University of the Arts

So disorganized this «University». The teacher was never on time and he was the worst at teaching. A nice guy but I ended up teaching myself.

I miss this school like crazy. Most accepting ppl I’ve ever met and the worst I could complain of was a teacher that was super enthusiastic but maybe talked a little too long… That’s it.
Financial department and organization stuff can always get a bit silly but seeing others now -, — I really have no complaints. The class scheduling process was always hard because of how many options and how organized you had to be but that’s one of the great things about this school. They challenge you and there are so many opportunities to do anything and everything. I’m pretty sure you could take almost any class without actually being a major in it, so long as there was room after people who needed it. Which was awesome. You could do anything. I even took a metal smithing class at one point. How awesome is that? They do have teachers too who will help you organize your schedule so you don’t get off track. It’s great and I would highly recommend it to people.
I know some people have complained about technology, though I don’t really know how. My last time there it was way up to date. And way better than most schools I’ve seen and been to…
Uarts, u keep rocking :} n hopefully I’ll see u n ur awesome students again soon. :}

This school is a joke. I was not told prior to enrolling here that to earn 3 credits at this school you have to go to a class that is twice as long as any other 3 credit course in the country. A typical 3 credit college class is 45 — 48 semester contact hours. A UARTS 3 credit class is 90 semester contact hours. My course schedule 4 days per week started at 8:00 and I was in class until 4:00, and my 5^th day I was in class from 12:00 until 4:00. If I had known that somehow at this school a credit hour is magically twice as long as any other school, I would not have enrolled as this does not work for me (I am a commuter, not an 18 year old first time student).
I called an academic advisor about this and her response to me was «well, it’s your money, do what you want.» Thank you for that helpful advice.
I’m not saying this school is horrible, it’s perfect for students who would like to spend all day in classes from 8 to 5 and then do homework for 2 hours, minimum, per night.

Beautiful! Came as a guest for a wedding reception. Great food. Service was wonderful. They accomopated family with vegan and vegetarian needs with no trouble.

I am not a student, but the parent of a student in the acting program. My wife and I have both been working actors for 30 years and although my wife was excited about our daughter going there, I thought the place was over-​priced and under-​qualified.
I am not a fan of conservatory education to begin with. Most actors I have worked with over the past 30 years that have come out of conservatories are all technique and no content or substance. Not to mention, the professors are usually very hands off, lazy and untalented with an air of pompousness and condescention that doesn’t equal their talent level.
The first performance I saw there proved this. Although our daughter did fine, I didn’t see that she had developed anything from her education there to date and there was no one responsible for the train-​wreck decisions that the actors made.
On top of this, since our daughter has been there, she has had to deal with a lice infestation in her dorm, abyssmal mail delivery and the theft of her computer from a place she was told was secure. This computer was 2 grand and she was told that she had to have it as a student there. When it was stolen from their building, they accepted no responsibility at all and offered no restitution for her loss.
I understand it is the big city and things happen, but for the 40 grand a year they charge for an undisciplined, shoddy education, they should be able to keep their students safe and provide a clean living space.
My daughter is only a freshman there and I hope she wises up and gets the hell out of there before any more of my money goes down the toilet. She seems to like it there, but she doesn’t have anything to compare it to and she is starting to stress out over the health and saftey situation. She shouldn’t have to deal with that!
This school gets a big, fat zero from me!

First of all I’d like to address the comment about UARTS being a «real» art school. It’s in the top 10 in the country and we’re tied with RISD for Photography and GD as number 1. Just for your information. I turned DOWN RISD for this school. You think you’d be happier at a school that doesn’t give a shit about you unless they think you’ll be famous? Go ahead. Full scholarship to me from them. UARTS gave me 10 grand and I came here. Cooper Union? Accepted. I came here. Please spare me your childish whining about UARTS being terrible just because you didn’t succeed.
Second, I transferred from a college where I was getting a degree in law, international relations, photography with a minor in German. You think I’m not driven, bite me. You think I’m not smart? Straight A’s in that program and I have a job at The Washington Post waiting for me. Don’t even generalize that the students here aren’t driven. Everyone is different and everyone has a different idea of what they want in life and how they’re going to get it. So relax, and get over it. Why care about what other people are doing? My department is very driven. I don’t know anyone who isn’t working their butts off and here every night till it shuts down.
Now, since I transferred I know what an amazing photography degree UARTS has. Their facilities are gorgeous and we have a color lab. You idiots probably don’t know how rare our Colex machine is in a university. My old school had bats in the building. BATS. It was gross.
Buuuut I also know how sucky foundation is. I’m having to redo some foundation classes because I transferred and they didn’t like what I did at the other school. Does it suck? Yes it does. Do I hate it with a passion? Yes I do. Is it required so I’m not going to cry like these other babies? Yes. Just do it and get over it. You know why it’s so hard? Because it’s where they see who is here to work and who is here because they think art school is easy. It’s to weed out the people who aren’t ready yet. That’s what I’ve concluded at least.
I’ve never been so happy. I don’t live in the dorms but my friend does and her apartment is really nice for a dorm. Big and clean. She lives in Juniper. The elevators are creepy though. I live off campus and I think it is cheaper. :)
I give this school 5 stars because I’ve done the legwork of looking at schools and this is the best for ME. It might not be what you like but I find my program to be the best it could be for me and my work ethic.

I spent a year at this school floundering about the visual arts foundation classes only to realize that absolutely no one in this school had any sort of work ethic or actual direction. Most of the professors (not all mind you) are pompous and unhelpful. I lived in outrageously expensive school sponsored housing filled with mice and actual crazy people (not regular art school crazy but ‘I’m-gonna-blind-you’ crazies). I go to the Art Institute now and while they’re now as fancy and «intellectual» I find it sits a lot better with my working class roots.

This place is such a complete abortion of an education that my normally eloquent vernacular is at a complete loss of words to describe it.
I should have known something was amiss when they gave me, a B– student throughout high school, a $ 10,000 a year scholarship for ‘academics’.
Also, I should have known that something was amiss when I, a film major was forced to take foundation art classes because of the bullshit politics and stupid red tape caused by the fact that no one in administration has any idea what the fuck they are doing, and are too busy pretending to be important to care.
I know what you’re thinking, «oh poor baby had to take some drawing and painting classes, boo fuckin hoo hoo for you»
well you know what? fuck you.
Foundation art classes leave you with as much work (time and effortwise) as your first year of pre-​med. And considering the fact that I have conceded to not having any sort of mechanical skill and hadn’t even dabbled in art for upwards of 6 years, this sort of bullshit can be emotionally taxing as well as damning to your GPA.
As far as film classes go, I managed to get into a sophomore class during my second semester because I already had experience working on 16 mm film. I was horrified to learn that we weren’t allowed to do any digital editing, nor were we even allowed to MOVE THE CAMERA. Considering the fact that the first thing I ever shot (when I was 16) was a one shot, one take, dolly shot chase scene through Central Park, I was pissed.
This ‘school’ left me nothing but bitter, and with a newfound hatred for art.
The only upside was that everyone there was a fucking maniac, so finding any sort of drug was incredibly easy.
If you’re thinking of attending Clusterfuck University of the Arts… just don’t… go to Tyler @ Temple U. instead

I suppose most people go to U.S. News and World Report, not
, for information on colleges. But, for those of you who are reading, you might find this useful.
I started my college career at U Arts as a jazz guitar major, and, if you want to be a jazz musician, there is no better place in Philadelphia to learn how. The guys who teach lessons and ensembles are some of the finest musicians and teachers in the country, and if nothing else, their genius forces you to recognize your own inadequacies, and to improve them.
But, but, but — the liberal arts classes were a joke. Granted, I suppose this is true of most art schools and conservatories of music; they find barely competent staff and pay them a minimum to deliver uninspiring lectures that few people care about, all so the school can be accredited. Sure, that’s the way it goes. But, really, if you’re paying to be in a class, and if you’re being forced to spend your time there — time you could be using to master your instrument — then the school should at least provide you with a useful instructor. (Okay, one more caveat: the majority of art and music students are so wildly apathetic about learning to write and solve math problems that, even if U Arts brought in brilliant, inspiring scholars, only a small percentage of the student body would benefit. Or even care.)
Okay, so where does that leave my opinion?
When I went to college, I wanted to learn to be an awe-​inspiring, history-​making jazz guitarist; that’s why I went to the school to begin with — a school filled with people like me, whose primary purpose in life was their art. But I didn’t know until I got there how much the «regular classes» meant to me, or how important it was for my personal/​emotional growth to continue learning Statistics and Chemistry and Faulkner. At U Arts I felt like I was mastering a craft, but I wasn’t acquiring the intellectual horsepower I would need to make real art — that, at least, was my experience.

I will cede four stars to UArts. I don’t like Philly; it’s too grey. My time at UArts was probably worth it though.
During senior year of high school, classes turned out to be, shall we say, cake. I decided to take a Saturday class at UArts. First semester was Intro to B&W Photo. Justin was pretty awesome, young, laid-​back. I developed a preference for metal film reels versus plastic, printed only a small fraction of the film I’d developed, and had a good time. Lots of kids had taken photography in some capacity previously, but it was what you made of it.
Spring semester I took Graphic Design ii. I skipped the first for the sake of covering what I really wanted to get at. (published a bi-​monthly mag starting sophomore year… what a pain in the ass) In this class, kids were a little awkward, intense. Left to our own devices much of the time, I wouldn’t say I gleaned as much from the class as possible. Luke, who has done cover designs for some books, took a look at the magazine and gave me some pointers for page layout – probably the most useful information I took away. It’s not that these things were covered in the first section, just that these were general classes. Art kids need initiative, and I was never really an Art Kid. I wanted launching points.
In the end, I used a Mac for the first time, developed an appreciation for the time consumption of graphics to pair with the mystified admiration I’d come in with, fell in love with people on my PATCO rides to Broad St, and most importantly decided to minor in photography. Go figure.