*****GREAT NEWS***** The Art Institute of Las Vegas has finally closed!
I was a Digital Film and Television Production Student at the Art Institute of Las Vegas for 2 years and 9 months. I know this isn’t a job or anything, but college is pressed on to people so hard that I thought it was necessary to talk about it. In fact, I have a huge list of reasons why you shouldn’t go to The Art Institute of Las Vegas / For-Profit Colleges / Film Schools.
What I did at The Art Institute
Well, I was a student, duh! I went mostly on my Post 9/11 G.I. Bill. I learned some in school, but a lot more through my own personal projects.
One of the big activities at The Art Institute that you pay for is to sit there while other students present. I did a lot of sitting. Unfortunately, since I am a decent presenter, I didn’t stand in front of the class too long. The bad presentations got the majority of the time.
A student even thanked YouTube, but not the school, in his production reel. This is what I would have done if I graduated.
Afterwards, I complied a blog about my experiences there.
Student Highlights
- 3.908 GPA. I have posted in the past that I had a 4.0. That’s what it said when I checked my grades on the student portal. I recently obtained my transcripts and it had the more accurate GPA. Whoops.
- The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill did pretty much take care of my tuition, fees, and housing. People say I shouldn’t complain as much because I’m not racked in student debt. I’m simply suppose to turn my head because it didn’t happen to me? Also, I went through a LOT to get that G.I. Bill. I wasted it on this institution.
Side note – If there are any military veterans out there who believe there should be an alternative option to college or the G.I. Bill, please let me know! I am preparing a presentation to hopefully make to Congress or the Veterans Administration to maybe offer some alternative options, like maybe a small business grant, to Veterans who wish to not pursue college. College isn’t for everyone!
Positive Takeaways
- Learned some things.
- Met some cool people.
- Did a bunch of blog posts about my time there.
- They had equipment and rooms I could use, but make sure you check out my blog posts for more clarification about that.
Negative Takeaways
- Wasted a good 2+ years of my life. As far as the video/film side of things go, the school was a giant waste of time and money.
- I went to a local TV station to work as a production assistant in their TV studio. I explained to them that their job description was exactly what I had done in a couple classes. They essentially replied with, “But if you don’t have any experience, we don’t want you.” Then why even go to school in the first place? They did offer that I could intern there. For free, of course.
- I made my complaints to the Veterans Administration (VA) about the school. I had pointless meetings with the school president, a few back and forth meetings with the VA (who threw me under the bus), and even wrote letters to Congress. After the whole ordeal was over, my complaints were basically “filed so anyone can look them up.”
- I have a big list of reasons on my blog – Click here for a list of blog posts!
Final Words on The Art Institute
One of the biggest, if not the biggest, mistakes in my life was going to college. I’m not saying all colleges are bad – most are just obsolete. The internet has almost all the information you need. Art is subjective, and everyone is ready to critique your work. Most of my time at The Art Institute of Las Vegas was spent critiquing and having others critique me. It was a lot of money to spend to waste time talking about people’s projects that didn’t care.
I could simulate about 70% my Film Student experience by renting out a conference room at a hotel. I would have prospective filmmakers show up with their films. We all would watch each project, then we would spend 15-30 minutes critiquing the project. Then, there would be a quick class to go over the basics of filmmaking. The only thing I wouldn’t do is charge $130 for this session.
You can pretty much learn all the technical stuff on YouTube or specialize skill sites like Pluralsight (formerly Digital Tutors) or SkillShare. And again, if I put the negative takeaways all here, this page would run on forever, so check out the blog posts on them!
My favorite piece of work I did while I attended The Art Institute of Las Vegas:
If you found this helpful or entertaining, please consider your support to BLoafX.com at the support page. Links to Amazon on this site are linked to my affiliate account with Amazon. Any link you click to Amazon that results in a purchase will generate a percentage to me.
Please subscribe to my blog. Every time I get a blog post, you’ll get an email notification! It’ll be a variety of posts, so maybe you’ll learn or see something new often! Thank you for your support!