couldn’t believe that. Once I left she started calling and emailing me like before, basically harassing me to bring my mom by and when I did the tour with my mom it felt more like a you need to sign up today, had the paperwork and everything. I was under the impression I was just bringing my mom to see it. I signed up. my «professors» would talk about how this was the first stable job they’ve ever had and how they didn’t know if they were going to make to work because of their car breaking down. The probability you’ll have a career from this is slim to none. I didn’t last long and after 2.5 months I owe $ 3500 and I paid monthly payments while I went there! I highly suggest you take class anywhere else and make sure this is really what you want. Especially because if you don’t pay them off IRS will start taking an extra 15% of your check.

Finally, my son received a diploma (BS) after 4+ years school and 1 year waiting for the diploma. Yes, the whole degree cost a lot of money but we went into the experience with that expectation (it’s not the first art school in our family history) you definitely need to be saving for school from the time your child is born.
Our son is smart enough, but was a mediocre performer in the area public schools. He had no destination in his journey. After a concert, he confided to us that that was what he wanted to do in life, not be a performer, but to put on the shows. We said if he would try then we would try, and the effort led to the Audio Production department of AI.
Right away his classes involved recording and editing and his confidence level grew. He began to provide sound services for birthday parties. His professors introduced him to people who would let him help, or at least observe from backstage, larger shows. He volunteered his services to small festivals in surrounding communities, volunteered at SXSW, and joined with the student film makers, recording sound on their school projects. The professors at AI were very helpful to any student who was trying to learn the business. Privately, they confided to him that most of the audio students were only interested in making «Phat Beats» for their iPod and smoking weed. His entry into the Art Institute of Austin certainly coincided with finding a direction in his life although I can’t say for sure it was the cause.
So, we finally got the diploma in the mail. We will have to bring it to him because he’s in Hollywood now running sound at Bar Mitzvahs and trade shows and theme parks to pay the rent in between the movie and documentary shoots which seem to have a bigger budget with every gig. He sounds happier with every phone call.
I can’t say the Art Institute gave him the drive which he now possesses, but they certainly didn’t suppress it and they gave him a variety of skills which gave him the confidence to commit to projects and figure out how to finish it. After all, 80% of success is just showing up on time.

The Art Institute is HIGHWAY ROBBERY. Attending this school was the absolute Worst experience and my biggest regret.

My son and I had a very bad experience. We just wanted to tour the campus to experience the school. Felt trapped to apply with 50 $ application fee. The administration faculty was condescending and pushy. Do they work on on commission?

Go to Austin Community College, UT, or Texas State. Or watch Youtube videos.
I am a current student and I have had a very bad experience while attending this school. I graduated in 2010 from another University and currently hold a bachelors already. Unfortunately I did not go for my passion with this degree and decided to go back to school for my Graphic Design degree. I’ve always wanted to do something creative for my career and after 2 years of working sales/​high turn over jobs I felt like attending the Art Institute would be the best thing for me. I was wrong.
I currently work full time, M-​F, 8 – 5. When meeting with «advisors» initially they told me this would not be a problem. I was assured that I could still work (to pay for this schooling) and attend with no problem. I now have a year left in my degree plan and there are not enough night classes or online classes for me to finish. They suggested that I find another job and work part time because I need to be «flexible» with my schedule. For my loans to stay current I need to be full time and for 2 quarters (semesters) now there hasn’t been enough classes that work with my schedule. I have financial aide telling me, «You have to take 4 classes.» and then I have another side of administration saying, «There’s only 2 classes you can take.» There is absolutely no «flexibility» when it comes to this. And now I am considering not continuing with my degree.
The Art Institute is not an accredited school either. I did not find this out until later. Pretty much your degree is literally just a piece of paper because you did not attend an accredited school. Guess who is though? The above Austin schools.
I have had 2 instructors leave in the middle of the quarter also. They just quit and in one instance all the work we students did was lost. These instructors are industry professionals and all but sometimes I felt like they get frustrated teaching these basic things to students. Photoshop and Illustrator for example can be very intimidating and overwhelming. Whenever instructors blow through a lesson and skip over steps that are crucial it’s easy for a student to get lost and maybe ask dumb questions. Also when an instructor tells you to go to
and watch a tutorial on how to finish your homework it can be very frustrating. For 1. I can get Youtube for free, and 2. I can’t ask questions on Youtube. I could probably have saved myself alot of money if I taught myself just by watching Youtube videos because that’s essentially where I have learned the most. Also learning how to Code websites is very confusing and not everyone can teach this effectively. I keep hearing how this an important skill to learn but the few instructors I have had did not do a good job teaching this skill to me. Having a «Watch me type this code out and follow along» does not show me what this certain code does for this website. Then whenever I have homework for this with no reference material, and no notes because I was following along, I as a student am lost. I even asked for different instructors when registering for classes and there was nothing they could do. I had to take this ineffective instructor for multiple classes and I swear I did not learn a thing.
After working all day, sitting in traffic for an hour, and then going to class I am tired. I’m ready to learn the lesson, get the homework assignment, and head home to eat supper and go to bed. I have had instructors take an hour break in between these 3 – 4 hour night classes. I get it. Some people need a break in between lessons to walk around, go to the restroom, and get a snack but 1 hour? I’d rather head home sooner rather than staying late just because this hour break is a «filler.» I have been in night classes where the lesson and homework could take maybe an hour and a half, and the rest of the class I felt was just busy work to keep us there for the 3 – 4 hour timeframe. If I was learning something from effective instructors I think this would be a good use of my time.
Lastly, administration has a very slow response time for students. If you have a question about financial aide or a certain class you have to chase down the right person and jump through hoops. If you call or email them they will not get back to you. I’ve waited almost 2 weeks just to get a response before. I’ve also stood at the front window for financial aide for almost 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged I was standing there. They just sit at there computers, in clear view of you standing there, and they won’t say anything.
They had to let go a bunch of staff a few years ago and that is why morale is low as far as staff/​administration. I have also had 2 different financial aide advisors in 2 years. I just feel like they don’t care because they are more worried about their job and that’s it. You can almost feel it when meeting with them that they don’t care about anything regarding the student and their problems.
Trust me, don’t go here.

I joined Ai on the premise that at any moment the Fashion Design program would be starting real soon, and to get a head start, I should take the retail side of the program as there are SOME overlapping classes. I made President’s List, Dean’s List, and Honor Roll during the 3 quarters I attended. I’m serious about my schooling.
Fast forward 2 years and I’m no longer enrolled as I refuse to take anymore classes that do not comply with my program of choice. As of until today, I was still willing to go back once they had the classes I needed (Btw, this is a HUGE recurring problem with Ai, whether they blame it on «not enough students/​teachers/​interest» there is always an excuse. Every president lunch I’ve attended, there were always students complaining of 1 or 2 classes that have not been offered for multiple quarters and that’s all they need to graduate. No joke).
The straw that broke the camels back was a call I received today from the collections department. After a few months of me paying them, ON TIME, my payments are suddenly NOT sufficient. That to keep them from calling me, I have to pay MORE THAN TWICE what I’m currently paying. Never mind that I had signed an agreement to the current bill? You know, the one they DOUBLED on me once before.
Last I checked, this is unwarranted harassment. It’s practices like these that deter me from going back. This school has been nothing but empty promises, lies, and headaches. A piece of paper with a fancy name is not worth this crap.

The Web program is mismanaged. They don’t care about their students. They have not reviewed the number of students to faculty ratio. They have not made any provisions for the lack of classes. We all know that we have to graduate in a certain amount of time or our financial will be cut off.
I’m being told to take independent studies and online courses because they don’t have enough faculty at the school. It wouldn’t be so much of a problem except that this is the same story given for the last few quarters that I’ve been here. Why would I pay $ 480+ per credit hour, that’s $ 1920 per class — to take independent studies to learn on my own? It feels like I’ve wasted 2 years here.
The moral of the story: DO NOT ATTEND THE ART INSTITUTE OF AUSTIN. They will take your money and leave you out to dry. They are a for profit company who doesn’t really care about the education. It’s an expensive degree and the quality of teaching is sub par. There were a few really good teachers who have left or is leaving.
Don’t believe me? Check out the Facebook page for the web design and interactive media students. We’re posting our frustrations there. Here’s just one of the posts:

It was ok in the beginning when I was taking the beginner and intro classes that weren’t specific to the Web classes. The problem is that once you get into the meat of your degree program, you’ll find that there aren’t classes you can take and some of the prerequisites haven’t been offered in over a year. Some of the advanced classes haven’t been offered in over a year as well. I’m going to copy this review on as many sites as possible.
The public must be informed about this because I don’t want anyone else to waste their time and money. And don’t be fooled by the rep who takes you on the tour and to try and get you to sign up for the program. They will say anything to get you in the door. Once that happens, you’re pretty much stuck. Even if you want to try it out for a quarter to see if you like it or not, you’ll still waste about $ 5k+ a quarter. Expensive lesson if you ask me.

to estaban g… you should watch college, inc cause that’s exactly what the school you work for and support are doing… for profit pieces of shit that take peoples money that they can never pay back… i hope working there makes you feel like a good person… thank you for screwing the people of america EXPOSE THIS PLACE!

Some facts:
— This school is about money.
— It costs a lot.
— Some of the teachers here will work you like a dog — but that will help you become a better worker in some cases.
— There ARE people who have actually worked in various companies and studios — so you ARE learning from experienced people.
— There are definitely art classes — what do you think this school is about? Design, Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, cameras, tablets… they’ll teach you the nooks and crannies of each, depending on which teacher you get.
— Parking is terrible. Get there early or you’ll have to park farther away WAYYYYYY in the back.
— A lot of the classes here need more equipment. I have no idea why there are so many issues with art supplies (so that the teacher has to order some with her own money) and computers (because mid-​term and finals are a horror).
Some opinions from my experience:
— Some of the staff will not listen to you.
— Some of the staff will not help you when you have a problem.
— Some of the teachers give you a lecture and an assignment — that’s it. Not really what I was hoping for after $ 500 per credit.
— At the end of every quarter, everyone fills out a sheet about how good the teacher is. From what I can tell, some are booted out if they are not up to standard but a few others are kept for some reason.
— We are sharing a building with two other companies (or so I’ve heard), but one is moving out… that means God knows how many students now, we’ll have three floors instead of two. That’s great, except I even hear teachers complain about not having enough space. With so many students pouring in recently, having three floors will feel just the same as having two.
— They invest more money in the audio program than some of the others… like animation. I mean to say, they recently (about a quarter ago) added another recording studio (which is sandwiched between classrooms…) instead of something for the other programs (like a clay studio for animation or some light tables).
— The school’s organization skills… almost nonexistent. They’re not too good on the communication side.
— One bitter experience I recently had was involving some staff in the student services area. I was told that I needed to take up to 9 credit hours to be able to transfer out with no additional fees… I signed up for some classes but due to scheduling issues, I asked someone else a couple of days later if I could sign up for 10 instead. Without really looking at me, s/​he (I honestly can’t remember anymore) told me «It’s fine! Go ahead!» and screwed me over since:
A) I have to pay an additional $ 500 for that extra credit, and
B) I took an English class but I can’t send ACC my new transcript since I have to pay for the extra credit first. It’s not like I have $ 500 just lying around, you know!
TL;DR: Esteban is a cheerful guy and I’ve seen him around, but be careful if you decide to attend this school. Not everything is great and hunky-​dory as it sounds. Donna sounds like she’s having a blast while Christina’s review painful to read due to the mistakes. Tim’s review… well, it’s only half true. This isn’t really a tech school per se, but more of a business school with an artistic flair.
(Still) TL;DR: There is some truth in all these reviews, but also some skewed opinions. Insults are not needed on this website and the experience here is mostly based off of whether you’re interacting with the competent staff members or the more… lazy ones.
(Dang it, still) TD;DR: Make the most out of it, avoid staff members who don’t care for the students and read all the reviews here with care. Not everything is true but not everything is false, either.

This school is not for the lazy, the expect only the best. It costs a pretty penny, but its worth it. I would only recommend attending if you are serious in pursuing your chosen field. I’ve been in the photo department for a while, it just gets better every quarter. The instructors are not only teachers, but working professionals. What can get better than learning under people that work for American Airlines, Goodyear, Walt Disney, BET, the House of Representatives, National Geographic and etc?
I am able to get a photo specific degree here, unlike a traditional school where I could only receive a fine art degree. This school also focuses on the business side of things. It can’t get much better than this.
For those who are more into fine art, we have and amazing staff of fine art photographers!