That said, I hate that school and would warn anyone away who asked me. The instructors are almost universally VERY underpaid and poorly treated (except for a small number of teachers who have prestigious names, who are given a lot more money and a lot more perks just so they will stay and make the school look better on paper) and the administration doesn’t care SHIT about their students. They don’t have nearly enough equipment and supplies in most departments, many of their dorms are (or were) complete shitholes, and yet they always seems to have mountains of money to spend on unnecessary real estate acquisitions.

I personally actually think that we were required to do too MUCH work, at least in my department. Outside of art school, NO ONE wants to go near “student work,” no matter how good it is, and with my workload, I had absolutely no time to work on my own art. Unless I had decided to become a tweaker and give up on sleep entirely. Obviously, this wouldn’t have been an issue if I were in the architecture, graphic design, fashion illustration etc. departments, where student work is less of a problem–and where you’re actually going to be looking for a “job” in your chosen field, and thus want that nice BFA or MFA on your resume.

As a fine artist, I already knew the techniques to make art before I went into school. What I needed to know was stuff like: how to approach galleries, how to make a good portfolio, how to take good photos of my work, how to make myself “legit” in the eyes of the government, how to market my work, etc. etc. Which is all stuff that AAU pretty much doesn’t teach and doesn’t even require for a degree