11 Best Mfa Programs In Columbus, OH (2022 Updated)

Poor service! I cannot explain the frustration myself and family endured while earning a degree I BARELY had a chance to use. This is one of the most disrespectful, greediest schools I have ever been to! The parking costs for students is outrageous. Staff in all parts of the university are lazy, some were not friendly, disrespected other cultures of people, and then some. I was lied to by multiple professors that I had to only purchase books from their book store and not Amazon. Amazon saved me tons of money for the same book! One time, I got water on one of my text books and that bookstore charged me $184 to replace the book!!!! Not to mention their clothing is overpriced! The material is just sweatshirts! Get real!! A lot of mean students attend school here. I noticed students bully other races of students, throw items at each other, teachers bully students and talk to them as if they are nothing! I am sorry, but that school costs too much to deal with BS (Not the degree either). The tutoring labs are the worst! They are not friendly, racist and do not seem to care if you have a paper due. Also, they provide those players with free tuition, but refuse to help families whose kids have straight A's. I am not talking about "wealthy" families either. That Business office needs to be shut down. That Gwendolyn or whatever her name is terrible! She has spoken to people like dogs and never smiles. I have seen those Business Professors snap at students. Terrible and unprofessional!! I hope someone snaps at your college kids as well and you will see/understand the feeling! I still owe this school money after years of graduating. Oh, but wait! Other schools helped me find work and I barely owe anything! We spent thousands of dollars for a fuc….you know the rest degree that provided no access to jobs over $40,000 and they did not help us find work. Oh, but wait! You can mail us letters asking to donate money to the school and those players. No worries! Life is still great and we eventually made better money! This school is not worth it! Do not be fooled!Blair

From the first time I visited Ohio Dominican University, I was impressed by the atmosphere and interaction between students and professors. I loved the classroom sizes, which fostered the ability to ask questions and interact with fellow students and professors. This is something that I strongly feel is a key component for any young person to grow, learn, and figure out what path they want to pursue. Throughout the course of my time at Ohio Dominican, I developed many skills that I still use today.Joe Bell

I want to say my granddaughter was there to take test for school. I found that the Ohio Dominican was very well kept. The building was excellently kept. The food Cort excellent clean. Landscaping was beautiful kept. Students were very helpful and polite. Very respectful I would highly recommend it to anyone. Great Catholic University the staff outstanding. Thanks again for all you do all of you.Ralph. Blamer

If you want to be a concept artist or a character designer, don't go to this school, it's a waste of money and time. I graduated from CCAD in 2015, majoring in illustration. The illustration major was the only major offered entertainment design class. But they are not heavily focused on concept art techniques, because these professors are from the comics or illustration field. They don't understand how the concept art industry works, and the industry's standards. Concept art or character design are all done digitally, but I have never seen an illustration teacher do demo paintings on PS. Every time you come to class, you do projects. After the project, there was another project. There's nothing being taught by the teacher you learned on your own. Also, their illustration teacher doesn't know how to use PS to paint. Most of them come from a traditional painting background, and most of their teaching style are outdated, you ask them how to use the layer options, how to render paintings, how to set up brushes in photoshop, how to do AO style paintings, how to combine 3D models to paintings, they don’t know, Nowadays, 2D artists are required to know how to paint on computer, yet their teacher can teach you that. I should’ve drop out the first month, I was so stupid wasted my money and time to attend this trash school. CCAD's basic drawing fundamental class is like a hobby drawing class. Only one teacher can teach and demonstrate, and his name is Gordon Lee, the best anatomy teacher in the entire school. No one else can teach better than him. Most of them are lazy, just standing there walking around, or playing with the computer. The teacher's criticism was useless. If the perspective is wrong, the teacher won't fix it, they won’t tell you what you did wrong, If your gesture drawing is not right, they don't point it out, they don't show you the proper techniques to learn it. They just let you find mistakes by yourself. again they don’t correct your mistakes if you do it wrong, this school pretty much accept any students, they don’t care if you improve or not, they just want your money If you want to know what a good art lesson looks like, watch youtube videos. If you want to know how a good art teacher grades a student's work, watch Proko's example. Have a good art teacher is very important. But unfortunately CCAD's illustration major failed to offer that. Think about how much you paid for their classes and not getting the right information So if you are a high school student thinking about doing illustration or concept art, before applying for art schools, do more research on your own before taking 60k+ student loans, because a lot of them are scams, just like this school. There are better and cheaper art lessons out there, and already a lot of well known concept artists out there teaching lessons. You can find their lessons on skill share, gumroad, or youtube. They can teach way better and have more industry experience more digital painting experienced than CCAD's professors. Find the art style you like and learn from them. Save your 60K of student loans, spend it somewhere else that's more worth of your time and effort. Again DON'T GO TO THIS SCHOOL, IS A WASTE OF MONEY. The way they teach you it’s not gonna get you the job, if you going to this school, your chances of getting into concept art or character design industry is 0%.Anna Smith

I was actually going to drop a return a Amazon return and they directed to a lockers of theirs located on campus. Because it was 2 blocks down and 2 blocks over from my piling site, I thought that in addition to a good walk, it would be easy and convenient – it was neither. Amazon needs to pull their locker ASAP and I wouldn't recommend even visiting the campus for any reason. My main phone died as I approached the locker and I was having difficulty accessing service on a secondary phone and as I needed Amazon online, I asked to access their free WIFI which was available (which it is in must educational institutions). When I say asked, I mean walked around for a good 20 minutes, but NO ONE – that included students & coffee concession employee. No one was at either the help desk nor in their security office – where the lockers are located right outside the door. But the most appalling interaction of them all was when I spotted and spoke to an instructor (I assumed, as she was an older woman) and in answer to my query, she proceeded to tell me that 'they were going to ask Amazon to remove the locker because they were nothing but trouble' . And then she just stood there and stared at me. I do not make a bad appearance whenever I go out ; I speak with a proper New England-tinged accent and I believe it was 1pm, Tuesday afternoon but clearly I was judged by the individual as being unfit to access their free WIFI. Because of both my breeding and understanding of human nature, I didn't even both sharing my retort however here's what it would have been (with a smile): 'oh, don't bother because I'm going to contact them and suggest they should remove their locker ASAP because they shouldn't be doing business with you….'.Gaynell Farmer (Gaynl)

I attended CCAD for 1 year. While I had A's in all of my classes, I was unable to complete my degree due to a schedule conflict that I was told would not be an issue. I work full time during the day. Before enrollment, I explained to Admissions that I can only attend classes at night due to my work schedule. They explained to me that this would not be a problem and I would be able to complete my degree though night classes. After a year (and a whole lot of money!) I was informed that if I wanted to complete my degree that I would have to attend classes during the day as that is the only time core classes are taught. They offered to sign me up for another semester of night classes in hopes something changes in their policy and we can "wait and see". I don't know about you, but that is a lot of money for a "wait and see". So here I am, $15k later at another school. As far as the classes, half of the classes really worked to teach you something. The other half you would watch a YouTube video and and do an assignment. The teacher was there if you had questions, but would often differ you back to the YouTube video stating "I don't know the software that well". And if you do decide that this is the school for you, I recommend you take classes during the day. Night teachers are hard to find it seems so it is not uncommon to see a Pottery teacher teaching the Drawing class.Orion Offord

I love Columbus State and this is why: Before Columbus State: Growing up, I was never interested in the information taught in school, because I did not feel like it was applicable to the real world. After a year at a private college, I was originally apprehensive to restart college at any college. I was also scared of a community college. I grew up in Michigan, and I felt like our local community colleges had negative stigmas attached to them. Luckily, my older brother took me into the application office in Delaware, OH to take the entrance exam. I believe I tested out of an english and/or a math class. While at Columbus State: I would like to note that I always attended C-State as I held a part time job (10-20 hours a week). I originally attended an EMT-B class at Columbus State. The class was more challenging than I had anticipated and was pretty time consuming. I received a B in this course, but found employment immediately in the field and felt confident in my skills. A year later, I returned to C-State with the desires to go to nursing school. Thanks to ample meetings with advisors in Health and Human Services, I decided to take some prerequisite nursing classes as there was a waiting list to apply for their nursing program (while I worked part time as an EMT-B). During this year, I found more confidence in my work and studies, feelings of support and encouragement from staff, and rewards from hard work. I was also able to sign up easily for academic accommodations for the first time in my life! I loved my time at Columbus State within this year! I never thought I would love school or receive my first 4.0 GPA in the spring and summer semesters. For the first time, school finally felt fulfilling for me. After Attending Columbus State: I decided to leave C-State after a full academic year, and I pursued a BSN degree through another local school. I often look back at my time at C-State and regret that I did not take more classes here while saving a decent amount of money! I would suggest night classes if you are willing and able. I found that students were more likely to be hard working, more mature, disciplined, and also employed. I also found professors who taught night classes were often from OSU and more understanding. Generally my teachers were all very competent, funny, and held experience in the world. The only negative experience that I found was dealing with C-Stat's Police department staff and accessing their gym/locker room. Students must sign up manually for the gym locker rooms every semester at C-State's Police department and then wait for several days for your card to be accepted from security/police. This system seems dated and non-productive. I feel like this process should be easily automated. This issue led to a negative experience I had with a police officer that identified as Sergeant Diamond. I felt like this officer escalated my personal situation while being disrespectful and patronizing. Another time I was eating a meal in my car between classes when a police car pulled up to me and asked why I was parked between two spots in an empty parking lot and then asked me to pick a spot. I'm sure the police department deals with things they don't want to. I could have been lucky and experienced two poor attitudes on hard days, but I do not feel like the police department is fulfilling their mission that states they want to provide "exceptional customer service" for their students based on my only two experiences with them. I would take a look at how the police staff is trained at C-State.Connor Hill

I have enjoyed Columbus State and majority of the people I’ve met here while on track to my BA but this college needs some serious restructuring. The biggest thing I wish Cstate would look into is their faculty. When I go to ratemyprofessor.com and see many of them at a 1 to 2 star rating, that concerns me. I have personally had good and bad professors here and majority of the good ones were adjunct professors, the bad ended up being tenured faculty. I wish the college would look into the gripes students have and start to question whether or not they should be hiring adjunct professors to replace them. The only other major issue I’ve had is from advisors. The point of the advisor is to advise the student on their education path, but when I have a genuine question or concern, interrupting/having a snarky attitude doesn’t come off as professional to me. One last thing, please talk with the finance department about putting a budget together for another parking garage. I don’t go during peak hours anymore but when I did parking was atrocious. Pros -cheap -effective (sometimes) -some great professors Cons -unprofessional faculty at times -parking -communication from facultyEric Hudyk

It will be 6 weeks this semester (Spring 2019) before CSCC releases financial aid refunds. I cannot believe they get away with this! OSU is 9 days after the start of the semester! Some people rely on these excess funds to survive another semester of school! This should be illegal and I’m pretty sure it is because according to federal financial aid funds are to be released up to a max of 14 days after the start of a semester! Insane to make people wait 6 weeks+ to receive their refund. Also, parking is obnoxious here any time of day. It also seems to me that each department does not have a good linear structure of teaching so each professor is just kind of doing their own thing whichever way they feel like doing it. Some classes are too long some are too short. It really feels like no one is in control here it’s just a free for all I guess. Employees are not friendly in any way shape or form. Honestly the only good thing about this school is how cheap it is. “You get what you pay for.” 🤷‍♂️614 Realness

My only college education is passing a semester of English in community college. I like to visit college campuses when I am in different cities. When I was walking the campus a nice young lad riding an electric scooter stopped me and asked "Hey where is the library?". I was extremely flattered by this. He assumed 1 I looked young enough to be a college student walking to my next lecture. 2 that I was smart enough to attend this university (sadly my grades in high school are way below the requirements to attend this university). My pride was fulfilled. Sadly for him I informed him that I did not know where the library was as I was not a student. Also the grounds keeping staff does a top notch job.Jake P

I had an incredible experience at The Ohio State University. There is a lot of stuff to do here; you can never get bored with all the fun events on campus. The campus is always very lively and fun. OSU got plenty of libraries with a big book stack, so you never need to worry about study space. OSU have all the recourse that a student can think of; they also have fun clubs and societies so you can join them according to your interest. The campus bus service is also excellent, so there are no worries about transportation around the campus. The recreational center at OSU is one of the biggest in the whole country. And how can one miss the Shoe the best football stadium.TUSHAR GARG

The university has a broad spectrum of offerings that should appeal to the masses. The campus is well laid out and there is plenty of room for parking and walking around campus with ease. Whether you are a serious student or still trying to figure out life, you should be able to find quality friends and a quality education here. The real question is do you want it? Life is ticking, TikTok better get busy! The student union has a lot to offer there is plenty of places to study, to get your banking done, to get administrative work done, and meet up with your friends casually. If you want to work on a Masters, doctorate, or PhD, consider Ohio State University.Aaron Duhon

Don't waste your money unless you are going to study Nursing or Law. Reviews say this college is pretty conservative but in a lot of my experiences, it is anything but that. For the amount of money it costs to go to this school, it's almost not worth it. The dorms need renovated BADLY. With the 3 main dorms on campus the rooms are so small and accommodations are limited. Not enough washers and dryers and the buildings are crawling with dust. Poor maintenance on all of the buildings and nothing is really updated in general. The food sucks too. To top it all off, Capital is building a brand new convergent media center for film students, and my only questions are: why would you build something for a group of people who won't have much of an income when they graduate to either 1) pay off their debt or 2) give endowment money back? To me, this place is only worth it for Nursing or Pre law/ Law. Finally, residence life and admissions are a joke because each year they accept more students than they have room for then make the upperclassmen suffer their stupid decisions.Andrew

I find the negative reviews to be perplexing. I graduated from Capital in '96 after transferring in some hours from other schools. And, I completed six years of part-time course work in the Adult Degree Program (ADP) while working a full-time job. Most of my professors had PhDs, including my advisor. My professors were very friendly and our interactions were always pleasant, yet, they challenged me in class, on tests, and on papers via critical thinking. They were top-notch educators. I, also, came to know several professors on a more personal level by volunteering with them at WOSU and manning the phone banks for donations. Yes, they took the time to give me personal attention, however, I also observed that they did the same with other students. Attending Capital was like a breath of fresh air and very unlike the impersonal way I was treated at Ohio State, and even at Columbus State. At Capital I felt I was being treated as a real person and not as a mere number satisfying a quota.Steven

WORST college I ever attended. The professors were the only good things about the school. The rest of the faculty were horrible. Financial aid won't help you or explain anything to you. In order to attend classes you must make sure EVERYTHING is paid for. And don't plan on ever leaving the school because they will screw you over big time. This school costs so much money for NOTHING. If you want to go to a good school, go to OSU or somewhere else. Capital looks like a nice school but they're just money hungry. Seriously do your research and do a visit before even going to the school. Try to sit in on a class if you can. If I was you, I would stay clear of this place and go somewhere else.Kim Porter

This school is trash. The teachers don’t do their job, they always lose work, never put in grades, and they’re terrible at teaching. the students are always fighting, and it’s dirty everywhere AND we be freezing in this mf 💀.Riley Wil

This school is just horrible teachers barley communicate with you theres atleast 2 fights a week and ive literally witnessed a student rolling up marijuana in classMonty

I go here the teachers help you with your work and they walk you through it there's a lot of bad students here but there's never any perfect schools out thereOpTicVenomz

The office staff is beyond helpful. When I requested paperwork to get my child into a different High School, the paperwork was ready for me to pick up that day. All of the teachers I interacted with were very receptive to my input about my child and the music program is amazing! The principal knows the students by name and treats them with the respect they deserve because it is given to him. This is a Columbus City School I would recommend highly!Beth Hunter

I attended this school from 2003 to 2006 for grades K-3rd and though I will say it was an alright experience, more good than bad it could have definitly used improvements. I forged friendships there that I missed when I moved out of state and had good memories but some of the school policies were frankly idiotic. An example of a bad policy they have is that they banished kids from talking during lunch so that they can supposedly hear if somebody chokes. Choking does not always have a noise, choking victims may not be able to cough or tell somebody. Instead of giving a rule that is almost like a punishment to other children they need to teach them and the staff the universal choking signal and for the students to look out for each other and report if something is wrong. They also had staff who would walk by and monitor the tables so a talking ban seemed un necessary and like a drastic measure if students were supposedly being supervised. Other things I did not like when I attended the school was the amount of staff turn over in the afterschool latch key program. Numerous times I would be saddened or heart broken as a child when staff would say their goodbyes and vacate their positions. The school is also not very diverse and offer limited extra opportunities to gifted students or tutoring for struggling students. I moved and switched to a public school in New York state that I found I enjoyed more and my test scores dramatically increased within the first couple months, my brain was being given extra challenges for areas I was gifted or advanced in and staff were willing to sit down and give me extra time to tutor my weaknesses in areas like math.Kayla Kitchen

Both of my daughters attended Woodcrest. The best decision to send my girls. Will always love Woodcrest and their staff.Tanya Smith

I love this old building, and have so many happy memories connected to it. I hope someday the English Dept will get a big enough donation to renovate and clean it up.Kaleigh Robbins