My review is strictly devoted to a synopsis of CCS' Manoogian Visual Resource Center. I attended a poetry reading by Anna Vitale, Lynn Crawford, and Anselm Berrigan tonight that was hosted by CCS' Manoogian Visual Resource Center. The space is awesome. Upon entering, you're treated to an all-sorts smorgasbord of visual graphics, design, art, and product creation. I'm not sure it's an art gallery so much as a giant display room of the many directions CCS students have oriented themselves, from the purely aesthetic to the purely economic. Whatever their direction, the art/ design/ commodity display in the main foyer is very impressive and excellently arranged. Bright, roomy, colorful, and begging you to explore, gawk, stare, and meander. The side room that hosted the poetry reading was spatially ideal. Wedged into a corner, the readers were bannered by bright visual art, paintings and collage, which gives a vocal performance of poetry a nice visual counterpoint. The corner-tuck also allows for chairs to be arranged in a radiating pattern in relation to the lectern, so you can cram quite a few people into the gallery space. The ONLY let down was the sound set-up. The acoustics of this space are kinda poor. The ceilings are VERY high, and the readers are competing with a very loud ventilation/ temperature control system that creates a background interference level noticeable ABOVE "white noise". Their in-house lectern is also a little low, which means the mic is a little low, which means the amplifiers are pumping out a lot of dead "hiss"... staff should re-work the sound set-up to achieve live performance-worthy audio. The night was catered with delicious wines at donation cost. And there's free parking for about 25 cars out front, plus street parking (just across from the DIA/ Detroit Film Institute, on John R - one street east parallel to Woodward). All in all, a really great space to book a public arts event. Super job CCS. read more

I love being a part of the CCS community. The glassblowing studio is awesome and I learned so much from the amazing staff. I hope to be able to return some day for a metal-smithing course! read more

Okay so flat out this school is a lie , they don't tell you till you are a senior that you won't expect to get a job in your field of study for about 5 years after graduating ....... Half of the professors are in there 20s...... the other half are so old they flat out tell you they don't have any network connections for students sense they have been out of the field so long..... This is a great school if your parents make you choose from working at there company or go to college .... This place is nothing but a rich kids playground and so help you god if you think differently about situations or have your own thoughts and opinions about stuff it's flat out wrong if it doesn't alone with the educators ...... been at this school for 3 years there a joke if you want a real art education in the Midwest go to Chicago school of arts read more

Overall its a hit or miss, The Good Student Services is great, especially Arlene and Katherine in the success center, and career services, everyone is fast to reply to emails. Shuttle services are always quick and the drivers are always polite and personable. Foundation and Liberal Arts were great. Design core formally DC3 is great and has helped me a lot with my design businesses. The bad, The school is incredibly classist, supplies, printing, and everything cost lots of extra money, and many students from lower-income families ended up dropping out, or failing classes due to that. The building is over secured, which would sometimes be a good thing, and rules are ridiculous, but about half the guards were great and a half was awful and had a cop wannabe complex, The security administrator and supervisors were alright depending on the guard or situation you complained about. James, Keith, and Ron were great, but kelly, Anthony, and Marion were bad. I was in the Graphic Design Department, the first chair Doug Kisor was horrible, classist, and very old school, The second chair Sue Laporte was great, clear, personable, and didn't baby you, and was one of the few full-time professors I actually learned something from. Chad Reichert is one of the most narcissistic Human beings, I ever met, He loves to put down and humiliated students, for entertainment, has a very Trump-like personality, with opposite political views. The worst for last, The tuition is ridiculous, and keep rising every year, when I started it was 35k a year, a lot but my senior year it was almost 40k a year, now it is a whopping 45k a year, Loans will kill you, and many design job, especially junior designer didn't pay super well, so plan on living at home for some years. Overall you are probably better off going to U of M Penny Stamps or Michigan State. I only reason I went was that I didn't get into any. read more

Ahh, CCS. I attended thee for one year. Then I turned and fled. This review is based on when I went there, which was 2002-2003. I'm not sure what it's like now, but I'll give my $.02. So, yeah, it's an art school. However, it specializes in Industrial Design. AKA designing cars. Everything is secondary to that . .. but how could you blame 'em? It's in Detroit, the motor city. I was not ID. I was an animation/film major. At that time the program was going through a HUGE overhaul and a few months before I got there, the head of my concentration got fired. This new guy came in as the "interim chair of animation and video." He wanted to change EVERYTHING. My intuition told me that this could potentially be bad. My intuition was right. This guy was a DOUCHE. I had him for a lecture class....we didn't have any tests, no homework, but somehow we were getting graded. He gave me a C. What the eff!?! How can you grade me if you don't give me anything to be graded upon? Anywho, back to my overall experience.... If you want to study industrial design, this is where you should go. The teachers are brutal ("what is this shit on my wall?!"), but it weeds out the faint of heart pretty fast. If you're in ID , prepare to work your ass off. Classmates of mine have gone without sleep for 3 days just to stay on top of the work load. I heard of people sabotaging each other's projects. It's intense. It's also pretty intense for other concentrations as well, but ID takes the cake. Another unique part of CCS was their review system. I'm not sure if it's the same now, but when I was around you got yearly reviews. You put everything you did over the past year up on the wall and the heads of your department would come and score you. If you fell below a certain score you were put on academic probation. You were given another review after the next semester. If you failed too many reviews you were kicked out of CCS - regardless of your grades. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!! I left because I thought I could get a better film education elsewhere, and I was correct. I attended Columbia College Chicago for the rest of my college career and never looked back. read more

First of all you had to be pretty good to get accepted in when I first went (mid 90's) so I was a bit surprised they accepted me, but later I think it was more because my loan applications for tution were approved. This place kind of killed my desire to want to do art. My wife graduated from CCS too, she still does painting, drawings ect. Some of the teachers are great but a good number of them are egotistical asses. 99% of the students are just pathetic. At least I found my wife here so it was worth going. Save your sanity and money and go to Wayne State. You don't really need to go to school to be an artist. read more

This school is boot camp. Weeds out the weak. Expect to say goodbye to your social life. You won't have time for it. Expect to say up 3+ days during finals. Expect not to eat much cause you won't have time cause you have too much subjective homework! Expect to get your artwork ripped on by a professor. (and occasionally patted on the back). Keep your car interior clean so the bums won't be temped to break in. But, if you finish in 4 years, your golden... The second one (Christine) to review is pretty much right on the dot. I happened to be in the ID (Industrial Design) program and the school treated us like rockstars. No joke. ID students were placed into the new Walter B Ford building and who used the new designer furniture. The new Macs, Dells, flat screens. The new mechanical art desks. The new shop and paint booth, not to mention the $250,000 milling machine. We also have a better recruiting system than the rest of the departments. We were spoiled... Graphic Design, Interior Design, and Animation are also in the building with us, but we had more access. It is overall a great school for ID. I have my complaints though, the ACB has cockroaches and the elevators break down easily. (only lived there my freshman year and moved out fast) CCS had end-of-year reviews for the students my Freshman and Sophomore year. That is- we display our very best work we accomplished from that school year and have a panel of faculty members to critique us. If we received a score of umm. let's say, 45 or lower. We got a 'fail' or 'check' if we had two, we were immediately dropped from that particular program. I honestly think they should not have cut reviews. It teaches students good work ethic, organization, and gives 'em a little more added stress during finals. Which is always healthy. Also, internships are not mandatory as of now, but last I heard, they were working on that. If I had a chance, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.... read more

As a note, I do not attend CCS. I recently came with Husband and a friend here to get potential graduate degree information. Truthfully, before I moved to MI, I had never heard of CCS in the art school world. However, after living here for quite some time, the mentioning of this school increased tenfold. After doing some research, and visiting the large school campus, I can see why so many people love and also hate coming here. The Pros: - Great facilities, state of the art equipment to execute all the most complicated and industry-spec projects. - Right next door to the DIA - Detroit's preeminent art museum, so convenient access for inspiration. - Professional and welcoming staff, both undergraduate and graduate. - Impressive transportation design gallery displays. The Cons: - As with the city of Detroit, in comparison to other major cities, the different avenues for inspiration and exposure is limited. - Different majors do not all collaborate on sponsored projects, just a select few. - Limited graduate degree programs (there are currently only 2). - Not all majors are showcased evenly. As with most art schools, it is expensive. However, that's not a surprise. They have many interesting lectures and events going on throughout the year at the school that are interesting, so if you're into creative expression or are curious to venture into a creative career, CCS is a great place to stop at. read more

I graduated in '91. That was the year to be a part of the school-known as Center for Creative Studies. It was a force to be reckoned with. The fine arts school was strong,with teachers from New York studios who flew in-anyone remember Aris? or Dennis? Now all remains is bureaucracy money and the need to make more money. Seeing the faculty list was a shocker. This school is no longer the same, sadly. read more

Ccs is probably the best opportunity out there. So many career options and ways to get there. CCS has the best equipment and most of it is very accessible. read more