Academy Of Art University

Don’t do it. Avoid the place like the plague. They will give you promises in order to get you to enroll and get your money but once you do that, they couldn’t care less. You’ll wake up 4 years later almost $ 200K in debt and no job prospects or placement that they promised you in order to get you to enroll. Run away, run away.

hmmm, if you want to learn something about art and be successfull on your terms in your field — speaking really just for the fashion program here — this is the place to be, … as far as other departments… you would have to ask others … one less star — for sometimes too busy faculty to interact and advise, …

Don’t go here for the game design degree. Just don’t. Please.
Let me elaborate,
You’re paying this school for a degree that will teach you the skills you need to have a fighting chance at getting a job in the industry, right? I mean that’s what you should be doing… Game design is an insanely competitive field ok?
Most of the game design specific classes are a joke. They won’t challenge you to do better and they won’t fail you if you’re bad. It’s the worst of both worlds.
You could be the worst artist in history but if you manage to at least show up to 3 or 4 classes you’ll still pass. It doesn’t even matter to them, because they already have your money.
Need more convincing? One of the required classes is a «game history» course. Now, you figure that would entail some… oh say history of gaming right?
Wrong.
You get to pay $ 3000 for a class where literally all you will do is sit in the classroom for 3 hours every week playing random old video games that your classmates have haphazardly brought in. There is NO structure to the class whatsoever. No history. Just playing random ass old games people bring in on a whim. Welcome to the Game Design Department.
Look, I get it, maybe you’re hell bent on going to AAU. I’m not going to stop you. There are some really good programs. (The Illustration department for example, is fantastic)
But please, just do me this simple favor, DO NOT join the Game Design program. If you want to learn 3d modeling software or Photoshop there are a million cheap online resources you can use. (Eat3d
and many, many more)
And guess what, I just saved you $ 100,000! Seriously that’s how much this degree costs… probably more now since they raise their prices almost every year.
You can thank me later when you manage to land your first industry job without having been saddled with so much debt that your grandchildren will still be paying it off!

Now that this is the fashion building, it sometimes seems a little cramped in terms of classroom space and the indoor café.
The seating in the rooms is uncomfortable (stools vs chairs), and after a 3 or 6 hour class I usually feel the need to have a back massage after being hunched over for hours.
The café Dior has a super small seating area which is often useless to even try to think you’re going to be able to grab a seat and sip a latte in between classes.
The building is located in the TL across the street from Brenda’s (so good) and KFC. Its close to the SF main library which is useful.