Art Institute Credit Transfer
I have posted a few thing about how The Art Institute’s credits not transferring. I went to AILV with a photography student who transferred to an Art Institute in Florida that wanted her to go an extra 2 quarters for classes that wouldn’t even transfer from AILV! Is there such a thing as an Art Institute credit transfer?
I decided I would try some of my own digging. On to the University of Nevada – Las Vegas’s website it says to check with transferology.com. So I did.
I went to The Art Institute of Las Vegas (AILV) in 2012-2014. When I tried to input the first few classes, it only let me “manually” enter them without complete course detail. I ended up putting all my classes as taken in 2017. Here are the top 8 results for 52 courses I took. When I clicked on UNLV, it said that only two classes matched, but that UNLV is not currently accepting those classes.When I clicked on the 29% matched University of Minnesota – Rochester, it told me that “No Courses Transfer” under the info on each class. The two “Maybes” were for my Army Infantry School and Recruiting School.When I searched for a handful of other Art Institutes, they all didn’t supply transferology.com with any information.
I also threw in three other schools and many thirteen classes into the search with much more success. The number of matches went from 22 to 143.
The English Composition classes, even from DeVry, were widely accepted at most of the colleges I clicked on. The others were mostly hit-or-miss.
What Happened When I Contacted UNLV?
So, after doing so, I contacted the “Transfer” email at UNLV and asked if it would even be worth my time to apply there if my classes wouldn’t transfer. I had heard from many students and read online that classes have a very hard time transferring out of The Art Institutes. Here is there response:
“Our general rule for credits to transfer to UNLV is that they must come from a regionally accredited institutions (and be academic, college-level classes). Unfortunately, many campuses of the Art Institute are not regionally accredited, in which case courses do not transfer to UNLV…when you apply…please submit your high school credentials…”
Now, when I read this, I immediately thought, “Do they look down upon The Art Institutes so bad that they don’t even compare them to a high school?” After a quick search, I found that many colleges don’t require a high school transcript if a transfer student has at least 24 credit hours. I have 168 Quarter Credits from The Art Institute. 168 Quarter Credits on the non Art Institute Credit Transfer Program!
Now, take a look at The Art Institute’s accreditation / licensing page on their website. I did a page find of just the word “Regional” and the only match was with The Art Institute of Charleston.
The only match of “Regional” resulted in “it is not equal to or synonymous with regional or specialized accreditation”
The Price of Solitary
When I went to The Art Institute of Las Vegas, each class ran $1443 per quarter. Recently, they have become “non-profit”, but the cost of tuition remains the same – nearly $90,000 just for tuition, books, and fees. In contrast, if you were to go to Southern New Hampshire University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Photography (their film courses are on-campus only), would cost you less than $40,000. You can read about what I think of their “non-profit” status on a page I made for it.
Don’t make the same mistake I did and pick a school whose education only leaves you in the school. If you don’t like the school, the education, the students, the instructors, the staff, that’s too bad. You may be stuck with the non Art Institute credit transfer. If you want to go to another school, be ready to most likely start all over again with all that money lining the pockets of AI.
If you’re interested in reading more about my experiences at AILV, I have them listed right here (keep in mind that the majority of that was written near the end of my time there in 2014). Before you attend a college, do all your research because you will spend years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars there. Make sure it is worth it.
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