Art school is some elite thing, right? Well, not really. Art school isn't elite at all. Any idiot can get into art school. You don't have to be particularly intelligent, nor do you have to be talented at all (and yes, this is the same for all art schools), you just have to be able to pay the insane private school prices. So, if you have a dream to be an elite art school student and give yourself street cred with the indie kids, but you can't hold a crayon, you're in luck!

That being said, art school is hard. You have to be dedicated to your art in a way you can't even imagine until you're in there not sleeping but 3 hours a night for weeks on end desperately trying to finish elaborate project after elaborate project. Regular colleges have the "break in" period where the first year is ridiculously hard so the people not serious will drop out and then it gets easy. Art school has a first year that's busy but easy because you're retaking art fundamentals, and then gets insanely hard and continues getting harder and harder until you're stomach is eaten away with ulcers and it's the week before your portfolio is due and you only have half of your pieces and you have a complete melt down and again can't sleep so you can get shit done. It really separates the men from the boys, as it were. The drop out rate of art schools is insane. As is the transfer rate, actually. My school is packed full of people that have gone to lesser art schools wanting a real education. Especially from SCAD, although I'm sure there's just a disproportionate amount of SCAD people because we're both located in Georgia.

For people interested in the Art Institutes, I would recommend going. My education has been tough, and at times I haven't been sure if I would make it, but i feel much better prepared for the corporate environment now. The Art Institutes also have fantastic job placement, and will really work with you as long as you seek out the help. I've not always felt so positively about the school, and there are some things that bother me immensely, but being so close to graduation has really put some things into perspective for me and I do appreciate the school as a whole now.

I run a livejournal student community for AIA, located here, in case you want to ask questions about our experiences if you're thinking about attending AIA, or an Art Institute school in general. It's mostly a rant community, but we can be helpful too. :)