SAE Institute Reviews

Sexism, racism, unprofessionalism, and all other isms. This school only cares about money and will rip students off with a bad education. Most teachers here don't have any real credits in the industry and are mostly alums that couldn't get a job. Teachers and staff sleeping with students and drinking on the job sums up the "culture" here.

I worked at SAE Expression College in Emeryville, CA USA. The administration is incompetent at best. Their business plan seems to be how best to take advantage of people. I wouldn't recommend working for this company unless you're really into being taken advantage of. They always try to sell it as what's good for the "student experience", but they don't care about that either. They just want to increase their bottom line by any means necessary. They don't care who they have to rip off. If you decide to work here, be prepared for crap to constantly roll down hill. You'll be the one to catch it. If Administration makes a mistake, they'll try to find a way to point the finger at the teachers. It doesn't get any better as you climb the corporate ladder. The higher ups that aren't on the campus are incompetent and socially inept as well. As a matter of fact, the more socially inept you are, the more likely they are to promote you to a higher position. Many of the people in the administration are extremely socially awkward and don't handle themselves well in social situations. It makes it really hard to work for them. I guess the good news is that if you're socially awkward, this may be a good career path for you. There are also people in the administration that delegate 100% of their jobs to the teachers below them, making it impossible for teachers to focus on their lesson plans, grading, and providing students with the support that they need. Be prepared for about 10 emails a week with random tasks. Their are absolutely no academic standards for admission into the college. The acceptance rate is 96% (that's what it says online). Basically if you can pay, you get in. They have NO services for students, such as guidance counselor, school nurse, etc. They have a complete lack of foresight. They decreased their physical size by 50% by getting rid of one of their buildings, while trying to increase their enrollment by 300%. Then they don't have anywhere to put classes, and have to increase class size to a point that I doubt a Fire Marshall would allow, if he ever did a walk through. They have no parking. They let that go when they let go of the other building. Students have to park on the street a half mile away. They hired their friend to do construction on the current building and build out new rooms and the rooms are very poorly organized with obvious flaws that any AV PROFESSIONAL would recognize right away. They will do anything to keep an adjunct professor from going over 29 hours a week. But try to squeeze as much work out of them as possible. If they can get you to work for free on your own time, they will. There is very little room for upward mobility. They refuse to make part timers full time. Shoot high in salary negotiation, because they probably won't give you a raise.