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This post is a bit long, but for people who have only had the basic tour, but no real experience with these guys. You might want to read this one it’s worth it…*apologizes in advance*.

I went up there yesterday (April 23, 2010) with my brother for a tour. I have to admit all of the complaints I have seen concerning this school reflect my impressions. Obviously I can’t vouche for every single complaint on here, but based on our limited exposure I would have to say that it is a safe bet to assume that the complaints are factual. I will share our experience here for now and later I will post links to as much background information I can find because I have noticed that getting any background information on this school is like pulling teeth.

The website for this school is practically useless unless you want to give them contact information. In all of the colleges we have been thumbing over for the last 5 months this one is the most useless one I have found. All and I mean ALL of the other college websites include some basic information on the school along with events, associations, you know stuff like that. With this website you only get a flash movie and once that is over you get 5 main options that all lead to the exact same “Backstage Pass” form that asks for your name rank and serial number. There are other links that are one the webpage that are just as useless, feel around you’ll find them. It honestly feels more like a porn site than a respectable school’s webpage. Basically what I am saying here is that for such a high priced place, they don’t give you a lot when it comes to online content. Mostly just a bunch of flash and fizzle crap that asks for your contact information.

My brother got an invitation to tour the campus about a month before we actually went there. Apparently they had an event called “Junior Day” in which large groups of high school juniors are invited to tour the campus with an accompanying adult. So we get there and we are immediately put off by the small size of the entire campus. You could honestly mistake the place for a service building if you didn’t know it was there. We were placed in a small room that they called the “Green Room” and the introductions commenced. I asked for a college catalogue or maybe a brochure even and they didn’t have any available!!! They finally printed some out for the parents who requested them, but to top that off we were all informed that we may have to give the catalogues back after the tour, and that we could have one mailed to us at a later date if we wanted. Within the catalogue was nothing of importance like one would typically expect. Instead there were about 5 pages devoted to finances and financial aid and a map of the campus itself, there was also a brief, vague, almost incoherent mention of the classes available and their general course descriptions. Mainly though, it was focused on finances.

They told us that everything is included in the tuition except for student housing. That means books were included as well. Anyway that was the first thing that made me think that they don’t have their act together, simply because if they knew that they were going to be entertaining a large group of potential students and their respective parents and/or adult companions at least a month in advance you would think that they would have had catalogues ready to pass out free of charge like any other college usually has. Instead we had to pull teeth for a catalogue and we were then asked to pay a $5.00 printing fee!!! My jaw dropped at that point….but it gets worse!!!

During the tour, the tour guide constantly interrupted students and professors during class. Anyone who has ever been to any college for any reason whatsoever knows that interrupting a class and putting the whole class on the spotlight is a huge taboo…a real “No No”.

Anyway, once the basic tour was over we went back into the cramped Green Room where we were told that not everyone is accepted, and not everyone can get in. After that was said the person conducting the speech turned right around and said that they don’t even look at G.P.As or S.A.T. scores when considering applicants. Instead they look at portfolios. I have to admit I can see the logic in looking at a portfolio, but lets face it everyone I have ever talked to about college in any capacity has said “Get good grades if you want to get into a good school” I am sure anyone reading this has been told the same. SO my question here is this…Do they not look at grades because they simply do not have access to them as most colleges would?, or do they overlook grades because they just want to sucker any and everyone who is willing to attend this school? Of that I am not certain, but I am sure it is one of the two if not a combination of both.

Once this was said the person speaking said that they would be willing to waive the $25.00 application fee if we filled it out right then and their. WoW!!! then once he saw that not everyone was biting into the application fee pitch he BEGAN to say that they would be willing to also waive another $25.00 fee but I didn’t hear which fee that was because Debbie pulled him aside real quick and told him not to offer to waive the second fee he was about to propose.
To me that reeked of discention and lack of coordination on the administrations part.

During the tour they openly admitted that they had changed names recently. This was a red flag for me too because most renowned colleges want to keep their name, not change it or even admit it had been changed recently. They did manage to order a bunch of pizza from the local Little Ceasar’s where we got to talk to all of the instructors…odd I thought they would be TEACHING A CLASS!!! not having a pizza party with a bunch of tourists. One thing that happened here was, the teacher that said he helped the students develop a website for their “online portfolio” seemed to know very little of actual web design. Which is something I tinker with, so when I started bringing up terms like CSS, JavaScript, Python, Perl, HTML, xTML, MySQL, C++ and C# etc. he was staring at me like I was talking Greek or from another planet or something. And for those of you who may not know about making a website…anyone of those above mentioned “Greek words” is a must in most cases especially if your going to be “cutting edge” like this place claims to be.

In the end we both decided that my brother would NOT be attending this college. I will admit though that my exposure to this place was limited so I can’t even name all the names everyone else can. BUT…like I said earlier I intend to spend the next 6 hours taking key names and events from this forum along with others that I may find and post all of the details I can find on each name and event along with weblinks in hopes that other prospective students will stay away from this school.

The teachers and administrators think they are rock stars too. I am sorry, but if you are teaching…it is because you could not get the job done in the field.

As for the other administrators…you are totally boring because you have no talent at all. It is pretty sad when you sit around all day and try to figure out how to protect your ass and YES…they are trying to stay one ahead of the complaints.

They are going to say that acceptance is based off of talent. They are grabbing at straws…Go around the corner to the Art Institute of Raleigh/Durham. Now that is a uniformed school that can turn anyone into a prolific designer/animator.

However, before you sign on with any school, find out what the retention rate is, and the percentage of students who get hired in your desired field shortly after graduation.

A trade school like SCA should have a much higher retention and placement rate than a regular college, since colleges are about providing an education and trade schools are about providing fast training for a job. Are they doing this though? And who are they recruiting? Is the school about talent or is it about filling seats?

Yes, this school does have lots of drama and issues (do a Goggle search), and an extremely high turnover rate (esp. in admissions). If you do there to visit, expect lots of hype.

They have also changed their name 3x in 5 yrs. which shows a lack of focus and long-range planning. Or they’re trying to stay 1 step ahead of the complaints…

Some of the instructors are quite good but they can only do so much. There are very few jobs in this area for many of their specialties, so you’d have to create your own opportunities - and a really good portfolio.

Be prepared, be forewarned, keep your eyes wide open…