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The Art Institute of Las Vegas Reviews: Starter Kits

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The Art Institute of Las Vegas issues Starter Kits to new students.  These are meant (I guess) to help students get acclimated to the school and give them some supplies to ease the study-struggle.

Students do have the option to turn down the Starter Kits; however, I do not recall ever being told that was an option.  It is in the enrollment paperwork now, but I honestly only skimmed the paperwork back then and asked “Anything that is really pertinent I should know on this?”  Whoops.

(Here is a scan of the starter kit I was sold when I enrolled.  I think I still have a copy of the kit with the prices of each item listed, so I will keep an eye out for it)
 
Here is a breakdown of the items I received in my kit and what I did with them:

1.  Bag, Rolling Duffle.  This thing was garbage.  I would have never purchased this for anything.  When I asked the academic director in orientation if I should carry around my supply kit, he told me yes.  Like an idiot, I hauled around all of the stuff (not all in this bag – I had some in another bag) for a couple weeks before I realized I was being a complete idiot (since I pretty much used nothing in the kit).

2.  DVD-R, spindle of 50.  I didn’t see the need for fifty DVD-R’s.  I ended up making good use of most of them because the vast majority of students hardly ever remembered to take DVD-R’s to classes, so I ended up handing out most of them.  DVD’s were the main way film students handed out their work at the Portfolio Show.  Nowadays (and this should have been done years ago), they hand out thumb drives with their work on it.  It’s one of the few things I wouldn’t have minded spending more money on, but the required customized thumb drives really drive up the price.  Why not let the student decide on a DVD or thumb drive?

3.  Electronic Light Meter – Sekonic.  This light meter is going on Amazon right now for $218.  I remember being charged around $250 for it.  What use did this have for me?  Well, it was never a part of any instruction to justifiably show students how to use this piece of equipment.  One instructor told us it is the kind of light meter that his father used.

(Still pretty much good as new since it was never the school’s policy to show me how to work this $250 piece of equipment)
 
4.  Gloves, Heat Resistant.  These gloves would have been great if we had lights that required them.  They are extremely, awkward, bulky, and pricy.  They became my backup pair after I purchased a $4 set of gloves at Walmart.  In my Spring Quarter 2014, I bought a back up pair of these gloves from the student store for $4.99.  I remember these gloves being a bit more pricy, though.
 
The vast majority of the time, more fitting gloves like these Mechanix gloves would be just fine (I’ve even seen instructors use these style of gloves).  I used the Mechanix gloves in Iraq, so I may be a little more partial to them!
(Don’t worry, these gloves didn’t get that abused.  Just ran over by a few cars – long story)

5.  Hard Drive, LaCie 2TB.  I had two of these crash on me.  Luckily, LaCie covered their replacements.  It is a great hard drive if it doesn’t crash on you.  It was a problem with the power supply a couple years ago.  Today, the price of one of these hard drives is $189.99 on Amazon.  I’m sure years ago it was a bit more.

(Notice the power supply in the lower right.  After I received a hard drive with this power supply, it has worked for over two years no problem.  The original had the plug that attached to the power supply)
 

6.  Headphones, Noise Cancelling.  I didn’t see the need for these JVC headphones since we are told to never mix in headphones.  I could have done with a much cheaper pair and been fine.  They are nice to have I guess.

7.  Paper, Sketchpad, 8-1/2×11.  This really had me questioning the kit.  This sketchpad was a hardcover sketchpad with blank, white pages.  If I remember correctly, it was $14.99.  I was at Walmart during my first quarter and found full sized sketch pads for as low as $0.50!  Sure, not the same quality, but I only sketched a few things that didn’t require expensive paper.

(Only used one page out of this book…only because I felt like I needed to since I was sold it)
 
8.  Tape, Gaffer, Black.  This item I didn’t receive.  I received some ultra-strong masking tape.  I would have rather had the gaffer’s tape since that is what everyone uses.

9.  Tapes, Mini DV 60 Min. (5).  These were sold to me and I only used one of them in my Intro to Video class in my first quarter.  It was 2012, and I don’t know why we were shooting on tapes to begin with.

10.  Textbooks – Television Production & Audio in Media.  Good books.  Each book was at least $100.  Used each one in one class each.  However, I can venture to guess that these are now mandatory eBooks.  The assigned reading from Audio in Media wasn’t tested difficultly over, and even much less in the case of Television Production.  See the exams post for more clarification.

And what was the total for all of these items?  $1,090.  How much of it did I need?  Not very much of it at all.

(If I would have known better and what is underlined in red was made more clear to me, I would have never accepted the Starter Kit – from the General Enrollment Agreement)
 

Before I came along in 2012, the kits had more useful items.  The main item was the software included, i.e. Avid & Pro Tools, at student pricing.  However, up until this day to my knowledge, no one has received any software since January 2012.  It must have been nice to have financial aid cover the cost of the software and not have to pay $300+ for it.  Now, most programs are subscription based.  Adobe Creative Cloud costs $199/year, and that is while you are a student.

Nowadays, I have heard so many students share hatred for the Starter Kits because they’re basically composed of drawing paper in many sizes and colored pencils.  I have seen a lot of students walking around with giant rolling suitcases for their art supplies.  The only students I haven’t heard complain about the non-culinary Starter Kits are the Animation and Fashion students.

At the Pizza with the Deans events, the Starter Kits were almost always a hot topic in my first few quarters I went to the events because the kits were filled with items the students didn’t need.  The deans stated that there was nothing they could do about the kits.  Apparently, decisions with the kits came from higher up in the company.

(This is taken from the “General Enrollment Agreement” found here as of 17 Oct 2014.  I have heard many students complain about the supplies in the Starter Kits.  I don’t know what Audio students are receiving, but they’re the only ones paying over $1,000 for their kit)
 

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Solutions?  How about item-selectable Starter Kits.  Maybe I didn’t want the gloves, notebook, and a few other items.  Why is it an all-or-nothing package?  Then again, if the highest in the ranks of AILV couldn’t change anything, I don’t know why it would even matter to make suggestions.

List of all the posts I have about my experiences at AILV

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