Are the Art Institutes good schools overall?

I’m a junior (I’ll be a senior in the fall) and since my freshman year of high school, we’ve always had AI recruiters come and do different things with us. I’ve never really liked the AI before recently when I started looking at schools in Los Angeles. I really actually like how cut-and-dry everything seems to be and they seem to focus more on the degree content rather than the core academics.

However, I have read a lot of online reviews, some of which praise AI and some of which call it a “degree mill” type of school. What is the general opinion from your point of view?

(I am asking in general although if it helps to know, I am interested in the Interior Design course at the Los Angeles & Hollywood campuses as well as the Set Design course which is solely offered at the Hollywood Campus.)

I tend to think of the Art Institutes as diploma mills.

LA has a lot of good art & design schools. Off the top of my head, CalArts, Otis, and the Art Center College in Padadena come to mind. I know someone with an art degree from Long Beach State, and she loved their program. I’d suggest you keep looking, and only seriously consider the Art Institutes if you absolutely can’t find the equivalent programs elsewhere.

Here are a couple of forums that could probably give you more specific advice -

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/

Please read this thread, which is about AI:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1729980-how-bad-are-for-profit-schools-kinda-long-p1.html