The Art Institute of Salt Lake City

I attended art institute from june 2011 to june 2013. in this short period of time, i racked up 40,000 in student loan debt. during the enrollment process and during the time i attended, the advisors and admissions offices made it seem like an extremely prestigious school and that i was obtaining a high quality education. two years after attending, i went to transfer my credits to a school out of state and found out that the art institute of salt lake city was not accredited. i basically wasted two years of my life, paying the highest tuition in the state to have to start my bachelors degree all over. to make matters worse, i had financed $ 25,000 in student loans but art institute failed to notify me the whole two years i was attending that i had $ 13,000 that i could not finance because i had «maxed» out my student loans. their school is a rip off and a joke for an education. I have not been able to find employment and now have to pay for a second education at an accredited university. I am pursuing legal action at this point for misrepresentation, fraud and breach of contract. this is not the first lawsuit art institute and education management corporation will see as they have had multiple lawsuits across the country including a multi-​billion dollar suit, answering to the federal government. this school is not accredited. their «recruiters» are salespeople who get paid on commission. this school is a joke. i filed this with the better business bureau.

Beware! I had the WORST possible experience with the Art Institute. I took my daughters to an open house to just check out the school on a Saturday. While we were there they offered my girls a ‘free scholarship’ for a 5 week ‘fast track’ course. The class started the following Monday and all we had to do was pay the $ 50 (per person) application fee today (Sat.) and meet with the finance department before class (Mon.). I thought I had asked all the right questions but when we arrived Monday we were advised that the free scholarship required enrollment for summer semester yet we had already informed them we were unable to commit to school until fall semester. In the end I received a $ 100 lesson learned. Do yourself a favor, watch College Inc. and steer clear! My girls are now happily enrolled at UVU & Dixie State.

Where do I start??? I think this school has good intentions and will improve as time goes on. There are a few excellent instructors here. The problem is that they are not all full-​time so it is sometimes difficult to find a class with one of these instructors that is held at a time that can work with one’s schedule.
Scheduling is a joke… When I was registering for this quarter, I had a couple classes that are required for my degree that weren’t even being offered. Luckily, I was able to find a couple other required classes to take. But it makes me wonder what is going to happen my final quarter when I go to register??? I may only have a class or two left… And what if they don’t offer those classes that quarter? Since your financial aid is based on the number of credits you are taking, you could lose your financial aid if even one of your required classes isn’t being offered.
That aside, I have also experienced the running out of butter or powdered sugar or equipment. But what bothers me the most is not having key ingredients for specialty regional dishes or international dishes. I’m paying thousands of dollars to be able to work with a variety of different ingredients. I can’t count the times we’ve substitutes chicken for quail or duck or another exotic bird just because we didn’t have it. This could be the instructor’s fault though for not communicating that we need a certain order.
This quarter has been exceptional with the Chefs I have had. We have had a phenomenal variety of ingredients that I have never worked with prior and we’ve had every ingredient we needed. No substitutions!
To be great, they need to get rid of the instructors that aren’t cutting it and find instructors that will give it everything they have and more. I think they have a couple instructors like that already, but as Chef Gordon Ramsey would say, «It’s just not good enough!» :)

Though the staff is somewhat experienced. They could improve the equipment in the kitchen, the Chef are great but only a few I actually learned from.

Wow… I’m sorry the other person had such a bad experience but I think it is just the opposite. I’m familiar with the schools in Chicago and Atlanta so when I saw Salt Lake was getting one, I was excited. My husband is in the process of getting started with them and we have had nothing but good experiences. I have a good friend who went to AI in Atlanta because he couldn’t do anything with his undergrad from UGA. After he graduated from the Art Institute, he got a job right out of school and pay he never imagined he’d be able to get! I think that says something positive about this school.