The Art Institute of California-Orange County

!!!DO NOT WASTE TIME OR MONEY ON THIS SCHOOL!!!
Shelby Gugle is an unprofessional BITCH. Mark Lucero is the worst President and made a BAD NAME for this school!
EXTREMELY BAD ETHICS!!!
Attend elsewhere,
**Highly Recommended Do your research before making an appointment**
0 out of 5 stars
Comment Signed by Faculty member

The school set up my loans into 12 different loans to charge me more interest instead of just one loan. The school is a for-​profit school that is more interested on the profit side. EDMC stock made it clear to me. I saw staff layoffs and budget cuts.

please save your money!!! i feel cheated and my associates degree in culinary arts is worthless. i graduated in 2006 and have been cooking ever since. no matter what company you work for, they don’t care if you have a degree. for example, i have 9 years of experience and only make $ 14.70 while this kid who just started working is making $ 13.00 with only 2 years of experience (without a degree). imagine, i graduated in 2006 and am still paying for a useless degree. see for yourself, most cooking jobs pay less than $ 14.00. save yourselves please. as of quality wise, the courses at this school are so fast that you think you come out of the school as a know it all, but once you get into the industry, you have not seen anything yet. it is a whole new world. save your money!!! you can get into a restaurant job with the same money without a degree.

I got my associates degree from here and stopped. I couldn’t justify spending anymore money to get a useless degree. Way too expensive, condensed courses, teachers hate their jobs, and the people who «find» you jobs are a joke. I found a lot of interviews I went to on my own didn’t like that I went to ai. Do yourself a favor and don’t go here. You could google yourself a better education.

Do not attend this school!!! It is run by the greed bags at the EDMC, who only want to shackle you to suffocating & financially crippling debt! EDMC is owned by Goldman Sachs, so research & do your due diligence! You’ll be paying an Ivy League tuition for an education lower than a community college. Staff & faculty are all in on it. Instructors, if you want to call them that, are burnt-​out has beens with outdated teaching styles & just need a paycheck. Most don’t even know the software! Recruiters are losers who also need a paycheck & will sell their mothers in order to get young impressionable people to enroll with the false promise of job placement in a lucrative paying company. ALL LIES!!!
I was one of the first classes to graduate from this school & it took me years to figure out why I wasn’t having luck finding the «Dream Job» they promised to help you find. I was humiliated during many interviews & told the industry doesn’t take any Ai school serious & consider them «for-​profit debt-​factories». Job Assistance was a joke! They made it seem as if AiOC had a special relationship with these companies & that they were lined up waiting to hire you. Completely the opposite! They pretty much had a monkey log into
& copy & paste job postings into the Alumni website.
* They hyped up the health of different industry, well knowing it wasn’t doing well.
* They hyped up the starting salary for certain fields & claimed they would help you gain lucrative employment to help pay back student loans.
* Their «Job Placement» was a joke, as I already explained.
* Because it’s a condensed 3-​year Bachelor’s program, units gained only count for 2.3 instead of 3 units at a regular public college. They intentionally planned it this way so that you won’t be able to transfer out, since public colleges won’t transfer Ai credits.
* They lied about their student graduation rate at 80% when in reality it’s more like 29%.
* They own 1% of the market share of students, but also own 40% of student loan defaults.
DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE! Do your research! This school is owned by the EDMC! Look them up! They’re being sued & are about to go out of business for imposing predatory lending practices. Goldman Sachs owns EDMC. That should say it all right there! It is a for-​profit college which means their loyalty lies with their shareholders & not the students who fall victim to their scams. Don’t listen to the 5-​star posters! They’ve either drank the Ai Kool-​Aid or are part of the plan posing as satisfied students with success stories. Wiki AiOC & you’ll learn that they are in the midst of a multi-​million dollar class action lawsuit. Seek Facebook anti-​Ai groups & you’ll come across «THOUSANDS» of horrendous stories on how they were duped into suffocating, financially ruining debt by recruiters at Ai under the direction of EDMC. Corinthian & Everst Colleges have closed their doors to all their campuses. Ai will close 15 out of their 50 campuses nation wide. It’s a sinking ship! Don’t go down with it. You don’t believe anything I’m saying??? Google EDMC & The Art Institutes & you will see the hot water they’ve gotten themselves into for LYING to people! Check them out in the Department of Education website for more facts they don’t want you to know!

The school is alright, but sometimes it makes me mad when students pass by showing up, instead of actually doing the work. The general education sucks, but there has been one teacher that has actually challenged me, Underwood is a great teacher. Also there financial aid stinks, each quarter they try to get more money from the student’s.

I don’t know how the school is. The 24 hour event here was awesome! Thanks to all the gaming groups who made this happen. And of course thanks to this place. I was with Streetpass OC. There was a Tim Burton movie marathon at midnight. The Art Institute also had raffles during the event and I won an Xbox One t-​shirt and a lanyard. Streetpass OC had their own raffles as well and I won a red pikmin.

I came to AiOC back in July 2009 after taking a tour for the Interior Design program. I continued my education on campus for a little over a year coming Mon-​Friday sometimes with 1 day off during the week. Every. single. instructor I had was nothing short of great. They all went above and beyond to help out their students and for that I am grateful.
Yes, the school may cost a bit much but personally, I feel everything they have to offer, the atmosphere, the one-​on-​one teacher interaction, small class sizes, unlimited resources, and all the tools one gets to use. I cant forget all the staff that are there to help at the drop of a hat. I never had a problem getting in touch with or seeing my financial adviser or academic adviser. The instructors are professionals from the line of work you are attending for. I learned so much!
Sadly, gas prices started to rise and I could no longer keep my focus on 11 week classes so I decided to switch and go to AiOD (online division via Ai Pittsburgh) where I was able to complete the same classes just 5.5 week courses vs. the 11 weeks. MUCH BETTER! I’m a fast paced learner so those 11 week classes were killing me. Not to mention I wanted to «downgrade» and go for the Residential Design program instead because I enjoy home staging more.
Do I wish I could take back the charges for the Interior Design program, of course! Am I happy I stuck with Ai to continue my education, without a doubt.
They stick with you well after graduation. I graduated from the RP program back in 2012 and they were always calling me for a job offering they found that was right up my alley. Unfortunately my Gramma was passing due to Cancer during that time and my dad was in and out of the hospital so it was NOT a good time for me as I was not even going to the job I have with the school district at that time. Luckily I had co-​workers that understood my situation but I could not imagine taking on a dream career and possibly messing it up because of my lack of attendance during that time of my life. To this day though, all I have to do is call and they’ll help me find whatever I am looking for. No matter how long you’ve been out of school, they’ll help you with anything. You’re (insert your name here) not just some assigned number they gave out.

I transferred from LE Cordon Bleu and was majorly disappointed at this school. I am an Associates degree grad from cordon Bleu in culinary arts and they will not honor all your credits. They were trying to make me retake some level one classes which I had already taken. They said if I wanted my credits accepted I would have to find my syllabus from 2005 (they told me to google it, what a joke) then maybe they would consider it. I went all the way up to the president to resolve this issue and explained how poor their customer service is. They kept brushing it under the carpet and didn’t want to talk about it. Don’t even get me started with the financial aid department. I’m always calling my financial aid rep and never ever get a call or email back. You have to call them over and over. This school has the worst staff and I would not recommend it at all. I wish I could get a hold of the CEO and let him know how bad of an experience I had here.

A LOT of people have complained about this school but when it comes down to it, the school is a hub for students to hone their skills and make it applicable to today’s work field.
As a graduate of the graphic design program, I came straight out of high school and got a small scholarship to go to Ai. I had a few great instructors (although there are always going to be instructors you like and dislike everywhere) and met really incredible people who helped me network and know all the right people.
I went through the program, got a design job lined up before I graduated, turned down three other job offers, and got my cap and gown with my Bachelor of Science degree at the age of 21. I work at a design studio now and have loans to pay back.
When people complain about not being able to get a job, loans being expensive, etc… It’s all about who you know. You can’t walk into the school and expect the school to have a job for you by the time you finish. This IS a competitive industry. Their career services have networks and contacts that are looking to hire graduates — it is ultimately up to YOU to do your research, interview, and overall have quality work that the employers are looking for. They will only give you the contact info.
Everyone has loans to pay. Before you can even start your first day at Ai, they show you a list of all the financials, how much starting would cost, and overall the financial services department will give you a print out of your tuition costs whenever you want. Having the loans «show up» at the end when you get your degree should not be surprising. Plus, Ai gives out scholarships like candy. Most people attend the school because they have won scholarships.
Ultimately it is up to the individual student to recognize if they are ready or not for AI. It is a fast paced quarter system and you will have to use the resources given, network, and learn to work harder than everyone else. If you’re complaining that you can’t find a job because you slacked off in classes and the loans are intense — you haven’t done your research and haven’t used the resources provided.

You know I went to Art Center before I went to take classes at this school to get a degree in something else. This place as heavily advertised as it is, is not worth the 80 Grand it costs to finish it. A lot of my units didn’t transfer, big surprise there, so I think i could have skipped slightly less than 2 semesters worth. Which would still cost me 60+ grand to finish, which is still quite a lot of money for a trade school. The teachers are fairly knowledgeable though, at least the few I had encountered. However the classes aren’t strict and are super easy, which does not benefit students. The online classes are a joke, I wouldn’t even bother doing online stuff. If you have a sluggish internet like I do (and my local library is even worse) you are just going to fail, none of your work is going to post, you’re likely to fail tests like I did. The internet services that I used disconnected frequently and to take an hour long test, I ended up failing since I couldn’t complete it since once you disconnect it considers you done and finished with the test. That was pretty frustrating, I understand they’re trying to make them as difficult as regular classes but that is far too difficult for me to deal with. The professor of the online class didn’t care much either, I guess since they figure all students are full of bullshit excuses.
All in all as much as I think the regular professors are pretty knowledgeable, I don’t think you get your bang for your buck. This school is still very expensive, and you’re likely to leave in a lot of debt even if you take out grants and loans. Your jobs leaving almost ANY trade school starting out are still very very low pay, so you’re going to be hurting no matter what.
I dropped out by semester two, it was already too expensive and too much of a waste of time for me personally.
(However, little disclaimer here, I have met a few people who have benefited from their experience here, and ended up doing alright.)
In my opinion I just didn’t like it, and didn’t think it was worth it for me.

DO NOT GO TO THIS SCHOOL. I can not stress this enough. Not only was a student at this AI, but I also was a student worker for them. This school is involved in illegal activity and is currently being sued by the State of California and the Federal Goverment. If you want to read more about this:
Wiki:
Fraud lawsuit
In August 2011 Education Management Corporation was investigated and sued by the United States Department of Justice and four states for illegal recruitment practices and fraudulent receipt of $ 11 billion in federal and state financial aid money.[1][2][3]
New York Times Article on lawsuit:
DO NOT GO TO THIS SCHOOL.
To be completely blunt, everyone I attended this school with who did not finish the program got jobs in the game and animation industries. This school is a waste of money, and your own hard work will get you what you want out of your life.

Going here was a waste of both my and my girlfriend’s time and money. The debt we have accrued from them is at the point where our lives are starting to fall apart because of it. I was lucky enough to be able to push it off and defer it for the time being, but they’ve finally sent her to collections over something they originally said was covered in her student loans.
The school itself was incredibly shoddily run, I left shortly after enrolling because I decided I wanted to do something else with my life. She left because of the poor treatment she received from students and faculty alike.
This school is for profit, and it shows. They are the Art Institutes alright, run by artists… scam artists anyways.
It’s just deplorable what they do, a school is supposed to make your life better, whereas these ***holes do nothing but ruin them.
There’s a damn good reason they’ve been part of a billion dollar lawsuit for fraud.
I hope these clowns go out of business, wrack some debt up for them, see how they like it.

I graduated from AICAOC and I can tell you first hand they are just trying to use you as a piggy bank and rack up debt…
Over the years I pretended it was only bitter failures that spoke ill of the school but as a professional working in the industry (no thanks to AI career support) I can tell you it’s an uphill battle. The schools name on your resume actually hurts you and I have had several recruiters tell me AI has a terrible reputation in the industry.
By the end of school you will be wrecked by debt wondering why you didn’t go to Gnoman, VFS or USC … they all have better connections and educators then AI and the price tag is lower.
The educators you do get at AI range from some amazing artists to industry burn outs who never made it in the first place. Unfortunately AICAOC has chosen more of the later because they are cheaper and don’t speak up to corporate when students are being wronged.
If you don’t believe anything I’m writing just Google search the school or its Billion dollar lawsuit for fraud. The company is owned by EDMC and financed through Goldman Sachs.
Please think twice… more than twice about going to an Art Institute school and be wary of other for profit trade schools that offer a 70% or higher job placement average. They consider a job at a fast food chain to be an «Industry Job.»
I wasted allot of time and money going to this school just to work twice as hard on my own time to learn everything I was not being taught thinking all schools were like this.
AI has almost no industry ties in Graphic Design, Visual Effects, Interior Design and especially Animation (sadly I only know of one animator actually working as an animator after 4yrs of school)

Stay away from this place! It makes me sick to my stomach thinking of all the students who have no idea that this school is a scam! Luckily for me, I dropped out of this school after only two weeks. After I dropped out, I landed a job at the Central Bakery at Disneyland. Honestly, I have learned WAY more here at Disneyland, than I would have EVER learned at the AI of OC.

I wish I wouldn’t have gotten sucked into this school. Beware of the first walk through with your «tour guide» they will do anything to make you sign those financial papers and lock you in, They are paid by how many recruitment s they get. This was 4 years ago and i am about to graduate in a couple months form the Media Arts and Animation program.
*update* I just wanted to update with a review on the career services department, because they use that as a marketing tool to get people to sign up. I’m not sure on other majors but for Media Arts and Animation, the career services is terrible, beyond terrible. Where do they find these people?! They no NOTHING about this industries jobs, not even about the major, not even about what you study or your work. First of all, the teachers push you to find your few specialties that you can graduate strongly with (however you feel about this theory) and then my career service aid tells me, well you need to expand your skills to more programs so I can «find» you more jobs in the next 6 months. Um, hello? didn’t I just go through the last 4 months of portfolio prep, to not be a «jack of all trades»? The school needs to decide as a whole, so if students need help everyone is on the same page. The first week I graduated I went to 2 industry work-​related hire fairs with a friend. when I told him this, he was surprised and didn’t even know there were hiring fairs or any of the companies that were there. Isn’t it your job to know companies, big and more importantly small ones? and when they have events?
I get more job info off of my Linked-​In account messages.
the employment statistic is a joke, other reviewers have stated they count small part time work like Home Depot or Kinkos in that, seriously? I believe it! They first «lead» of a job was for a Lighting Installation company almost 4 hours from here. he did not understand that this was not 3D Lighting in animation. It was for installing lights in classrooms and paid $ 9/​hour. Thank you for nothing, the next «lead» was in Toronto, in a completely different country! And then he asks what companies Id like to work for, I name a few id like to start at and some id like to end up in the long run. he says, well ok,” I’ll watch their employment board for you and call if I see anything”. Don’t you think us recently graduated college students are doing that already? Again, the administration here is a joke! you can do what they get paid to do in less time it takes them to figure out what all the art terms mean and connect the dots to the right student. The career services is not an added bonus to your «education». Iv heard from other students that it even hurts your chances to go through career services.**
It is a shame because the faculty is so awesome, the curriculum is (thank god) structured by them so everything I learned helped me in one way or another. The classes are hard and the quarters are short, if this is not how you want to develop as an artist this is not the school for you, the objective is to get a job in the industry you are learning, if you find yourself as an artist on the way it is a bonus. The work load is not for the procrastinator, it is demanding and requires you to be focused and dedicated to your work. if you don’t come in focused you will waste your money and more importantly your time. This is what they don’t tell you in that first tour. This school can be great if it would just get its head out of its corporate ass.
I, like 90% of the school had to get financial aid, the financial aid advisers are a joke, the most unhelpful people in the school by far, they let you know important things last minute, request documents last minute and claim” we lost it”. like a previous reviewer stated they keep telling parents and students everything is fine, when it is not. They do not let you know what you need to know. If I knew form the start that I had to do all the paperwork and ask questions directly to the government myself then it would be fine. However they claim that they are here for you and will walk to through each form to fill out/​thing to sign up etc etc. When most of the time its the student receptionist handing you a printed pdf with instructions. what is the point of having people be your financial aid officer? I had more helpful conversation with our tax agent and speaking with our loan providers directly.
For the amount of money I spent here, I should have taken a couple semesters of college art classes after high school and then tried to get into Art Center or Laguna Beach college of Art and Design, at the very least they have a good reputation in the industry.

This school is a giant rip-​off. I’m starting school in 2 days and already I’m starting to hate it. The people here just want your money. I have a bunch of problems and errors on my FAFSA, yet they told me it was fine and I was gonna get my money, but that’s not what it said on my FAFSA status. When I call them about it, they don’t know anything, and transfer me to the next person who doesn’t know anything either. Useless.
As for the campus, it’s ugly and disgusting, ironic for an art school. Makes me feel like throwing up all over the walls. At least that can add a little creativity to it.
The class rooms are all the same and are boring. It doesn’t put you in a creative atmosphere at all. They also have this annoying idea of using each other and connecting with each other, cause no matter how good you are, you’re only as good as your connection. So after that everyone’s trying to fake bond with each other and become friends to use each other. It’s disgusting. The support system is horrible. They can’t help you with anything. The starter kit cost me $ 600 with cheap stuff I found on ebay for ¹⁄₅ of the price.
Their ID cards are ugly too. No creativity to it. Just a blank white card with ugly font, and a low pixelated picture of yourself with bad overexposed lighting. So freaking disgusting. I wouldn’t recommend this place unless you’re getting all of it free.

I’m an Interior Design major at AI-​OC in the 3^rd year of my program, and I love my school.
— Almost all of the teachers I’ve had at AI are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. If you ask questions, participate in class lectures and DO YOUR HOMEWORK you’ll do fine. Most of the people I’ve heard complain about AI are the same people that show up to class an hour late with a lame excuse and don’t have any work to show.
— Classes are very small. I don’t think I’ve ever had a class with more than 25 students in it. This sort of intimate learning environment is perfect, because it feels like you’re one-​on-​one with the teacher.
— I love being on a Quarter system rather than a Semester system. The quarters fly by, and although it does make the program more intense (they pack the same work into 11 weeks that other schools do in 18), I think it’s totally worth it to be done faster.
— Yes, AI is very expensive. It’s true. I’m going to have a hefty debt to my name when I graduate. But the program administrators at AI do a lot to help graduates find work with top companies. And I’m not just saying that because it’s what I’ve been told. I’ve been to networking events and I’ve seen employers interviewing pending graduates at Portfolio Night. In the Interior Design program, an internship is required to graduate (so you may even have a job lined up before graduation). Your future is in your hands. You can’t fully rely on a school to get you a job. So put the work in when you’re in the classroom and reap the rewards when you graduate. If you work hard, your loan won’t be a big deal.
— Do not expect to have much of a social life while you attend AI. The work is intense, and you’ll have to put friends on hold for a couple years until you graduate. I take 12+ units at a time, and I’ve crammed all of my socializing into one night a week. On the quarter system, you get about 8 – 9 weeks of vacation per year, so use that time wisely.
Well, I think that’s about all the knowledge I can pass on to everyone. If I think of any other pertinent info, I’ll be sure to add onto this post. Also, if anyone reading this has any questions, feel free to message me. :)

Alright. I have a lot to say about this school. First I will start off with this. I have a BA from a private university. I know what hard work is and what good work is. When I graduated with my degree I didn’t know if I could continue doing what I was studying (it’s a very specific field) and when the time came to make a decision I thought «I love to cook, why don’t I try doing something I’m passionate about instead of sitting at a desk all day?»
Well, I probably should have stuck with the desk idea. I had problems from the very beginning. First, my financial aide officer was a complete idiot. In July he was asking for forms and signatures I sent him in June. What? I gave that to you four weeks ago, buddy. And when he tried to certify my loan apparently he didn’t know how because he called me and told me something wasn’t right on my end. Try again, dumb ass. THEN when I got a huge tuition bill at the beginning of my second quarter I had to call him and tell him what the f*** was up. He didn’t certify it for the right amount. Thanks a lot.
Second, my academic advisory is, what’s the word… Lazy? Unhelpful? Probably both. Three weeks before school started I asked her about registration. «Do I do it myself, or does someone do it for me?» I knew how to register myself at the university I went to but that doesn’t mean it’s the same here. She told me that I can register myself for classes the following day. So, the following day I did. Or I tried. There was a schedule already made for me. Uh, ok. So, another email. «Does this mean I’m all set to go?» She said, «Oh yeah, it’s different for culinary students.» Well, that’s what I am so thanks for telling me that the first time. If registration varies between departments and you don’t know what that student is studying, wouldn’t you reference their name and student id number to check? Apparently not.
Third, the admissions assistant I was assigned to was a complete air head. She sent me the same forms three times. Honey, I already gave this to you. Then, it wasn’t until I was asking all sorts of questions about my first day of class that she informed me there’s an orientation I need to attend and, oh yeah, it’s in three days. Sure glad I moved to the area sooner than expected! I wouldn’t want to miss out on all of the valuable information given by the chef instructors and school officials.
Fourth, orientation. What a let down. First I get there and my name isn’t on the damned list and I couldn’t check in or get my chef’s starter kit that I paid an arm and a leg for. Fantastic. After speaking with my admissions assistant I found out I was supposed to have my class schedule with me since I took online classes the first quarter. Glad I knew! After some hassling I finally got what I needed (well, sort of, they didn’t have two of the three uniforms I ordered). The school had an «alumni panel» during orientation and I have to say, I wasn’t impressed. One girl thought she was the beez knees and had a job doing demos for housewives. No thanks. The other woman worked on call for three different companies. That sounds even worse.
Now I am finally a few weeks into the classes. After writing a «paper» on the history of cakes I was confronted by the chef instructor. Apparently, my paper started with a similar sentence to another girls’ paper. «The history of cakes reaches back to ancient times.» How else are you supposed to start a history of cake essay? We are ALL writing about the same thing, of course it’s going to be similar. But, no. Now I’m labeled as being academically dishonest even though I have a stellar academic record with a BA in a major that requires extensive reading and writing skills.
Needless to say, I dropped this quicker than I could throw my chef’s apron to the ground. I don’t need to spend $ 25 000 on an education offered by people who have no idea what they are doing, what they are talking about, or who are going to undermine my hard work. Thanks, but no thanks.

I just graduate from AI in June 2008 with my Diploma in Baking & Pastry. I’m so disappointed in myself for choosing this school and spending about $ 25,000 on nothing. We were the first graduating class from the B&P program, and since then they’ve added an AA, but nothing could make me stick around for another year just to get that. This school promises to help you find a job, and for the 6 months after I graduated I talked to the girl in the office about jobs and all she would send me was stuff to go work at Albertsons. The few jobs I did get since graduation were good, but not because of the school I went to. And when I told her how I found the jobs [mostly craigslist] she was like, «Oh wow!» Jesus, she should have checked there for me, it’s not hard. Isn’t that what they’re being paid for?
I wish I would have just sucked it up and took the time to go to a community college, or just packed my bags and gone to the CIA in Hype Park, NY. This school’s culinary program is shit. Period. Yes, I had a few chef’s that were decent, and unfortunately they fired one for a stupid reason that I still can’t wrap my head around. The head corporate chef for the school doesn’t know anything about Baking & Pastry, and yet he was trying to write our curriculum.
I advise anyone thinking of going into this field to look at other schools, especially the CIA. Or go study abroad somewhere. Don’t go to AI for Baking & Pastry!