Sessions College

What a total waste of money. If I could give this NO STARS, I would have. I've been working in the print industry for 14 years but I need to learn how to code web pages in order to get a new job. Nobody hires just print artists anymore. You need web knowledge. And even though I have an AA degree from a different college, I was told I had to take all the preliminary classes - again. As I figured, I didn't learn anything. But with all the hoops you have to jump through, it still took me several weeks to get through those classes each, even though I treated them like a job working 8+ hours a day, when they say it should only take you around 15 hours to complete a class. So I finally get to the HTML/CSS class. This stuff is hard to understand, and I told them BEFORE I signed up that I am a visual learner and that I was concerned with this type of curriculum because I'm not a book learner. But I was assured I would have plenty of help. HA! No there isn't. Not even close! It's all just reading a short little paragraph, and if you don't understand it, you're outta luck. There is no one to verbally ask questions to. You can however email your instructor, but it will talk a minimum of 24 hours to receive a response; sometimes as many as 4 days, and meanwhile you have another handful of questions. Occasionally there's a little minute-or-so video that basically reiterates what the paragraph above it just said - sometimes verbatim. That's all you get. The curriculum is written for those who already understand it. It's only easy when you know how to do it. And there are so many errors in the curriculum, that other people before me have complained about as well, that still have never been corrected. Didn't anyone proof this before it was uploaded? How am I supposed to trust that the information is correct when there are so many errors?? Knowing nothing about coding, even I knew that organized lists and unorganized list can't both be coded <ol>. One of them is WRONG. I was having a hard time understanding pseudo classes. I spent over 8 hours a day for 10 days straight trying to figure it out and all I got from Catherine my instructor was a link to something that looked absolutely nothing like the curriculum which was no help whatsoever. Gee, thanks. Another time I asked about what the indenting protocol was for the Style Sheet, and she told me that she couldn't design my website for me. WHAT? That's not what I asked!! Did she even read my question? When I asked her again - and had to wait ANOTHER 24 hours, she told me I could do whatever I wanted. I found out later from a tutor that there IS proper protocol. Um, hello? I don''t want to just get by, I need to use this knowledge to get a JOB and "do whatever you want" and forming bad habits isn't going to increase my chances of getting a job. Isn't that what I paid for??? So then I had to find other sources for help, because the school is no help at all. I Googled; I bought books; I asked a total stranger at the book store; I hired a tutor and paid him $50/hr; and I found someone from my church who gave up his date night with his wife to help me.....and I only got through 1/2 the HTML/CSS class. I couldn't try any harder!!! And they DON'T CARE. So now I'm locked out of my classes because I didn't "finish in time" and I was given an extra 2 months, however it was already 1/2 way through the month and I SILL don't have access to the curriculum. What's the point of that? So then I was told if I needed more time after that I could pay $30/month or $200 to reactivate my curriculum if I wanted to take some time off. After all, I'm not a kid living with my parents. Eventually I have to do some work to keep the lights on and a roof over my head. Then just the other day I received an email telling me that I would have to pay a prorated rate on the classes I didn't finish. Are you kidding me? They keep changing the rules. I'm out of money. I'm living on savings as it is, and the last thing I'm going to do is give this joke of a school more money. In a nutshell, keep looking for another way to learn coding. EJ Media has a whole bunch of videos on YouTube, and FreeCodeCamp.com were much more helpful. Sessions College is clearly ALL ABOUT THE MONEY and not about their students succeeding.

I went to CMC & RRCC for my first degree and I learned fast I did not like the in classroom experience. There was not many job opportunities that worked around my class times. So when I decided to go back to school I researched online learning and Sessions was the first college to pop up. After studying and comparing this school to others I choice this one and am happy with my choice. Pricing is not bad and I still get a college experience with the time I can. It is accelerated learning. Meaning you go to school in the summer and do not get spring break and other holidays off. However, you get a nice break after a semester and then jump right back into it. Sessions gave me the time to learn what I wanted to and get the degree I wanted.

I learned alot from the Professional Web Design program. Tons of info in a short amount of time. I was in the VRAP so it is definitely an accelerated program. In my opinion it would be more efficient if the methodology was kept down to one procedure. I found it difficult to retain the information. Not only because of the accelerated program, but I found the lessons to be too information intensive. I couldn't afford Adobe and found great open source software that worked great and was easier to use. Adobe is just too redundant with so many ways of doing something, it's almost ludicrous. I found the majority of the instructors spent no time "correcting" lessons and exercises. In a class room environment assignments are returned with corrections and comments. Maybe even help completing a task. Not so with Sessions. I was on my own to find solutions with the comments limited to what was wrong. Nothing as to how to fix anything. Networking could definitely be greatly improved. I made no connections or contacts. I would have liked to have met other students. There is a Facebook page but participation is almost non-existent. I think networking should be highly promoted, maybe even required. I'm leaving with no contacts or possibilities for future work with fellow graduates.

Sessions has been great for me to learn Web Design. I feel challenged every week that I get a new assignment. The teachers provide really great feedback on the work you have done and give you the opportunity to implement that feedback and resubmit. You also get to see other students' work which really helps to see how others interpret the same assignment you did. It is amazing to see the different abilities that students have. The schedule for the lectures and assignments is very regular, so you always know what to expect each week of the program. It does take some effort to fit everything in, but it doesn't really take as much time as you might think to fit it all in. If you love doing the work, it isn't really a chore anyway! I have found that the lack of community can be a little challenging at times. I would really like to connect more with my classmates. There isn't really a good forum to chat or connect with students or exchange ideas when you get stuck on assignments. There are discussions with other students, but they aren't very lively. You enter with a group of students, but you don't stay with that group of students all the way through. New people come in and others you know move on to other classes. I feel like I will leave this school experience with no comrades or network to work from when it comes to looking for jobs or comparing notes on how life after school is going. Overall, a lot of great skills can be gained at this school. I have a lot of positive things to say about the knowledge I have gained and I have seen a massive improvement in my skills. If you are looking for really strong student community, it isn't the best for that.

The Good: self paced, no interaction with other students, no interaction with teacher unless one has questions, overall, the material is very good. The Bad: No one proof reads the material. An 6th graded could find typos and major issues in the material that this college seems to miss. I have taken 9 classes and every single one of them has had typos in almost every single lesson and exercise. Some of the typos are syntax issues, some are major flaws/errors in the teaching. I have written comments on all these and they tell me they will correct them right away. The issue is that I shouldn't have to find errors that they missed. The JavaScript course is also severely lacking and I completed the entire class in 2 days. The assignments were a joke and the teaching was too. I have used what I learned a lot but the class was not worthy of 3 credits. The tuition for advanced certs is a joke and costs 2-3 times what the classes taken separately cost. Given that there is no difference in class work and no teacher interaction, I am not sure why an advanced cert costs so much and the school has not been able to answer this for me. All in all the school is great but I am very disappointed in the proof reading this college does given that the printed material is the only class material as there are no lectures or books to buy. One would think that given this is their only material for the class, they would review it with a fine tooth comb.

For what it is, an online school, it is very good. I had attended another very well known media arts schools' online web development program in the past so I have something to compare it too, and I can say that Sessions is very good, much better than the other school I had attended, and much less expensive. As far as interaction with other students, I can honestly say that there is not much. Basically, you have up to 3 or more courses going at a time, and you can access any one of those courses at anytime, so you have "real" classmates which attend the same classes at the same time as you. I have been taking this program for 8 months now and have never chatted with another student. I classes can be very demanding. I was already somewhat versed for example, in HTML/CSS, and each individual assignment still was time consuming, so I can see how people that have no familiarity can be somewhat lost at first. I had taken Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop before attending sessions, so again I was very familiar with these software programs but I can honestly say that I learned much more in the Photoshop and illustrator classes at sessions than I had learned in other school courses. The quality of the courses is very good, in my opinion. I'd also like to talk about the interactions with the instructors. Unless you ask questions via Email, the only time you will hear from the teachers is via the grade and feedback they give for each assignment. This is not necessarily a bad thing because they do give very good feedback, and if you need to correct things, you read their feedback, do the corrections, then resubmit the assignments. The course materials...there is none, except what you read on the course assignments web page. Again, this is not a bad thing because the assignments are broken up into two part, you have the lecture and the exercise. In the lecture portion they explain how to do the assignment, tell you tips etc (a lot of instruction, links to read more as well) then in the exercise portion they talk about the assignment and actually give you further instruction. I have found this to be more than sufficient. If I had one complaint, it would be that in the orientation, they said that you can do an assignment (lecture and exercise) in about 10 hours. I have found that to really learn a the material and do a good job with everything, I am spending on average 2/3 longer than that. I hope its just not me, haha. I must reiterate that this is an ONLINE school, you can learn great skills as long as you put the effort in, and it being online means you have to try extra hard to stay motivated because there is no one else to motivate you, except you. I recommend this for anyone wanting to learn web and graphic design.

The school does not provide a good photography program. Their program is filled with a lot of other non photography related fluff. Very little actual photography training

I am currently pursuing an online degree in web design. I have to say I'm extremely impressed with my courses thus far. I was also in a competitive marketing working environment and realized that I needed to differentiate myself by gaining creative skills. I have a prior bachelor's degree in Business from one of the top universities in the country, and I know this might sound crazy but I'm learning faster and about more real world applicable things online at Sessions College than I ever did in my 4 years gaining my bachelor's degree. I work a very stressful full-time job- and basically my days consist of waking up early and studying and then going home after work and studying. I don't think I would be able to keep up this busy schedule if I wasn't so engaged by my classes at Sessions.

I have had a wonderful experience with Sessions College, and I would recommend it to others that are looking for a well rounded education in the design industry.

I have found Sessions College to be an exceptional school for the price. The education is great--you receive feedback from professionals in the field of the class you are taking. Also, the education is relevant to the field I am going in. Every class I have taken has only strengthened me for web design. For instance, I've taken Design and Composition, Photography, and Drawing as some of my classes. You may wonder what this has to do with Web Design, and my answer is they are enhancers. The Drawing class has given me the confidence to sketch out my ideas. The Design and Composition class taught me to be aware of how my design is presented. This affects how people view my designs, along with where I want to draw their attention. The Photography class gave me strong skills in being able to take great shots. This can tie in with Web Design because many pages often contain images. If the client is unable to provide pictures, I can perform a photo shoot to acquire great shots for the site. These are some examples of how the classes have helped me. Obviously, there are the foundational classes in building the actual web site, and these are solid in their teachings. With anything in life, there is usually room for improvement. Sessions College is great for learning how to design along with the theories of design. But, to get really good, I find I have to use outside sources (meaning the web) to acquire new techniques in design. Here is an example: While learning Illustrator (which is a vector based program for computer drawing) they taught me how to use the program. The class was fantastic with the amount of information on how to use the program along with some projects. But my skills weren't growing like I wanted them to. Personally, I needed more projects to get to where I needed to be with my skills. So, in conjunction with the class, I found some great tutorials to learn various styles. The result? I feel very confident in designing with Illustrator to create powerful images. My instructors have been friendly and very helpful. I am free to ask them questions, to which they respond in a timely manner. The feedback on my work has been great. Sometimes it isn't what I like to hear, but their comments challenge me to become better. I prefer honesty to sugar-coated responses that don't help me grow. As a blooming designer, going to Sessions has made a tremendous impact in my career. I have studied web design on my own and made progress, but I wasn't getting the same results as when I went to school. Sessions College gives me clear focus on what I need to learn to be successful in the real world. The classes are structured to integrate with one another. I feel very strongly that, once done with the program, I will be able to take my career and pursue it anywhere I want. To recap, Sessions College is a great school. It is not for everyone. You have to be responsible for yourself and highly motivated. You will get out of the school for what you put into it. Meaning, the more time you can practice what they teach, the better you will become. Support is there anytime you need it. It is always clear as to what is expected from you--deadlines for assignments, when classes start, etc. Also, the school is affordable. The class schedule is free enough that I am able to work full-time and do school without stressing out. If you are looking for a school that will give a high quality education for an affordable price, then consider Sessions College. I have been pleased with my experience with this College.