Is this art school fishy?

They are having legal problems for misrepresentation to new applicants.

They are a mill-school- taking in a new batch of students every 8 weeks. More than ¾ of the students drop out.

The loan system has also been called into question.

I would consider another school.

If they are that desperate to get you in, they probably are fishy…

Brooks institute has a very aggressive admissions recruiting system. I inquired as well (about 4 years ago). The recruiter called me about 5 times that week, barely let me speak, and was VERY pushy. I decided I didn’t want to go there, just because of that. It was kind of freaky.

I also had a friend go there for about a year. They dropped out because tuition costs were ridiculous and because brooks has no real dorm system (at least they didnt 4 years ago) you have to find somewhere to live in the Santa Barbara area which is also really expensive.

If you’re looking for a good photography program, I have friends going to Sac State majoring in it and they both love it.

A lot of people want to be artists, and there aren’t enough spots at the good schools to fit them all in. The only way to solve this problem is for visual and performing arts schools to include some sort of review in the admissions process. Performing arts programs require auditions, and visual arts programs require portfolios. If these things aren’t requested, the school is interested in money rather than education. And a school that isn’t interested in education won’t teach you anything—you’ll sink or swim on your own, which you could have done for free.

Just as @SavoirFaire said; if they aren’t interested in seeing your work, they’re likely only interested in seeing your check (or the govt’s check as many of these schools spend more time pushing you into taking out student loans than they do explaining their programs during the enrollment process)

Too bad I didn’t see this question when it was first posted.

A girlfriend of mine attended this school in the 1990s. I spent hundreds of hours in the studio with her working on homework assignments, traveling up and down the California coast doing shoots, etc. It’s a prestigious school, one of the top 3 or 4 in the country as far as photography programs go.

Of course, that was almost 20 years ago. No idea how they’re ‘doing’ now. I do remember that the students generally had a love/hate relationship with the school, and despite its prestige, in hindsight many would not have chosen to attend it.