Reviews of Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) (College)

Cade Cropper

Love it

Alex Phi

The School that Changed a City I write this review not as an alumni but as an Angeleno. When the Sci-arc moved to its current location from Marina del Rey in 2000 the surrounding neighborhood was empty, desolate, and filled with crime and homeless. People say there are three things that fuel a thriving community: housing, dining, and schools. It has been almost over a decade since housing and restaurants slowly and carefully moved in, but it wasn't until Sci-arc finally purchased the build that it rented for so many years. That catapulted the community into the fast lane. Housing sky rocked, hip restaurants and boutique stores moved in, mega complexes started to get built. It's a milestone that changed the entire eastside of Los Angeles. Architects Home Grown The connective tissue between Sci-arc and downtown Los Angeles is undeniable and beneficial to both parties. Students and faculty architects are deeply engrained in the current rising of Downtown Los Angeles.

Addin Cui

A stressful place, in a good way.

Leo Turnr

The school that is proud of their high number international students! I don’t know about others, I was clearly misled by chair of admission who told me I will be hired to work on a project that the institute has won, located in South of Paris. He explained how lucky I would be to be able to work while I study as other students had to look for work after graduation. It was a lie. After I arrived I had to ask about the project multiple times, and eventually I was told it has been a miscommunication. A miscommunication! No projects. So it was only a small lie to get me on board. The lies still continue in every occasion. I’d say this school is highly unethical in many ways. Also, you will use broken chairs and desks made of cheap materials. Stay away.

Lee Xinxi

It is an expensive school for “no good reason”. They are desperate to bring students on board and offer full scholarships to more than half of their students. The other half are from rich Chinese families whom cannot even speak proper English. Their degree is useless in any occasions later in your academic or professional life. They do not get you prepared for the real world as the faculty is clueless, because they have never performed in the real world and have done nothing other than “”””””talking””””””. They bs a lot to prove they know and are completely insecure of being compared with professionals. You will leave this school empty handed, the avant-garde approach which raises the question “can it even be built?” and will be lucky to find a job as a “software operator” for an architecture company the best and start over learning from there.

Com Render

Two years of graduation, two years of unemployment...Can the school more focus on Architecture, don't miss-leading people for things like Film,Media.Etc.So expensive and without STEM Visa.

Isaac Ariel Franco

Simply one of the best architecture schools in the world. the program is intense as it is rewarding!!!

JIANSEN HUANG

Basically sci-arc is a scam especially their edge-program. They shouldn’t open stuff like fiction and entertainment, as far as I most student goes bankrupt after enrolling that program! Imagining a film school teaching architecture design then congratulations you will never able to compete with the real architect. Anyway, they only benefit for their selves, for example my professor do scam and make more than 150K per year, so he bought a houses in LA in just 2 years. Do go there, you will be put into a trap and it takes you few years or you never strong enough to go out from the trap.

Douglas Owens

Worth Che king out

Ralph Spencer Steenblik

This school is one of the top 5 best architecture schools in the world.

Alex Vasquez

The thing that happens when you get talented but privileged douche nozzles in a building that never had the original graffiti removed. interesting space, lots of creativity going on, good energy. Cool.

Spike Liu

Best Design School. Only place to learn about architecture and the future design world.

Aze Merl

Sciarc is simply a scam. They really need to redefine their purpose as they don’t seem to understand they don’t train architects in any way. They train artists (who 3D model wired buildings only) or maybe they know but still pretend they are training architects. The tuition is extremely high (unless you have money to through out of the window and have time to kill) and since the school is not popular (they heavily self advertise otherwise and fake their rank but do not believe everything you read please), they literally take in anyone (I repeat anyone) who applies (and pays). In sciarc it is very popular to bump into students who seem totally out of place, if you feel they are indeed out of place, consider the possibility that you may be the one who is out of place! Companies do not like to hire from sciarc either unless they look for “CAD monkeys” (sorry but this is the truth) for $4 to $6 per hour. (So sorry) Some call sciarc an “OPT SHOP” too since foreign students who plan want to stay in the US enroll to sciarc to take benefit from the 3 year OPT. Not recommended.

Mengyu Yu

(Translated by Google) Broken school (Original) 屌炸了的学校

David Byun

Over rated. Priority around revenue.

Donald Thomas

No problems.

Davidruy Mahsahupa

The postgraduate program (the scam called EDGE which only offers OPT and no other value) chair calls himself “the most brilliant architect alive” in his self written articles, he has never done any architecture, he cannot even draw a line, he has a bachelors degree in philosophy and a 1 year masters degree in architecture. He is the main instructor who basically “talks” without any relevance to the subject. This type of person can only exist in a low quality pricy school like sciarc. Even worse, he is focused on his assistant. All above happening in sciarc. Fancy to join?

daniel alejandre

Dream School

Yo Oshima

One of the best avant garde architecture schools in the world. Extremely intense environment.

Tatiane Calixto

Great School

Jim Raynor

Fitting to see they can't seem to crack the lists of top architecture schools, trophies just for placing I guess, although one of the highest tuition costs in the country doesn't seem justified if the prestige isn't really all that great with hiring firms. Not as advertised in my opinion (though they do seem to self-advertise heavily), it is a good old boys club as far as I am concerned, intelligence takes a backseat and only a handful of students who play that game will really thrive from a system like that. They seem to take whoever they can get, with a very high acceptance rate for an "elite" school. In my own experience making the mistake of attending the MArch2 program for two semesters, the literacy rates were dreadful, "easiest A you'll ever get" I had heard a few times in conversation when I mentioned that it bothered me some of my graduate peers struggled to read English at a supposedly elite educational institution in the United States. For how "competitive" they lauded the student body to be when I voiced complaint, in my architectural theory classes most of the students could hardly read written English, much less participate their words in any meaningful discussion with professors who struck me as the incredibly elitist type that could care less who they're teaching. After all it's not like they will remember many of the student livestock, mostly mislead into coming from overseas, once they've paid for the last semester of extremely over-priced tuition. It's also worth mentioning that the studio instructors browbeat students into spending what I always considered a second tuition cost on supplies, pedestals, expensive 3d-prints due most classes, and in render-farm credits necessary to finish animated assignments. The burden of most of those payments is thrown damn near entirely on the student. Just in case I haven't supplied enough of a warning, have fun with your sorry excuse for a workspace. That's right, each student was given what was called a desk made out of a few trash pieces of plywood or particle board that must be some sort of minimalist inside-joke between the faculty. Maybe with the previous dean it was a better situation, but Hernan has not been very impressive. But again that's just my opinion, perhaps if they were more transparent concerning graduate job placement statistics, or lack thereof... 1/5 Avoid Like The Plague

Brett Phillips

I love this school! I learned so much here and as a proud member of the LGBT community I can truly say the faculty and staff are very accepting.

Leslie Shaw

Was very excited to visit Sciarc for the first time. Everything looked funky in the first glance. We were given a tour but my excitement did not last as I noticed a few odd situations. Firstly, the campus.. there is no campus to be honest and it means there are no facilities a campus may have! There is a parking area if you would like to have lunch or breathe, however, it is NOT smoking free and cigarette buds are all over the ground, you will also need to walk further away into the parking to breathe fresh air as smokers gather in the entrance. During the tour, it was mentioned that sciarc is contributing to the environment and homelessness! I thought it could not be any further from the truth as I could see the school environment and the broken desks and chairs students were using which was another strange thing for such an expensive school. That simply shows the level of care the students would receive there. Next was the attitude of the students. I took some time after the tour and tried to speak to some of the students. Not much luck. Only a few were open to talk. It is correct that you meet many Asians but I did not expect such a high percentage. It is honestly more than the 70 percent that I had read in the reviews :)) In terms of education, students said that there is a lot of pressure and they need to spend a lot on their models, 3d printing etc. The school seems to focus a lot on ideas rather than practical aspects of architecture. As a result, when you graduate you will have little technical knowledge in comparison to a lot of surreal ideas which companies may not be willing to pay for as you will lack skills of an architect. The school seemed advance in softwares though if that is a path you may want to take,m, so advanced that you will barely use that level skill in the real world. In general, if you have tons of money and you like to discuss ideas, learn softwares and not work as an architect for the rest of your life, sciarc is the place for you.

kay kajadpai

Fantastic architecture school in the world