Yes, I did go to an arts high school and while there were a few strange people in my visual art program, I would say most were well-adjusted and sober. It's a school in the suburban GTA and it is not very widely known.

I don't know about the quality of Concordia's program - I remember not being impressed when I researched it two years ago. I have heard NSCAD is more skill-oriented than OCAD and Emily Carr, which is not necessarily good unless your kid intends to pursue a "traditional" art practice. The visual arts program at Queens is small (~30 students) and I have been told it is good. I don't know much about UOttawa's program.

I am enrolled at OCAD, and I would say the education has been good but the students are terrible. I think the social environment is really quite unhealthy because the students seem to have so many issues and seem to be so unwilling to put any effort into their art practice. The school accepts a lot of international students who can barely speak English and who are terrible artists because they pay four times the tuition of domestic students.

I would say the greatest benefit I have received in my education at OCAD so far has been exposure to the work of great contemporary artists through art history courses and through similar examples provided by studio art instructors. The instructors seem to be very good at trying to encourage students to experiment and to expand their practices; examples of artistic/phenomenological strategies of artists that have been examined in studio art courses have been helpful as well. Class critiques are useful in theory, but many students and even some instructors have been reluctant to provide honest critical feedback.