American Academy Of Art Vs Columbia College Chicago

Although The American Academy of Art and The School of the Art Institutes of Chicago have advantages, I should attend Columbia College Chicago. The American Academy of Art possesses an interesting background. Frank Young Sr. dreamt of creating a school that would “provide the best instructors, attract the best students, and neglect nothing that will help them to build successful careers.” In 1923, Young decided to turn his dreams into reality, thus creating The American Academy of Art (AAA). The school was originally designed as a school to offer Associate's Degrees in commercial arts, but with the help of the current owner and president of AAA, Richard H. Otto, the ‘Bachelor of Fine Arts Program’ was established in 1992 (“About the Academy”).

In 1890, Mary A. Blood and Ida Morey founded ‘Columbia College Chicago (Columbia).’ Columbia, formerly known as the ‘Columbia School of Oratory’, renamed themselves to ‘Columbia School of Expression’ in 1927. In the same year Columbia became a joint institution with ‘Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College’, but eventually decided to leave the partnership in 1944. Columbia was renamed for the third and final time in 1992 as ‘Columbia College Chicago.’ With a new name, Columbia set out to build the school into an ‘urban institution’ that would offer classes taught by the most creative professionals in Chicago. Today, Columbia continues to challenge their students to realize their abilities with their motto, “esse quam videri”, which means “to be, rather than to seem” (“Columbia College Chicago”). While the backgrounds of these schools vary, location of these schools plays a factor in deciding which to

AAA, for example, is a small school (“About the Academy”). The currently enrolled student body is made up of about 400 students, making the student to teacher ratio 15:1 (Best College Comparison). Another example is SAIC which is a medium sized school (“Compare Colleges”). SAIC has an average of 3,000-4,000 students enrolled a year. According to “SAIC”, about 83% of the classes at the school are small with less than 20 students. About 15% of the classes are medium with 20-49 students, and the final 1% of the classes have 50 or more. With classes this size, SAIC has an average student to teacher ratio of 9:1 (Best College Comparison). The final example is Columbia which happens to be a medium sized school. Columbia has an average of 9,000 students enrolled a year. According to “Columbia College Chicago”, the average class size at columbia is fewer than 20 students, making the student to teacher ratio 13:1. The school and classes are big enough to be able to work and learn from other students, but still be able to get one-on-one time with instructors. While class size is an important aspect of the decision making process, the cost of college is likely one of the biggest deciding