Cleveland Institute of Art Reviews

I feel that this school is very top notch, and is a brilliant stepping stone for young artists to make their mark, overall. The facilities are well maintained, and there is plenty of equipment for the students and staff to use for their artwork. In addition, there are plenty gallery and exhibition opportunities for students to take advantage of. However, that is only from an objective standpoint. Subjectively, the experience has not been so good. Being a private institution, the tuition has been exponentially high, and it increases every year. Now that I'm in my final year, I've been feeling very uneasy about paying for the expenses. Also, on a personal level, I have not been able to make friends or professional connections. It might just be me, or I am not fit to be an artist. Whatever the case may be, I will finish my final year despite those challenges.

The teachers are amazing! They have high standards for the students. We have four 5 hour long studio classes with a two hour break halfway through. All freshmen take the same set of classes to put everyone on an even playing field and build a solid foundation. To get into your major, students must apply and interview with the head major teachers to get a spot in the applied major. There are very limited spots, so there is a lot of competition to make sure you get in. The facilities are also great. There's a wood shop, metal shop, sound room, library- pretty much anything dealing with art is there. The other students are all pretty easy to get along with, and sophomore-seniors are very helpful on giving tips and advice for when you apply into your major. However, there are some down sides to all of this. On the business side, the school seems to readily accept more people than they can fit into some majors. My class is currently the largest freshman class this school has had with around 200-250 people. The most popular majors (Animation, Illustration, Game Design, and Industrial design) each only have 10-13 spots open for next year. I'm trying to get into animation, along with at least 100 other students. This has had two negative effects on me; it raises stress on me to devote all my time into trying to make sure I have a shot at getting into my major with the fear of failure looming over (which you must be prepared to do in this environment), and makes me somewhat hesitant to interact with other freshmen because I don't know if I'll see them next year if they or I don't get into our major. I'd rather avoid the additional heartbreak. Overall, the school is excellent academically, but very daunting and dangerous on the business side. If you focus on your foundation year work and do all the work plus more on your free time you have a shot at making it. Unfortunately, there's just not enough rooms and teachers for the amount of students they accept.

I've learned so much in such a short period of time. The faculty is very friendly and open to having intellectual conversations outside of the classroom or just meeting up to offer advice on projects. The studio spaces are nice and the fabrication studios offer students the tools and materials needed to experiment with a wide variety of art forms.

So far this school has been great. My only complaints is that it can be a bit disorganized from time to time to a point that a whole class of students are confused as to their next steps. However, the school makes up for it by having the most available staff to help and advise the students. They are heavily dependent on students helping students but its never a problem to speak to someone else. It is a really great school and I have been challenged a great amount in the year I've been there. There are plenty of opportunities for one to learn themselves and explore their surroundings.

While my school does go to great lengths to make sure the students are well equipped to do what their hearts desire, there is not much teaching happening between student and teacher in many majors. It is almost as if they expect incoming students to have a grasp of the fundamentals of design and an understanding of many different mediums and techniques when they are, more often than not, coming out of high school. My overall opinion is that the school is much too focused on the monetary benefits of running a college rather than the academic well being of the students they accept.

The Cleveland Institute of Art is great for building connections and being surrounded by creative people. Not only does it encourage creativity and hard work, but offers accessibility to many events and activities to pursue them. There are plenty of opportunities to join groups of people and meet students outside of your class. While I can agree than the school overall is overpriced, it’s well worth going.