The scheduling and offering of classes is by far one of the top issues students have with the school.
In my experience, The Art Institute of Las Vegas offers classes almost at complete random and sometimes the courses offered quarter to quarter in succession. For example, when I took Short Form Scriptwriting, they didn’t offer the next class, Short Form Production, until four quarters passed. I didn’t take Advanced Camera and Lighting (a class I should have taken much, much earlier) until my 11th quarter.
One of the biggest selling points The Art Institute of Las Vegas has is the fact that you can get a Bachelor’s Degree in three years…..but how possible is that? I know just a few students that have or are going to graduate in three years.
However, the school’s gainful employment data for film/video speaks much differently at 71% (that was for 2012-2013). This means that the smallest amounts of graduates (and most likely) in 2013 for film was seven – 5 out of 7 = 0.7142…however, when I tried to see the data for a BS in Advertising, it said that there were fewer than ten graduates so no percentage was listed. That means ten out of the fourteen graduates that year graduated in the 36 month time frame (perhaps this is true, but I find it hard to believe).
One piece I am unclear on is if these students who graduated in 36 months had any credits transfer in from other colleges. Nor have I ever seen anything say 36 consecutive months, meaning that someone could do 18 months, take 6 months off, then finish the last 18 months. If that is the case, these are dirty numbers!
I am very curious as to why they don’t have all of their information up to date (through 2013). I am aware of only one film graduate so far in 2014. There are 4 more who just passed Portfolio Preparation, so they will probably be graduating in December.
Since none of the credits I earned from all of my military training transferred in to AILV, I had to enroll in to five classes each quarter for the first nine quarters. My tenth and eleventh quarters had four classes, and my final quarter was to have three classes. Each class is blocked at four hours, so for the most part, it is a part-time job. Add in all the homework I did and it became at least full time job.
To be considered full time, you only need four classes, or twelve credits. The vast majority of the classes are worth three (3) credit hours. Some classes (mostly general education classes) are worth four (4) credit hours. If I were to do four classes all of those quarters I did five, I would have nine extra classes, or two more quarters of full time classes. This would put me at 42 months, or 3.5 years, save the fact if I did the 4-4-3 course set in my original last few quarters.
All of these hours in school, however, were sporadic. Every three months I had an almost completely different schedule. The only thing I had anywhere close to a constant was Thursday afternoons, and I remember this because the school always wanted me to go to the Portfolio Show. Unfortunately, I was in a class most of the time. How much would an employer appreciate it if you had to go to them every three months and tell them your availability has changed completely?
The school does have part-time job fairs where anywhere from 10-20 employers show up with their dang-near minimum wage jobs. Each time I checked out those job fairs, I never found a job that I wanted to do (I’m sorry, but for minimum wage, I’m going to do something I want to do). I also found out that it is almost impossible to get a job when you tell the employer during the interview that your schedule will be changing every three months. I know I “shouldn’t” have been telling them that, but I didn’t want to waste their time or my time.
One solution The Art Institutes has is the fact you can take their online classes. You can read what I think about them if you’d like. The big selling point is that you get to work at your own pace and each class is crammed in to a 5.5 week period.
Here is a link to a PDF document from AILV that shows some post-six month graduation statistics. Hopefully you aren’t looking at going to this school for Digital Photography…
Ultimately, here are the biggest factors that will help you graduate in 36 (consecutive?) months:
1. If you have no job
2. If you don’t need to work a job the whole time you are attending
3. If you live rent free
4. If you eat minimally
5. If you are on the G.I. Bill (however, please don’t be like me and waste your time and taxpayer’s money here)
6. If you have the full range and flexibility to take the classes you need to when they are offered.
If you fulfill these, then you probably can graduate in three years. Then again, with how easy it is to pass classes, it is possible I suppose.
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