SAE Expression College (Emeryville, CA)

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Ex'pressions - college or vocational school?

Feb 2010

Ex'pressions in Emeryville bills itself as a college offering a BA degree. However, it really looks like a vocational school training students in animation, media, and audio engineering. I have nothing against vocational schools, but Ex'pressions seems to be offering a token history class here or there as a way of claiming to offer a full BA.

Am I off base here? If you have experience with Ex'pressions, could you share how it really works? My daughter is interested and I am skeptical. Anon

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You're right about the thinness of the humanities offerings at Ex'pressions. The school is very good at what they specialize in, though. The quality of the students varies widely. - taught there

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I am a private music teacher in Berkeley (piano, guitar, sax, flute, clarinet, theory). A few years ago I was contacted by Ex'pressions and interviewed for a teaching position there, teaching a music software course. I decided not to take that position. However, I was very impressed with the school and their facilities. They seemed to be on the cutting edge in arts technology, and their teachers were active in their field. Their advantage seemed to be that there are no summer vacations, therefore you earn your degree in 3 years instead of the usual 4 years. In terms of whether Ex'pression is a vocational vs. a well-rounded college, I would say it might be more accurate to call it a vocational school. But if it is accredited to give degrees, then that degree is just as valid as a university degree. (Be sure to check their accreditation status.) Ernie M

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Hi Anon, My daughter sent this to me and I think it says it all....

My mom passed your post on to me because I'm going to Ex'pressions College and I'm Majoring in Sound Arts. I just started my 3rd term (a term is 5 weeks long). Each term I take two classes. I love it! I'm learning a lot and the teachers are really good and well qualified. Most importantly they are all willing to work with students individually if needed. The classes are small, giving the teachers time to work with each student.

Ex'pressions is accredited and I will get my BA. In the Sound major we don't even get to take a sound class til the second academic year, after GEs. Right now I have taken an Analytical Writing class, an American History class, and one of the common core classes in which my group made a short 7min video start to finish.

I know that Ex'pressions is a big commitment and my parents made me do a lot of work to prove that I wanted to go, because its not that kind of school where you can go and then play around.

While going here I have worked really hard. The classes are only 5 weeks long. Missing too much class time (including being late, or leaving early) means failing the class. Students have to stay on top of our homework if we want to pass the classes.

I love this school! During the year I took off after high school I learned that things were not handed to me in life like they had been in high-school, I learned that I have to work for what I want - I have to earn it! I have made friends quicker here than anywhere else. I love being in the environment that the school gives us to learn and work in.

I know this is long, I'm sorry about that. But I tell you all of this because I want you to know what I went through to get into the school because in a way it prepared me (and I hated my mom for making me do it), but now I see that it was the right thing. I know its a lot of money to put into a mainly vocational school but they do offer GE's & I have learned a lot from the two that I have taken so far.

I hope this helps. Good luck. Danielle

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Nov 2007

RE: Community college for 16yo who just passed the CHSPE?

 

My son took the CHSPE at 16 and then left high school after the 1st semester of his junior year. He had been quite happy socially at HS, but quite unhappy with classes and school work, and his grades were sliding. He enrolled in Expression College for Digital Arts, in Emeryville, and started about a month after leaving HS. They have a 30-month, year-round immersion program to complete a BA--it's quite structured, with from 24 to 36 hours per week in class, plus additional work outside to complete projects. He graduated on time, having missed maybe 5 or 6 days over the whole program. It really was an education that he chose, and for him, that made a huge difference.

Not all of his teachers were terrific, but some were. Some courses were definitely more interesting than others. But he bonded with a batch of students all going through the program at the same time, and they helped encourage and motivate each other. He was the youngest by a stretch, but that didn't seem to matter.

He is 20 now, and finding that he has to face the after-college questions earlier than many of his friends --like ''now what do I do with my life?'' He has a couple of part time jobs, and is gradually sorting out ''what next''.

In some ways I think the hardest thing is being at a different stage now than his closest friends, who are still the ones he went to HS with. Plus most of them went away to college, and he has missed that experience. (He still lives with us, and given the cost of living around here, probably will for at least another year.)

For him, leaving HS early and switching to college was absolutely the right thing to do. Going to a very structured program really helped. I'm not sure things would have worked as well if he had been at a Community College, but it's hard to know, since he didn't go that way.

As for art classes in our local Community Colleges--My husband took a number of art courses at Laney and Merritt in the late 90s, and had some really terrific instructors. Some have moved on, but I know that Dorcas Moulton is still at Merritt--she is quite good (watercolor).

I hope the transition goes well for your daughter. Good luck! anon