<p>SCAD indeed has a lot to live down, but the endless rehashing of old conflicts that occurred during what could be called the growing pains of the 80’s and 90’s have for the most part been put behind, with the exception of a few bitter ex-affiliates.</p>
<p>Wait. Once again,</p>
<p>[SCAD</a> has lousy “climate for academic freedom,” says profs’ group | Atlanta News & Opinion Blog | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta](<a href=“http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/11/01/scad-has-lousy-climate-for-academic-freedom-says-profs-group]SCAD”>http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/11/01/scad-has-lousy-climate-for-academic-freedom-says-profs-group)</p>
<p>Yes. And I will also quickly disabuse this thread of a continuous lie-by-omission being perpetrated here, before I go on: SCAD’s supposed non-profit status. </p>
<p>‘SCAD Group Inc’, technically not the same institution as the school, is a truly massive entity that serves as this school’s for-profit contractor, landlord, consultant, and all around legal loophole. Privately held.</p>
<p>Ahem. </p>
<p>I am a savannah historic district native. I am also an art school graduate, just not from the Savannah College of Art and Design, though it was certainly an option. There are reasons; I have intimate knowledge of both SCAD’s history AND the perception other institutions and fellow artists have of it. Perhaps you should ask why ANYONE would both refuse to name the school I attended (which I will), or bother to make this mostly negative post, since I have no skin in the game as they say, and trust me unlike SCAD 99% of other schools don’t bother to hire folks to do badmouth. Recruiters from other schools have better things to do than spend their time doing this; most have to actually have respectable portfolio requirements to sort out their existing surplus of applicants. I am doing this because the world needs less badly-trained artists and designers.</p>
<p>To answer the question of why I don’t supply background besides that given, I can only say that there are very few of us downtown natives that satisfy both conditions outlined in my background, and putting two and two together is not at all beyond the inclination or resources this institution devotes to these things. Someday I would like to be able to return and function in downtown Savannah without having a goon on my tail, an employee sitting in on municipal meetings taking note of my movements and speech, tapping my phone or hacking my email. IT IS THAT BAD; IT HAS BEEN DONE IN THE PAST TO FACULTY, UNAFFILIATED COMMUNITY MEMBERS, ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AND STUDENTS AND WILL CONTINUE. I am not paranoid, there will be more posts after this one, just like before it, supporting my claim. Why? </p>
<p>Name any other institution that has even a fraction of this institutional paranoia or attestations thereof. Should you manage to dig, once again name ANY OTHER academic institution that has garnered even a portion of this school’s sour grapes in its relatively short lifespan outside of the recent relevations regarding for-profit diploma mills; the two are not at all unrelated. Ask yourself this: why are the only posters negatively attesting to this school’s reputation or supplying anecdotes here or elsewhere in the internet willing to supply their identity only after defiantly declaring their hard-won legal status to do so?</p>
<p>Why indeed?</p>
<p>It is a FACT, even testified upon sworn oath in some cases, that this school has had its staff photograph and hire private detectives to follow citizens of the city who have questioned the school’s motives - whatever the reason. The number of current and former staff, students and faculty that allege they have been bugged or had their email monitored for the purposes of determining loyalty exceeds any rational understanding, unless one realizes that never has any institution outside of fast-food enterprises and totalitarian states required so much triumph of image over substance. </p>
<p>I can understand the school’s appeal. But understand, SCAD does not so much exist for the students as for the purpose of charming the parents on visit. Question why your tuition goes to these boutique expenditures, they are massive. To parents with creatively talented sons and daughters, having grown up on shows like ‘Fame’ or heard horror stories of big city bound young folk spiraling into drugs and bizarre lifestyles, returning a committed atheist/socialist/what-have-you, of the rumored libertine excesses at other art and design schools, a tour of SCAD is a relief. It’s buildings are old and reassuring in their traditionality. The school and its setting is relatively conservative, almost genteel. It’s certainly beautiful. The vast majority of campus student tour guides seem presentable, almost preppy. Then there is the vaunted cost of living in those big cites, which in my experienced opinion is a canard used to rationalize why people don’t leave the easy mental comforts of the suburbs. The wages are certainly higher and many of the contacts you make there during your education will help you get them, the resumes and CV’s are better, the hustle harder and therefore more supplying of a real world education if you’re willing to put forth the effort, and gasoline is not needed. Parents: ideas and stimulation are vital to creative people and you can’t protect them forever. But if you’re a small town person or fellow southerner and feel differently I won’t hold it against you, just don’t make it the sole reason to pick this school. Believe it or not in my experience most state schools both rural and urban have excellent fine arts, performing arts and design programs. Their graduates are often brutally competitive, being possessed of a well-rounded education and committed group of alumni contacts; the schools are willing to give the students ample self-governed resources and extra-curricular programs and they have the advantage of an unarguably accredited degree with a proven reputation to boot. Finally, get a copy of SCAD’s student handbook and review their legal status regarding the intellectual property rights of your student work with a fine-toothed comb (in so many words, they own it). As far as I’m concerned that alone is a deal-breaker for any school.</p>
<p>If you really want to go to a private art school, and they do have their benefits, I have some recommendations. Many of you realize that there are limited opportunities to study animation or character design in college (though I might disagree; you want to be animator, be creative!). For that I would suggest, nay insist CalArts. It in particular has a wonderful, safe campus and was founded by Walt Disney himself for crying out loud, and I found its students to be amazingly non-catty and supportive. If your work is not quite ready or you can’t afford it, well, you know how to use the internet for feedback and so go ahead and work on some Flash animations or whatever is hot and take a drawing class or three somewhere local if you need to until you get some portfolio. They love drawn-style animations and character design there and you can use this to segway into the hard-core digital stuff once you get in. If you are a fine-artist type, especially painting or performance/video I would suggest schools such as SFAI, where potential purchasers are allowed to walk the campus and purchase your pieces and they do, or the Chicago Art Institute. (Why does everyone forget about Chicago schools? Hardest working students in the country all around…) Both have a rare and dedicated focus for this field and SFAI is notable for its small size, beautiful location and the fact that it has the world’s first film, dedicated video/new genres, and photography programs and maintains a one-of-a-kind perspective in these fields.</p>
<p>For industrial design I would be an idiot not to suggest CCA, because Myth-Busters doesn’t even scratch the surface of the Bay Area maker culture and its support for new designs and fabrication and CIA (what a name) in Cleveland is excellent too. Cities like Cleveland, or Pittsburgh with schools like Carnegie and its amazing programs across the board including a top notch fine arts program are great places for the young industrialist in general and should not be overlooked. Cleveland in particular has a low cost of living, the best radio I’ve ever heard and workspace - climate controlled, freight elevator equipped - can be had for something like 10,000 sq/ft at $1200/mo. While the days of the big factories are mostly over, small manufacturing (what you will be doing young ID major) is on the rise. They were the Silicon Valleys of design and production in their time, and the educational resources and culture still exist to your benefit. On the down side, getting used to how beat up these northern towns look can take a little while, they really aren’t. If you’re into sequential art, instead join a fine art drawing program to develop a truly unique style, or just move to a stimulating location, get a cool day job and practice practice practice. It’s what you’ll be doing right after college anyway. For fashion, New York or L.A., period. Or else just buy a sewing machine (Elna!) and hand screen printer and get a couple of friends together and go to town; without a bunch of rag-trade hacks filling your mind full of garbage and ripping you off you guys might actually come up with something original and start a trend 
</p>
<p>These are just a few suggestions in a few fields, the gist being that SCAD has no (local) monopoly on anything, no matter what they say and there are also perfectly good programs in cities you haven’t even thought of and all that gear is overrated unless you’re really into rendering Revit buildings or whatever and in that case do the world a favor and stop now. And if you really, REALLY must live in Savannah trust me its been happening for 200 years go to Armstrong Atlantic or Savannah Tech. Compare AASU’s arts yearbook to anything equivalent that SCAD puts out and in my opinion it comes out ahead considering that they have 1/50th of the student fine arts body. </p>
<p>And crime. Now most parts of the town are truly gentle, but downtown and victorian district Savannah last year experienced the worst crimewave since the gang wars of the eighties and nineties, as featured on this year’s COPS. Having grown up there (Downtown) I have the knife wounds and treasured memories of guns held to my head. And I’m as savvy as they get. </p>
<p>Now some students indeed do very well and are happy with SCAD. It’s just that I wonder how much better they would do somewhere else, somewhere more honest and competitive. And of course there are those students who because of certain intangibles just truly find themselves in the right place and course of events; also some are so forcefully idiosyncratic they will be successful no matter where they go to school. And in criticizing I could definitely be accused of biting the hand that feeds it; 500 million dollars a year pumped into the local economy has done wonders for our service industry and thankfully SCAD graduates tend to stick around to fill its ranks.</p>
<p>P.S.
Consider any poster whose entire CV consists of a single educational institution as somewhat conflicted in interest, paid or not, given that the competitiveness of their background is so irrecoverably entangled with the conventional wisdom regarding that school. It is something to be looked upon as suspicious in the academic world for good reason.</p>