What We Offer

Are you not sure which major is right for you?

You will have an experienced, knowledgeable Admissions Representative who will talk to you about your background, your interests, and your goals. You will be able to ask all the questions you want about what each major is, what it offers, and what the differences are between them.

A university in the heart of San Francisco

When you study at the Academy of Art University, you become a student at one of the major educational and artistic institutions of San Francisco – a city that is ideal for emerging artists and designers. The Academy offers twenty-seven locations including academic buildings, campus housing facilities, and galleries - all set in the heart of the city and connected with a morning-to-night free shuttle service. At the Academy, you are close to everything that San Francisco has to offer. Click here to view our campus map!

A faculty of top working professionals

At the Academy you will be learning directly from professional artists and designers. The Academy actively recruits the top names of the art and design industries to teach here, choosing renowned professionals who also have a passion for teaching. The Academy is committed to making sure that you are being taught and mentored by the best talent your chosen field has to offer. We guarantee you've never had teachers like this.

A world-class, accredited curriculum available both online and on-campus

The Academy not only provides a flexible schedule of day, evening, and weekend on-campus courses - it is also the leader in first-class online art and design education. You will be getting a premier education, in a schedule that is right for you. Our curriculum offers coursework at all levels, from beginner to professional, in all areas of art and design. As long as you have a passion for art and design, we welcome you. Come to us with or without art and design experience, and our curriculum will give you what you need to succeed in what you want to do. We have a foundations curriculum that will give you the traditional core skills of drawing, composition, color, design, and perspective. You will then move on to more advanced coursework, which we update every semester to make sure that your studies are current with the technology and trends of your field.

A campus with state-of-the-art facilities

If the pros are using it, you'll be using it too. The Academy is one of the best-equipped art and design schools in the nation. Every school at the Academy has same technology and equipment being used in the industry today. And each year, the Academy makes major purchases in every department to keep up with current industry standards. When you are an Academy student, you have access to every conceivable resource and facility you need.

A leading job placement in all fields of art and design

As an Academy student, you will carry a professional reputation with you that will give you an edge in the marketplace. The Academy has been placing its graduates with top companies for decades. And that's not even counting the hundreds of internships and part-time jobs we help our current students find every year. The list of companies that hire our graduates every year reads like a who's who list of art and design - Alexander McQueen, Pixar, Dreamworks, McCann-Erickson....the list goes on and on. Chances are, we've already placed many of our graduates in a job you've always dreamed about. Let us do it for you.

An affordable private education

You will be pleased to find that not only is the Academy an elite professional learning institution, it is also committed to maintaining competitive tuition rates. The Academy is consistently one of the best values in private education in the nation, with 40% lower tuition rates than other major private art and design schools. The Academy also has a second-to-none customer service approach in helping students through the financial aid process.

A school that provides guaranteed housing

From day one, we are committed to making sure you are safe, comfortable, and having fun in San Francisco. The Academy provides every possible housing accommodation that one could wish for: with roommates or without roommates, dormitory or apartment, co-ed or not co-ed, downtown or in a desirable residential area within the city - we have it all. We even offer specialized housing for graduate students and international students. When you live in campus housing, you have access to a fully equipped student gym, a full-sized swimming pool, on-campus dining facilities, and on-site resident managers and resident assistants who are available round-the-clock. Our campus housing is designed to provide you the best opportunities to succeed academically and to take advantage of all the university has to offer.