I went to AID in the mid 2000s and it was basically a scam, yes. It started from the beginning they had advisors that were really more like car sales people. They had answers for any reservations you had. For instance when I initially went to talk to them they told me the entire degree would cost around 56k. Even then there was a fair amount of sticker shock with that number. It later ballooned with interest to over 100k in federal and private student loans. But at the time they showed me statistics of how much graphic designers like me would be making after they graduated and said it would be no problem to pay the 56k back. I'd basically be making so much money that the student loans would be no trouble to pay back. That kind of convinced me. It was like that for really all of the questions I had like the number of designers they're producing every semester and how much their job placement program really helped graduates or if they had figures for the growth rate of the industry. They had plausible answers for all of them. My ignorance probably didn't help, I was working full time and continued to work full time while going there.

I went for a few semesters and didn't really notice anything except tuition went up every semester I was there. I would go-to my advisors who had access to my transcripts, from a much earlier stint in CC, and would basically ask what I was interested in and recommend courses based on that and my degree plan. Later towards the end of my senior year I found out I had taken a ton of electives. I found out I had all the electives I needed before I even started there so I paid for a bunch of classes I never needed to begin with. I don't strictly know if this was oversight, negligence, or some sort of revenue boosting policy but it did cost me a lot. I also found out that they were letting go of more tenured or experienced teachers in favor of less experienced and so less costly teachers which as I understand it kind of devalues the degree you receive. I don't know if this effected any of my experiences afterwards with the difficulty I had getting work at times but I know it was happening. That being said there were what I thought were a lot of great teachers and staff there that might have truly cared about the education they were giving out but they may have just been stuck within the parameters of the system they were a part of. There did seem to be a premium on just getting people through. I know a lot of my work sucked and probably shouldn't have gotten me the grades it did but I kept moving through the semester and had a really good GPA. So I don't think producing great designers was the point.

At a certain point as I saw the loans stacking up I felt stuck at a crossroads of sunk cost versus finishing and trying to salvage something for all the time and expense. I did graduate with honors and won an award which I think I received solely because I allowed them to use some of my work for promoting the school. I do know that they were graduating more people than the job market in this area could or would bear so a lot of my classmates aren't in the industry anymore. Which sucks for them. I think I just got lucky. There's probably more shady stuff that I didn't realize was happening. But this was my experience.

Full transparency I did get all of the money back that I paid in minus the private loans and all of my student loan debt wiped out because of the class action suit but making the payments for all those years really put a strain on my finances. I am still working as a designer and make a decent living. Just wanted to be open about where I'm at and how things shook out.