I was a student of the centre for arts and technology. Not the one in Halifax so I can't speak about that campus but I can speak about the Fredericton campus. I left half way through. If you do go to the centre for arts and technology make sure you only pay by quarter because getting a refund is a nightmare. The first three months of my animation program was made up of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. No animation. There was an insane amount of professional development. I guess that's cheap to teach. Most of the instructors seem to be right out of school or out of their element. And VCU, don't get me started on trying to learn animation by VCU (Video conference unit). They seem to be moving more toward VCU becasue more of my classes were being taught from another campus. My advice, for any college you plan to attend not just the centre for arts and technology, talk to current and former students. If the college doesn't let you - walk away. I paid alot for my year there. It was an expensive lesson. Ronald Reagan said it best, and this relates to recruiters, "trust but verify" read more

I can only speak for the Animation course in which I say you'll be met with brilliant, funny, caring teachers, who have a passion and interest in the industry. When students come back after graduating to visit they are greeted like an old friend who they generally are interested to hear from and curious to see improvements. I suffer with dysthymia and generalized anxiety disorder in which I worried.. naturally, but they are respectful and flexible with my conditions. This is a wonderful course if you have the drive and persistence for animation. read more

The Centre for Arts & Technology is a privatized institution that offers various 12-18 month programs in the realms of digital arts. Audio engineering, graphic design, animation, and digital film making are amongst its offerings. The school prides itself on accelerated curriculum, limited seats, and the hands-on, industry efficient momentum that will have you out in the field ASAP. It comforts prospective students from the sky-high tuition rates by assuring the fact that you only pay for as many days you are there; if it happens that you withdrawal, you will not be charged the full amount of tuition. From an outside perspective, The Centre for Arts & Technology sounds to be quite promising. However, from an insiders perspective... it is not all what it seems. I was enrolled for the Graphic Design program for Fall 2007. I'd just finished my BA at UNB, and like many others, I was looking for post grad work to develop some more technical skills. After researching online a bit, I was met with a phone call from the school, and eventually decided to submit my application papers. The school works hard to create the facade of prestige. With a one-on-one interview process, I was required to travel up to the Fredericton campus, bring my portfolio/ sketchbook, prepare to articulate my dedication to the program... this was something that impressed me. The actual interview, however, turned out to be a basic tour of a facility I wouldn't even be attending, a simple sit down to tell me information that was already listed on the website, and no interest in looking at my sketchbook. The process took less than 10 minutes. In hindsight, this was a red flag, but I was "accepted" and enrolled myself to start October 2007. The actual classroom experience was laughable. The first 2 months would be a foundation semester, which included a 5 course curriculum of classes like business management, art history, graphic design, and digital film. It seems that anyone with an undergrad degree and/or a few years of experience is qualified to teach here. My art history teacher sounded like she was regirgitating notes from a Google search, and for an intro arts history course, the subject content seemed ridiculous. 19th or 20th Century art seem to be more appropriate for an intro class- but here we were, spending 3 weeks of classes listening to the most mundane facts on Greek pillars. There were no tests, no interaction, no structure- just a young woman with questionable qualifications, stumbling her way through an hour lecture. And what made the whole thing worse, is that there was no respect on the students part... it was pretty obvious that this was a waste of time. Too many times were classes cancelled (3 times in less than 2 months for one class) and the overall class mentality did not feel to be beyond high school standards. When I told my friend, who is the VP at an independent production house, that one of our business management projects was to create a presentation (on any topic) in Power Point, he encouraged me to get out. This is dated, he said. The administration staff equally frustrating. When I was there, they were met with much frustration with more senior students, but refused to allow a student union. Rules and regulations seem inconsistent and glossed over to their advantage. When I withdrew just 2 weeks before the foundation semester, I met with the "student advisor" and informed her of my plans. Bubbly and sweet, she assured me they would send me the paperwork and wished me the best of luck. A few weeks later, I received notification of the logistics, and it appeared that I would be out $5000 for my 2 months of under-par education. From what I hear, the audio engineering course is actually very good, as there are local recording studios that give students hands-on experience, and solid instructors who are somewhat integrated within the industry. For all other programs, I'd encourage prospective students to explore other options. As a privatized institution, it seems that admin work through loopholes, and reel people in, but in actuality, the institution's body of content and genuine regard are lacking. These are a few things I wish I could've seen earlier-- before investing thousands of empty dollars read more

DON'T DO IT!! I was enrolled in the photography program and could have learned more off of youtube. I tried to drop out in second semester because I wasn't learning enough and the president convinced me to give it one more shot. I went to her in the second week of 3rd semester and she told me I passed the halfway mark and wouldn't get any money back so I might as well finish and get my diploma. Thanks for stealing 20k and providing me with zero education in return. read more

I am a graduate of Events and Promotions Management of 2012. The school offers a lot of complimentary programs, so it made being an event planner very easy; I had all of my resources (graphic designers, Audio engineers, photographers, filmmakers) at my finger tips! The small classes sized meant that someone cared if I wasn't at school, I had one on one time with my instructors, ad my class became a group of tight knit friends. read more

I attended the Kelowna CATO and dropped out within two months. And STILL had to pay half my tuition. The tuition is an absolute joke. $32,000 for the Digital Filmmaking program. For what? All of their equipment is out of date, their 'production studio' is an absolute embarrassment, which is shared just for classroom space with half a dozen different classes. The first semester is a waste of time. You literally learn less than you would in a high school course. And the teaching staff, 'industry professionals' that are all failed almost-were's that tried to have a career in film and failed at it. Film school is a rip off no matter where you go, but this takes it to another level. People on real film sets won't hire you because you went to some shitty school nobody's heard of in Okanagan, B.C. And very little in the way of film work ever comes to Kelowna. If you absolutely must go to film school, move to Vancouver and try your luck there, at least you'll have Hollywood North to try to break into when you finish. Just don't go here. This school should be shut down and charged for robbery charging people what they do. I'm amazed that program is still running. read more

Boyfriend went here, and we both attended the "graphic arts bootcamp" at the Fredericton campus back in 2013 (which I will admit, was actually pretty decent compared to the actual classroom experience.) Luckily my boyfriend is of native decent and was able to get his tuition paid for, but still a huge waste of money. I'm attending NSCAD in January myself; an accredited arts school that's actually worth the money (and as far as I can tell, is actually cheaper than DaVinci!) but I thought I'd give my 2 cents anyways. My partner entered the graphic design and web development program at the Fredericton campus back in 2014. Half the time, the teacher wouldn't show up and classes would simply be cancelled. There were only 8 students in my partner's class, and from what I heard, no one ever paid attention or really did anything. Worst of all, by the sounds of things, the teacher never really cared whether the students were paying attention or not anyways. My boyfriend went through a rough patch at one point and simply stopped attending classes. He missed most of them, and was thinking about dropping out, but as many others said, an adviser convinced him otherwise. By the time graduation rolled around this year (2016) he, like a few of his other classmates, was told that he failed. However, as far as I know, they tried to convince him to take out a student loan so he could try again (Because of course, that would mean they'd get more money). So he didn't graduate (partially because of how much the "teachers" barely cared about their students), and they likely knew that he wouldn't, but they convinced him to stay anyways. Not only that, but now he's convinced that he can't apply to any other school because he failed the graduate from this "school". Do yourself a favour and don't go here. If you're serious about graphic art, do some research and find a better school. You may have to work harder to get into another school (since DaVinci seems to take practically anyone with the money to go through their program) but it's definitively worth it in the end. Not going to school is also an option; you don't need to go to school to become an artist if that's what you're looking to do. Going to school for art is less about coming out with a degree and more about the skills you'll gain and the people you'll meet; neither of which you'll find at DaVinci since I'm pretty sure the people who "teach" you are undergrads themselves. read more

This school is nothing but a joke. They make you think you're getting an amazing education and even back it up by saying you're guaranteed a job upon completion. It's all lies. The teachers obviously don't require much experience or as far as I witnessed don't even require much of an education. They overcharge, aren't organized, go through staff like crazy, and just plain suck. I would never recommend this shool to anyone! read more

The school wasn't perfect but I had a great experience. The animation instructors in Halifax were awesome and would go out of their way to help you If you applied yourself. I had to leave NS to land a job in animation unfortunately but I'll be back someday. Overall I would recommend CAT but only if you're focused and plan to work hard. It's too expensive if you just plan to waste your time. read more

DO NOT GO. The only worth while part of this college was the professors that taught our classes. And they are gone now. But due to piss poor choices that leaned towards profit over education, they started to put more and more pressure on their professors- limit their ability to teach even more to the point that some of our professors started to 'teach' subjects on their own time in order to try giving their students a better chance of a career. Since then about all of the professors I've known and been grateful for learning under have left this college to find greener pastures. I was hounded for a review of this school, and when I say "YOU ARE BETTER OFF LEARNING FROM HOME" I mean it. Do some research, buy the right books and look into using student version programs for practice, and organize yourself to learn from home. Using communities on the internet for review, and constructive lessons from experienced artists is far far better than this overpriced college. In bullet form here are some of the things I most remember from there: -Students were not allowed in through the front doors. We had to take the back door. The reason? Secretary was getting cold. The back entrance looks like a narrow slum for workers that are meant to be unseen use to travel. -Some of the courses included 'how to use Microsoft Excel'. The professors thought that was so insanely stupid to waste three months of classes on, they passed everyone after three days on the course, and turned the remaining days into lab classes for rigging/modeling/animation. -The only theater room designed for viewing our work and progress was turned into a home- ec sewing room. The theater room was then moved to a corner office with the biggest windows in the entire building. You have to squint to see what is on the projectors now. Or hope that your classes are in the evenings. -Even the professors warned 'not to go here' under the pretense that they knew their students were being ripped off due to the poor conditions of this school. -By the time I graduated, there were only 4 students in the same course. They combined our course with 3D game animation courses due to our numbers being so low. -The only reason I have a career in this industry is due to making connections with the professors that formerly worked there, and because I pushed myself to learn as much as I could from them despite the efforts of this college had in sabotaging themselves. read more