AI of ft lauderdale

Hi
I’m currently starting at the art institute of Fort Lauderdale this october for a BS in industrial design.
From what Ive gathered the art institutes are accredited. the reason i want to attend this school is because i live in Florida and it is the only industrial design program in the state. however, i have heard some bad things about art institutes. that they rip you off and the quality of education is not that good. please help. Is Ai of fort lauderdale a good school for id or should i cut my losses after this quarter and begin looking elsewhere?
thank you for the opinions
Ryan

Blaster701 teaches at AI Ft Lauderdale:
http://boards.core77.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1424

send him an IM. I taught at the Art Institute Portland branch for a year. I think the school was well intentioned but not rigorous enough to really get kids ready for the world. The top 1% did fine as they always do, landed good jobs. My other point is that it is a rather technical skills based education. I’d like to see more focus on creative problem solving, art, architecture and design history, and design philosophy. These are things that keep you in the game long term.

I was very close to going to AIFL but changed my mind last minute. That particular program is not accredited

http://www.idsa.org/absolutenm/templates/?a=118&z=49

I was about to go there because there were no other ID schools in FL and I thought that the BFS scholarship Floridians get would pay for it , but since its a private school it only came out to $1800 of BFS grant a semester.
If you have that much money to spend on a design education, go to a better school. Plus your “advisor” will tell you that their graduates “get jobs”, however if you check, you will see that there is barely a design market in the entire state…

What I did was I took about 30 credits of general education classes, I checked with the colleges that would take my credit, found one that was cost efficient and right for me, moved out of state, and Im very happy I did

If you want to know more, pm me.
Good luck dude

my main concern is if i earn my degree at aifl if it can get me a job wherever those jobs may be.

I remember meeting a designer years ago at the Southern District Student Merit Awards who came from the art institute of Ft Lauderdale. He was quite good, and I think he might have been working for Reflex…

that said, a quick search on Coroflot for “AIFL” and “Art Institute Ft. Lauderdale” turns up less than a page of industrial designer folios… and many of them had additional degrees at other schools

Try this, go through coroflot and contact the students who have graduated from AIFL. That’s probably a good way of finding out what you’ll be getting into

Hello core77,
just doing a follow up post.
I just finished my first quarter at the art institute of fort Lauderdale quite successfully. The education quality so far seems well ,average, Ive gone to major universities before and the advantage to AI is you get more one on one time with teachers. But for someone like me the longer and smaller classes are and advantage as opposed to being in a giant lecture hall. I hope sticking with this school is the right decision for a career in industrial design. I was told before by some other members on this board the school is going through accreditation changes and bringing in a lot of new teachers and losing some old ones. Seems to me that if the art institute receives the SACS accreditation that the school’s reputation shouldn’t be as questionable as Ive heard from some people.
Anyways
wanted to say thanks for the opinions
more are always appreciated and welcome

Ryan

Ryan, thanks for the update. Keep us posted with your work as it progresses.