Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design - Ratings, Reviews & Ranking

" The school is small and the teaching staff is subject to group-think. I had one professor who was ageist and showed gross favoritism toward particular students. The program I was in focused on very outdated methods in the field of industrial design and it showed in the student competitions that we entered. MIADs program was once on top but not anymore. They may have changed some things since I went there but I was unable to find a job in my field after graduation and the career services all but disappeared on me. I would reach out for help regarding my job search and it was all crickets about a month after graduation. "

" The school has been good to me overall and what I am learning here is valuable and I can tell my teachers genuinely want the best for me. However, there is a disconnect between teachers' knowledge and what they are teaching, and often I am directed to tutorials and videos to teach myself skills I'm paying to have taught to me. I was also frankly disappointed with the way the school handled the Covid-19 pandemic, raising tuition in the middle of a global pandemic to fund a poorly planned remodel, NOT COOL! Very ironic that the school touts community and inclusivity and how they value thier students, but this has really shown that MIAD needs to quite literally put its money where its mouth is! "

" Great place for developing skills in design. Everyone's pretty friendly, and the teachers just want to see you push yourself and continue your growth. There are some odd projects here and there but otherwise a great place to learn. It is an art school so there isn't much room for sports, you'd have to go to gyms or places around Milwaukee rather than in school. The cost of living is pretty high too, considering the school is placed inside one of the higher income areas near downtown Milwaukee. Overall a great place to learn and grow, there's a big sense of community within the school, especially within each major, and it's a great place to grow into yourself alongside your skills. "

" Overall the school is a community, you can ask anyone to help a faculty, staff, even students and they will be willing to help in any way they can. It is a small school so you get to know a lot of people. Yet, like all schools, it needs work. I would 100% recommend this school as a design school for Communication Design, Product Design, Illustration Design. But I wouldn't recommend it for people who want to do Fine Arts, because even though we have a Fine Arts program, MIAD put all aspects of Fine Arts together and built it into one major. So they put painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture all into one major which can get confusing and challenging for a person who maybe doesn't want to do photography but has to take a class in it. However, once you reach that upperclassmen level you can do what you like and love it but also our Fine Arts major you have to be self-motivated. Something a lot of people have a misconception about our school is that oh its an "art school" it's easy. It's not it gets really serious very quickly, starting as a freshman you learn the fundamentals of design, art and adobe programs. You have to at least know how to use Adobe Photoshop. But if you go into any design major you will be given assignments that will require you to spend hours on your computers, about different programs and if you want to do product design, for example, you will learn the ins and outs of a 3d lab with machines and power tools. A lot of work has to be put in your art and design, as well as having liberal arts classes on top of that. The food options at MIAD are 50/50 for a lot of students, I can say it's gotten better, but we don't have the luxury of being a big school with a lot of space. So our cafe is small and give some option but not as many as those of bigger schools. The hot food lunches are great they are different every day. It just depends if your a picky eater or not. But the easy to grab foods like fries and tenders can get repetitive. Though if you live on campus you live in the dorms that are in a suite-style setup, in which you have your own kitchen that you only share with 3 to 4 other people so you don't have to buy the food from the Cafe but make your food at your dorm. Now the dorms are very expensive but what dorms aren't but the dorms are very convenient because they are right across or 2 to 3 blocks away from the school. There are always computer labs available the only time they can't be used is if a class is in session in the computer lab. Anyways being at MIAD is very intimate, you become friends with your professors and with many different kinds of people. Letting you know we have no sports team or anything sports-related, we got pretty okay clubs it is run by students so some are better then others but you can start your own club if you want at our school. Nevertheless, MIAD is a community of creative weirdos but also the nicest and interesting people you will ever meet. "

" I think that MIAD offers a balanced learning style of giving some guidance, but also trying to teach you independence as well. A lot of the faculty are trying to teach both conceptual and technical skills when it comes to your creative practice. Because it's an art college, the curriculum & the workload really depends on what major you choose. All the design majors like industrial design, interior architecture are heavily structured. Communication design/graphic design and illustration also have structure, but there's a bit more freedom in what electives you choose. There's a strong Milwaukee community and a lot of the projects across all majors have some connection to local businesses when you're doing junior/senior projects. "