NewSchool of Architecture and Design

I have been trying to get ahold of this school weeks/​month to try and figure out why there is a hold on my account. I need my transcript and they are no help. Not to mention while I was attending this school they, weren’t very fair on there grading or very accommodating to a pregnant student. Also half of the professors were fired because they were pocketing money from our study abroad trip.

I cannot speak for the Architecture department here, but as a student of their ‘design program’ my only advice for anyone interested would be to run for your life.
Just a few of my experiences here include:
— A User Interface Design class taught by a teacher who has never owned a cell phone or developed an interface in his life. He thinks iPhone apps are developed as interactive PDF documents in inDesign (which is what our final project was btw).
— A Digital Fabrication teacher who told me that ‘according to his standards I’m lazy and dumb” and threw his gloves at me and stormed out in the middle of class even though I was a straight A student, regularly pulled overnights, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Nothing was done when I brought the incident to the attention of the school.
— An Action Scripting & Web Programming class where the teacher had the class edit product images in photoshop and had me design a logo in illustrator for her friend’s catering business. We never learned a single line of code or how it works.
— After learning nothing in the Action Scripting class, I proposed an independent study, wrote a detailed outline of what I wanted to learn and submitted it to the school. They approved it, made me pay full tuition for the class, and then the department chair never hired a teacher until the 7^th week of a 10 week term… so I learned nothing again. (They did however refund my money for this class and one other after I filed a grievance…)
— Many classes were taught by the former DMA program chair which was by far the worst experience I have ever had. Classes were regularly canceled because he ‘had a headache’ or was ‘stuck in traffic’ or ‘had meetings’ etc etc. We would pay for a 5 credit class and meet once a week for about 10 minutes before he had to rush off to another engagement…
–Architecture professors would regularly kick us out of our studio spaces so that their students could have our desks. Actually, that happened almost every single term of every year there. I also remember an instance where an architecture professor came into our classroom and made our class leave and wait outside while they showed their students a 30 minute adobe Illustrator demo.
In an effort to avoid rambling I will quit there, but I believe those few things paint a pretty accurate picture of what it’s like to be a digital media student at this school. I do not like to complain and I believe strongly in the ‘you get out what you put in’ philosophy when it comes to education, but I feel genuinely screwed by NewSchool. In addition to the horrible experience with classes, their Career Services department has told other past DMA students that they didn’t have any help available for them and they never responded to me when I emailed (since I’m currently studying in Auckland) asking for help/​advice on finding a job once I finish school.
I am currently finishing up my last class after graduating in June… the new program director they hired has been amazing in helping me try and salvage my last term here and helped send me to Auckland, NZ to study. In my opinion, she is the school’s only hope at turning their Digital Media Arts program around, but she has a HUGE mess to clean up and from what I have observed over the last 3 years, the majority of the staff there is incompetent, lazy, and most have a ‘that’s not my job’ attitude when it comes to helping students or listening to concerns. It does seem like a lot of the staff there are getting fired and/​or quitting so hopefully things will get better in the future, but I really wish someone had warned me about them before I wasted all of my time and money there.

i went here for the summer program and my experience was terrible. i feel like the school robbed me of my $ 2,000 tuition money and i learned nothing. it was a typical for profit school and everything was so unorganized. worst educational experience ever.

The website and student gallery IS impressive enough.
However, I am curious why there are 9 «filtered» reviews for this school, 7 of which are 1 star reviews from former students? Can anyone answer this for me?

Where to begin. I don’t want to come off as bitter, but I came to this school with a genuine enthusiasm to learn and work hard and push myself, but would time and time again find myself being limited not by my own abilities or desire but by the lack of professionalism of the staff and the lack of expertise of the faculty. By the end of the program it became quite clear that decades of lazy leadership had created a culture where only the least motivated individuals would remain on staff and almost anyone of merit and value would distance themselves from this school (i assume from frustration) at their first opportunity.
Example: Two years ago Alan Rosenblum taught Master’s Thesis and was so good at it that 11 of his 13 students failed to pass the faculty review and subsequently sued the school for breach of contract. How did the brain trust at NSAD handle this damning indictment of the ability of one of its faculty? By promoting him to be the Chair of the First year graduate studio!!! He spent the entire year rearranging the sequence for an entire class of graduates and after a near revolt from the class was transferred to be the head of the Undergraduate program after just one year. He is currently in the process of «revamping» their program as well. It’s not really Alan’s fault that he is so bad at his job, but the people who keep putting him in these positions of such great influence time and again. I recently had the chance to see his CV and he only has 3 years of experience in Architecture!!! Seriously, who is in charge???

I went here briefly in the fall of 07, but quickly found this school to be much like a typical for profit college. Classes were packed, tables and chairs are the cheapest plastic seminar variety. The school is most interested in convincing you they’re legit long enough to get you to sign a tuition loan. If I could do it all over again I would attend mesa college base level courses and transfer to a more reputable, reasonably priced school. I felt duped that I had let my guard down beyond all doubts.

This School is whatever you want it to be. Newschool offers you many of the tools you need to succeed. It is up to you to decide what your experience is at Newschool. The class sizes are realtively small and most teachers are only an email away. They do have bad teachers but what school doesn’t. On the other hand they do have some of the most innfluental and smartest professors you’ll ever meet. I am currently attending and enjoy the program im in, but I am very ready to be done. (5year program)

Like «Nichole D», I am a student here, set to graduate with my Master’s in June. But I got the benefit of the new ownership, Laureate Education, which has invested in the school so we don’t suffer the things she had to suffer. I have received a great education and have job offers in the worst recession in decades thanks to the education and contacts that I’ve made. The «foreigner» with the «worst english ever» who teaches Codes (the person Nichole D. mentioned with derision) happens to be one of the most talented, funniest, most practical, and most caring educators I’ve met, and if you can’t understand English with an accent, then I think you might belong in the Midwest rather than California — welcome to the melting pot, people.
There are AMAZING instructors here — some of the best I have ever had. That’s saying something, because I got my bachelor’s degree from one of the top universities in the nation (and graduated summa cum laude). Everyone knows you by first name, and are teaching for the love of it, not the money. .True, there are also terrible instructors. Some faculty should have been fired long ago, but they give them the benefit of the doubt here even though maybe they shouldn’t.
Overall, it has been a tremendously challenging, rewarding, life-​changing experience, and I would enroll here again even for all the bad parts (the financial aid was a mess, although it’s improving, and yes — there are some unqualified faculty — but they are more than balanced out by the incredibly inspiring faculty). You should visit the school and talk with students and faculty yourself to see if it would be a good fit for you.