The Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg

Expensive, and now stuck with tons of student loans. My degree is useless. Since then since I actually want a future… I changed my career in graduate school. All the friends I made in college have completely different degrees not related to their B.A. and also stuck with a bunch of loans. This school infuriates me more than anything. Oh and they do NOT help with job placement.

Do not go here unless you want to stuck with student loans for the rest of your life.

My first review was deleted… I am not sure why, because everything I wrote was true… If I could rate this school at 0 stars, I would. This school, and all Art Institute schools, as well as other EDMC schools (Argosy, Brown Mackie, South University) are a for-​profit SCAM. They have been sued for 11 billion dollars by the federal government for FRAUD. I attended from 2007 – 2010 and it was the biggest waste of time and money. I was promised a high quality education, but instead received shoddy instruction (if the teachers bothered showing up at all). We watched a LOT of movies in class, sometimes even bootleg videos. We learned from tutorials off of the internet that we could have found for free and learned from on our own without paying thousands of dollars. We had no access to the resources and lighting studios that we needed, even if the classes we were enrolled in were supposed to be studio focused. I was misled about the validity of the accreditation, and when I realized what a joke my education was, I couldn’t even transfer out because «National» accreditation doesn’t mean anything. REGIONAL is what you want. Way to mislead students, EDMC. This school cares about nothing but money. They will smile through their teeth while enrolling you and then leave you high and dry once you are sitting in your classes. The school has already lost most of its leased space and is operating on 2 and a half floors at this point. They are clearly downsizing and going out of business. EDMC delisted their stock and it sits at under 10 cents, yet they are continuing to enroll students even though all signs point to them going out of business before any of the students will graduate. It is unconscionable and incredibly wrong. Please do a google search for the news related to the Art Institutes, EDMC, and for-​profit colleges in general. It is a much better alternative to seek an education from a community school or a non-​profit institution. Illinois Institute of Art did nothing but leave me 100k in debt for a worthless degree.

I graduated from here a while ago, with a degree in Graphic Design. I have to say I don’t like all the hate this school takes. Yeah it’s an expensive program no doubt about it, but I truly believe that you get the BEST education for what it’s worth. If you aren’t into the art thing but need to go somewhere for a degree, then yes maybe this place isn’t for you. If you are passionate, know what you want to do and are eager to learn and be the best at what you do than this IS the school for you! I’ve been working as a professional in the field for 9 years now and I can tell you the difference between someone going to a university vs. ILIA-​S is night and day, they lack an eye for things and usually their knowledge isn’t up to par. Not always but the graduates you get from this school are top notch. Its a private school so no you won’t get the same experience you would at a University either, but for some people that’s ok. I honestly liked the atmosphere and being surrounded by like minded people.
Also What I like about this school are the classes, even the General Education classes are geared towards artists. The final projects, etc. are usually an art project and the instructors are aware that most of the people going to this school learn visually. You also aren’t sitting in a lecture hall filled with 500 students, so you get more specialized attention when needed.
As for the help finding a job. You can’t sit around and do nothing and hope someone gets you a job. It just isn’t going to happen and not in this economy. Any degree you get in an art field is tricky, if you want a guaranteed job, become a Dr. No matter what degree or job you go into you have to work your way up. I did, and most of the people I graduated did as well. There are a few who skip that and go to the top but they are exceptional, and there are a few who give up and then bad mouth their degree. They give you leads and help you applying to jobs available. There are also a billion job placement companies that can help for free. When you graduate from this school they give you the tools to be a freelancer, and get you prepared for showing your work for job interviews.
All in all yes this is an expensive school, but you really will learn a lot from it and I think it really is the right place for a lot of people. I don’t regret going here one bit.

No… no… NO!!!
— Don’t go here even if you can afford it!
— STAY AWAY from the Animation and Game Art degrees — they are dead ends designed for college drop-​outs.
— The admins lie to incoming students by saying X amount has graduated and X amount has found a job in their field. (The ACTUAL truth is if you graduate from this college and you get a job at a gas station, organizing the shelves with candy bars and soda… this school will consider that job to be within your field because you’re using your artistic strengths to rearrange and «decorate» the shelves. Hence why percentages are higher than what they really are.) This makes me mad beyond belief!
— The ONLY degree worth pursuing at this college is Graphic Design because it’s the only skill that a lot of jobs are really looking for. That’s what I studied, and I’m glad.
If you’re not smart enough to talk about loans and/​or deal with them, than just move along to another school, because that’s the single LARGEST issue with this school — they are a For Profit School. Every single one of my friends who went here with me is in debt beyond what they can afford, including me. And don’t even get me started on how the financial «officers» PUSH Sallie Mae/​Navient loans on everyone. (Do your research on Sallie Mae as well. If you don’t like reading about them, then you’re going to despise dealing with them!) Sallie Mae/​Navient is owned by Goldman & Sachs, Goldman & Sachs pay for freaking Presidential elections… if you believe that there’s no corruption of bending of rights, you’re so wrong. THIS is who I’m paying back. I don’t like any of it, at all.
Although, I have had a lot of great experiences at this school, both in and out of the classroom, but if I were to do college all over again, I would have done more research about loans and For Profit Schools and chosen a school that doesn’t lie to their students.
You have been genuinely warned… seriously!

This school is very expensive and I don’t recommend it. I agree that the recruiters will do anything to get you in and once they do, they suddenly don’t have time for you and pass you off to someone else. The teachers are arrogant and if they perceive you, because perception is everything, not, if they perceive you as being something other than what they think you should be, they fail you. All the school cares about is the money and nothing else. Their graduation rate is very low and students leave that school all the time mainly because of the cost. Not a good choice of school unless your rich. There are more affordable schools that offer the same program.