School of the Art Institute of Chicago — Local services in Chicago

My husband got a great education here, but almost didn't graduate because we couldn't afford the tuition. Many of his classmates transferred or dropped out because of tuition. At his graduation I wished I had a sack of rotten tomatoes to throw at the pompous cravats up there bloviating about the greatness of SAIC, while talented and deserving students are systematically excluded from completing an education at SAIC only because of ability to pay (and have their finances ruined whether they finish or not).

I was naive at first and assumed that his college would take an interest in helping him succeed, like mine had. I was so wrong. My husband was accepted as a "Merit Scholar," so he got partial scholarships along with some grants and student loans. He was accepted into honor programs. Our "family contribution" per the FAFSA was always $0, however at the end of every semester we'd get bills for around $10k (in excess of what was covered by financial aid/loans). The tuition rose several thousand dollars each year--from $35k his freshman year to over $50k his senior year--and financial aid never made up the difference. The so-called financial aid counselor advised us to take out bank loans in addition to the student loans we already had...WOW! I asked if she would give the same bad financial advice to her own child; crickets to that.

Do yourself a favor and limit your search to fully-funded universities with a tuition lock unless you're rich as hell and can pay out of pocket. I wish we had; we'll be impaired financially for another few years trying to get out from under this debt. We've put off all kinds of life choices because of this monkey on our backs, and all because we were too poor to pay full price in the...

Update: before you read the rest of this original review I wanted to take note that the school took millions and millions and millions of dollars from the US government during Covid and still refused to release official transcripts and I paid six years later. So nothing has changed beware.

Original:

RUN! After a year of classes with two scholarships and perfect academics, a $2000 (now like $5500) balance prevented me from continuing coursework! I emailed the Dean, Headmaster, and every single email address I could find BEGGING to continue my coursework and asking if they can forward the balance-- also in their best interests as a business as it would double the revenue for SAIC.... CRICKETS No one even responded and I was forced to drop out of classes until I came up with ANOTHER $2k. Mind you, it's $50,000.00 per year.

Now, my student loans are in arrears, I can not re-enroll until I get them caught up and also I can not continue until I pay the $2k balance WHICH IS NOW 5K.

-My credit is ruined -My otherwise flawless acedemic career is useless because they won't send official transcripts -I can't pay the balance due because I can't get a job, because I don't have a degree, because I don't have $5k to pay the balance.

IT'S A TRAP and they're not apologizing for it standing by the notion that education should be for the rich. Half the classes are awesome, the other half are like flushing $6,000 down the toilet (plus interest).

What started as means for a better life for myself has paralyzed my ability to survive. It's a...

Do NOT do business with this school. I enrolled my middle schooler in a drawing class in the spring - it cost $300 for a week of 2 hour per day classes. The “instructor” showed up, gave them the option to draw what they wanted, then had them “share out” at the end of each class. With a BREAK in between. No instruction, no critiques. We’ve gotten more valuable classes from the park district for 50 bucks.

To add insult to injury, they offered me a second class for another $300 which I declined. For the past seven months, I get a bill and freaking COLLECTION notice every month with threatening language for that 300 bucks. I’ve called, emailed - everyone is going to “look into it”. I’m done trying - wouldn’t do business with this organization again if they were giving it away for free....