jmcomicÂþ»­

I attended both the Atlanta and Savannah SCAD campuses starting shortly before the COVID pandemic and graduated in 2024. My major was Interactive Design and Game Development, and I focused in game development. Each campus has its pros and cons. I liked the smaller and more tight-knit community of the Atlanta campus, and I was able to establish a personal accord with each of my professors in a way that I wasn't able to in Savannah. I had a great experience with all of my non-major courses.

However,... Read More my major courses were a different story. At the time I attended there were very few professors in our department, and their quality was... middling. The cohort also (at the time) did not have very strong skill so there was no feeling of being pushed to greater heights by my peers. I spent a lot of time teaching myself how to do things, which is ridiculous given the tuition SCAD costs.

There is also a very noticeable... how should I say.. preference between the campuses when it comes to the administration. That is to say that Savannah gets the lion's share of resources, events, etc. During COVID, the school pivoted very well and there were a lot of online resources including regular talks and portfolio reviews from industry professionals, which is how I realized that the Atlanta campus had been so disconnected in the first place.

As for Savannah, the whole campus is a lot bigger in terms of campus size, student body size, and department size. There was a lot more going on at any given time, to the point it's impossible to keep up with. However, the community feels very segregated by department. There are not many cross-departmental events, and the school does little to make people aware of events going on in other departments, and there are no campus-wide showcases (that I know of!) When I was in Atlanta, everyone was notified of when the animation department showcase was regardless of their own major, but in Savannah I heard nothing about it without going out of my way, and then it was scheduled at the same time as something in my own department so I was unable to go. This kind of thing happens constantly.

However, as far as the education quality goes, it was top-notch. The students are better, there are more professors who really know the subjects they teach, I didn't have to spend nearly as much time on Youtube. If there's a major con, it's that it's in Savannah, which is a nice enough city but it gets hellishly hot in the summer, and more importantly the drivers are CRAZY. Please be careful because drivers run lights left and right and they will hit and run without thinking twice.

Uhhh wow this got rambly, have a bullet point list for tl;dr:

Atlanta
Pros:
- It's in Atlanta!
- Smaller campus/smaller department means more tight-knit community and more personal connections w/professors.
- Really great gen eds
- Great for film/tv (or so I've heard-- that wasn't my major after all)
- Game club is really fun

Cons:
- It's in Atlanta. I hope you like traffic
- Very hard to get into student housing, and nearby housing is pricey.
- Not so great for ITGM; not enough professors, lower quality students b/c the better ones move to Savannah, smaller department means only one senior studio runs
- More limited class selection and less flexibility in scheduling classes for your degree (e.g. classes that run every quarter in Savannah might only run one in Atlanta, or classes that have multiple sections in Savannah may only have one in Atlanta)
- Fewer resources (e.g. talks, visiting professionals, portfolio reviews, etc.)
- Success Advisors are completely useless, and career advisors are... not much better

Savannah
Pros:
- It's in Savannah! Nice city with a lot of history and a lot of good food.
- Big spread out campus (this might be a con for some) means more/bigger facilities
- Bigger departments/more students means more flexibility in scheduling your degree
- Higher quality professors and higher quality students means higher quality education
- More resources and big events. They really work a lot more for you in Savannah

Cons:
- It's in Savannah. The drivers are insane and it barely meets the requirements to be called a city.
- Being on the coast means that serious and disruptive weather events happen (hurricanes especially) and classes get canceled or changed to online-only-- and you *will* have to make them up later.
- If you're not the best student you will probably get drowned out
- Extremely competitive, sometimes to the point of being vicious

IN CONCLUSION: If you're going for game development, go to the Savannah campus. SCAD is worth it, but the value is really what you make of it. You're going to grind like crazy and lose a lot of sleep and you might burn out by graduation. It's VERY career-focused, which is a pro or con depending on your own goals. I don't regret going at all, but I do wish I had gone to the Savannah campus for the whole time. I also recommend getting as many gen eds as possible out of the way at community college first to reduce the amount it costs.

SCAD was a very unique and wonderful experience for me and I am so glad that I choose to go to this university. After graduation and working in the real world, I noticed how many skills transferred over that I would have never thought would make me stand out. Comparing myself to other peers, I had a lot more skills in all types of areas then most of my coworkers. I was comfortable talking to people, making connections and also knowing where to find valuable resources. While I studied Advertising... Read More and Photography, a lot of the skills I picked up help me in daily life rather than always in my job. SCAD was one of the best choices I ever made!

SCAD is great if you going into the entertainment, film and television, and games industries, but requires a lot of focus and dedication both inside and outside the school. While I wished I had done more to practice my skills outside school, within SCAD, you will be pushed your hardest to complete your courses. Many former students like myself struggle now with sleep and rest as we have grown used to working in tight deadlines within the courses we have taken. Your initial art foundation year will... Read More be the easiest, but once you get into higher courses, expect long nights of work, crowded computer labs, and software expenses (depending how SCAD handle this these days). I am still glad to go to SCAD, but I wish I was encouraged to go easy on projects. My advice if you go to this school, do easy projects and don't push yourself to the point of constant tiredness. Additionally, get a good cloud backup plan and portable harddrive for your projects, consider exploring alternative opensource software such as Blender, Krita, OpenToonz, and Inkscape, and network with other students to build professional relationships that will follow you into the creative industries.

I tihnk that SCAD is a great school in theory, but it did not end up being what I thought it was going to be. For an art school that prides themsevles in being the best, why do they not have standards when it comes to portfolio reviews and admissions? The classes seemed saturated with students who did not care if they made the best work. This was my dream school where I ended up teaching myself in all of my classes and struggling with projects that felt they had no direction. I could not even describe... Read More my major to a stranger if they asked because we never really were given a class that could help us describe it. It feels like a cash grab of an art school rather than a place to better your practice and grow as an artist.

I believe SCAD has a lot to offer, depending on the major and how you use the resources available. Majors like film, fashion, and animation are top majors at the school, bringing in plenty of opportunities and celebrities for students to partake in and meet. For other majors, such as Illustration, we had good glasses and were taught solid basics but we weren't offered the same opportunities. Sure, we had video conferences (COVID hit during my freshman year so things shifted from in person to online... Read More for a lot of things), but they weren't very valuable. I gained a lot of valuable experience from partaking in projects of friends in other majors. That is a part of SCAD though. I perhaps could have done more, and looked into more resources. I ask people looking into SCAD to ask themselves if they'd put the time in to do that before choosing such an expensive school.

Overall, my experience at SCAD was a good one. The teachers were experienced and knowledgable in their fields. SCAD wants their students to do well as a reflection on the school. However, industrial design is a larger program. There are many resources and opportunities offered to students who stand out (roughly the top 10% of the class), but since many of those resources (such as submitting applications for awards) are at the discretion of the professors, some students fall through the cracks.

SCAD... Read More is a great school for self motivated students, but anyone looking for more structure/direction may struggle. Also the career services at SCAD are pretty blah. It's there, but honestly, not great.

Unfortunately, the online program is incredibly disappointing. I came into SCAD feeling as though I was entering an IVY of design. Halfway through, I had started to look at other graduate programs that would accept my credits. To begin, the program is self-guided with little-to-no faculty interaction. I've taken a full class, DMGT 732, and the professor said a total of three words to me the entire semester. Those three words were "Group Selection Approved." If you're like me, you're not happy spending... Read More thousands of dollars to have a professor grade all your assignments without a single piece of feedback. In DMGT 720, you'll be graded based on feedback you get on previous units. For example, your grade on Unit 05 is based on your improvements on Unit 04, and so on. However, professors again were absent, and we never received feedback so we were unable to follow the material. The professor would email us routinely asking us to do alternate assignments that were not listed on Blackboard. It seemed as though the professor did not approve of the content. I think the biggest factor in my decision to advise against the program is the professionalism of the faculty. Nothing in this program is done on time. The faculty is rude and constantly turning over, all seemingly tenured and comfortable showing up late and getting back to you whenever is easiest for them. Don't get me wrong, I've heard fantastic things about the on ground program at SCAD. The online program to me, shouldn't be accredited. MICA, Full Sail, etc. all seem to have programs that our stronger at this point. I tried to keep this review full of material I can prove. If any of this seems opinionated, please reach out so I can share screenshots.

This is a rigorous, worthwhile program.The photography professors were excellent, particularly Stevens and Turczan, who moved on to the Minneapolis School of Art. Fischer went beyond what was necessary as my thesis advisor and is one of the great photo teachers. At the time, there was Little inclination to mix the media in the actual program instruction and several of us graduates continued post graduate work in photo sculpture, mixed media, collage, etc. which could have been addressed in the graduate... Read More school program. Christman at one point had the school purchase an AB Dick printing press to expand the photo options, but unformately the school did not back his efforts with personnel with expertise at that machine.There is no discouraging of expanded photo work, but neither is there encouragement by way of how the program is set up. There needs to be accomodation in the program for expansin into other art media and I did not see that when I was a student there from 1990-1992. The other problem is that the school is located in one of the hottest spots of the country. Any full time student should seriously think of not staying in Savannah for the summer months.

As a positive and enthusiastic individual, my journey to face the unknown and overcome the fear of starting my life anew began in the fall of 2010. It was then that I left all that I had known in Minneapolis, Minnesota to explore the possibilities that Savannah, GA and the Savannah College of Art & Design had to offer upon my acceptance. My personal experience as a student of advertising allowed for the completion of my bachelors degree with honors as I continued my studies to achieve an additional... Read More masters degree in not only advertsing but a second in motion media as well. My status as a student amounted into that of a positive and motivating leadership role as I stressed the importance of setting an example to elevate the basic standard of expectations and excellence for both my peers and professors. My efforts encompassed a rigourous schedule of academic mentoring, peer tutoring, physical fitness assistant training and community volunteering. SCAD has developed and fostered my skill and life experiences to maintain the outgoing and self-driven motivation to pursue my passion and further advance my skill in my professional career. I will pursue that passion with the hopes of continued success in gaining the knowledge, experience and recognition of peers, mentors and industry professionals. Where some may consider me to be a bit of an overachiever in doing so, I see myself as a dynamic personality with a sense and appreciation for visual appeal and creative expression.

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a wonderful place to complete one's Master's Degree. The students work incredibly hard, the professors have decades of industry experience, and the facilities are inspiring. There is some flexibility with the course sequencing and electives, so you can specialize in a specific track even within your major if you'd like. Another great thing about the school is that there are constantly events and workshops happening, so you can fill all your time with art... Read More if you want to. SCAD also has lots of jobs available for students, and you can even study abroad as a grad student if you want to! They have locations in Atlanta, Savannah, Hong Kong and Lacoste, so there are lots of options for where to study. I expect many people reading this are also looking at schools in LA and New York. The obvious pros of living in those cities are that you get to network with professionals, attend incredible exhibits at world-class museums, start to build a client base, and have generally more access to professionally relevant experiences. However, I have to say I still think SCAD Savannah can be a better choice depending on your personality and circumstances. SCAD does an awesome job of bringing in top art directors and artists to lecture, give workshops and do portfolio reviews throughout the year. We have a surprising number of art museums that bring in artists from around the world, and there are plenty of networking opportunities at career fairs and with visiting lecturers/art directors/etc. Plus, since school is so expensive, it's a major bonus that Savannah has a low cost of living especially compared to New York, San Francisco or LA. The campus is beautiful, it's easy to get around, and we spend so much time working on our projects that there isn't much time to be out and about anyway. Since most freelance work is done over the internet anyway, SCAD illustration students can continue doing freelance work from Savannah while saving some money on rent. SCAD's graduate programs are also extremely diverse; it's usually about one third American students and two thirds international in my classes, so it's great to get lots of different perspectives and aesthetics. In class we are given a really nice balance of direction and freedom. We are assigned somewhat specific projects, but you are encouraged to tailor your work to fit into the needs of your portfolio. This is something we all appreciate a lot. The professors give helpful feedback both in regards to your specific work and the industry in general. Currently (summer 2017) the department is hiring, so there may be a couple new professors by the time you arrive. The online classes are pretty well made, and you'll still learn a lot, but they could use some revisions and I know they are tough for non-native English speakers because they involve a huge amount of reading and writing. Overall I really enjoy SCAD and the Savannah campus. You will be surrounded by extremely talented and hardworking individuals who motivate you to do better. There are plenty of SCAD Facebook groups, so if you have any questions feel free to hop on there and ask!

SCAD is a great school, I think you really get a quality education and resources even though it's so expensive. Like any other school it's not perfect, there is quite a bit of faculty turnover, but they always make sure to hire amazing professionals. Sometimes I wish they would focus less on decorating their halls and more on making things functional. In terms of the administration I haven't had a problem, they are always quick and helpful. The counselors are amazing. The library is awesome. The... Read More networking opportunities are available but you really have to work to get them, very few students have the luck of just having things happen to them, you have to work hard and SCAD makes sure to remind you.