@snowbirdmom LOL, my son is 20 now and driving. But, I used to spend 3 hours nearly every Saturday on my laptop at AC too. I can give you some insight on Gnomon because my son took one class there. Even though the school has a fantastic reputation as feeder school into Hollywood and it’s close to home, he hated the class. The school is 100% a commuter school. If your daughter wants to experience the community feeling that you can only get at a school where people live on campus, then don’t waste your money…a lot of money…on Gnomon. It is very cold and uninviting there. However, they do tout a very high placement rate after graduation and I was told by people working in the industry that they hire lots of Gnomon graduates.
Regarding the digital media students at Otis, we spoke to 2 or 3 of them…they complained that the industry is moving so fast that their teachers weren’t keeping up on the new technology/trends. They would teach them the foundation, then give an assignment. Because the students are so competitive with each other in this particular major, they would go home and teach themselves the new stuff using YouTube and the like in order to compete in the classes. The students generally felt that they didn’t know what they were paying for and they were frustrated. I didn’t think to ask if the digital media teachers were not currently working in their fields. That might explain this phenomenon.
That being said, the toy design students felt very supported and loved their program.
My son loves Oits, but I’m a little concerned that if he doesn’t enjoy toy design and wants digital media, then he may not ultimately be happy. I do love that it’s close to home though.
HTH!