Hey,

I went to Ex’pression and left for several reasons. Be real glad you decided -not- to go there. The school is essentially a palace of false promises, faded dreams, and a corrupt administration. I got through about half the program before I got disgusted by the cirriculum (or lack thereof!) and the administration and left.

Here is the long and short of it: Basically, once you sign the dotted line, you are the schools property. You are there to make the school money. If you do not make the school money, or support the school blindly, expect to be castigated and they will look for reasons to get rid of you. If you are so much as one day late on a financial aid payment or your first attempt at financial aid falls through, expect to be escorted off campus by security.

If you question the instructors, expect to be punished. I got into an argument with an instructor over the way he spoke to me during a presentation because he though the project I was proposing wouldn’t do very well monetarily (he was way over the line into insulting territory), and got placed on Conduct Probation. Keep in mind, this was a civil discourse, and the instructor lied that I threatened him, after he called me an idiot — and that was the least of it.

Secondly, the student body is very, very callow and immature. The Game Art students are there because they like to play video games and/or watch anime. Oftentimes, they have no concept of how to make video games, their ideas are derivative, what hard work it takes to go into it, or the sacrifice required. Frequently, they won’t have the latest system, keep an eye on industry trends, or have played the latest games.

On the polar opposite, you have people who would be best put into a QA situation because they have no talent for art or design, whatsoever, yet the school pity passes them to keep the money flowing. These students often play video games all day rather than do their work.

There was a positive aspect of Ex’pression, that if you failed, you got to retake the class either for free, or reduced cost. Probably the latter now as they are reneging on promises they made to people years ago in the name of just making more money, especially as former sound students who were promised unlimited studio time after graduation, which now they are threatening to take away.

Sadly , the sound students are even worse. A lot of them are local Oakland kids who think they are going to be rappers or write the next big baseline without realizing the actual technical skill it takes to run a studio, which is what the school teaches, yet it does not screen those individuals out.

The school sells you empty promises to get you to sign the dotted line and will then leech you for money. The only way to really fail a class is to not show up. Otherwise, you can show up, get a D/D+, even if you do absolutely no work, and they’ll keep filching you for cash while you accrue student loans. If you are looking for a college degree, this is really a -no- stress environment if you can just tolerate sitting in a lab 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week for two years. But in the end, you walk away with nothing.

Many of the Animation and Visual Effect (AVE) students aren’t much different from the Game Art students as the departments are related and share half a curriculum. A lot of the AVE students are there because they love anime and snazzy special effects, but have no real grasp or understanding of the work involved and the cultural implications. A lot burn out or switch majors half way through because the detail work becomes too much for them to handle. Animation, game making, and even sound misint are incredibly tedious processes. Motion and Graphic Design students, I did not have much contact with.

Rumors fly around that place at the speed of light. It’s not even high school level. It’s down-right middle school. I’m 25 and I was absolutely horrified at how my peers (many of whom were my age, give or take a couple years) behaved and conducted themselves. They talk professionalism there, but it does not exist — at all.

The instructors, while some are good, are has-beens or never-wases who never got very far in their careers and those people they claim to be ‘industry pros’ are being phased out in favor of students who just graduated because the recent grads work cheaper.

As for the cirriculum: Save yourself around $3-5K per class and buy the tech manual and software (Photoshop, Maya, etc) for your own personal use at home and teach yourself.

Let me do the basic math: It takes three $4K classes to even get to a class that teaches photoshop, flash, and illustrator. The Design Premium package from Adobe is like $1200 or so. Buy yourself the respective tech manuals — all things considered, let’s say you get 3 tech manuals for each program at $50 a pop for each program from Borders or B&N or whathaveyou in your local town. That’s $1200 (Start up) + 9 times $50… coming out to $1650. Now, if you are interested in digital painting and compositing, you will need a Wacom Tablet. Those are about $249 for a medium size one. The latest and greatest computer? Depends if you are a PC or mac user. You can get a decent media PC for about $1500 for a desktop and $2000 for a laptop. A mac pro or macbook pro (you’ll need one) — run between $1199 to $3199. (I assume you have a monitor you like to use if you get a Mac Pro or desktop PC).

Already, four terms which would set you back about $16,000 all things considered, and you are paying the ’startup cost’ each term. Your basic start up cost for the premium adobe design package, student editions of Maya, zBrush, Unreal Tournament 3 (This is the level editor they teach), shiny computer, and hardware would still be less than your first four or five terms. Now, the first two terms, you have a film class at Ex’pression. Take that at a community college if you want to take a basic short film production class. As for your equipment/software start up cost would be $6,000-$8,000. Now, they might be lower, if you are less scrupulous, but I advise against software piracy.

Now, you might argue that I’m bitter and jaded, but here is the thing. I served on student government and I advocated for better and more equitable treatment of students, especially female students who were a tiny minority and often found themselves constantly besieged by male students who do not get that “No Means No.” If you are a female, -stay away from Ex’pression- unless you have a high tolerance for being hit on by really creepy and awkward guys.

Now, why I left: I finally got to my wits end and left because one student was openly looking at porn and modeling female genitalia in class, and a female student complained. This student was reprimanded, gently, and asked not to let it happen again and he went around harassing people — only to be put on much more severe punishment. He then began harassing me because I was on the Student Governance, and I filed a formal complaint about his behavior. I was told he could not be expelled because of the money his parents gave to the school. He then smashed my $2500 laptop. I complained, was rebuked and suspended. At that point, I left. So, this is my warning to you — there are a few good points about the school — the equipment is great, they have recently updated software, but they don’t teach you how to use it very well and often times they don’t teach you current industry techniques, and they send people unprepared into an already difficult job market. I just decided it was time to go.

Wherever you go, or if you change your mind — stay away from Ex’pression College for Digital Arts. It was once an up and coming institution that has basically become a money grab for a corrupt administration. The stars there would be stars no matter where they went.

Also, it’s in the Bay Area, and the people there? Incredibly weird and thin skinned. Go someplace where people actually can take critique well and won’t bitch you out for having a different opinion than them.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but if it helps keep one person away from that black hole, I’ve done my job.